“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.â€

William James

Do you want to make a difference in your company or business?  Are you willing to take your company to the next level when others are not.  Any business can differentiate itself from the competition by focusing on these 5 Customer Service Difference Makers

1.  Relationships – Be relational, not transactional – Every company has to accomplish a transaction or many transactions to succeed.  That’s how we generate money to eat, pay the rent, and open our doors for another day.  But if the transaction is all you have to offer then why should they do business with you?  The best starting point for being different to your customer is to be relational.  Build Relationships.  This is one of the most important parts of differentiating yourself.   Building a relationship is the foundation that all the other parts of a business should be based on.  Mark Sanborn in his book “Fred Factor†says “Customers don’t have relationships with organizations; they form relationships with individuals†  By taking the time to build strong relationships you are forming a strong foundation for you and your company.

2.  Personality – Practice personality power –  So I ask you this question, “Do you have a great personality? Is there a nice and happy person hiding somewhere inside that gruff exterior?”  If your answer is yes, well then congratulations, you already have an advantage.  Be sure and use it.  But if your answer is no, then here are two things you must do.

The 1^st is practice.  That’s right I said practice!  If being engaging does not come naturally then you need to learn.  Here are two things you can practice to become engaging.

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• Use the persons name when addressing them.  If you don’t know their name then ask them.  The sweetest sound to any customer you are dealing with is there name.
  
• Being engaging is to make it about them.  Don’t talk about you, talk about them.  Ask them open ended questions.  We all love to talk about ourselves.  It’s the one thing we are all experts at.
  

The 2^nd thing you must do, if you struggle with exposing your great, happy personality, is to  surround yourself with people who do.  If being jovial and talky, talky is not your thing then you must bring in the support that is!  Remember you are creating an environment and  a relationship that depends on personalities.  I love entering a facility that has personality.  It can be a one person operation or a much bigger one.  Size does not matter, but the personality or lack of one does.

3.  Servant – Be a Servant –  When you have a business, work in a business, or do business it is best to operate from a service or servant perspective.  When you do, that’s when you can provide the best customer service experience. In a previous blog post called, Getting the “I†out,  I discuss how you need to remove your needs and your desires from the transaction.  By doing this, you will begin to see what you are doing with a new set of eyes.  If it’s all about you then your heart is not open to see the needs of others or your customers.  In order to get away from focusing on self you have to do the opposite–focus on others, focus on the customer.  You can be a servant by…

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• Making a commitment to listening intently to the customer.  You should also seek to identify and clarify the needs of your customer.  Paying close attention to what is being said but sometimes, more importantly, to what is not being said.
  
• Showing empathy.  Giving the sense you can truly understand or imagine the depth of another person’s feelings.
  
• Looking for the intrinsic worth in all people and customers.  I love this one.  As you set your attitude to see the good in everybody and everything, your disposition changes.  It changes to an always happy and eager to serve disposition.  You’ll be better at your job and be a difference maker all the time. Fun!
  

4.  Anticipate – Recently I wrote a blog post about Anticipate and in it I mentioned 3 keys to Anticipate.

1st Key is to be engaged! 

You must be engaged with your customer.  It does not matter if you are on the phone, a sales call, or waitressing.  You must be engaged with your customer.  It is through this engagement that will allow you to pick up cues to what their needs might be.  This means no external distractions, such as cell phones, I-pads, and e-mails.  There is a time and a place for that but it’s not when you are engaging with your customer.

2nd Key is to practice! 

By practicing, I am referring to taking some time to think through the possibilities.  Give your job some detailed thought and consider the possibilities.  Run differing scenarios through your mind and how you might resolve them.  Mark Sanborn in his book  “ The Encore Effect†says “Practice: It won’t make you perfect but it will make you betterâ€.  So if you want to be better then practice!

3rd Key is to have fun! 

Everything we do in life turns out better when we are having fun.  This includes being exceptional.  Think of anticipating the needs of the customer as a game and the better you do the higher your score will be!  The best part is that when your score is higher the points are rewarded in dollars.  Cha-ching!  We all can’t be professional athletes who are paid to play a fun sport.  But we can all get paid to play if we choose to have fun as our approach!

5. Touch – Your special touch – Decide in advance that you have a story and you want to tell it through your business.  What is your unique touch or story?  Our businesses all have a story to tell.  They present a message to the public and our customers.  It is important to occasionally ask this question, “What story is my office or business telling?”  A second yet equally important question is, “What story do I want my business to tell?”  If you are an owner, then your company is a true reflection of yourself.  If you’re an employee in a business, you will take on it’s identity by default.  So how can we be sure that our Office Story is something worth telling?  Well, here are 3 ways to tell Your Office Story.

1.  Tell a New Story.  Ecclesiastes 1:9, says “There is nothing new under the sunâ€.  Despite the fact that this is true, it should not keep you from drawing from your experiences and desires to create, mold, and deliver a NEW story.  You are unique to this universe.  No other person has seen what you have seen, done what you have done, or can put all of your experiences together the way you can or would.  Now stop and consider that for a moment and you’ll see just how awesome that is!

2. Give it a Twist.  Don’t seek the “norm†or cookie cutter route.  Dare to be unique, draw from your experiences, and give it a twist!  I’m not telling you to reinvent the wheel, that would be a mistake.  Businesses are successful because they follow successful and established business practices.  Notice the word “practices“.  That does not mean you can’t create your own special twist.  It was Baskin Robbins that took 3 flavors of ice cream to 31.  They still sold ice cream but they added their twist.  Apple sells phones, or do they?  With the help of the late Steve Jobs, they have a seriously unique twist.   This is how companies differentiate themselves from the norm.  New ideas, fun ideas, exciting ideas, all with their own twist!

3.  Focus on Clarity.  Life is cloudy.  We have so much thrown at us and at such highs speeds that it is amazing that we are even able to digest a fraction of it.  With so much going on, we can lose our clarity. To be successful at telling your Office Story your way, you need to display clarity in the message.  Don’t let external factors or situations lead you astray.  You should re-visit your Why and Purpose regularly so you don’t lose your sense of direction.  Jamie Smart, in the book Clarity: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results  discusses how being clear will improve your success and performance!  When you and your company are clear, there is no fog and the results are always good.

Did you notice a secondary theme in this episode?  It was practice.  We need to practice to be different and make a difference.  The more intentional you are with your practice, the better you will become and the bigger difference you can make in your Customer Service Experience.

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