Hello Outperformer,

Last week I spoke at Mystic Lake Casino for a group of senior managers on creating an Outperforming customer experience.

In the presentation I shared two stories that have happened to me in the last week:

One was a simple technical “snafoo” with my CRM and trying to get it to sync with my gmail. It shouldn’t have been hard but I tried everything and couldn’t get it to work.

So, I contacted customer service. They couldn’t get it to work either. They told me they were going to have to escalate the issue up to one of their “support technicians” and I’d hear back in 24-48 hours.

I got busy with a few things, and six days later, I still hadn’t heard anything.

On Tuesday, I got an automated email saying that my case had been closed, with a link to a survey to rate my customer experience.

Uh, my “experience?” My case was closed for an issue that never got resolved and I didn’t hear back from someone in the time frame that I was told I would. Do you really want me to rate my experience?

Last week I also brought my car in to have my oil changed and tires rotated. Even though I told them I didn’t need any other work done, they still did a full check-up and found out my battery was slightly malfunctioning.

They called me and told me they didn’t want me to be stuck in the dead of winter in MN with a dead battery (THANK you!) and it was covered under warranty, so they changed it.

They went above and beyond.

Then, they called me days after the fact to make sure everything was working well and asked me to comment on my overall experience. How do you think I rated this one?

I understand when we’re talking about business, there are layers to these issues and it can be as much about internal communication and workflow (or lack thereof) as anything else, but we all know what it’s like to have phenomenal and poor customer experiences and how they affect us.

It’s something I’ve challenged myself with – whether it’s the checkout clerk at Byerlys, a coaching client or a senior manager who has hired me to speak…

Every “experience” we have with someone makes a mark. Every interaction leaves an impression.

Make it a good one.

Have a great week and keep Outperforming,

 

COMING SOON: The "Outperformer's Creed." Stay tuned!

 

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