Recently, some friends and I had a fine dining experience at a regular establishment that delivered a five-star customer experience. The many principles of service excellence that were on show during the dining experience, reminded me that when a business places excellence at the core of its existence, its customers, its employees and its brand reputation all share in the winnings.
Here’s a quick recap of the experience. We had the pleasure of being seated immediately on arrival, without a reservation and by staff who seemed genuinely happy to extend the courtesy. Notwithstanding the fact that the restaurant was not crowded, I got the impression that the engaging demeanour of the wait staff was authentic.
The many principles of service excellence that were on show during the dining experience, reminded me that when a business places excellence at the core of its existence, its customers, its employees and its brand reputation all share in the winnings.
The attentiveness of the wait staff personified their commitment to ensuring that as guests, we would have had a memorable experience. What struck me about our assigned server was the effortlessness with which she attended to our needs. I discovered that she has been in the business of managing guest experiences for quite a few years, hence the deftness with which she was able to navigate the journey. Her customers mattered to her and she made sure that we got that message loudly and clearly.
The meal was presented with artisanal flair and having taken all of our many instructions regarding our meat and meal preferences, each order met our exacting specifications. The meals were delectable and we had a wonderful opportunity to compliment the chef who came out to meet us and to enquire whether his handiwork met with our approval. He was happy of course, with our effusive expressions of delight.
The attentiveness of the wait staff personified their commitment to ensuring that as guests, we would have had a memorable experience.
So, what would have been some of the principles of service excellence that led to the delightful customer experience?
Let’s start with the warm welcome. Whether the customer is exploring an in-person or a virtual experience, the greeting headlines the starting block that previews the trajectory of the upcoming journey. In the world of customer experience, there are points of contact between the business and the customer, known as moments of truth, when core memories are formed around service delight or distaste. The greeting experience is one such point of contact, that begins the process of tilting the scale either for, or against brand impression.
The meal was presented with artisanal flair and having taken all of our many instructions regarding our meat and meal preferences, each order met our exacting specifications.
Of course, sustaining moments of truth relies heavily on knowing their potential locations along the customer journey, exceeding the customer’s expectations at all of these points and therefore, accruing the benefits of as many wins as possible.
Another principle on display was that of effortlessness. The wait staff did not break a sweat in meeting our expectations. Like my friends, many times I request a swapping out of menu items to suit my meal preferences and the ease with which these requests are accommodated is a moment of truth for me. Our server made decisions on the changes that were requested, without even a moment’s hesitation. She was invested with the authority (and with the commensurate confidence) to remove any barriers to ensuring that we got exactly what we wanted.
Our dedicated server in particular, had us engaged throughout the dining journey and, compared to a regular dining experience, the ease of interaction cast the experience up a few notches.
The level of energy that a customer has to expend to have his or her needs met during a transaction, is known as the customer effort and typically, is tracked through the customer effort metric. If a customer is conducting a transaction online with a business and finds himself or herself having to execute too many “clicks” to complete the transaction, terminating the transaction becomes the go-to option. This metric is an often overlooked and underused opportunity to track and remediate customers’ fatigue levels.
A third principle was that of customer engagement. There was nothing bland about the personalities of the wait staff. Our dedicated server in particular, had us engaged throughout the dining journey and, compared to a regular dining experience, the ease of interaction cast the experience up a few notches.
Every business should aim to convert every customer experience into a series of magical and memorable moments of truth, all along the customer’s particular journey.
At the end of our meal, our server escorted the chef to our table to give us the opportunity to acknowledge our delight and to appreciate his effort directly. Now, while this is a fairly common practice, it was good that it was not forgotten by our server and it rounded out our experience in a felicitous way.
In our case, the dining experience was conferred with a five-star status just because of the finesse associated with executing the moving parts.
The takeaway here?
Every business should aim to convert every customer experience into a series of magical and memorable moments of truth, all along the customer’s particular journey. Every day and for every customer experience. No exceptions allowed.