known and ‘‘magi-cally’’ taken into consideration.
Once the Ritz-Carlton management team recognized that this was what their customers were seeking, they were able to develop a better and more customized service model. In Leonardo’s newest hotel brands, in fact, they are extending this concept by pre-interviewing guests to see if they can help reduce uncertain-ties that precede the customer’s arrival—transportation and other logistical issues, for instance—to ensure they feel cared for from the moment they arrive in the city. A bit like Mom might do if she knew you were on your way back to town.
Principle 2: If It’s Important to Your Customer, It Belongs in Your System.
In the independent music and film industries where his company operates, Micah makes a point of using software to allow his staff to capture information in specific categories, such as which genre of music and instrument a customer plays, as well as unique details of nearly any sort in which the customer shows interest or appears to take pride in. This latter, general category may include a big movie the client has worked on, a treasured industry award he has received, and so on. Or, it might be more important to use this space to note that his wife is ill and that he hates being called on the phone in the morning. We call these data points Roles, Goals, and Preferences .
Even in the tiniest of companies, roles, goals, and preferences Keeping Track to Bring Them Back
49
should be tracked consistently. When Micah first started his business ventures, his ‘‘empire’’ consisted entirely of himself taking phone orders and processing them—in the leaky basement of a starter home. Micah could have personally stayed on top of the roles, goals, and preferences of each of his (few!) early customers. But after hearing the first employee he hired struggle to chat with a big musical client (‘‘Who’s your drummer again?’’), he became an early advocate and developer of automated systems to track roles, goals, and preferences. Without these systems, his employees wouldn’t have been able to deliver the ‘‘Mom’s house’’ experience as his company grew.
Startups often use off-the-shelf software to manage customer preferences. Be careful: Some such programs do not carry forward notations from individual project records into the customer’s permanent record.
Leaving a customer’s preferences languishing as notations in a single project’s record is no better than a scribble in a restaurant’s reservation book. (That ‘‘classic’’ method means that unless the restaurant goes through all the reservations ever made, it’s going to miss the 2005 entry where the gent now being seated mentioned his shellfish allergy.) Put durable information about each customer in that customer’s permanent database record. And make sure that preference data is easily visible from within any project he does with you moving forward.
What types of items should go in your tracking system? Track whatever is most important to the customer. Customers’ roles, goals, and preferences are quite diverse, and no amount of market research can predict them perfectly. Here are some items that we recommend you keep at your fingertips:
? Information on any missteps on past projects/visits/trans-actions with a particular customer.
? Information on any problems that have already occurred on this visit, or that seem to be unfolding at that moment. As we have already discussed, a customer who has already received poor service on this visit shouldn’t, later on in the visit, receive oblivious, 50
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
chirpy greetings from other staff members (‘‘Are you enjoying your time with us so far?’’), requiring the customer to educate the staff over and over (‘‘Actually, it’s been problematic’’) in response.
? Product/service preferences, whether stated by the customer or observed, which you should try to
Once the Ritz-Carlton management team recognized that this was what their customers were seeking, they were able to develop a better and more customized service model. In Leonardo’s newest hotel brands, in fact, they are extending this concept by pre-interviewing guests to see if they can help reduce uncertain-ties that precede the customer’s arrival—transportation and other logistical issues, for instance—to ensure they feel cared for from the moment they arrive in the city. A bit like Mom might do if she knew you were on your way back to town.
Principle 2: If It’s Important to Your Customer, It Belongs in Your System.
In the independent music and film industries where his company operates, Micah makes a point of using software to allow his staff to capture information in specific categories, such as which genre of music and instrument a customer plays, as well as unique details of nearly any sort in which the customer shows interest or appears to take pride in. This latter, general category may include a big movie the client has worked on, a treasured industry award he has received, and so on. Or, it might be more important to use this space to note that his wife is ill and that he hates being called on the phone in the morning. We call these data points Roles, Goals, and Preferences .
Even in the tiniest of companies, roles, goals, and preferences Keeping Track to Bring Them Back
49
should be tracked consistently. When Micah first started his business ventures, his ‘‘empire’’ consisted entirely of himself taking phone orders and processing them—in the leaky basement of a starter home. Micah could have personally stayed on top of the roles, goals, and preferences of each of his (few!) early customers. But after hearing the first employee he hired struggle to chat with a big musical client (‘‘Who’s your drummer again?’’), he became an early advocate and developer of automated systems to track roles, goals, and preferences. Without these systems, his employees wouldn’t have been able to deliver the ‘‘Mom’s house’’ experience as his company grew.
Startups often use off-the-shelf software to manage customer preferences. Be careful: Some such programs do not carry forward notations from individual project records into the customer’s permanent record.
Leaving a customer’s preferences languishing as notations in a single project’s record is no better than a scribble in a restaurant’s reservation book. (That ‘‘classic’’ method means that unless the restaurant goes through all the reservations ever made, it’s going to miss the 2005 entry where the gent now being seated mentioned his shellfish allergy.) Put durable information about each customer in that customer’s permanent database record. And make sure that preference data is easily visible from within any project he does with you moving forward.
What types of items should go in your tracking system? Track whatever is most important to the customer. Customers’ roles, goals, and preferences are quite diverse, and no amount of market research can predict them perfectly. Here are some items that we recommend you keep at your fingertips:
? Information on any missteps on past projects/visits/trans-actions with a particular customer.
? Information on any problems that have already occurred on this visit, or that seem to be unfolding at that moment. As we have already discussed, a customer who has already received poor service on this visit shouldn’t, later on in the visit, receive oblivious, 50
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit
chirpy greetings from other staff members (‘‘Are you enjoying your time with us so far?’’), requiring the customer to educate the staff over and over (‘‘Actually, it’s been problematic’’) in response.
? Product/service preferences, whether stated by the customer or observed, which you should try to
Similar Books
