Customer Delight is one of those things that many people are still a little bit cynical about! Maybe it’s the jargon – I know the phrase does sometimes appear a little ‘schmaltzy’ and it can come across as a bit gimmicky when it’s described.
However, it’s very much not that! A few other things it’s not either…. ‘cheesy’ dialogue, ‘have a nice day’, buy one, get 10 free or the ‘McDonaldisation’ of the business world (and no, I’m not knocking McDonalds – I LOVE Big Macs!).
Customer Delight is all about ‘exceeding customer expectations’ – it’s about surprising them with the level of service you provide (please note: in a positive way please!) and any business can (and should) deliver it! Who says so? Well, I do, but someone with a little more clout and credibility than me says it too – Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon!
In a recent letter to shareholders he said…
“Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align.”
I work on the theory that if it’s good enough for Jeff, the CEO of one of the world’s most successful businesses, then it should be good enough for us!
So, what exactly is customer delight? Our research has highlighted 6 ingredients of customer delight:
- It produces a wow reaction!
- It appears spontaneous or unexpected!
- It’s the personal touch!
- It makes the customer feel valued!
- It’s genuine… and…
- It creates a ‘talking point’!
So, what could you do to ‘delight’ your customers? Why not think about those ingredients and work out how you could make them work for the way you interact with your customers?
To help you, you may like to download Customer Delight As Competitive Advantage, our latest 44 page FREE ebook that gives you ideas, tips and tools to help you make this stuff work – simply click on the icon to print it off or download it straight to your Kindle or iPad!
