The Untapped Opportunity of Customer Experience
As a customer experience speaker, writer, and former business owner/operator, I’ve come to believe that customer service is the absolute greatest tool available for building your business. More than marketing, more than sales, exceptional service is the single most controllable factor impacting your operation.
It should also be the easiest. I can understand someone who doesn’t know how to handle marketing. It’s complicated and ever-changing, especially in the digital age. Customer service, however, is something we experience as consumers every day. We’ve all had amazing encounters and terrible ones. We’ve had word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and read online reviews. We know what we prefer, what we dislike, and what we can expect.
You’ve probably patronized and abandoned businesses because of how they treated you. You’ve experienced firsthand how customer service influences your behavior as a consumer, and you know what good customer service looks like.
Why, then, is there so much bad customer service out there? And why do so many businesses neglect it?
Customer Experience Is Your Best Form of Marketing
When you advertise, you’re hoping to persuade someone to try you out. Most people who see the ad won’t respond. The average consumer on the street isn’t that valuable.
But someone who’s walked through your door? They’re worth everything. They’re gold. They’re the people you’ve been looking for who can help grow your business.
The experience you give customers is the ultimate form of marketing. It will determine how much they spend, whether they’ll come back, and what they say to others. When you make a good impression on them, they’ll do your marketing for you.
That’s what I learned running my retail Edible Arrangements stores. We thrived because of the experience we gave our customers. We recognized the importance of treating customers well and looked at every order as an audition. We wanted everyone to know that when they walked into our stores, we were going to do more than we promised and give them more than they paid for. I didn’t just want customers—I wanted repeat customers. I didn’t just want them to think good things about us; I wanted them to say good things about us. Whether they were sending a basket or receiving one, we wanted to blow their minds.
That kind of mindset took us to the top of the rankings and paid our bills. It got us stars and likes and awards. Our ability to make our customers feel great was our best form of advertising.
That service mindset also led to superior operations. By having such a clear philosophy—and mission—we easily developed practices that improved performance and outdid our competition.
People are driven more by their feelings than anything else. Logic therefore dictates that the smart move is to enhance your customers’ emotional state. Go beyond delivering your products and services and appeal to their humanity. Of course, this can only happen when you’re willing to exhibit yours. I’d love to show you how to do this.
Some of the key ideas I’ll share as your customer experience speaker:
Clarifying What Business You’re Really In:
It’s not enough to deliver the products or services they request. You must also meet their underlying emotional needs.
Robotic Interaction vs Human Connection:
Break away from the repetition and scripts and find quick ways to emotionally impact your customers by appealing to their human needs.
Experiences vs Transaction:
Use every encounter to elevate emotions.
Employee Experience:
They’re the ones providing the guest experience, so you need to create a great work experience.
Turning Angry Customers Into Long-term Customers:
The customer is NOT always right, but they’re always the customer. Replace your ego with empathy.
What Makes Scott an Expert in Customer Experience:
- Spent 10 years as the owner of multiple retail franchises, training managers, building teams, and delighting customers.
- Acquired a struggling franchise location and made it profitable within a year by recreating the customer experience.
- Stores won “Best Customer Service” and “Manager of the Year” out of more than 1000 locations worldwide.
- Author of two books ( The Wealthy Franchisee: Game-Changing Steps to Becoming a Thriving Franchise Superstar and Stop the Shift Show: Turn Your Struggling Hourly Workers Into a Top-Performing Team), both of which discuss how to build customer-focused teams.
- Decades as a customer experience speaker, giving presentations to managers and business owners how to create experiences customers remember, talk about, and want to repeat.
- Writes regularly for business publications, including Entrepreneur, Global Franchise Magazine, Nation’s Restaurant News, and QSR Magazine.
