Focus On "Making It Easy"
For Customers

Conventional wisdom and the majority of business models say good customer service departments bend over backward for their customers. This certainly sounds right. It stands to reason exceeding a customer’s expectations means performing feats of extraordinary service — such as overnighting a shipment, including a coupon with a refund or giving away free products. While it’s certainly a worthy cause to impress your customers, it may not always yield the results you’re looking for.

This is exactly what the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) — which manages the performance of 90% of Fortune 500 companies — discovered when they surveyed customer service departments. 89% of department heads said their goal is to exceed their customers’ expectations. Surprisingly, 85% of the customers CEB asked, said their expectations were not exceeded in their last customer service interaction.

Dazzling customers is a rep’s main goal, and yet this study reveals they don’t always achieve that end — something just doesn’t add up.

Perhaps there’s a difference between what you and your customers consider “exceeded expectations.” When CEB dug deeper, they learned customers place high importance on how you handle basic, everyday transactions and less how you “wow” them with extra perks. It makes sense when you think about it.

When a customer receives the wrong product, they simply want you to make it right. If the process is confusing or stressful in any way, a 15% off coupon on their next purchase is certainly a nice “apology,” but it won’t erase the bad experience.

In short, customers want you to make things easy for them; they care about it more than grand gestures. By putting processes in place to ensure smooth, efficient transactions upfront — instead of concocting elaborate ways to say “we’re sorry” — you’re more likely to attract repeat customers. This is because customers are most satisfied when you reduce their effort and remove obstacles to getting what they want.

However, when you can’t fully meet a customer’s needs at the time, there are still ways to reduce effort. CEB encourages companies to train their employees to rephrase things such as, “We don’t have a Ruger SR1911 in stock” to “We’ll have stock availability for your Ruger SR1911 in two weeks, and I can place an order for you right now.” This not only reframes “not so great news,” but it leaves an avenue for the customer to still place an order, with little effort on his or her part.

Measure Your Customers’ Satisfaction

If you’re wondering how your customers perceive interactions with your employees, it would be helpful to implement a survey. This can be done at the point of sale by offering discount codes on their receipt in exchange for filling out an online feedback form. If this is something you already do, then maybe it’s time to switch up the wording on your survey.

CEB developed their own system for scoring customer satisfaction, called the Customer Effort Score (which outperforms popular industry models, CSAT and NPS). The genius behind this scoring method is it asks customers one simple question about each transaction: “How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?” The goal of the survey is to predict how likely a customer is to return for another purchase. This is an accurate way to gain insight about your customers’ actual level of satisfaction, so you’re not left wondering what works and what doesn’t.

In addition, both sides of the counter will benefit from a shift in focus. It’s less confusing for your employees when it comes to customer interactions if you tell them to “make it easy” rather than instruct them to “exceed expectations,” which can yield varying results and waste valuable time and effort. If you ensure your team has a pulse on your customer’s most basic needs, your customers will more than likely thank you with their loyalty.

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