In my many years in the hospitality industry, be it in restaurants, hotels, cafés or contract catering, I have often heard about customer retention issues and managers often seemed perplexed as to why some customers don’t come back. Are our prices too high? The quality of our food below standard? The reception area should be refurnished, the decor maybe needs refreshing …
Many businesses would say that price and offering a poor-quality product were the top reasons why customers leave. But is this really the case?
In fact, many surveys and researches show time and time again that the biggest single reason businesses are losing customers is that they are guilty of providing a poor customer experience.
An American Express survey a few years ago found that 78% of consumers have backed out on an intended purchase because of a negative experience. The same survey states that 91% of customers, who had a bad customer experience won’t willingly do business with your company again.
This statistic alone should wake up some business owners, who still don’t prioritise customer service and experience, solely focusing on sales and prices instead.
Why so many businesses treat customer service and experience as an afterthought is a mystery. Perhaps it is for cost cutting reasons; but this would be very short-sighted, as in the long run they would lose customers, hence their income would decrease. They may also believe that focusing on the customer experience and customer service is a waste of energy.
Customer service and experience guru, Shep Hyken puts it very clearly:
‘Customer service is not a department. It's a philosophy to be embraced by every member of an organization, from the CEO to the most recently hired employee’.
The customer experience is much more than the service provided by frontline teams. There is no point to offer exquisite food for
instance, if your waiting staff aren’t knowledgeable about the ingredients in the dishes, or if customers struggle to make a reservation because your booking system is inadequate, or they don’t feel welcomed on arrival and totally ignored once they have paid the bill.
At Valentines Learning, we have identified 6 areas of concern some businesses should address in order to reduce and eventually stop losing customers; and they all are related to the customer experience and service:
- Customers’ journey
Customer journey mapping is important, because it is a strategic approach to better understanding your customers and their needs. It is crucial for optimising the customer experience.
- Customers’ expectations
The better you understand your customers’ expectations, the more you can tailor the customer experience to their needs. But do you really know what they are?
- Customers taken for granted
In this extremely competitive market, when business is going well, it is easy to become complacent, not keeping your eye on the ball and letting customer service slip a little.
- Not delivering the unexpected
In order to ensure that you differentiate your business from your competitors, and that your customers stay with you, you need to exceed your customers’ expectations, not merely meet them, by surprising and wowing your customers; you can do that by delivering the unexpected.
- Poorly trained teams
In the same way our customers have expectations of the business they deal with, teams have expectations of their managers. Training and empowering are two main expectations. By not training your employees you will impact their productivity, their well-being and the overall well-being of your organisation.
- Disengaged teams
A lack of training opportunities will lead to employees’ demotivation and disengagement. Besides training, your team need to feel engaged, motivated and happy; one way to achieve this is to empower them.
However, many managers are aware of what needs doing but due to work pressures, time constraints or lack of knowhow, they aren’t able to achieve it. We won’t get everything right every time, but with practice, hard work and sharing of ideas, not forgetting teamwork, we can all improve and get closer to reaching our common goal to deliver a great customer experience.
We often forget that we are all customers to some other businesses, including in our industry and some of our competitors. So, as customers, what is it we expect from those businesses?
We should use our knowledge as customers, and our own expectations to improve the overall experience for our customers. Also, it is not that complicated and should not be a hassle or an effort, but it should become a company culture, part of the way you and your team work, like second nature.
Changing company culture will take time; first, it has to come from the top. CEOs need to include customer experience in their company mission and values, and ensure they involve all departments and employees, so that everyone is focused on and dedicated to providing an excellent customer experience. If the top people in the company don’t change their mindset the company culture will not change.
As managers, it is an on-going endeavour, which should always be at the top of your agenda. With the right team, the right training and the right attitude, it is not only essential to your customers and your business, but you will eventually enjoy the process and reap the fruit of your labour. So, get off your chair, have a go, take your team with you. Your teams will feel a sense of purpose, your customers will enjoy a better experience and service, your business will flourish and you will appreciate the whole journey much more than you think.
If you would like to explore this further, know more about the ways you can retain more customers pr have any questions about how Valentines Learning can help you train your teams, don’t hesitate to contact us, pick up the phone today.
