Think you can take shortcuts to improve the customer service at your organization? According to service experts JoAnna Brandi, the Customer Care Coach, and Pete Winemiller, Senior Director of Guest Relations and Premium Seating Services for the Seattle NBA’s SuperSonics & WNBA’s Seattle Storm, service excellence can only be achieved and maintained through ongoing practice.

 “In an era of speed dating and sound bites, it’s seductive to think there are shortcuts for everything – including the creation of customer loyalty,” says JoAnna Brandi, the Customer Care Coach. “In reality, loyal customer relationships and the profits they make possible are built the old fashioned way, one step at a time.

“The bottom line: as with any discipline you’d like to master – martial arts, sports, your profession – you have to continuously learn, practice and integrate exquisite customer care into your business to build and maintain profitable customer relationships.”

Pete Winemiller agrees. The Senior Director of Guest Relations and Premium Seating Services for the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics & the WNBA’s Seattle Storm uses the Customer Care Coach® training program as a resource for continuously improving their customer experience. He says that ongoing, one-step-at-a-time training for all 500+ frontline people who serve their ‘Guests’ (fans) at KeyArena is one of the reasons his organization has been described as “setting the gold standard for the NBA fan experience,” by David Stern, Commissioner of the NBA.

Winemiller explains, “The goal of everyone on our staff is to create superior value by providing a quality Guest experience, with the pay-off being the creation of repeat Guests. While we can’t control the play on the floor, what we can control is how we treat our Guests. That’s why continuous training is non-negotiable here. We know that Guest care doesn’t ‘start and stop.’ It’s an ongoing practice and process.

“When you consistently put the effort into proactive Guest care you’re less vulnerable to damaging incidents. And when they do happen, as they inevitably will, you can handle them on-the-spot and actually enhance the Guest relationship.”

So how can your organization implement the profitable ‘practice’ that Winemiller advocates and Brandi calls ‘Exquisite Customer Care?’ How can you and your team begin a ‘discipline’ that will help your organization set the ‘gold standard for the customer experience’ in your industry? To launch a practice of customer care, Brandi advises managers to:

·Have a crystal clear vision. In other words, you’ve got to know what you intend to achieve, having a detailed picture of the end result in mind. “As the saying goes, if you can imagine it you can achieve it,” says Brandi. So when you imagine your customers signing a check for your company, leaving your store, or putting the phone down after speaking with one of your reps, are they ‘glowing’ with happiness and satisfaction? Are they smiling? Are they ‘evangelists’ rushing to tell a colleague or friend about their experience with your company?

·Look at the organization from the customers’ point of view. This entails a lot of tough questions: Do you know what your customers expect and value in the first place? (Be aware – what they want this week may be different from what they wanted last week!) How do they use your product or service? What works well for them, and what doesn’t? Are you keeping them at ‘arm’s length’ with complicated phone systems and poor service? Why would they want to be in a loyal relationship with you? What might be causing those who leave you for a competitor to do so?

·Be on the lookout for a collaborator, mentor or teacher who can assist you in achieving your vision. As the Taoist saying goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” If you can't find the right mentor inside your organization, look for someone on the outside. Start networking, reading books on service and exploring online resources until you find a person or approach that’s in alignment with your goals and style. In today's information rich world there’s no excuse for not improving.

·Define your strategy, making sure your customer care vision and your corporate values are in alignment. Some questions to stimulate thinking about your strategy include: How can we make it easier for customers to do business with us? How can we assist them in becoming more profitable? Do we have different segments of customers who need and value different things?

·Bring your strategy to life by putting it into practice! Brandi says it’s best to do this a little at a time. She explains, “After sharing your strategy with your staff, begin with ‘step one,’ and encourage them do one thing differently every day for 21 days in support of that step. This way they’re learning over time as you provide guidance, encouragement and role modeling. They’re also firmly integrating what they’re learning in their daily rounds. Customers in our own incremental training program find this kind of ‘drip training’ in the ‘real world’ of their work environment to be wildly effective.”

Brandi concludes, “Forget about shortcuts. When it comes to the practice of Exquisite Customer Care and creating profits, slow and steady wins the race.”

Both Brandi & Winemiller are available for speaking engagements, training and workshops. For more information regarding JoAnna Brandi, one of the country’s highest rated speakers on customer care, visit www.customercarecoach.com or contact Tracey Paradiso at tracey@customercarecoach.com or (908) 272-3312. To contact Pete Winemiller call toll-free: (800) 743-7021.