Monday, October 1, 2012

The Ultimate Goal in Service

Just got my “fresh off the presses” copy of Richard Branson’s new book, Like a Virgin, and found myself yelling, “I concur!” so often, I just had to share.

Here’s a little segment from the chapter titled, “The Customer is Always Right...except when he’s wrong” -  

The key to providing great customer service is for your management team to recognize the true worth of your front-line staff, the most talented of whom are expert negotiators with deep understanding of interpersonal relationships. Make sure that they have the tools they need to exercise those skills-that they have the information they need and they can work with real autonomy to find fair resolution to the issues that come up. (No scripts!)  

Sir Richard then goes on to say,  

If your business proposition is innovative, your ultimate goal has to be, ‘The customer always thinks that we are right.’

Wow. Read that last line again.

Translated, hire smart people that have a talent for communication and negotiation, and then give them the tools and autonomy to do the job they know they can do.

Teach communication skills, but don’t give them verbatim what to say.

Finally, and most profound, listen very carefully to what the consumer says they want, then take it up a notch and give them something just a little different and better. That’s how to deliver true anticipatory service.

What do you think?

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