Last time I shared with you some of my comments from my interview with Kristina Evey on customer satisfaction, service and
retention. Check here for a quick review of the first part.

KE:  How can you correlate customer service to customer retention?

PVH:  In this day and time, customers have options and they know it. It’s no longer a world in which we just reference the local yellow pages or word of mouth for service options. Now they can choose to do business across town, across the country or around the world.

But most people would prefer not to change. And the old refrain still holds true: People DO like to do business with people they know and like.

I remember a former CEO of an automotive parts company stating definitively, “I have never made a dollar off of business I did not have.” Long term profits come in serving and retaining our established customer base over time.

KE: How can/should a company motivate staff to deliver excellent customer service?

PVH: There are several short term options that many organization have experimented with…service contests, awards, recognition programs. But, a better way is to establish a culture of service throughout the organization by making excellent customer service a performance standard to which every employee is held accountable.

Inspect what you expect…and hold people accountable for doing what is expected of them.

KE: How have you been able to reinforce customer satisfaction in the minds of your frontline supervisors and staff?

PVH: Show them the difference they are making by showing them the positive results of their efforts.

KE: What are the 3 things EVERY company or organization should do to improve customer service?

PVH: In my book, Willie’s Way: 6 Secrets for Wooing, Wowing and Winning Customers and Their Loyalty, I actually identify 6 things that every organization and every individual can do to improve customer service. The 6 secrets are:

1. Acknowledge the customer - immediately!
2. Redefine routine activities to create a customized service experience.
3. Give the customer your undivided attention.
4. Listen, think and use common sense.
5. Bend the rules, sometimes.
6. Make the last few seconds count.

KE: What do you feel should be the goal — customer service or retention?

PVH: I believe in the philosophy, “take care of the little (or immediate) things and the big (or future) things will take care of themselves.” BUT, if you don’t take care of the little things, they grow and fester to the point that they become the big issues that we may not be able to control.

In other words, focus on servicing the customer while you can, and worry about the retention issue later. Give them a compelling reason to keep coming back and they will.

KE: What is the best or most valued way to nuture customer relationships?

PVH: Take the approach that you are doing business with one customer at a time. Do everything in your power to make every interaction — every sales call, every email, every personal visit, every complaint received — count towards building that relationship.

KE:  What are the top two things that are most important to customers today?

PVH:  I have no idea — because I don’t know your customers and I don’t think any two customers are exactly alike. Our time would be better spent determining what the customer says is most important and then working diligently to meet and exceed those expectations. 

KE: How should you go about stratifying customers for service levels? Should you stratify customers? If so, when? If no, why not?

PVH: I think it makes sense to recognize who you’re best customers are and what makes them so — volume of business, profitability, status, influence, long term potential, etc. Pick out who you want to work with, where you want to work with them, how you want to work with them, etc. In my business, I provide a certain amount of preferential consideration to clients that:

• are willing to commit to long term engagements,
• are nearby geographically,
• meet my professional niche,
• and have a flexible schedule.  

For more on Kristina Evey and her customer centric work, please visit centricstrategies.com.

If you haven’t checked into Willie’s Way, please take a minute to watch this brief clip on secret #1 - acknowledging your customers. 

The complete audio interview with Kristina is available here.I believe you’ll find the strategies offered will give you great results in your customer satisfaction, service and retention efforts.