What good customer service is…

I’m sure you know what great customer service looks like when you receive it. But have you ever sat to think about your business and what good customer service is?

 

It’s about creating an experience that lingers in the hearts and minds of your customers.

 

Critical Non-Essentials And Good Customer Service

Paddy Lund was a lousy dentist.

He was so lousy, that he failed the exams more than anyone else in his class.

In fact, he failed them more times than anyone he’d ever known.

But he had a plan.

To make up for his lack of natural ability, he was going to work harder and get more training than anyone else in the industry.

So that’s what he did.

He finally passed the exam and opened up his own Dentist business.

But it was slow.

He didn’t exactly have customers ‘knocking down the front door’.

That’s when he came up with another plan.

He was going to become the most qualified Dentist in town.

So over the next few years, his business grew slowly, and he went out to find every extra qualification he could get.

5-years down the line, he’d done it.

Paddy Lund was officially the most qualified Dentist in town.

But there was one problem.

He still didn’t have customers knocking his door down.

And he couldn’t understand it.

Now of course, if Paddy had great marketing this story would have turned out very differently.

But he didn’t.

And one day it hit him.

It all started when Paddy had double-booked his diary.

He spotted it and mentioned it to his receptionist.

“We’re going to get a huge complaint here, I’ve got one customer in only 15 minutes after the other.”

The receptionist made matters worse by saying “Yes, and the first customer is in for a DEEP CLEAN!”

A deep clean usually takes somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour.

Paddy was worried.

But he came up with another plan.

He said “You be overly charming with the customer that comes in second, make them a coffee and have a chat with them. Meanwhile, I’ll rush the deep clean and get the client out of there in 20 minutes.”

That’s exactly what happened.

He rushed the deep clean. They charmed the second customer and neither the first or second customer were any wiser about the diary conflict.

After Paddy had finished with the second customer, he went downstairs to the receptionist and said “Phew!”

The receptionist piped up, and she said “About that first customer, you know, the one that had the deep clean. Well, he stopped me on the way out to give some feedback”.

“Oh, I know,” said Paddy “I rushed it. And it wasn’t anywhere near as thorough as it would usually be. I hope we’ve not lost him as a customer now”.

“No, quite the opposite. He was happy with the job that you did. He said that the last time he went to a Dentist for a deep clean, the dentist was rough with him. It took ages, his mouth was bleeding afterward and it wasn’t a very nice experience.”

Paddy laughed and the receptionist asked him why.

So Paddy explained, “That’s really interesting. Because if I had done a thorough job, that’s exactly what would have happened. It would have taken twice as long and his mouth would have been bleeding”.

Paddy had a lightbulb moment.

After all those years, he finally understood something that would change the way he approached business forever.

No-one knows what makes a good dentist. They can’t tell the difference between a good dentist or a bad one.

Therefore…

 

CUSTOMERS DON’T JUDGE YOU ON YOUR TECHNICAL ABILITY.

 

They judge you on something else.

 

Something far more important.

On the back of his lightbulb moment, Paddy and his team conducted some market research.

They wanted to know exactly what people made their decision on. 

What made them pick the dentist that they had?

And the results were shocking.

Startling even.

They realised that Paddy was right. People didn’t care how good or how qualified a dentist was.

But they did care about the little things.

Paddy had some feedback from customers that left. They told him that they were handed a coffee cup that had a lipstick mark on it. One woman even left because she noticed the wallpaper hanging off the wall in the corner.

The things that were critical for a customer, but not essential to continue trading. He called them “critical non-essentials“.

Here’s how the thought process went…

…If they can’t keep a coffee cup clean, these guys aren’t going anywhere near my mouth.

BINGO!

They had it.

And Paddy finally understood.

Let’s get the basics right, and then work on giving the customers a special experience. 

So now, if you go to Paddy’s dentist in Australia, here’s what your experience would look like.

When you ring on the buzzer, the receptionist is waiting.

They have your picture that was taken for the membership card. So they welcome you by name.

When you enter, they offer you a coffee.

Not just any coffee.

A posh coffee, made in a proper coffee machine with steam wands and everything.

 

 

They offer you a sugar-free bun and then get you sat down.

But they don’t have a public waiting room.

You have your very own, private, waiting room.

And on the door, there’s a big star, with your name in the middle of it!

As you sit down, there’s your picture in a big book on the coffee table.

You flip to the front of the book to see what kind of publication has such beautiful taste…

And the book is named “Family Album”.

Then you go upstairs, and whilst Paddy is working away on your teeth, your favourite TV programme is playing on the TV in the ceiling!

When you go to leave, you never do so empty-handed. You’ll leave with flowers, sugar-free chocolate, or another small gift.

Paddy and his team really know how to make people feel special. 

And the moral of the story…

Get the basics right first. Make sure there aren’t spelling mistakes in your emails. Always be on time. And make sure there isn’t any lipstick on the coffee cups.

Then, create the little special moments that make the customers feel incredible. 

Customer Service At Sky

A few years ago, back in the day when Sky TV was popular, I got a letter.

It was from Sky telling me about my renewal price.

The price was going UP!

And I was watching TV less and less.

So I wanted to ring them to negotiate a better rate.

The first thing that I did was go onto the website to get the phone number.

It was hidden.

I couldn’t find it.

And it took me ages to finally locate it.

By this point, I was already frustrated.

Not a great start.

I rang the number, and hit the dreaded “options”.

Press 1 for…

I navigated my way through 6 layers of options, and now I’m livid.

This is taking far too long.

The maze of options finally comes to an end and they say “We’ll connect you now”.

Thank goodness.

…Then I hit the hold music.

NOOOOOO!!!!!!

 

I sat on hold for 25 minutes.

And I was not happy.

Then when I finally got through, they asked me for my “account password”.

I didn’t have a clue! And they wouldn’t let me discuss anything on the account without it.

Needless to say…

..I’m no longer a customer.

I left the call after cancelling my subscription thinking, “they have no idea what good customer service is”.

Remember, there’s no point in creating special moments if you don’t get the basics right.

We can count on Disney to show us what good customer service is

My experience with Disney was equally as surprising.

Shocking even.

I’d booked the holiday directly with Disney.

Because that’s what you do when you trust a brand, right?

I’d noticed that I’d missed an item off our booking.

And being slightly old-fashioned, I wanted to call them to go through it.

I went onto the website and found several phone numbers within 2 clicks.

And what’s better still…

Each number was for a separate department.

Could that mean… No, surely not…

There were no “options” or “layers”.

So I rang the number, and it started ringing!

Then an automated voice spoke to me and said “Thank you for calling Disney. We’re connecting you to one of our operators now”.

And then the hold music…

But not just any hold music, it was the theme tune to Aladdin!

I was dancing away, only to be interrupted within a few seconds by someone actually answering the phone.

The person on the other side of the phone sounded just as excited as I was. It’s as if she’d been dancing away to Aladdin’s theme tune with me.

She was so friendly. And polite.

Very charismatic and…

NOTHING WAS TOO MUCH TROUBLE.

When we’d added the item to the holiday, I happily handed over my card details and paid for the pleasure of dealing with Disney. (A far cry from my dealings with Sky, where I wasn’t happy to pay a small price increase).

Then when we’d finished, the wonderful woman on the other side of the phone said “Is there anything else I can help you with”?

I was gutted… “No, sorry there isn’t. I wish there was!”

And she wrapped up the call in a really special way.

She used just 4 words.

And I’ve told tens of thousands of people about the way she wrapped the call up since.

She simply said my name and then, wrapped up with…

“Have a magical day”

Wow, my jaw hit the floor.

Disney had a new raving fan. 

 

 

What 2 things do you need to nail to get customer service right…

Summary