Are your customers satisfied and does that equate to them endorsing your product of service?
I met with a business owner this week, and we discussed what “exceeded customer expectations” actually meant. The fact is, the owner didn’t really know….the team performed to the standard they believed was acceptable, but not necessarily to the specifications that the owner had set.
So, time for a change, benchmarking what customers think now results in each team member having “positive online reviews” as a daily benchmark. Great way to drive revenues and accountability.
But there’s the rub; you need to set a benchmark and yet different staff have different skills levels. So the only way this business can exceed a customer’s expectation, is for the whole of the team to provide a total experience that at every part of the buying (service) chain is exceptional.
If you just start to manage a “performance” task, it’s amazing what happens next…
Exceptional performance requires dedication, systems to capture the essential information and education/training to the level that the owner has set. If you, as owner or executive, have not set the benchmark, perhaps that explains why some days your business ticks along seamlessly and other days it doesn’t.
Also Read: Growing net profit – the first goal of business plans
Where do you sit in this equation? Try a simple exercise – how many positive online reviews do you get compared to how many “complaints/not satisfied” customer issues (these are the one that don’t go online but is probably most unlikely to give you a word of mouth referral).