Because they are preoccupied and, in some instances, obsessed, with attention to small details. Whilst their lagging competitors are okay with leaving loose ends, these leading service brands are outstanding at tying the ends up.
When was the last time you were treated to a five-star customer experience? You know, that time when you left a business feeling giddy and starry-eyed because of the impeccable treatment that you encountered? I would wager that the encounter would have been with a business that was obsessed with getting every little detail about the customer experience just right.
It’s this preoccupation with details that fuels experience differentiation and of course, it’s what attracts customers who are not price sensitive and who would be happy to pay a premium for the extra value that accompanies the extra money.
Because they are preoccupied and, in some instances, obsessed, with attention to small details.
To a five-star brand, delivering a great customer experience is as much about operational and transactional excellence, as it is about service excellence. Because these three components are inextricable, the businesses that achieve and sustain this happy collision successfully, place themselves in the enviable position of having their customers use a myriad of superlatives, including exceptional, first class and legendary, to define their service experience.
I encounter so many businesses that fail to see the intersectionality between these three points of contact. When this unawareness prevails, small, recurrent infractions that go uncorrected, become unsound, normative patterns, causing the opportunity to become a stand-out brand to evaporate.
The question that boggles my mind is, “Why would a business not want to pay attention to details? One of the more common reasons I suspect, is “laziness.” The prevailing mindset for some of the offenders is that if customers have forgiven infractions customarily, they will continue to do so, going forward. Of course, this is flawed thinking, because the luck has to run out sometime.
To a five-star brand, delivering a great customer experience is as much about operational and transactional excellence, as it is about service excellence.
The expiry date for luck in having customers tolerate the fallout from inattention to details, is closer than many businesses think. We live in what is now known as an experience economy, where the new currency when it comes to doing business, is about great customer experience outcomes. Customers are loyal as per their last experience. If their most recent experience was poor, customers will migrate with zero remorse, to the next provider that comes up with good reviews on google.
One of the most common sources that accounts for rampant inattention to details, is transaction errors. Now, I do concede that at times, sloppy transaction fulfilment may be due to lack of knowledge, skill or training. However, my experience with clients has exposed enough transaction failures due to “death by negligence,” for me to be convinced that many errors are preventable.
Now, I know that it’s pretty rudimentary to expect that transaction errors would be kept to a minimum, but the reality is that if businesses were to quantify the instances of customer vexation due to errors, the number would probably be too staggering to be publicized.
It’s amazing how many customer complaints and dissatisfactions would go away if managers were to introduce and sustain a simple “zero error” standard, as a key performance indicator.
Five-star brands know that their reputations rise and fall on the sustainability of quintessential standards that govern operational, transaction and service excellence.
Five-star brands know that their reputations rise and fall on the sustainability of quintessential standards that govern operational, transaction and service excellence. Many years ago, I held the title of country human resources manager at an international pharmaceutical company that operated out of one hundred countries, with a headcount of one hundred thousand employees worldwide and you know what? This company was ranked at number three in the world in its business sector. What accounted for this superlative performance? Its compliance with a standardized, worldwide operating structure and, its attention to details.
Escaping the rampant “inattention to details” syndrome is possible. Getting started is the biggest hurdle to be overcome.
May I suggest three steps? Firstly, declare a total company commitment to reversing the existing undermanagement of details. Secondly, establish a hyperfocus on all of the possible sticking points along key customer journeys and eliminate sources of frustration or friction. Thirdly, galvanize employee engagement to kick off the changes by declaring the entire business a “zero error” zone and ask employees to come up with creative ways to accomplish this aspirational standard.
Now, executing all of these changes will not happen overnight, it will happen over time. Just remember, when challenges show up, that direction is more important than speed.