The dream of any food market is abundance – and the recent cold snap in the UK has put that to the test in the local supermarkets. People have been panic buying (ridiculous) and understandably stocks are low in some things – however, there is no excuse for the place being untidy. My local supermarket looked like a bomb had gone off  – lots of empty shelves, lots of product scattered around the shelves.

The really unforgivable thing for me is the lack of professionalism that allows the store to use the sign above. FAIL.

The principles of excellent start with attention – to customers AND to detail – this kind of thing really lets them down.

How are you enabling your staff to give great customer service?

Once again – its a number of very small touches that make great customer service. I recently upgraded from Sky to Sky HD – the experience was completely pain-free, but really enhanced by a number of very small touches along the way:

I booked the service by phone and got queued for getting an appointment – when it was my time, Sky emailed and texted me to let me know I could book online, I even got one month free for using the online channel.

The engineer was booked for Sunday between 12-5, but the day before he phoned to confirm and narrowed the time down to between 12 and 2 – meaning I could plan activities for later in the day – he arrived at 12.45.

The engineer was polite, quick and even offered to wear overshoes as it was raining outside, but the icing on the cake was when he left a small card with his cellphone number for 30 day DIRECT support with him rather than going back through a call center.

All installed in 5 days from first call to fully working, great quality product backed by decent service. Would I recommend Sky HD? Damn right I would.

What other great customer services have you had?

The Purple Cow stands out, because it is remarkable. In a field of black and white cows, the purple cow is the one that you would remember – turning to your travel companion and saying, “did you see…?”

That’s the premise of Seth Godin’s book from 2002, a highly enjoyable spin through the act of being remarkable, and how businesses have transformed their fortunes by standing out from the crowd.

Buy The Purple Cow by Seth Godin here (Amazon Link)

It is an inspiring read, prompting you to evaluate everything from your business models to your personal behaviour – and establish whether what you do is really outstanding.

I devoured this again in one sitting on a 2 hour plane ride – and have come away with a new set of ideas I’ll be implementing, including some that will make my support teams even more remarkable, and also some that will hopefully make me a step closer to ‘awesome’.

What are you doing to ensure you or your business/team are The Purple Cow?

Westfield in West London, has everything that might be expected from a modern day shopping centre, some of it good, some of it bad, but if you must go to a giant mall, you may as well make it a good one.

There are 25o plus shops (some of them are even different to the ones in other shopping centres), some decent eateries, and tall ceilings with loads of natural light. This a pretty good place to get your retail muscles going, but there is one great feature that takes a lot of the pain out of shopping at Westfield.

The signalling system in the car park is awesome, each row has electronic signs telling you that it is full, or there are spaces (snapped with my phone camera above). Then, each individual space has a green or red LED so you can find the vacant spot from a distance. It may only be a car park, but for those of us that have trouble with the public transport links from where we are, it takes the stress out of a day trip there.

I’m fairly confident that even when it is busy, you’d be able to find a space amongst the 4500 bays, quickly and with no fuss. It is the little touches that improve the experience, and leave a strong reason to return.

What small touches make your customers loyal?

In the interests of balance, here is a great example of how customer service should not be done.   I recently spent time in PC World trying to buy a computer for my Mum. Due to three thoughtless interactions – they lost the sale, to a rival across the street.

• Firstly – we browsed the aisles looking at laptops, not too expensive, not too small, not too complex. It’s easy to find what you want at PC World, loads of choice. However, not one of the staff came up to try and serve us, and we ended up waving at passing staff trying to get someone to help. 10 minutes passed.
• Secondly – after choosing a laptop and finding a team member, we were told that the laptop was “out of stock, nearest one is 50 miles away”. No apology, no offering to order, no suggestion to order online, no hint of further information.  I would even have preferred an ‘Out of Stock’ sign on the information card to help.
• Finally – after being told it was out of stock, our sales rep just stood still and looked at us. No trying to cross-sell or up sell us to a better or alternative model, no hunger, no desire and no service. And no sale.

We left, walked across the street, and found another laptop, lower price and with keen, eager service. They made a double sale, as we walked out with a new HD television in addition to our shiny new PC.

So it comes us very little surprise to see that our chosen retailer has been voted ‘the worst for computer advice’, and their staff are demoralised enough to post attacks on their customers on social networking sites. I feel sorry for the staff really, their management clearly have no idea beyond buying boxes and flogging boxes.

I’ve made my choice now – never again.

How are you enabling your staff to give great customer service?

Great customer service is often a collection of very small touches that make the difference; the personalised response on the phone, the thoughtful addition to the hotel room care package or the sincere smile that comes with a retail experience.

I booked my car in for a service and two things happened which have convinced me that my car is booked in the right place. First, they offered to drive me home after I had left my car for the day and secondly, they sent an SMS to remind me of the details and gave me a named contact to deal with.

I know I’ll pay for this somewhere along the line, but those are touches that breed loyalty.

What are you doing to build your customers loyalty?