Transform your customer service with these 6 questions

I go on and on about it.

How customer service is the only differentiator in today’s low-trust world. 

But seriously, I believe it’s the truth.

Just about everything else can be purchased or copied - talent, ideas, customers, the lot!

But you can’t force people to trust you quickly.

And if people don’t trust you, they’re unlikely to buy from you.

So how does customer service lead to trust, and then combine to make you unstoppable in business?

Let me explain…

Recently I was asked to speak to a service business about the idea of customer service.

(Am I the only one who thinks that sounds pretty weird to say out loud?)

I thought “What the hell could I teach a service business about service?”.

But my curiosity led me to ask a few questions to learn about their challenges.

And then it dropped.

I could clearly see their problem.

And it’s more common than you might imagine.

You see, the services you offer, and the way you service customers are two very different things.

You often get bogged down in delivering ‘the service’. The nuts and bolts of your offer, the shit to fulfil the contract obligations and the things that customers order from you. 

And because you’re so busy working on deliverables, you forget to zoom out for a moment to see that it’s not the only thing people value these days. 

In fact, they can probably get something similar to what you sell from a dozen other places. 

Before you say “But we’re different, or I’m the best!”... I gotta stop you there. You’re not. 

At least not in the eyes of your customer because they have plenty of options these days.

Sure, being good at what you do and delivering what you say you’ll deliver gets you a long way.

But that’s transactional. That’s what they paid you for.

It doesn’t go far enough to surprise and delight people who engage you.

And it certainly doesn’t make people stand up and yell ‘FUCK YEAH!’ before leaning in for a high five after dealing with you.

And that’s exactly what you should be aiming for these days.

Anything less, and you'll risk losing customers to your competitors.

So what does it take to create those sorts of moments?

I think you already know Jarrod.

It’s those little things you do that they didn’t ask for or expect from you.

The key moments that build up during your time working together.

It’s service!

Good old fashioned, hard to scale, above and beyond, service.

And when you nail it, customers can’t wait to come back for more. 

The good news is, that these days it’s not hard to stand out from the crowd of boring businesses too busy to care.

(If you’re reading this email, I suspect you’re not one of them)

Now, there are infinite ways to deliver brilliant service. And the best ones are unique to your business, your clients and your personality. 

So instead of copying other people, it’s best to answer a few questions to figure out what 'good' looks like for you.

Here are a few of my favourites:

1. What does the ultimate customer experience look like?

Remove all price, resources and time barriers for this one and dream big.

2. How close are you to reaching it?

Be honest here. You need a starting point and it will reveal a gap between where you are, and where you want to be.

3. What’s working to get you there?

What things have you done that worked to create the ultimate customer experience that you should keep doing.

4. What’s standing in your way from doing the rest?

What obstacles are in your way to achieving the bits between where you are today and the level you want the experience to be at.

5. Do you know how to solve it?

Do you have the knowledge or do you have someone on your team/in your network who you can ask for help to overcome those challenges.

6. Are you already working on that?

If not, make a plan.

Wait…

I gotta ask. 

Your answer to that first question… The ultimate customer experience.

Is that even ambitious enough?

Because I’m talking about getting a FUCK YEAH from every single person you reach so your business becomes ‘un-catch-up-to-able’.

(Yes, that’s a word. It’s my newsletter and I say it's a legit word.)

Okay, now that you've set a high standard for customer service, asked yourself the right questions and ended up with some juicy answers, I’ll leave you to making it happen.

I hope this helps!