How to Break the Rules and Delight Customers

foreign
customer service and experience expert
today I'm going to talk about delighting
your customers a topic that I often talk
about but here's a little twist there's
a massive benefit to empowering
employees to break the rules for their
customers now what I mean by breaking
the rules is to consider what you can do
for a customer outside of the norm that
doesn't cost the company money isn't
illegal or immoral and won't hurt
business as usual in reality employees
really aren't breaking the rules they're
finding ways not to break the rules
while still taking care of the customer
now one of the concepts I cover in my
customer service keynote speech is the
idea of the Line in the Sand many
companies train their employees in what
they can't do for customers they have
rules that have little or no flexibility
while it's essential for employees to be
trained on what they shouldn't do it may
be more important to train them on what
they can do by that I mean how far
employees are allowed to go before they
absolutely have to say no I called this
the Line in the Sand concept it's
important to draw that line which is the
boundary that employees aren't allowed
to cross but at the same time teach them
what they can do to get right up to that
line for example I have a client in the
luxury automobile Market their team
travels to auto dealerships to help
dealers with demanding customers they
can't seem to please now this team
believes in the power behind saying yes
instead of no they have the authority to
refund the entire price of the car even
if it's 10 years old that's effectively
their Line in the Sand the actual Last
Resort they're allowed to take they can
get right up to that line but they can't
go past it I can't imagine what else
they could do anyway
this is a great concept and they have
never actually made it to that last
resort they have always found found
other ways to make upset and
disappointed customers happy without
getting to that line the key is training
but it isn't one session to tell
employees what to do or not to do it's
about continuously sharing stories about
what other employees are doing to meet
customers needs and demands all without
crossing the line in the sand when
employee does something right
congratulate them and share the example
with others and if they do something
wrong in other words if they cross the
line turn it into a learning opportunity
that is also shared with others
constantly sharing examples helps
employees recognize their opportunities
to Delight their customers some examples
of breaking the rules might be honoring
a warranty that expired last month or
stretching a 14-day return policy to the
15th or 16th day some retail
organizations like Nordstrom have an
easy and no question questions ask
return policy even though the employees
at Nordstrom aren't breaking the rules
the customer feels they are going above
and beyond when they're being taken care
of that's all this really is making
customers feel you are on their side
willing to be flexible and giving them
reasons to say I'll be back well I hope
you enjoyed this short lesson thank you
very much for tuning in this is Shep
hyken reminding you to always be amazing