We admire the unique qualities that the top CEOs today possess—how they run the business and how they address life in general. We take special attention when they speak and watch how they work. We want to learn what worked for them and hope that it works for us too, especially in the area of customer service.
So we looked into the wise words of these top CEOs about how customer service should be done…
Tip #1: Establish your company to be customer-centric in every aspect of your business.
Being the top, undisputed company (Amazon.com) for overall customer satisfaction in Internet retailing from the latest results of American Customer Satisfaction Index, Jeff Bezos knows how to make customer service excellent. For him, striving to make the entire company focused on customers should be topmost priority. According to Bezos, Amazon doesn’t focus on the optics of the next quarter, instead they concentrate on what is going to be good for the customers. How’s that for valuing customers?
Tip #2: Doing something unconventional yet familiar for your customers can touch their hearts and make them love you more.
This was what Dan Hesse answered when asked by Forbes about the special things they do to connect with customers. Cited as the #1 most improved service in America for 5 years by The American Customer Satisfaction (2012), Sprint Nextel became a standard for making customers happy. They do “Thank You Thursdays” where they write a heart-felt thank you letters to their long-time customers for doing business with Sprint.
Tip #3: Continue to build avenues for your customers to enjoy your product/service as well as enrich their customer experience.
With Facebook being the most influential tool in today’s era, we can safely say that Mark Zuckerberg was successful at making his “clients” satisfied and empowered. The continual changes that happen with this social network show that they strive to make Facebook more efficient in servicing their users’ needs. Having this mindset, we see the dynamic growth of Facebook users everyday because they deliver well and provide “customer” satisfaction.
Tip #4: Make it a culture in your company to always go the extra mile for customers when delivering service and let them tell the world about it.
Take it from the author of “Delivering Happiness”, Tony Hsieh believes that customer service is not only a department but the entire company. He makes sure that in every transaction that customers do with Zappos, they will experience a WOW service—it is their no. 1 core value. For him, differentiating yourself by doing innovative ways, above and beyond what is expected will definitely win your customers every time. They capitalized on their customers good reviews about them that they actually spend more on improving their customer service than marketing.
Tip #5: To increase customer loyalty, put a high value on customer’s trust by creating a relationship that is sincere and personal.
Starbucks have earned the title “World’s Top Coffee Retailer” with 16,850 shops in 40 countries (and counting). And for Howard Shultz, this was mainly because of how customers have trusted their brand through the years. With the average Starbucks customer visiting the store six times in a month, it is quite obvious that Starbucks has created a special place in their customers’ daily lives. He understands exceptional customer service by protecting their customers’ trust and making sure they go away satisfied with every Starbucks cup.
There you have it, customer service strategies from the top players themselves! We hope this will push you to create a strategy that will produce the same positive customer experience for your brand.
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