Amaze Every Customer Every Time Read online

  PRAISE FOR

  AMAZE EVERY CUSTOMER EVERY TIME

  “At Zappos, we aim to deliver WOW through service. This book illustrates how important it is to WOW and AMAZE every customer every time!”

  — Tony Hsieh, New York Times bestselling author of

  Delivering Happiness and CEO of Zappos.com, Inc.

  “The message is clear and the lessons are simple. This book is a guide to creating customer loyalty, employee engagement, and overall business success.”

  — Horst Schulze, former president, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, and chairman/CEO, Capella Hotel Group

  “The best way to improve the customer experience is to improve the employee experience. While this book has many great ideas that focus on the customer, Hyken also emphasizes the importance of the internal culture of a company. He perfectly makes this point in the tenth ‘tool’ of the book, which states that to be the best place to buy, you have to be the best place to work.”

  — Vala Afshar, chief marketing officer and chief customer officer, Enterasys

  “Refreshingly simple, Shep’s latest work offers a comprehensive collection of tools and tactics to engage the hearts and minds of employees as a means of engaging and amazing customers.”

  — Claire Burns, senior vice president and chief customer officer, MetLife

  “A cowboy can’t be all hat and no horse; a business can’t be all product and no service. In Amaze Every Customer Every Time, Shep saddles up and showcases the authenticity of Ace Hardware’s legendary service. Proving that great service is not in what you do; it has to be ingrained in who you are.”

  — Jeffrey Hayzlett, global business celebrity, bestselling author, and sometime cowboy

  “Thank you for this AMAZING wake-up call! I can’t wait for our agents to read this book and take your customer-centric ideas to heart. Our focus is to nurture long-term relationships and create a one-stop shop for real estate needs. We want to ‘own our mile!’”

  —Tom Meyer, founder and president, Condo 1

  “Everyone wants more customers. But the best way to get them is to amaze the ones you already have. And this book shows you exactly how to do that.”

  — Randy Gage, author of the New York Times bestseller Risky Is the New Safe

  “Amaze Every Customer Every Time gives you the why, what, and how of amazing customer service. In this highly useful book, Hyken makes it easy to understand and deliver the kind of service that keeps customers coming back for more.”

  — Mark Sanborn, bestselling author of The Fred Factor and You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader

  “It is crystal clear from the onset that this book is not meant to be read. It is meant to be used. This is a how-to book that takes the reader on a compelling journey to the mountaintop of customer service, which Hyken refers to as Amazement.”

  — Benjamin Ola Akande, Ph.D., dean, Webster University, Walker School of Business & Technology

  “As the franchisor of multiple concepts I recognize how important customer service is to the success of a business. This book provides the tools that are needed to create a level of customer service that is … Amazing!”

  — Dina Dwyer-Owens, chairperson and CEO of The Dwyer Group

  Books by Shep Hyken

  Moments of Magic:

  Be a Star with Your Customers and Keep Them Forever

  The Loyal Customer:

  A Lesson from a Cab Driver

  Only the Best on Success (coauthor)

  Only the Best on Customer Service (coauthor)

  Only the Best on Leadership (coauthor)

  The Winning Spirit (coauthor)

  Inspiring Others to Win (coauthor)

  The Cult of the Customer: Create an Amazing Experience

  That Turns Satisfied Customers into Customer Evangelists

  The Amazement Revolution: Seven Customer Service Strategies

  to Create an Amazing Customer (and Employee) Experience

  Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools for Delivering

  the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet

  For more information about the above books, contact:

  Shepard Presentations, LLC

  (314) 692-2200

  [email protected]

  www.hyken.com

  Copyright © 2013 Shep Hyken

  Moments of Magic® and Moments of Misery™ are trademarks of Shep Hyken, Shepard Presentations, LLC. All rights reserved.

  For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Shepard Presentations, LLC at 314.692.2200 or [email protected]

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

  Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

  Austin, Texas

  www.gbgpress.com

  Distributed by Greenleaf Book Group LLC

  Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group. Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group. Cover and interior illustration: © Andrew Johnson, 2013. Used under license from iStockphoto LP.

  Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

  (Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

  ISBN 13: 978-1-62634-009-1

  Hyken, Shep.

  Amaze every customer every time : 52 tools for delivering the most amazing customer service on the planet / Shep Hyken.

  p. ; cm.

  Issued also as an ebook.

  ISBN: 978-1-62634-009-1

  1. Customer services. 2. Consumer satisfaction. 3. Employee empowerment. 4. Corporate culture. 5. Success in business. I. Title.

  HF5415.5 .H95 2013

  658.8/12 2013931924

  Part of the Tree Neutral® program, which offsets the number of trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

  Special Edition Printing ISBN: 978-1-62634-037-4

  Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

  13 14 15 16 17 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  First Edition

  CONTENTS

  PART ONE: AMAZEMENT

  CHAPTER ONE: Introduction to Amazement

  CHAPTER TWO: The Case for Ace

  CHAPTER THREE: People with the Passion to Serve

  CHAPTER FOUR: Operationalizing Helpful

  CHAPTER FIVE: The Seven Amazement Principles

  PART TWO: THE 52 TOOLS FOR CUSTOMER AMAZEMENT

  CHAPTER SIX: LEADERSHIP

  1. Act Like You Own the Place

  2. Trust

  3. Debrief on Both Misery and Magic

  4. Befriend the Competition

  5. Adapt or Die

  6. Know the Value of Your Customers

  7. Know What Drives Your Success

  8. You Can’t Be Good at Everything

  9. Play to Your Strengths

  CHAPTER SEVEN: CULTURE

  10. To Be the Best Place to Buy, Be the Best Place to Work

  11. Don’t Take the Easy Way Out

  12. The Awesome Responsibility

  13. Defend the Culture

  14. Shift Your Vocabulary

  15. Adopt a Customer-First Mindset

  16. Celebrate Uniqueness

  17. Great Ideas Come from Everyone

  18. Consistency

  19. Tell the Story

  20. Be a Committed Learner

  21. Mentoring

  22. Starting Over

  CHAPTER EIGHT: ONE-ON-ONE

  23. It’s Showtime!

  24. Treat Customers
the Way They Want to Be Treated

  25. Focus on the Customer, Not the Money

  26. Manage the First Impression

  27. Engage!

  28. Ask the Extra Question

  29. One to Say Yes, Two to Say No

  30. Cross-Sell and Up-Sell!

  31. Last Impressions

  32. Be Accountable

  33. The Customer Is Not Always Right

  34. Bounce Back

  35. Master the Art of Recovery

  36. Manage the Wait

  37. Avoid Loyalty Killers

  38. Seize the Moment!

  CHAPTER NINE: THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

  39. Own Your Mile

  40. Satisfaction Is a Rating, Loyalty Is an Emotion

  41. Be Easy to Do Business With

  42. Get Firsthand Experience

  43. Show Your Gratitude

  44. Don’t Leave Loyalty to Chance

  45. Do What Is Not Expected

  46. Deliver Amazing Follow-Up

  47. Stay in Touch

  48. Get Proactive

  CHAPTER TEN: COMMUNITY

  49. The Law of Reciprocity

  50. Do Local Well

  51. Loyalty Goes Both Ways

  52. Be Part of Something Bigger than Yourself

  EPILOGUE: CREATE A DEMANDING CUSTOMER

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  INDEX

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PART ONE

  AMAZEMENT 101

  * * *

  “It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.”

  —HENRY FORD

  A CUSTOMER-CENTERED CULTURE doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of the influence and the conscious choices of the people in the organization. How do you make it purposeful? How do you live the culture you want to create on a daily basis? The answer is: By working on the culture before you work on anything else.

  CHAPTER ONE

  INTRODUCTION TO AMAZEMENT

  * * *

  Amazing Every Customer Every Time will give you a competitive edge in any economy and any marketplace.

  WHAT IS AMAZEMENT, and why should you bother learning what it takes to Amaze Every Customer Every Time?

  Amazement is the level of customer experience that gives you a clear advantage in any economy and any marketplace. Amazement is the competitive edge that separates good companies from truly great companies. And believe it or not, an amazing customer experience is well within your capacity to deliver to every customer, every single time.

  Amazement is the advantage that makes the competition start thinking about how “unfair” it is to have to be operating in the same market, the same planet, the same dimension as you do.

  Amazement is what makes it easy for you to stand out and win repeat business, create customer evangelists, and reap referrals—whether times are good or bad; whether your company sells ballpoint pens, ball bearings, or ballroom dancing lessons; whether your customers are consumers, businesses, or both.

  Amazement is what the “best of the best” companies have figured out. And it’s what you can figure out too. These companies know that no matter how great their product or service, they can’t expect to get and keep customers if they don’t deliver an amazing experience. Guess what! You can’t either.

  These companies know what amazement is (and isn’t), and they know how to make it happen. And before too long, if you keep turning pages, you will too.

  Here’s something else the best of the best have figured out: They know that when it comes to delivering truly amazing customer service, everyone in the organization must step up and be a leader. That’s true of the best of the best service organizations. And it’s true of your organization too.

  Amazing Every Customer Every Time doesn’t take a specific title. It takes the willingness to step up and become a role model who sets an example that others aspire to. You can do that, right now, whether you founded the company or just got hired today.

  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

  We shift gears now to discuss how to best use this book. A lot of business books are meant to be read. This is not one of them.

  Yes, you heard me right. This book is not meant to be read. It is meant to be used!

  The next three chapters will give you the “lay of the land” about why I chose Ace Hardware as my role model for this book; why I picked this company to showcase these 52 best practices, tactics, and strategies about how to Amaze Every Customer Every Time. Chapter five, titled “The Seven Amazement Principles,” gives you a little bit of background on the vocabulary and key concepts you will find throughout the book.

  After that, you’re off to the races. The rest of the book—most of it in fact—is divided into five main chapters, which happen to be the five areas that Ace has focused on since 1924 to grow and sustain its business through incredibly difficult economic and competitive times. These strategic areas are leadership, culture, one-on-one customer engagements, gaining a competitive edge, and community. Within these five chapters you will find 52 Amazement Tools in the form of tactics that will help you achieve a specific amazement objective. Some of these tools may appear to be common sense—but unfortunately, common sense is not always so common. Some of them will probably confirm that what you are already doing is on the right track. Others will introduce you to new tactics that you’ll want to introduce to your organization. Some can be implemented immediately, while others will take time.

  As you start to get into the 52 tools, there are two ways to approach this book.

  Some of you will continue reading every page, in order, until you reach the last page of the book, taking notes along the way and deciding how to implement the most relevant tactics throughout.

  And others will want more immediate gratification. That’s fine. Simply leaf through part two until you find something that catches your eye. While all of the tools are important and useful, there may be one or two that stand out as particularly relevant to your organization and that you feel should get implemented immediately.

  Either way, you’re supposed to find something that you want to use…and then start using it!

  In the chapter titled “Leadership,” you’ll realize that everyone can take a leadership position and be an amazement role model. While the tactics work for those who hold management responsibilities, don’t be fooled into thinking that your title and responsibility doesn’t connect to the word “management.” When it comes to amazing your customers, everyone can be a leader.

  In the chapter titled “Culture,” you will find tactics that connect to building a strong service-driven culture. Everyone has their hand in building and sustaining a culture that delivers amazement to both customers and employees.

  In the chapter titled “One-on-One,” you will get specific tactics that you can use during real-time interactions with individual customers.

  In the chapter titled “The Competitive Edge,” you’ll learn how to take your organization far above the competition by delivering amazing customer service.

  And finally, in the chapter titled “Community,” you’ll learn about building stronger connections with all those people in the larger world with whom you live, and maybe even sell to.

  So get started. Read through the chapters in part one. Then, even if you feel compelled to read the rest of the book in its entirety, I urge you to first browse through part two. Find what’s relevant and most interesting to you and to your organization, and resolve to implement it.

  By the way, at the end of each chapter in part one, each tool in part two, and the epilogue, you will find some summary points under Your Amazement Toolbox. Feel free to quote them at your next meeting, use them as a conversation starter, or tweet them on Twitter to the rest of the world. And at the end of each of the 52 tools and the epilogue, you’ll find questions—called The Drill—to help you drill deeper into the tactics and implement them better. Make your way through the book in the sequence tha
t makes the most sense to you. Then go back to the beginning of part two to read and start implementing the rest of the strategies and tactics. It only takes one great idea to transform your business!

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE CASE FOR ACE

  * * *

  Recognized for customer service and being the most helpful stores on the planet, Ace is a perfect role model for amazement.

  WHY WRITE A BOOK about Ace Hardware?

  Well, first and foremost, let me clarify. This is actually a business book about how to Amaze Every Customer Every Time. So the question is, why choose Ace for such a book? Because I wanted to feature one company as a role model throughout, a single company that exemplifies every current best practice for customer amazement. I looked at all kinds of companies, and I realized that Ace not only fit the bill but also was uniquely positioned as the perfect company to serve as a role model.

  Why?

  Because you are Ace!

  I know that may sound like a strange claim, but read on and see whether you agree with me by the time you get to the end of this chapter.

  •••

  Let me begin by saying that I’m a lucky guy. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a living as a public speaker and consultant on the topic of customer service since the early 1980s. You may remember, depending on how old you are, this was the period when customer service was just beginning to come into vogue as an important subject for business leaders.