Latest / Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders / 247: What Makes Customers Stay Loyal and Come Back

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247: What Makes Customers Stay Loyal and Come Back · Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders

0:46
Let me start with something a little uncomfortable.
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There's one factor that determines whether your customers stay loyal to your company or quietly start looking somewhere else.
0:56
And the surprising part, most companies don't even realize they're failing at it.
1:00
We'll get into that in a few minutes, but first let's talk about something interesting.
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Think about one brand you would actually miss if it disappeared tomorrow.
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Not just mildly inconvenient, I mean genuinely miss.
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For some people it's Amazon, for others it's
1:15
maybe it's Chick-fil-A, maybe it's your favorite local restaurant or coffee shop.
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These companies aren't just businesses.
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They're brands customers feel attached to.
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So the question is, how do companies become that brand?
1:27
Welcome back to the Customer Service Revolution podcast.
1:30
I'm Denise Thompson and I'm here with John DiJulius John, I was actually thinking about this topic when I was out of the country last week.
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After days of drinking the strongest espresso
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I've ever encountered, I stumbled upon a Starbucks.
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And I was elated as I gave them my embarrassingly complicated order and I caught myself thinking about this.
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If Starbucks disappeared tomorrow, I'd actually be upset, not just inconvenienced, and it's not because they have the best coffee.
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So here's our topic this week.
2:00
What makes a company the brand customers can't live without?
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Have you heard the expression, how long your Starbucks order is, is how big of a diva you are?
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Now I'm wondering if mine is longer than yours or not.
2:14
Was that a question?
2:15
Yeah, what is it that makes a company the brand customers can't live without?
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you know, there's six things we have found.
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You want me to list them?
2:24
Yeah, go ahead.
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All right, a great service or product, a service being, if you sell, not customer service, consulting service, hair services, dry cleaning services.
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Number two, consistency.
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Number three, ease of doing business.
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Number four, employee evangelism.
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Number five, they educate versus sell.
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And number six, the personalization of the experience.
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Great, and we're gonna get into each one of these today.
2:52
John, we ask companies what they can't live without, what brands mean the most to them.
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The same ones always come up.
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It's Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A.
3:01
But those companies all operate in extremely competitive industries.
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So what do they understand about customer experience that most companies still miss?
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I think it's really, they're very strong in those six areas and they're constantly focused on it and obsessed with it and starts at the top as we always say and permeates into every
3:26
part of their business internally, externally, how they hire, the culture is all built around the customer experience.
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John often reference the fortunes.
3:38
Yeah, Starbucks, Amazon is one of mine for sure.
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They just make it so easy.
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Even when I, you know, want to boycott them for something, they just make it too easy.
3:48
yeah, mine are Apple, Starbucks, Heinen's, a local grocery store in Cleveland, which is probably the most expensive, but they're just great.
4:02
And their employees are so friendly besides, know, and then, I don't if I said Amazon and the Cleveland Guardians.
4:09
Yeah.
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Love that.
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Love their opening day's coming up.
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um You know, you bring up Heinen's being the most expensive and friendly customers.
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And there was a Heinen's by me that I shop at occasionally.
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And when you go into the store, I think there are more employees than there are customers sometimes.
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There was always someone there to help with anything that you need.
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And yeah, they approach you.
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Yeah, they're fantastic.
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Great organization.
4:34
The other ones I hear, always the same ones you mentioned, Chick-fil-A, Target, a lot of people say, some say Costco.
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Yeah, know, Amax is a good one.
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You don't hear a lot of B2B, but that's just because of the nature of their business and most B2B aren't household.
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names that you know, but you'd like to, I believe a B2B has, you know, has the same ability to become a brand, their businesses can't live without.
5:03
And that's where we talk about being a business partner you can't live without, right?
5:08
And what that looks like.
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love that.
5:11
John, you often reference Fortune's most admired companies list when you talk about world class organizations.
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When you look at the companies on that list, what patterns do you see in how they treat customers?
5:24
You know, again, it's that list of six that we're going to get into and which probably subscribes to number four, employee evangelism.
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They're usually very similar lists to the best companies to work for.
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and we say it all the time, EX equals CX, employee experience equals customer experience, gets felt on the inside will get delivered on the outside.
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If we had to consult with Spirit Airlines, you couldn't start with their customer experience, you'd have to start with the internal.
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You just know.
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they're not doing a great job of hiring and the employees do not seem happy at all there.
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It would just have to start internally.
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And I'm not saying they don't necessarily hire the right employees.
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That obviously could be it, but their employees aren't happy working there and they take it out on the customers.
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There are probably a lot of airlines we could talk about with this.
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When people are loyal only because of the points or, you know.
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fly?
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Because it's something that we own in the US, bad airlines.
6:31
A lot of European and international airlines are great or superior to our big three, or I guess five, our big five.
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Yeah, and you know, being where we're based in Cleveland, for me, it often comes down to convenience.
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So I flew United and.
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you didn't fly out.
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You didn't have a connection with a
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I had a connection in Newark.
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um
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a European airlines, yeah.
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United had the shortest duration flight time and that's what I often go for because we don't have a strong option not being a hub.
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Have you flown different airlines like from other countries?
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Like I've flown Qatar, I've flown, I think it's Asian Air.
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God, I can't remember all of them, but it's just night and day.
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Like, you know, I don't know why they can figure it out, but we can't figure it out.
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I don't know that either, but I wish we would.
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heavens, I wish we would.
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Well, we started working with an airport.
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Maybe airlines will be, um looks for us.
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Yeah, yeah.
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St.
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Martin Airport.
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Yeah, yeah.
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All right.
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All right, so let's get right into this.
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Let's start talking about driver number one, which is great product and service.
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Let me challenge something that a lot of companies believe.
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Almost every leadership team says we have a great product.
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But customers leave companies with great products every day.
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Why isn't having a great product enough anymore?
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Well, I mean, it's, I don't know if anyone has a product that has no, you know, contemporaries.
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I'm loyal to my Apple products, but when I meet people that have Samsungs or Galaxies or whatever they are, they think they're it.
8:30
They would never switch, or a Dell, or a PC versus an Apple.
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Starbucks doesn't win a lot of taste tests and contests.
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So no matter what you're in,
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accounting, legal, know, any product, retail, I think your top five, if not 10 % competitors are equal.
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and no one has a trademark, I can't tell the difference between an Uber app and a Lyft.
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And the experience seems to be the exact same.
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Love it or hate it, it's the exact same.
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So yeah, you better have a great product or be the cheapest.
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And I heard a great quote over the weekend, or I read a great quote that
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Your competitors that have their prices less than yours is not your threat.
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It's the ones that charge more than you is who you should be worried about.
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I love that.
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It goes with ours, making price irrelevant.
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Yeah, I like that.
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So is it fair to say then that today a great product is really just the price of admission, the real differentiation happens somewhere else?
9:39
yeah.
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Yeah, because again, whenever I say, the accountant that saved me $25,000 on some tax loophole last year, I'm pretty sure any accountant I would go to, and I wanna make sure
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I'm clear with that, I wouldn't go to any accountant out there, right?
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I would shop, ask people I know, trust, and probably shut, you know,
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look at higher, the top accountant in Northeast Ohio, in that top 5%.
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And I'm sure the top 50 % would know that same tax.
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Maybe all 100 % would know that same tax loophole.
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So by itself, financial brilliance is not a differentiator.
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All right, driver number two is consistency.
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And really, this might be the most overlooked driver on the entire list.
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Companies often try to create big wow moments, you know, big things that maybe can't be replicated easily.
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But customers actually fall in love with companies that deliver a great experience predictably.
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So why is consistency such a powerful trust factor?
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Certainty, right?
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Peace of mind.
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You know what you're going to get when you go into a Starbucks.
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You know what you're going to get when you go into a McDonald's.
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Love or hate McDonald's, the one thing that they've mastered is consistency.
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And you could be blindfolded and, you know, go into any McDonald's probably in the world and the hamburger and french fries are going to taste the same.
11:07
Maybe their new hamburger that the CEO, you saw that?
11:12
You haven't seen that?
11:14
my god, that's all over the internet.
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The CEO took a bite of their new hamburger and he barely bit any and didn't look like he was excited.
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So now Burger King, every...
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every competitor has come out and done a meme and, but anyway.
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And so a good exercise for our listeners to do is when we do this exercise with our clients and workshops, we have them rank their strengths, strongest of the six to the
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weakest.
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And consistency is usually the number one.
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opportunity for them to get better.
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So that's where we get into employee roulette, department roulette, location roulette, and there's so many things that go with that from are you fast tracking your new employees?
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Are you putting them through the training?
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Are you just throwing them out there?
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Are you reminding them, Toma, top of mind awareness, to holding them accountable?
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To all those things that you could, people like certainty and they'll
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even take an average experience that they can trust every time, then one that hits it out of the park one time, but the next time it's really disappointing, you know, and not even
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having expectations too high.
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We like certainty.
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I always use that as my elevator pitch for The DiJulius Group When someone says, what does The DiJulius Group do?
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I say, you know how you can walk into a Starbucks anywhere in the world and get the same experience?
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That's what we do for companies.
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So when companies struggle with consistency, is it usually a people problem or more of a systems problem?
12:56
I think it's both, but I always take the, I think it's more systems.
13:00
I think it's more training.
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I think it's what we call creating the signature experience, which is the journey mapping and having non-negotiables at every stage and making sure the employee's trained,
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educated, being brilliant at the basics, not putting an employee out there before they're ready.
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That's not fair to the employee.
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It's not fair to the customer.
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It's not fair to the brand because obviously a new employee, untrained, an unproperly trained employee is going to give less than the experience that you've promised, you brag
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about, you market, and that the customer, client, guest, patient has received in the past.
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you're ripping them off unless you're giving them a discount because I'm dealing with a newer employee who doesn't know as much as the regular employee.
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And I've never heard of anybody giving a discount unless the customer screamed and that goes to being zero risk.
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When something goes wrong, is that employee trained to recover properly or just act like a deer in headlights?
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And again, I'm not blaming the employee.
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The employee is not...
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typically prepared, they're put out there because we're short staffed.
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Someone called in sick and they were supposed to finish their training, but we're going to finish that training next week and next week never comes.
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Consistency, big one.
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Number three is the ease of doing business.
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Customers today have almost no patience for friction.
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Companies like Amazon, Zappos, Nordstrom have built massive loyalty simply by making things easier.
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So what are some ways that companies accidentally make it harder for customers to do business with them?
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Well, I think Amazon is the poster child for ease of doing business.
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What I've heard, read that they, I know if they say, or the reputation is said that they sell time.
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And so they say the average Amazon customer, and I don't know where we fall on that.
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I'm a good customer, Saves 75 hours a year.
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by using Amazon, that's three days.
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If you think about that, that in the olden days, I'd have a list of errands I have to run and I have to go to Home Depot and stop here and stop here and stop here and drive in
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traffic, rush hour, find parking, go into a warehouse, hope to find an employee that'll point me to aisle 27, all that.
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No, I don't have to do any of that.
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I just go on Amazon.
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So everything of ease of do.
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You don't ever have to type in your information again.
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You don't have to type in your credit card, your preferred address, you know, all those things.
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It remembers your history so you can reorder.
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And a lot of good companies.
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I order a lot from Walmart online.
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I'm not, I won't go to Walmart in the store, but I'll go in line.
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And their online shopping experience or app
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is as good as Amazon.
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They've replicated it.
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So I just go to my items and just reorder everything and I'll get it in three hours, which is really cool.
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So it's just the comfortability of not having to, one click, right?
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You just bypass all those things that used to take 10 minutes to do.
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Amazon, also think one of the best things about them is their returns.
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They make it so easy to return something as well.
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And Nordstrom is another one.
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Their return policy is fascinating.
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You can bring something back months later, no receipt, no interrogation.
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Most companies would hear that and think it sounds risky.
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Why does that approach actually build more trust with customers?
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Well, because I want to shop with zero risk companies.
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And the reason why I want to shop with zero risk companies is because sometimes it doesn't fit or, you know.
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I don't like it when I get home or whatever it is and maybe I didn't save the receipt.
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Maybe it was a gift.
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Maybe I don't have to worry about, shoot, did I buy this at the end of March and it's May 1st?
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my God, it succeeded 30 days.
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now I have to eat it.
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I have a great story I've probably shared before.
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bought, years ago in August, I bought a digital viewer where you put all your digital photos on.
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uh
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I can't remember why I needed it.
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I think one of my kids was going off to college and I think I was buying it for their dorm.
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But I bought two because I thought this would be a great gift for Grandma Joyce at Christmas.
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But I never opened the second one.
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I bought it in August.
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I never opened the second one until like middle of December when I wanted to load it for Grandma Joyce and because she wouldn't be able to do that.
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And it wouldn't go on.
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And so I was just like, I'm screwed.
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It's been four months, I'm way past the window.
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But for whatever reason, I bought it on Amazon and I said, let me try because they're so good, but I totally wouldn't have fought them or thought less of them if they said, yeah,
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well, you've gone too far.
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And they were like,
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we're gonna send you another one, keep the one you have, maybe go to Radio Shack or a place like that to see if it's the cord.
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I couldn't believe it, right?
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So it kind of goes back to, don't punish 98 % of your customers for what you're afraid 2%.
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I've never, I think Amazon's done well with me.
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over the course of time and I'm not thinking about how I can get something for free and I could do this every time.
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We always teach, if you wouldn't do it, why do think your customers should do that?
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You know, it reminds me of a question that you ask leaders that can be a little uncomfortable.
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Are your policies designed for your company's protection or for your customers' convenience?
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Why do so many organizations get that backwards?
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Yeah, yeah, because it's easier for the business.
19:31
we're working with a hotel property now and they, one of their drawbacks is they only use your room number.
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So when you check in, when you go to reservations, when you go to the spa, I went to the spa while I was there and I'm like, you know, when I walked in, they wanted to know if I
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wanted reservation.
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I said, no, I have it for now, 11 a.m., D.
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Julius, D.I.
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She cuts me off, room number.
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And they do that everywhere.
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They don't use your name.
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and like it just drives me crazy.
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if you, you know, so, it's somehow it was easier for them and maybe they were screwing up your name if it was complicated.
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Starbucks got into that years ago when we were working with them.
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in in the late 2000s, they got, they actually got away from writing names on cups because
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There's complicated names, you know, not everyone's John, Bill, Denise, or the last name.
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And so, you know, now they've gone back to it.
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You know, and it might take an extra step.
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Can you spell that?
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Whatever.
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And yeah, there are times when they misspell a name.
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Maybe Denise is spelled, what is the one, D-E-N-Y?
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What's the, there's versions of Denise.
20:51
Yeah.
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You know, and you're gonna have that, but over the long haul, when you use someone's name, you're gonna remember it, right, versus 7526 or whatever it may be, yeah.
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So I mean, if they go by your room number and they're saying 7526, when you give that, do they say, John?
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Do they at least address you by your name then?
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never tie it to the name.
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Now, I mean, we're working and we're changing that because obviously, you're not gonna see me tomorrow walking by and say, hey, 7526, and you're not getting to know the guest on
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property for that week or two weeks they're there.
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And it's so impersonal.
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But it was easier for the company to do it that way.
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That's, you know, and but it's not a great experience.
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All
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These little things make a difference standing in your customer's shoes.
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Before we get to driver four, I want to pause for a second because what we've talked about so far really highlights something that we see with leaders all the time.
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Many executives understand these ideas conceptually, but the real challenge becomes how do you actually implement them in your organization?
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And John, know that's exactly why you created the Customer Experience Executive Academy.
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Can you explain what leaders
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experience when they attend the Academy?
22:17
Yeah, it's a master's degree equivalent to a master's degree in customer experience.
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The reason why we started it is because the chief experience officer and chief customer officer in similar titles was the fastest growing position in corporate America, yet
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there's no undergraduate or master's degree anywhere.
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like there is for a CFO, a sales and marketing.
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All your top C-suite positions have degrees in formal education, but the customer experience didn't.
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So we created it and it's just for them to come and learn our methodology, which is what we've codified that the best companies in the world use.
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And they can go back and champion their customer experience and all.
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facets of their business.
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I love that they actually walk away with the methodology to be able to deliver consistent experiences.
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Who typically attends the academy?
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leaders and rising future leaders.
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the best thing is the relationships they build with the other attendees from different organizations that become their board of advisors and they stay in touch and all that.
23:34
So it's really cool and you just have such bizarre opposite
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brands in the room, B2B, manufacturing, government, you know, all these different types.
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We've had police departments, we've had cats, what is cats?
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Charlotte Transit.
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And then we have hospitality and we have law firms and they all can't believe how similar their business models are.
24:00
Trying to make customers happy, trying to get team members to buy in and train them and reduce and put out fires and it's all the same at the end of the day.
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Yeah, and I love to see the relationships that the cohorts develop over that time.
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And yeah, they do continue on with each other long after the class is over.
24:21
uh
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class.
24:24
Yeah, it meets quarterly in Cleveland for two and a half days each quarter.
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And in that amount of time, they really get to know each other and each other's businesses.
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really help each other grow.
24:36
Listeners, if you want to learn more about the Customer Experience Executive Academy, you can visit thedajuliusgroup.com, look under training and events, or schedule a call at
24:46
tdg.clickforward slash call.
24:50
All right, John, let's jump back into the list now.
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Number four, employee evangelists.
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Driver number four is employee evangelists.
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And at the end of the day, as you said it, customer experience is delivered by people.
25:03
So what's
25:03
separates employees who simply do their job from employees who truly advocate for the brand.
25:09
Yeah, so there's three things.
25:12
Like when you go into an Apple and you speak to a Genius or you go into a Lululemon and speak to someone that works there, any of these companies, these types of brands, they
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love their industry.
25:26
Like they geek out on...
25:28
technology which is good or they take geek out on the know lululemon where you know they're fit they're into training and they're into you know the product.
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And so they love their industry and they're so proud of the brand.
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and what the brand stands for and the why and the purpose and how they see the part that they play in changing people's lives and all that.
25:56
And they like who they do it with and for being the customers, guests, clients, and each other.
26:02
So you just feel this vibe when you go in there.
26:06
It's like, know, whoa, whoa, whoa, like in a good way of like how excited, enthusiastic they are that they wanna share with you.
26:14
It's I just shopped at Lulu Lemon recently and yeah, it's great the way that people talk about the products and I have this and they get very excited about it and they're, they
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know what they're doing and they let you bring as many things in the dressing room as you want.
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That little thing I love.
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But do you know how they do that?
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All the times I've been in there, they'll ask you your name and they have a chalkboard and they'll put Denise 8.
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And it's a polite way of letting you know we know how many you're supposed to come back out with, but you don't take it as that and they don't restrict you with, I'm sorry,
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you're only allowed to have three and you're have to do this.
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three different times, which you know, you're gonna say, screw that, I gotta get outta here.
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But you know what you notice more is they put your name and they'll say, hey, John, do you need help with anything else?
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They're not putting tag number three on there and, know, yeah.
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I love that because you're right, because I love this shirt, but it's a little too snug.
27:15
So, hey John, yeah, can you see if you can get this in a large or maybe it's an extra large, depending on what I ate that week.
27:23
And you know what?
27:23
I have that one, but not in the color that you want, but I can ship it to you.
27:27
They make it easy.
27:28
Yeah.
27:28
What role does leadership play in creating that kind of culture where employees believe in the brand enough to talk about it with pride?
27:36
Yeah, it's a storytelling.
27:38
It's the why.
27:39
I think we get away from the why.
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You know, why this company exists.
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What wrong are we trying to make right?
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in the world today, in our industry, whatever that may be, and how to tie the employees' role into that, and the impact it can make, and how that makes the customer's lives
28:01
better, easier, different.
28:04
And that isn't a one-time new employee orientation thing.
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It's a constant reminder of tying stories in to the impact that employees are having.
28:16
Number five, educate instead of sell.
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So this one might challenge a lot of companies.
28:22
Most organizations still train employees to sell products.
28:26
Why is educating customers far more powerful?
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And they tie in, right?
28:32
When you educate me, I realize that you're not only a brand evangelist, but an industry evangelist, right?
28:40
It's like, wow, she's wicked smart.
28:43
I've never come across a person selling furniture, doing physical therapy, doing that is so knowledgeable about what they do and how it applies to me.
28:56
I always say,
28:58
Expertise is demonstrated in the questions you ask, not in the answers you give.
29:03
So when they ask you really good questions that no one's ever asked you before, and you feel like you could almost sell the product after speaking to them, like, God, they taught
29:13
you so many different things.
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And sometimes, and this has happened, and hopefully we do it too, when they find out what you want,
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But maybe you thought you wanted, I'm sorry, what you need, not what you want.
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Because what you want, you don't know.
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You think you need a new computer.
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You think you need consulting services.
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You think this, you're calling, let me ask you these questions.
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And you find out the underlying issue, and you realize that's not what they need right now.
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Something else that could be taking a bigger deal.
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sale off the table, but it's not in the best interest of them.
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Then you got a lifetime customer.
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Then they trust you.
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Then when you do recommend a bigger ticket item in the future, they're going to trust you.
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And it's not just about, know, do you want fries with that burger or, you know, super size and just trying to build the ticket.
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You have a story from the Apple Store that I think demonstrates this perfectly.
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Can you share what happened?
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Yeah, so I'm a technology FOMO.
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I need the latest and greatest because I'm just so worried that there's a bell or a whistle out that I don't have, which is a problem.
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So this is back in a day, maybe one of the first...
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earlier versions of the iPad.
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I might have had the original iPad and I heard the iPad 2 came out and I'm like, my God, I gotta get it.
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You know, and so I walked in and spoke to if they're called geniuses or whatever they're called and it was going to be an easy sale.
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You know, I want the iPad 2.
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I have the iPad.
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I want the iPad 2.
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All I had to do is it's a young guy, you know, in his early 20s.
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All I had to do get the box, take my credit card, quick transaction.
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I'd be out of there.
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But he asked what I use my iPad currently for.
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And I'm like everything.
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And he says, what can you be more specific?
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I said, I use it.
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You know, I read books.
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and articles and social media and email, you know, list all the things I do on it.
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And he said, do you watch videos?
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I said, no, not on my iPad.
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He goes, do you play video games?
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And I'm like, you know, no, I'm an old guy here.
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I don't play video games.
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And he says, forget about it.
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I'm like, what?
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And he says, the only difference between the iPad that, you know, that just came out and the one you have is the graphic design card, which is exceptional if you watch videos and
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you play video games.
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But since you don't, there's no reason you should get it.
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And I couldn't believe it.
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I was like, come on, sell me a video game.
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I wanted it, but it was great.
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He talked me out of it, but I have purchased from him the MacBook Pro 17 inch that was $5,000 because...
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you know, he told me that for what I do for a living, would be, you know, maxed out, that's what I needed.
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And I was, you know, happy to get it.
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So he got my business long term by educating me versus just selling me what I thought I needed.
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I'd love that he actually talked to you out of spending money.
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Most salespeople would never do that.
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And I think it's the right decision, as you said, it built that long-term trust and the sales have become much greater because of it.
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Where if you had gone home with that iPad that was no different, would you have been like, what the heck?
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you know, I'd have buyer's remorse and being like, I can't believe I just spent $1,200 and I can't tell, you know, anything different, you know, that's benefiting me.
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Yeah, I'm sure your boys were disappointed.
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One of them didn't get the hand-me-down, but...
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Right, right.
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Driver six is personalized experiences.
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And this brings it right back to my Starbucks story.
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One reason people love Starbucks is because the experience feels personal.
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Your drink, your preference, your name.
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Why does personalization create such a strong emotional connection with customers?
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Well, it goes back to, I a room number or a name?
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if you think about, I've often questioned the logic behind Starbucks, that there is over 100,000 different ways you can order your Starbucks.
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You have your order, I have mine.
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But that has to hurt productivity.
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I mean, if they just had four ways you could get your coffee, know, different, know, skim milk, know, oat milk, whatever, whole milk, and that's it.
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And they didn't allow you to come in with this list of, you know, 12 things that you put in your Starbucks order.
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I think it's worked out pretty well for them because you have your Starbucks that you might not be able to get that drink at their competitor's place.
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And you're passionate about your little thing.
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So it's using your name.
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It's knowing their Ford, family, occupation, recreation and dreams.
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It's learning stuff about your clients.
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The next time you come in, how's your job progressive?
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It becomes about the person.
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especially in the AI revolution we're having, that we're not a human being anymore.
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not, you know, we're a 1030, we're, you know, a highlight in haircut, we're a keynote in Austin, Texas.
34:51
Those are all dangerous things that we like to, we're room 201B in a hospital, or a kidney stone.
34:59
Like, those are all things we all are guilty of, you know,
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referring to our customer as versus the humanizing it and making sure we're more present and connecting with them.
35:11
Yeah, that's in Starbucks doesn't just allow you to personalize in that way, but they encourage it.
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They're always coming out with an additional 300 ways that you can make, you know, you can have the vanilla ube now you can have protein added to your coffee.
35:29
Yeah, it's amazing.
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What are some simple ways that companies can personalize the experience without making it complicated?
35:37
Yeah, so the first time I ever walked into a Lululemon, and I'm sure ever since, the person greeting me instead of saying, how can I help you?
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Or did you know that we have yoga pants on sale today?
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Yeah, get away from me.
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They said, how do you like to sweat?
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and basically asking you, what's your choice of workout?
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I like the weight lift, I'm a runner, I'm a yoga.
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And then they know where to steer you, and I do yoga too, or whatever.
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At a hardware store, what are you working on?
36:11
So it's little things.
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At hallmark card stores, what are you celebrating?
36:15
What's the occasion?
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And those little things,
36:18
take me from as a customer thinking that you're trying to sell me and you're just trying, oh, it's my 20th wedding anniversary, it's my son's 16th birthday, a graduation promotion,
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whatever you're there for.
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And then they could say, oh, I have a 16 year old, I have a son, I've been married, how'd you make it 20 years?
36:42
Whatever the thing is, but you're making a connection, you're...
36:46
I'm realizing that you're not a salesperson, but you're a mom or a parent as well, or you like to run, I like to run, whatever it is, and...
36:56
you're able to, you know, so you're personalized with me, but you're able to personalize the experience and what is in the best interest.
37:04
So I might come into a hardware store and say, you know, they might say, what are you working on?
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And I'm, you know, fixing this on my roof or I'm putting up a basketball hoop and you know, I need this.
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And they might say, do you have this, this and this?
37:19
And I'm like, no.
37:20
I didn't realize, and I wouldn't realize until I was up on the ladder and I realized I didn't get everything I needed because I don't put up basketball hoops for a living.
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And now it's after five, six o'clock and the hardware stores close and my kids are mad because I can't finish the project.
37:39
that personalization now ties into education of what else I may need that I didn't realize.
37:46
Love that, love that.
37:47
There's a spice place at the West Side Market.
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If you're from, if you're, if you've been to Cleveland, you're from Cleveland, you understand the West Side Market.
37:56
But there is a spice place there, Nairn Spice, and I've gone many times and just given a few different ingredients and she'll say, you're making Pad Thai.
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Do you have this?
38:05
Do you have that?
38:06
You know, and knows exactly what you need.
38:08
Like she just has recipes off the top of her head that
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It's amazing.
38:12
um
38:14
are interchangeable because it ties into educate.
38:17
It ties into consistency, which would if you came in tomorrow and you got a different employee, would she or he know to do that?
38:25
I mean, these are all so interchangeable and dependent and depend on each other.
38:32
Let's come back to the question we opened the episode with, the factor that determines whether customers stay loyal or quietly start looking somewhere else.
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When you look at these six drivers, they really come down to one thing.
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Customers stay loyal to companies that consistently make their lives easier and make them feel valued.
38:51
So let's recap the six drivers.
38:54
John, what are they?
38:54
Great service or product that you sell.
38:58
Consistency, ease of doing business, employee evangelists, educate versus sell, and personalized experience.
39:07
Yay.
39:07
So let's end with this.
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If a CEO listening today wants their company to become the brand customers can't live without, which one of those six should they start focusing on first?
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It's hard to pick because you can't be deficient in any.
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Can't have a crappy product.
39:24
If you have inconsistency, I believe inconsistency, employee roulette is the enemy of any customer experience.
39:32
So I would lean towards that.
39:33
But if you're difficult to do business with, if you have too much policy, if too much layers and red tape and expirations and policy, if your employees don't care, if they're
39:46
just selling, selling, selling.
39:48
even though you already told them that you didn't want that or this, and if they don't personalize it.
39:55
But I would always say consistency is always the top ranked opportunity for any business.
40:02
Becoming a brand customers can't live without doesn't happen through one big initiative.
40:07
It happens through hundreds of small improvements to the experience.
40:10
If you want help building that kind of organization, visit thedijuliusgroup.com to learn more about our consulting services, leadership academies, and the experience revolution
40:21
membership.
40:22
And if you found this episode valuable, share it with a leader on your team who cares about building a world-class customer experience.
40:28
Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next
40:30
time on the Customer Service Revolution podcast.
40:35
Thanks, John.