Creating Positive Customer Experiences
By JoAnna Brandi
About JoAnna
JoAnna Brandi, often called the “Customer Care Lady,” has 20-years experience helping create more positive, customer-caring companies that thrive, where employees are motivated, customers are loyal and competitors are nervous. She's the publisher of the Customer Care Coach®, a ten session self-study customer care leadership program, and Monday Morning Motivation, a weekly focused “self-talk” for people who care about their customers.
JoAnna is a consultant, well-regarded public speaker and author of two books on customer loyalty: “Winning At Customer Retention: 101 Ways to Keep ‘em Happy, Keep ‘em Loyal and Keep ‘em Coming Back” and “Building Customer Loyalty: 21 Essential Elements in Action.” She’s been delighting people worldwide with her biweekly “Customer Care Tip” for over 15 years. JoAnna is a practitioner of applied positive psychology and an “Authentic Happiness Coach," bringing the teachings of the new “Science of Happiness” right into the workplace. She's currently working on a new book, “The Feel-Good-at-Work Factor.” She's also a founding member of the Positive Workplace International.
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JoAnna Brandi's Creating Positive Customer Experiences: Where Are Your Blind Spots?
I thought back to the previous night as I was dining in a cozy, rustic, fire-lit restaurant adjacent to my hotel. I was led to my table in front of the fire (how did she know that my Florida-based thin blood needed a little extra warmth?) and settled in with some reading and a glass of wine to wait for my dinner. The atmosphere felt homey and welcoming (or at least I thought so at the time.)
I watched the bartender come from behind the bar a number of times to greet people at tables, say hello and schmooze a bit. He certainly made all of his out-of-town patrons feel welcome. All but one. Me.
I was the only one dining alone in the establishment, and as the night went on I became aware that I was definitely in this man's blind spot. How else could it be that every other table warranted a visit from him but me. I must be sitting here in a blind spot, I thought.
How many "blind spots" do you have in your business? How many things — or people — do you ignore because they don't fit your picture of the way it should be? How many things do you look past or through, never really examining them to see if they're serving your larger purpose — like retaining customers and keeping them happy?
Perhaps your automated telephone attendant makes it difficult to get through to the right person. Maybe your voicemail message isn't updated daily to give customers an idea of when you might be available to return their calls. Is there a chance that your order form, downloadable instructions or directions on use are unclear or challenging to those of us who suffer from “formaphobia”? Maybe your staff looks away from the senior citizen browsing, or doesn’t make eye contact with the next two people waiting in line? Either way, the customer feels invisible and unappreciated.
This week go on a "blind spot hunt.” A real serious one. Look for those things that you ordinarily ignore looking at, and bring them into view long enough to examine and, perhaps, improve them.
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Great presentation. The blind spots are always the set up for problems. Thank you.