Three Marks of a Consistent Guest Experience

by: Shep Hyken

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Editors Note: During our August focus on Guest Experiences, we are honored to have some of the best voices in the world of Customer Experience provide guest posts for the Vision Room. As you read the content below, simply think “Guest” in terms of the “customer” the author is talking about – and you will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of some great minds.

There is an old saying in the real-estate industry: The three keys to success are location, location and location. I have a similar take on the customer service and customer service world. The three keys to customer experience success are consistency, consistency and consistency.

Of course, there is much more to delivering an amazing customer experience, but if there is something that is a non-negotiable to creating customer loyalty, it is a consistent and predictable experience – one that customers can count on every time they do business with you. The entire experience must be consistent. You can’t be great one day and just okay the next. The moment there is inconsistency, you start to lose the customer’s confidence, and ultimately you might lose the customer.

So, let’s talk about the different ways an organization delivers a consistent experience.

1. The quality of the product or service must be consistent. Whatever the company sells must meet the expectations of the customer, every time. It doesn’t matter how good your customer service is, if the product doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, the customer will find another company that better meets their needs.
2. The different channels customers interact with you and your organization must be consistent. Today’s customers connect with the companies they do business with in multiple ways. The traditional way a customer communicated with a company was in person or on the phone. Then along came emails, then chat, then chatbots. And, then there are social channels and other messaging apps. This is all part of the digital revolution, and the modern customer expects to have a consistent experience regardless of the channel.
3. The attitude of the people who work at the company must be consistent. I’m not suggesting that everyone be a clone of each other. It is the positive attitude and the effort the employees make to take care of their customers that must be consistent. It shouldn’t matter if the customer talks to John one day and Jane the next, everyone comes to work with the plan to do their very best, every day. Regardless of who picks up the phone or responds to a message, the customer will always have a good experience.

When customers talk about the consistent company, they will say things like, “They are always so helpful.” Or, something like, “They are always so friendly and knowledgeable.” When they use the word always followed by something positive about the company, you know there is consistency. Delivering a consistent experience creates confidence. Confidence can lead to trust. And, trust leads to potential loyalty.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

Tags: Church Guest Experience, Consistency, Guest Experience, Shep Hyken

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The 5 C’s of Social Media Dominance – Part 4

by: Jon Acuff

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In previous posts, we talked about the first three C’s of social media dominance: content, context, and clarity. Today let’s talk about:

4. Consistency

Two years ago, the readers of my blog Stuff Christians Like raised $60,000 to build two kindergartens in Vietnam. It was an incredible experience, and it firmly cemented in my mind the power of what a generous community can do online.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote an article about the first kindergarten, and the headline was, “Blogger raises $30,000 in 18 hours.” Technically, that headline was true, but the headline should have actually read, “Blogger raises $30,000 in 18 months.”

That’s how long it really took to raise the money. For 18 months, I consistently wrote Stuff Christians Like. I poured in a million words of the best ideas I could think of into the conversation with readers. Day after day, post after post, with consistency, I jumped into the discussion happening on Stuff Christians Like.

And I had written a different blog for a year before I started SCL. I didn’t show up one day out of the blue and say, “Hi, my name is Jon. You’ve never heard of me. Give me money for a kindergarten,” but sometimes we think that’s how social media works. We watch certain ideas go viral and think our business, cause, blog should go viral too. We want social media to be a silver bullet. Here’s the truth:

Social media isn’t a silver bullet. It’s a million free bullets.

If you use them with consistency and clarity, you can change the world.

If you try something for a month, though, and give up, you won’t change the world. If you write a blog for 90 days and quit, you won’t change the world. If you fool around with Twitter for a week and then stop, you won’t change the world.

It takes time.

It takes grind.

And it takes a commitment to consistency.

In the old school, “Who? What? When? Where? Why?” model of journalism, content is the “What?” context is the “Where?” clarity is the “How?” and consistency is the “When?”

When will you share your message?
When will you reach out to people?
When will you keep writing, blogging, and tweeting even when the results you’re looking for aren’t there?

In the final part of this post, we’ll talk about the fifth word, “Community.”

Read Part 3 here; read Part 5 here.

Tags: Awareness, Consistency, Jon Acuff, Social Media

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