CUSTOMER DELIGHT

Back in 1988 when I started Norfolk Finance – a car leasing business – little did I know that we were about to enter a recession which would cause businesses to cut back on their company cars and only trust long established finance businesses rather than new start-ups.

Nonetheless, we grew the business very successfully until it was sold in 1992 to AT&T Capital to be their first business in Europe.

So, how did we achieve such success in such a harsh economy? Clearly the quality of the team we became was crucial. But, however good the team, without customers you don’t survive. The key to winning and retaining our high quality customer base was in being the first company in the contract hire industry to introduce the concept of ‘Customer Delight’. We knew that every company was trying to satisfy its customers but that simply wasn’t good enough for us.

Now Customer Delight isn’t just nice words, it’s a culture within a company. It’s also a journey not a destination – you can never stop striving for improvement however well you think you’re doing.

So how did we achieve it?

The first step is to educate every single person in the business

This isn’t only for management. After all, the person delivering the service or product, the person answering the phone, the person chasing for money, the person dealing with queries, all probably spend more time interacting with customers than do management. The nice relationships at sales to purchaser and director to director level are important but can’t cover for poor day-to-day communication and service.

We therefore spent a day training every single person in how to embrace and deliver Customer Delight

The next step was to reinforce the message

We displayed signs with comments like ‘under promise – over deliver’ or ‘customer delight pays your mortgage’ – all hanging from the ceilings so they couldn’t be missed. We also introduced screen savers with the same messages.

Then we looked at all our processes and paperwork through a customer’s eyes

It’s a common mistake to look at everything from your own perspective – but that isn’t good enough. For example, have you asked your customers what they would like to see on their bills – adding to your standard layout may be a nuisance but in an era of sophisticated IT systems, a competitor would deliver exactly what the customer wants without thinking twice if it meant they could win the account.

Further to this point avoid jargon and using your own language

I worked for a company once which had great management information packs for its customers, but I changed them because they used codes and abbreviations which only we understood, as opposed to good old-fashioned English.
 
Of course, you should never just listen to your own publicity that ‘customers are at the heart of everything we do’. So we spent time canvassing our customers’ opinions of ourselves through independent surveys.  The key here is to act on what you’re told wherever possible – prepare yourself for a few ‘they should drop their prices’ comments. And, most importantly, feed back to the respondents what you have done about their comments.

This idea can be taken forward to the creation of a customer council where you can discuss industry trends as well as changes you wish to/need to make to your business.

And finally, to close the loop we had a strong system of recognising and rewarding people in the company who ‘went the extra mile’ for customers.
 
So that is how we made a success of Norfolk Finance. but what does it have to do with our current environment?

In today’s economic climate, I would imagine that every single business in the UK is experiencing one or more of the following issues:

•   Losing customers
•   Keeping customers but dropping price
•   Losing volume as customers order less
•   Not getting repeat business from customers
•   Seeing the commoditisation of what should be a service
•   Needing to grow

A realisation that if they can grow now, when their competition are focused on survival, they will be the winners when the upturn comes
A reduction in morale as costs are cut, with a detrimental impact on customer service

My message is clear:

An investment in enhancing your customer service is a vital part of your strategy for surviving the recession. It will also put you in the best position for growth during the upturn.

So how do companies go about this? I would suggest that they should:

Survey how their customers really view them
These surveys no longer have general statements of “the service is fine” variety but are much more detailed and enable measurements to be taken to make comparisons between product lines, branches, or other variables and to measure improvement over time.

Review all the processes in their business
On a ‘wing-to-wing’ basis. For example, don’t say the order process starts when someone opens an e-mail with an order in it – the process started when the mail was sent.  Also check that your processes all meet the four Rs test (Repeatable, Robust, Reliable, Right first time, every time, everywhere).

 
Review all your touch points with your customers
For example, there is nothing more frustrating than manufacturing a great product and then being let down by your carrier.

In summary

This should mean that you at least hold your existing customers, but it’s likely that your improved offering will win you market share as word of mouth spreads, and your sales team become ever more confident in selling the message that ‘we are the best in the industry’.

And finally .......

And finally, a true story about delivering customer delight. I recently heard of a one-man business whose owner had just become a father. When he received the cheque in payment for a service he had provided to a customer, also included was a small cheque as a gift to the baby because the customer felt so positively about the care and service they had received from the owner.

Do you think he will survive the recession and see his business grow in future?

I know he will.

Please refer to Customer Service.