The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty by Shaun Belding ISBN: 978-1-63393-693-5

Available September 24, 2018

By now, most of our blog followers know we read a lot of business related books. Out of the many, many books on customer service, I (David) would have to say that The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty by Shaun Belding is by far the best.

One of the strongest points Belding makes is that outstanding customer service is a moving target.  Back in the 1960s, a store would be considered to be outstanding if they had convenient parking and a clean restroom.  Those things are now expectations and not an example of outstanding customer service.

Belding takes his readers on a delightful journey (imagine an old redneck using terms like “Delightful”) with a young man who is tasked with improving his company’s customer experience.

This book reads a little like Who Moved My Cheese.  By this we mean that there is a story that, at first glance, is just a cute little story but, after a while, the reader learns that they actually learned something.

Five Star Review

We give The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty all five stars.  We wish some online booksellers would read the part where the team discusses how their customers contact them.

We were sent a complimentary advance review copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

If you would like for me to pray for you, please drop me an e-mail by clicking prayer.



Please Visit My Child Bride Suzanne's Blog

I respond to all approved comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours.  Please check back here for a response to your comment.  Thank you!

Please be advised that all the information in this course is provided to educate, enlighten, and broaden your views in life.  The information provided is not a substitute for medical, legal, dietary, financial/accounting, or religious professionals.  Always consult a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this course. 

Do you have a frugal recipe?  Please e-mail it to me.
Help us reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Please watch some of our videos. If you like them, please subscribe. Also, please share our YouTube information with your friends.  We thank you so much for all your help. 

Disclaimer: The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.

 Please be sure to consult your attorney, accountant, and/or other professionals with any specific questions. There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.

Notice: This post may  contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction. Thank you for your support!

The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty by Shaun Belding ISBN: 978-1-63393-693-5 Available September 24, 2018

Available September 24, 2018

By now, most of our blog followers know we read a lot of business related books. Out of the many, many books on customer service, I (David) would have to say that The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty by Shaun Belding is by far the best.

One of the strongest points Belding makes is that outstanding customer service is a moving target.  Back in the 1960s, a store would be considered to be outstanding if they had convenient parking and a clean restroom.  Those things are now expectations and not an example of outstanding customer service.

Belding takes his readers on a delightful journey (imagine an old redneck using terms like “Delightful”) with a young man who is tasked with improving his company’s customer experience.

This book reads a little like Who Moved My Cheese.  By this we mean that there is a story that, at first glance, is just a cute little story but, after a while, the reader learns that they actually learned something.

Five Star Review

We give The Journey to WOW: The Path to Outstanding Customer Experience and Loyalty all five stars.  We wish some online booksellers would read the part where the team discusses how their customers contact them.

We were sent a complimentary advance review copy of this book.  We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Notice: This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

If you would like for me to pray for you, please drop me an e-mail by clicking prayer.



Please Visit My Child Bride Suzanne's Blog

I respond to all approved comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours.  Please check back here for a response to your comment.  Thank you!

Please be advised that all the information in this course is provided to educate, enlighten, and broaden your views in life.  The information provided is not a substitute for medical, legal, dietary, financial/accounting, or religious professionals.  Always consult a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this course. 

Do you have a frugal recipe?  Please e-mail it to me.
Help us reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Please watch some of our videos. If you like them, please subscribe. Also, please share our YouTube information with your friends.  We thank you so much for all your help. 

Disclaimer: The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.

 Please be sure to consult your attorney, accountant, and/or other professionals with any specific questions. There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.

Notice: This post may  contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction. Thank you for your support!

How to Provide Great Customer Service Part Seven

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Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. A key element in providing great customer service is to treat every customer who comes in the store as if they are Norm Peterson walking into Cheers on that old sitcom. All employees must treat the customer as if they are happy to see them. One key to this is to hire employees who really are happy to see the customer when they walk in the door.

All stores have regular customers. Whenever possible, employees should make the effort to learn those regular customers’ names. Even if the name isn’t known, all customers should be greeted with a cheerful hello. In fact, all customers should be treated as if they are a regular customer.

I have had places that I went out of my way to shop at in my life. Many people do just that. The reason I went out of my way wasn’t superior prices or a great location. I shopped at these places because the employees were friendly and helpful.

Joe Girard, the greatest salesman in the world according to Guinness Book of World Records, tells us that everyone influences the purchases of approximately 250 people. If you alienate one customer, you are potentially alienating approximately 250 people. It is highly likely that, if you provide bad customer service to a customer, they will tell approximately 250 people about their bad experience. However, unless the service provided is way above and beyond normal, it is highly unlikely that a person will tell anyone about good service they receive. All employees should seek to provide service that will inspire everyone they come in contact with to tell their 250 people about the great experience that they had.


Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises

How to Provide Great Customer Service Part Six

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One very important key to providing great customer service is to support the front-line employees. In a very real sense, retail is like a battlefield. The line-level employees are like the front lines on a battlefield. Everyone else in the company is in support. It is the job of the behind-the-lines personnel to see to it that line-level employees have what they need to do their jobs. The technology must be in place to handle what the line-level employee needs to do to serve the customer. Management must be available to step in and answer questions when unusual situations occur. Maintenance must be available to fix anything that goes wrong during the day-to-day operations of the store.

All employees must be treated fairly, paid well, given respect, and trained to do their jobs. The supplies to do the job must be available to the line-level employee. And, finally, the bosses should be seen often on the front lines.




Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises

How to Provide Great Customer Service, Part Five

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Part four of this dealt with the occasional situations where the customer is clearly wrong. In all other cases, the customer should be treated as if they are always right. There are times when store policy says that items can’t be refunded. Sometimes this puts the customer in a losing situation. It is times like these when employees should be empowered to take care of the customer’s needs even when it is clearly not the store’s policy to do so. One situation that comes to mind is when I purchased a battery for a cell phone. The battery was the wrong one for the cell phone. Store policy said that I could get a refund or exchange within thirty days if I had my receipt. Well, I had my receipt but could not get back to the store during their limited opening hours. About forty –five days after my purchase I went back to the store with my receipt. It was the store’s fault that they had sold me the wrong battery. The store’s limited hours prevented me from being able to return the battery. I tried to return the battery and was told “no refund.” The store won because they got to keep my $30. Now, I only shop at that store if there is no alternative for finding what I need in my small town. The customer is always right.

Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises

How to Provide Great Customer Service, Part Four

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The customer is always right, until the customer is wrong. The customer is always right. This saying has been attributed to Marshall Field, J.C. Penny, and Harry Gordon Selfridge. No matter who said it, the idea is the same. Marshall Field is also quoted as saying, “Right or wrong, the customer is always right.” This too is true, up to a point. Whenever possible the customer should be treated as if they are, in fact, right. But there is a time when the customer is wrong.  Sometimes a customer makes such an outlandish demand that it is abusive. When a customer clearly abuses an employee, then the customer is clearly wrong. In that instance, management should step in. Remove the employee from the situation. Refund the customer whatever money has been paid, if any. Then, the manager should tell the customer: “I am sorry you have received bad service here. I hope you will be able to find a store that can better serve your needs.”

When a customer clearly is in the wrong, there are times when it is still appropriate to help the customer out. However, when a customer is clearly abusing the store, then the store does not need that customer. We have all seen the sit-coms where a person buys an expensive article of clothing, keeps the tags and the receipts and then returns it after wearing it to a big event. Clearly the store does not need this customer. They aren’t making anything off of this customer and it drives up the price that other customers have to pay to cover the overhead of damaged or soiled goods.

How to Provide Great Customer Service, Part Three

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It is January 24th. Today is my father's 77th birthday. He was my mentor. He is the person who got me interested in studying business. I learned a great deal from him. Happy Birthday Papa!  Hiring is key. In any organization it is important that only the right employees are hired for the job. The company must hire only employees who believe that customer service is important. They have to believe that the customer has to come first. Once the right employee is hired, they must be trained and then over-trained. Every employee should be able to provide not only the basic level of service for their customer, but an even higher level of service. Cashiers should be able to provide fast, friendly check out and, at the same time, carry on a polite conversation. There is a fine line between a polite conversation and rambling while other customers wait. If a cashier does not know their job, then problems arise and customers have to wait. When a customer feels like a cashier has made a mistake, nothing else is important.

In retail stores the cashiers, stockers, porters, baggers, customer service representatives, and even janitors are line-level employees. All line-level employees should be trained to handle all line-level duties. This is essential in organizations that operate lean. If a customer sees a janitor on the sales floor, they expect them to be able to assist them. When a rush comes, stockers can open registers; janitors can wash their hands, and then start bagging. Once the rush has cleared, everyone can return to their normal functions.

Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises

How to Provide Great Customer Service, Part Two

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Great customer service starts at the top of the organization. Each level of management has to believe that the customer is key to the business. Each level has to not only support the level immediately below it, but to also support the front line employee completely. In order to provide great customer service, an organization has to have as few levels of management as possible. This allows an immediate flow of communication from the top down and, more importantly, from the bottom up.

Everyone in the organization, from the president to the janitor, has to know that the number one function of their job is “customer satisfaction.” Everyone must understand that their job is to support the line-level employees and to provide great customer service.



Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises

How to Provide Great Customer Service, Part One

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Customer service is the cornerstone for any business. If you have all the other fundamentals right, but you drop the ball on customer service, you don’t have a business at all, at least not for long. What is great customer service and why is it important? Great customer service is when a customer feels so overwhelmed by the service that they never think of shopping elsewhere. There is a story about what happened one day when Marshall Field was walking through his department store of the same name. It is told that he overheard an employee disagreeing with a female customer.

As the story goes, what the woman was asking for was completely out of the ordinary and not in keeping with normal store policy. Mr. Field is quoted as saying “Give the lady what she wants.” That quote became a part of the store legend and was used as an example of how to interact with customers. Marshal Field’s had the reputation of providing excellent customer service.

When customers are not only satisfied, but have had more than their expectations met and leave saying “Wow!,” then you can expect them to return.

Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises

Customer Service

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Back in the early part of the twentieth century the general store was not only the place to buy everything one needed, it was also the social center of the community. A person might pop in to see “Mom and Pop” even if they didn’t need to make a purchase. Times were simple then. Customer service was just a way of life. In today’s modern times customer service has become a thing of a long forgotten era. We find that people go where they can get the best price because the economy has forced them to do so. The 500 pound gorilla has beaten up on customers, local businesses, and even their vendors all in the name of allegedly providing their customers what they need at the lowest price every day. But what has the customer given up?

Our gorilla store has all but eliminated customer service in the name of saving a few cents. In almost all of these gorilla stores you may find one or two outstanding employees who bend over backwards to provide outstanding customer service. 

The majority of the employees, though, could not care any less about their customers. I have stood in one of the few open check-out lines at the gorilla store waiting while my cashier was engaged in a personal conversation with a fellow employee. What the gorilla has forgotten is that, when customers can afford to choose service over price, they often do. 

As the economy improves, we will see the trend move away from the gorilla and his chimpanzee dollar-priced store cousins and towards those businesses that provide good quality merchandise at a reasonable price with outstanding service. It is time now to lay the groundwork for providing that service.

In the next few blogs we will discuss what customer service is and how providing great customer service does not cost the company at all. Even in a down economy great customer service will make money. A workman is only as good as his tools. A company must choose the right tools and the right workman to make the best use of those tools.

Disclaimer
The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Please Visit McClendon Enterprises