In today’s times there is not much more important than giving your best customers a little bit extra to keep them coming back for more. But many companies struggle with how to add value to products and services in a meaningful way.
This week I got my weekly cornucopia of wonderful, cool and inspiring ideas in the form of the Springwise newsletter and inside it was a great example of service to make you smile – and from a big hotel, no less.
Top marks go to Hyatt for their ‘random acts of kindness’ program, which empowers employees to treat premium customers by picking up the tab for dinner or drinks, or give room upgrades and other complimentary services like spa treatments.
Because the treats are not promoted or planned, the customer delight is magnified by being unexpected, and all the more likely to become something the delighted customer will talk about to friends – and that’s the kind of advertising you can’t buy.
Now this is hardly a new idea, credit card companies and others have all used it. What surprises me is how many companies don’t use it.
Knock a few hours off a service invoice; give a free month; add an upgrade gratis; send a note with a couple of movie passes saying “thanks so much”.
You don’t have to be a hotel to be able to delight customers.
On the complete flipside there is one local telecommunications company that seems to go out of its way to generate ill will. In the last week alone I have heard three customer service nightmare stories courtesy of Telstra – three in one week! Multiply that by the number of customers and the mind boggles at how many truly un-delighted people are out there.
In one case that totally floored me, the person had been trying to get their home phone switched to their name after the death of a spouse last year. Eight months and three disconnections later, it still hasn’t happened!
I know that Telstra is not alone in its ability to drive their customers to wits end, (though they do seem to have a special talent for it). And I am not even saying that every customer is right all the time, or that they should all be treated as special (there are plenty of customerzilla‘s out there).
However, in today’s business climate where loyal customers can seem like an endangered species, it can’t hurt to think about ways to make your best customers feel good about you (oh, and please, please do everything you can to avoid ‘Telstra syndrome’).
See you next week.
Michel is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognize who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
