or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Good CX
As I’ve grown older (but not up, and Mr. Buffet likes to say), I find myself saying many of the things I swore to myself I’d never say. More sentences than I’d rather begin with, “Kids these days…”, and I found myself starting a sentence just like that a few weeks ago. As the high school homecoming season loomed, my wife and I asked our sophomore son for some of the details. To no avail, naturally, he being 15 and fully owning his teenageriness. Once we were in contact with his date’s parents, details came flooding our way – when to be where for the photo shoot, the dinner entrée options available, and the dress color. The latter of which his tie MUST match. On learning this hard and fast requirement, I heard myself saying, “Kids these days! They have no idea how good we had it!” For my first homecoming I borrowed my father’s suit, tie, and a pair of dress shoes. I went with what I had available to me, and there was no thought at all of intentionally trying to match my date’s “color palette” (sorry, Theresa, wherever you are!).
Armed with my smartphone’s browser and a credit card, off I went to my go-to tie purveyor’s site, Beau Ties, Ltd. As you might guess, they specialize in bow ties and an amazing range of scarves, accessories, and yes, even standard ties. I’ve been a customer since very my first trip on the road as a newly minted college admission counselor. I returned from one leg of the 8-week long road trip around Virginia complaining within earshot of our neighbor Bill about how expensive it was to get silk ties dry cleaned after spilling coffee on them (which I did with some frequency back then, the combination of then-poorly maintained secondary roads in southside Virginia and gas station coffee yielding several sartorial disasters). Bill ducked inside his house, returning a few minutes later with his copy of the latest Beau Ties catalog, thus creating a lifelong fan. Fandom cemented by what happened next.
When I opened the package from Beau Ties Middlebury, Vermont HQ, I found two items in the package I did not order – a pair of patterned socks matching my son’s tie color perfectly, and a handwritten note. The note was warm and kind, thanking me for my many years of patronage, and explaining the socks as a gift for the same. And did I mention that even though I only selected standard shipping, this unexpected boon arrived THE NEXT DAY? Beau Ties had gone ahead and upgraded my shipping to make sure the tie arrived in plenty of time for homecoming.
Some things are so obvious that sometimes we stop seeing them. I think this recent experience is a prime example of this, in that Beau Ties exemplifies CX best practices we are all striving to internalize and deploy across our teams:
- Deliver quality – in this case as in every other purchase I’ve made, the tie received is beautiful, well-crafted, and exactly as described. Attention to detail, consistent service levels, and well-trained and coached teams are the essential elements in this regard.
- Make it about the customer – a handwritten note of thanks for my custom from the seamstress who finished my son’s tie reinforced the loyalty I feel, not just for their products, but for their team. I am rooting for them to succeed and grow! Building your customer personas and then revisiting them as you explore how and where you interact with real customers through interviews with front-line staff and role-playing customer interactions is a great way to keep your customer at the center of your business.
- And then “Plus-One” – just like Blanchard and Bowles advocate in Raving Fans, Beau Ties did me one better by upgrading my shipping to next-day and adding in that pair of socks, without calling it out or tooting their own horn. “Plus-Oneing” doesn’t need to come in the form of a gift, and can be as simple as explaining the next one or two steps to a customer or guiding a visitor to their meeting location instead of providing directions.
Sometimes the basics are worth revisiting because when you perform them consistently you create the framework for a far more effective (and profitable!) customer experience. How are you leveraging the basics? Let me know in the comments.