By Nancy Friedman, Customer Service Keynote Speaker, President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training
Customer & Brand Loyalty. Ok boys and girls, it’s not brain surgery; it’s not rocket science; it’s not magic. It’s plain old F – E – C.
If you follow the F – E – C basics for all employees within your organization, you’ll see a rise in customer and brand loyalty. Yes, it’s that simple.
Let me explain. When you think of Southwest Airlines, Amazon, Apple Care, Chicos, Chick-fil-A, The Container Store, Disney, Nordstrom’s to name just a few, what comes to mind?
I’m betting it’s the F – E – C mentality you feel. F – E – C is something Telephone Doctor based its core teaching on since we began 30+ years ago. The KISS method. Sort of like, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality from our friend Tom Peters. You remember Tom, right? He has a great point. And I’m wondering if our Back to Basics isn’t the pathway to the F – E – C mentality to create customer & brand loyalty.
Here’s a perfect example of the F – E – C mentality about companies I had never heard of. Knowing I hear so much about ‘bad customer service,’ a friend of mine recently shared this special time with me. (Well I have heard of BORN shoes.)
“I had a hat trick of phenomenal customer service this week! First Lenovo, then Tech Support 365 and now Born Shoes! The adornment on my favorite flats fell off and it is lost. I called Born to see if they could send me a new adornment for reattachment but they no longer make that shoe. They told me to go to their website, choose a new, comparable pair and they would send me a replacement pair. The new pair arrived today. Whaaaaaaat?!??! When does that ever happen!?!?!??! Stellar customer service deserves a shout out!Telephone Doctor (www.nancyfriedman.com) can you use this as an example? I am still reeling from a week of feeling like I hit the customer service jackpot! Happy Weekend!”
Now, please don’t go calling Born Shoes with a problem. LOL! This is to share with you that there are a lot of folks using the F – E – C mentality to get rave reviews. Your company can do it as well.
Here’s the F E C secret:
F – Friendly. That’s it. Be friendly. (I know, I know, most folks think they’re friendly, but ya know what? They’re really not.) When you’re friendly, you’re smiling. You’re happy. You’re glad someone called or came in to the store. You’re never “too busy to be nice.”
E – EASY. Be EASY to do business with. We don’t say have people take advantage of you, but be easy to work with. Think of your ‘favorite’ place to shop. Bet they’re ‘easy’ to do business with. All those “policies.” Do you really need them? Can they be changed to be ‘easier’ to work with? Think about that.
C – The CARE GENE. If we don’t have the ‘care’ gene, all this doesn’t work. You gotta want to be ‘friendly.’ You’ve gotta want to be “easy to do business with.” Then the customer knows you ‘care.’
Most of us know the old saying, “The customer doesn’t care how much you know; until they know how much you care.”
This 1:40 second video Blog should help explain what I mean about the CARE GENE
