There’s a vacation customer experience playbook waiting for you to write this summer. Vacation time is an excellent opportunity for you to reflect on the nature and level of customer service delivery you receive.
There’s something else I’d like you to do.
Compare your vacation experiences with how you serve your customers throughout the year. Observe and reflect on how an excellent customer service experience is created, delivered and maintained consistently and seamlessly.
Customer service can make or break your entire vacation experience. It starts from the minute you decide to plan a vacation. It starts from the point of (usually) internet interface with that vacation rental property or destination. Accessible and responsive or a complete dud?
The goal of our customer experience playbook is to define who we want to do business with. We vacation at – and return to – the places where we experience customer service quality excellence. Our goal is to minimize and eliminate negative customer experiences from current and future vacations.
That’s the same thing your customers want to do when they choose to give you their business.
You realize that it is the little things that make up the “secret sauce” of your customer service playbook. They add up over the total duration of your vacation. They create enjoyment. People are just plain nice. No matter what their pay grade. People enjoy their jobs, it’s not just a salary to them. They are not just trying to win a contest.
Your customer service playbook takes note that these folks take pride in delivering an excellent experience. To you. And everyone else.
The folks delivering you an excellent vacation customer service experience understand that they are part of a bigger picture. They are the physical embodiment of a corporate vision of what the total branded experience is like – from the customer’s perspective.
Does your own company create, implement and sustain that type of vision?
Your vacation customer service playbook is the hand-off of corporate strategy for execution. You experience this handoff, seamlessly integrated into every one of your vacation days.
There is a subtle thoughtfulness that is delivered. These folks are part of your personal vacation team. They are proactive. They provide products, services and solutions ahead of time, with you in mind.
Now flash back to the customer service experience your own clients receive throughout the year. Are your customers an afterthought? Do you respond only if they complain?
Are you anything but proactive and anticipatory of the types of information, services, and just plain human being people stuff that makes their customer experience of you a valued experience?
In the downtime of your summer vacation, no matter what its length, pay attention to the vacation customer service experiences you receive. Observe. Take notes.
Add your insights into your customer experience playbook.
Make it a point to combine what you observe into your own customer service ethic once you return to work. Even if your own customer service delivery exceeds your own company’s status quo.
Customer service experience truly is a differentiator. It is most powerful when delivered as part of a solid corporate vision. In the absence of a solid vision, however, make superior customer service delivery your priority.
Customer service isn’t an “act.” There is nothing phony about it when delivered genuinely, with self-belief in your ability to make your customer’s world a lot better than it has been. Customer service is a habit and a mindset.
Something to ponder this week on the beach. Already have an idea of what the first 5 entries will be in your customer experience playbook?
Babette N. Ten Haken is a management strategist and team-building leadership coach. She helps teams, startups and businesses who wrestle with unpredictable revenue streams. Her Workshops and Playbooks create more productive and profitable teams in healthier organizations. Her Playbook on leadership and business strategies, including tools, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.
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