Are you developing customer satisfaction or customer loyalty?

For the Holiday season I wanted to share a customer service story with you.  This story is about delivering above customer expectations and what that really means.  You may have heard the saying; “customer satisfaction means nothing but customer loyalty means everything.”  I believe that this is so true and for any business to be truly customer centric we need to always be thinking about how we can empower our people to deliver above customer expectations.  In the Dale Carnegie business I’ve heard that Dorothy Carnegie once said that we need to do 3 things well, talk to the right people, ask the right questions and deliver above expectations.  Great advice for all business people!

About 10 months ago I decided to have corrective laser eye surgery.  The surgery did not go as planned and 10 months later, December 21; I had to get a touch up in one eye.  I had just spent 10 days in Hawaii for a conference and became deathly ill with a cold.  Upon my return we had our company Christmas party and of course I had my business to run.  Needless to say I didn’t get my prescription filled in advance.  I never procrastinate :) So, with my eye surgery scheduled for Friday morning, my wife and I went out Thursday evening to get my eye drops.  The first pharmacy we went to told me that they had one product that I needed but did not have the other one; they were not very busy and said sorry.  The next Pharmacy we went to was another Shoppers Drug Mart and they said the same thing, they had the one product but not the other, so sorry, again they were not very busy.

Lastly we went to a Wal-Mart Pharmacy.  The young pharmacist informed me after a short wait, they were busy, that they too had only one of the eye drop products that I needed.  The Pharmacist asked me when my surgery was, I responded, tomorrow morning. This was the first time anyone had even asked when my surgery was.  She said that they could have the drops in by tomorrow afternoon.   I said that would be ok, I could come by after the surgery; hopefully the courtesy van person would be ok with coming by the store first before dropping me off at home.  The pharmacist said if you have a few minutes please wait, I agreed.  She started making phone calls; she even talked to someone else that just arrived back after a break and that person continued to make phone calls as the young pharmacist helped other customers.  After a few short minutes she informed me that they had called many other local pharmacies and that the Costco pharmacy a few blocks away had what I needed.  I was very surprised; I had already agreed to wait until tomorrow to pick up my prescription at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy.  The young pharmacist had taken the approach that I needed this prescription now and she gave up a sale to get me what I needed now.  WOW, that was impressive!

Where do you think I will get my next prescription?

Anytime you can deliver above expectations your business will prosper, what is your target for exceeding expectations?  Ours is 85%,  are you driving more business or are you driving customers away?

 

Happy New Year!