But what many organisations fail to realize is that, if it isn’t managed correctly, outsourcing can also expose the business to one very significant risk - that of poor customer experiences.

The problem is that customers seldom, if ever, differentiate between a company’s permanent employees and those who have been brought in to perform an outsourced function. So, when they arrive at your premises or store, and the first person they encounter is a hostile security guard, or an unfriendly cleaner, they don’t associate this negative experience with the company that actually employs these individuals - they lay the blame for their negative customer experience firmly at the feet of your business.

In a country like South Africa where crime is a reality that forces businesses to seek out ways to protect themselves and set their customers minds at ease, security guards are often at the coal face of customer relations.

Unfortunately, creating positive customer experiences doesn’t typically feature very prominently on most security guard training curricula, so it’s very unlikely that the people guarding your business share your commitment to making your customers feel welcome and valued.

And it’s not just the unfriendly or unknowledgeable security guard that represents a customer experience risk. The same is true of any externally sourced employee who may come into contact with your customers. A negative customer interaction with any of these people could very quickly undo all the hard work you’ve put into raising your customer experience levels.

Fortunately, once you realise that these outsourced service providers represent such a customer experience risk (which, if you’ve read this far, you now do), fixing the problem isn’t that difficult. Most outsourcing contracts include clearly defined service level agreements, and these can be expanded to ensure that external employees align with your internal customer experience commitments.

Also, given the difficult economic times, it’s likely that your external human resource providers would be open to any suggestion of putting their personnel through appropriate customer experience awareness and skills training. Since any such training will almost certainly allow these businesses to then add levels of customer experience value to future clients, that their competitors can’t, they should even be open to sharing the expense of such training - and if they aren’t there are bound to be other vendors that are!

Importantly, this external personnel customer experience training needs to be aligned to your organisation’s service priorities and customer experience culture. By making sure it is, you can effectively elevate it from merely being aimed at making sure outsourced employees are "nice’ to your customers, to transforming them into effective extensions of the positive brand experience you want to create for your customers at every touchpoint they have with your business.

The thing we often lose sight of, however, is the fact that while there is undoubtedly much work to be done - in both the private and public sectors - to raise customer service in our country to the level it should (and can) be, there are plenty of positive things that can also be said about the overall SA customer experience.

For starters, nobody could argue against the fact that that "Brand South Africa’ is unique, appealing and compelling. There’s a level of authenticity, warmth and genuine friendliness in this country that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the world. South Africans are, for the most part, hospitable, welcoming and helpful people. These character traits can’t simply be taken off when these same South Africans get dressed in the morning. They are part of what makes us who we are and, as such, we take them with us wherever we go - even to work.

I was reminded of this over the recent festive season thanks to some excellent customer experiences at a range of establishments. It’s not so much that I was on the receiving end of brilliant service, but more a case of warm attitudes, friendly smiles and engaging, down-to-earth employees reminding me that minor service inadequacies or oversights can often be more than compensated for by authentic South African experiences.

This got me thinking. Imagine how good the customer experience in our country could be if, as businesses, we made the effort to fully harness and nurture the inherent warmth of the people we employ and find ways to effectively direct that towards our customers. The resulting experiences of those who do business with us would instantly transform them from customers into lifelong fans and valuable brand advocates. And the positive business and financial consequences of that would be truly unbelievable.

However, realising that potential demands a conscious effort and a commitment by employers to create a culture of service empowerment and a build a work environment that frees employees to fully express their innate warmth, hospitality, and South African-ness. For some businesses, achieving this may require a bit of a paradigm shift; but when you consider that doing so will allow your company to tap into Brand SA and unlock the massive value it can add, making such a mindset shift really is a no brainer.

The bottom line is that, as South African businesses, we have something going for us that few other businesses on the planet do. Some call it our "Mzansi magic’. Others know it as the spirit of ubuntu. But no matter what name we give it, it translates into the real human potential to create simply brilliant experiences for our customers. And that’s what will ultimately give us a real edge in the global marketplace.

Now, BA has decided it’s time to dust off this ancient service statement and give it pride of place as their payoff line once more. It’s a bold step. But one that is also fraught with risk.

The thing is, a pay-off line is more than a few catchy words strung together by an overpaid advertising agency. It’s a promise. One made by a company to the consumers that it needs to keep it in business. So, whether that promise is an explicit one like BA’s new "To fly. To serve.', or implied, as in its old pay-off line of "The world’s favourite airline' the bottom line is that it should never be a promise that is made lightly - because breaking it can be tantamount to organisational suicide.

So the big question is, can BA live up to its new brand promise? One would hope that it can - particularly the "To fly' part of it - otherwise it won’t have much of a business left to run. But that’s the easy part. Keep the planes in the air and you’re good. The "To serve' promise is a lot more difficult to accomplish. And if my recent experience on a BA flight is anything to go by, there are still some BA staff that need to be told about the role they have in delivering on it.

I realise that it’s just one experience, and probably not enough to imply that BA is breaking its service promise on all its flights, but if you make a promise like this, you really need to keep it at every service touchpoint in your operation. Unfortunately recently, this was the case. The staff I encountered were still unfriendly and acted as if they were doing me a favour by coming to work. As for "in flight service' - never has there been a more glaring contradiction in terms. Once you’re flying, there is no service - unless you beg for it from one of the bored-looking flight attendants who would clearly rather be sipping coffee at the back of the plane than giving passengers the type of experience that makes them actually want to fly BA again.

Of course, this requirement to match your service promise with service delivery is by no means limited to British Airways. It’s a vital need for any, and every, business. The problem, it seems, is that for many businesses there still seems to be no link between the lofty customer experience aspirations contained in their business strategies and the actions of the staff who ultimately make that strategy a reality for their customers.

It’s one thing to talk about being committed "to serve', but customers don’t want talk, they want action. So if your customer experience approach doesn’t start with educating your staff on how and why they need to deliver on your brand promise, there is really no point throwing big money at developing that promise in the first place.

That’s because delivering consistently good customer service and experiences has nothing to do with how you would like to be treated and everything to do with what your customers actually want.

The quickest way to fail at service is to assume that you know what your customers want. Yes you need to try and anticipate their needs. Yes, you need to put yourself in their shoes. And yes, you need to always be proactive in your customer experience efforts. But thinking that you can build a great business based on giving customers what you’d want if you were them, is a one-way ticket to an empty cash register.

The reason for this is simple enough, but still many business owners and managers seem to get it wrong. No two people are alike. So while you may have been in your business for decades, you’ve always viewed it from opposite side of the service counter to your customer. Even when you’re out shopping, the way you want to be treated, is not necessarily the way customers of your business wish their experience could be.

Unfortunately, far too many businesses still make this assumption. And it’s at the heart of their often-dismal service failures. For instance, most customers don’t want to be accosted by a salesperson (usually poorly disguised as a service champion) the moment they walk through the shop door. Just like most restaurant patrons don’t want every employee in the establishment - from manager to busboy - to come by and ask how their food is, usually just as they take a mouthful of it.

And it’s not just overbearing service that’s a problem. Anything you do because you think it is what your customer wants - no matter how well intentioned - can backfire on you if it actually isn’t. To create truly unforgettable customer experiences, you shouldn’t be thinking what your customers want; you should be asking them.

And since the desires and needs of consumers change faster than the weather in Cape Town, you need to be asking these types of questions pretty regularly. By that I don’t necessarily mean fully-fledged customer needs surveys (although these will most certainly deliver invaluable insights), I simply mean engaging with your customers in a meaningful way and giving them every possible opportunity to tell you what kind of experience they want.

Of course, once you ask what your customers expect from you there’s really no excuse for failing to deliver it. But that’s an issue for another blog all on its own.

The problem, it seems, lies in the fact that most call centres seem to have lost their way and customers are finding it hard to discern any tangible benefit from dialling an 0800 number. It’s sad, because call centres really could be the jewel in the crown of any business’ customer service value proposition, but many have gone from being convenient and accessible centres of service excellence to little more than a source of frustration and endless loops of canned music.

I believe there are three main reasons why so many call centres fail to deliver on their full customer service potential:

1. For many, the focus is not on service anymore. There are few large companies that customers can call directly anymore. Instead, all branch listings in the local directory show one call centre number and unless there are well trained and empowered consultants on the end of that line, customers are left feeling unappreciated and worse off than before they phoned.
2. The balance is tipping from service to sales. Establishing (or outsourcing to) a call centre is an expensive business. So it’s understandable the companies want to find ways to generate a good return on that expense. However, many make the mistake of trying to generate that return by putting the consultants to work doing outbound sales calls. The result is long waiting times for customers who call in and, potentially, a greater focus on commission than care.
3. Employee empowerment is no longer a prerequisite. This is almost certainly the biggest problem of the three. When, as has recently happened to me, you get a call to tell you that three of your company cellphones are due for upgrade, but it can’t be processed because you, quite coincidentally, owe exactly 68 cents on each of them, you have to wonder just how much of a priority the company places on encouraging their call centre staff to think for themselves and empowering them to question their daily client lists before picking up the phone.

Fortunately, however, all is not lost. There are some companies that have grasped the potential value that exists in offering call centres staffed by empowered agents who can add real value to their customers. And if they can do it, surely everyone else can too.

1.The first is to keep things simple, because that is invariably the most effective way to get results. Overcomplicating anything in business is the quickest way to limit its effectiveness- and that goes for everything from strategy and marketing to pricing and sales. It’s an approach that has always worked for N’lighten, so much so that we now also apply it to the customer service improvement efforts we implement for our clients - with consistently positive results. But it’s also the subject of another blog, sometime in the future.

2.For this blog, I’d like to focus on the second principle that I believe is essential for success in any business - to "drive value up and costs down.’

For some reason, the universe has seen fit to test me on this particular principle in recent months, and maintaining the appropriate balance between value and costs has been a challenge. But this has only served to reinforce my belief in the importance of this simple philosophy as a business success imperative.

One of the important keys to driving value up and costs down is the ability of a business to get things right first time, on time, every time. To me, it seems obvious that focusing on doing this would result in happy customers and lower business costs. So why does it still seem like very few businesses have grasped the importance of this simple approach?

On an almost daily basis, I hear complaints from customers about having to go back to a store or service provider - often many times - because the item they bought is faulty or the service they received is sub-standard. The obvious consequence of this is frustrated customers, some of who may never return. The less obvious consequence is markedly higher business expenses due to lost focus, lower productivity or replacement costs.

By not putting in the effort to make sure they get it right first time, businesses are effectively doing the opposite of what they know they should be - and actually driving value down and costs up. This is clearly an unsustainable model - and one that, I believe, has been at the root of many businesses closing their doors .

Much as consumers love to hate call centres, they are the one industry that appears to have grasped the importance of the "value up, costs down’ concept. For most call centre managers, first time resolution is a key performance indicator. The ability of a call centre agent to resolve a complaint or answer a question in one call is often the measure of their effectiveness (and can even be a factor in their remuneration).

Imagine if other businesses followed this example and assessed the performance of their staff and suppliers primarily on their ability to get it right first time. By making sure there are few (or no) returns, comebacks, complaints or repairs, those businesses could significantly cut their costs. At the same time, the value that their customers experience when doing business with them would almost certainly make them very loyal - and keep them coming back for more.

If ever there was a win-win situation in business, this has to be it. Best of all, it doesn’t require complicated strategies or huge budgets to accomplish. Often, all that’s needed is a change in attitude. And that’s a really small investment when you consider the potential returns.

This is especially true of businesses that have grown to the point where they now monopolise their industry or market. Two examples spring immediately to mind - cellular service providers and banks.

While it's true that there is no clear monopoly of either of these industries by a single business, each is dominated by three or four mammoth organisations. They spend millions of rand a year on glitzy advertising campaigns aimed at winning bigger share of the market by promising consumers the world,but then invest very little on ensuring those promises are met.

While it’s certainly not alone, FNB is a good example. Their current "switching to FNB’ advertising campaign is excellent. There can be no doubt that it is working to win them a steadily growing share of the banking customer market. But I’ll be interested to see if they really do put their money where their advertising mouth is in terms of servicing their new clients.

If FNB is really serious about delivering what it is promising, I wonder if they will run a customer survey amongst their new banking clients in six months time and ask them how happy they still are that they made the switch. Or will all these expectant new FNB clients simply have been relegated to account numbers and annual report figures while a new, clever ad campaign targets the next batch of hopeful banking customers.

Cell C is another good example. Their "Ask Trevor’ campaign of last year made it seem like they were really serious about delivering excellent customer service as a way of differentiating themselves from the other cellular monoliths. Since the campaign budget dried up, however, nobody has heard anything more from "Trevor'. Last I heard he was doing comedy acts in America. I wonder who has taken his place as Customer Experience Officer at Cell C. Or did they simply close that door and remove the sign?

And these are just two examples. Empty service promises are a dime a dozen from SA’s many monopolies. Just have a look at any consumer watchdog site and the names you’ll see listed most often under the complaints section are the big names in business. They could argue that this is because they have the most customers; but the reality is that they also have the most money and resources to make sure those customers are extremely happy. They’re just not spending it on that.

As you may have gathered, I am more than a little sceptical of the service promises of massive, monopolistic organisations. In my experience, most of them merely pay lip service to customer service. Few, if any of them really do anything to truly differentiate their service delivery from that of their competition. The experiences they offer their customers are severely lacking in WOW factor of any shape or form.

All of which makes me wonder how long it is going to be before they are actually losing customers to smaller businesses that may not have millions to produce clever ad campaigns that promise the world, so instead they are quietly getting on with the job of actually delivering it to their growing numbers of happy customers.

The official reason, given by Kodak’s chief financial officer, Antoinette P. McCorvey, was: ".despite Kodak’s best efforts, restructuring costs and recessionary forces have continued to negatively impact the company’s liquidity position.'

Allow me, if I may, to paraphrase. "We stopped listening to our customers about the products and experiences they wanted and, as a result, our competitors leapfrogged us and took our market share.'

Sure the recessionary environment has put many global businesses under pressure, but those pressures are the same no matter which business you own. So how is it possible that just a week or two after Kodak goes bust, Apple - another iconic global electronics brand - declares quarterly profits of well over 100%?

The truth of Kodak’s demise lies in a simple comparison of these two companies. Apple is in touch with its customers. It knows what they want, how they want it packaged, and how much they are wiling to pay for it. And it delivers on these customer desires. Kodak doesn’t. Pure and simple.

Fortunately for us other business owners, Kodak’s demise is not a total loss. It offers some very valuable reminders of just how important it is to keep listening to your customers. And while we’re all in business to make money, the day we become so focused on that money that we forget who it is that ultimately hands it over to us, we effectively lose a grip on our business.

The irony is that Kodak has received a financial "bailout’ package that will allow it to keep trading through its bankruptcy proceedings in the hope of fixing its problems. And the solution they are proposing is to sell off as many of their patents as they can. Which only goes to show that the company still hasn’t learnt its lesson. Sure, selling patents may cover their debts for now, but unless they start having real conversations with the people who should be buying their products, they are destined to fail again.

Modern business success is built on client centricity. Simple as it sounds, Kodak (and any other business) could flourish simply by making sure they have opened all possible channels of customer communication, every single one of their employees - including their CEO, Chairman and corner shop salesman - understands the importance of listening to and serving the customer. And doing the occasional customer survey to determine whether they are getting it right won’t go amiss either!

Put simply, the ability to invite, listen to, and act on, customer feedback is a cornerstone of sustainable business. This is a universal truth, whether you’re a multi-national organisation the size of Kodak, or a small start-up with big aspirations of one day competing with global companies. And you ignore it at your peril; because doing so is sure to results in unhappy, unsmiling customers, who could be gone in a moment.

Just ask Kodak.

Over time, the correct brand slogan can often become as powerful as the brand name it supports. Take Nike’s "Just Do It’ for instance. There are few people in the world who would even need to see the Nike name to know which brand this hugely successful slogan belongs to. Other excellent examples include Snap, Crackle, Pop; Everywhere you go; and I’m lovin’ it.

What makes these such successful slogans for their respective brands is the fact that the organisations to which they apply have understood, from the outset, that their slogan is not just a cute string of words; it’s a promise made by their brand to their customers. Kelloggs, for instance, knows that if their Rice Krispies are not absolutely fresh, Snap, Crackle, Pop is likely to be reduced to Wheeze, Splutter, Sink. So they have put in place every possible quality standard and control in place to make sure their product lives up to its promise.

Unfortunately that’s not always the case. Many companies still fall into the trap of developing brand slogans that actually end up being brand destroyers rather than builders. That’s because these slogans raise the customer’s expectation of an excellent experience, but the delivery of such an experience by a company never quite delivers on the brand promise it makes.

Take Standard Bank’s "Simpler. Better. Faster.’ slogan of a few years back. While it’s a fantastic customer experience promise, it’s virtually impossible to deliver 100% of the time - even if your company is filled with passionate customer service champions. And every time you fail to live up to the promise, your brand dies a little in the mind of your customers. Small wonder this particular tag line quickly gave way to the more realistic (and less specific) promise of "Moving Forward’.

A further example of a particularly challenging South African brand promise comes from another of our banks. This time it’s FNB’s promise of service excellence implied in its "How can we help you?’ slogan. On the face of it, this is an excellent tag line. It promises a bank that’s ready, willing and able to be there for its customers and deliver whatever service they need to realise their personal objectives. Unfortunately, it’s also a promise that any company would be very hard pressed to keep. And I know I’m not alone when I say that every time I encounter internet banking problems, am kept waiting in a branch, or have to deal with a disempowered employee that actually can’t help me, the "How can we help you?’ brand slogan rings loudly in my ears as a very false promise.

Ask any parent and they’ll tell you that the cardinal sin of parenting is breaking your promises to your kids. It leaves them disappointed, disillusioned and a little less trusting of what you promise in the future. And customers are no different. Which is why, if you are serious about creating brilliant customer experiences, you need to understand that it starts with your company slogan and the expectations it creates. So, if your business has a slogan, make sure it’s a promise you can always keep.

Some were voluntary closures; others were forced liquidations; all tell a sad story of lost potential, money and jobs. Clearly South Africa still finds itself in very challenging economic times. And while you can’t presume that all the business closures in September or, indeed, the whole of 2011 were only due to the economic environment, it’s safe to assume that many of these businesses simply couldn’t survive the recent decline in business and customers.

Looking further back, since the beginning of the year, a staggering 2 475 South African businesses have closed. 619 of these were in the wholesale, retail trade, catering and accommodation categories. On the positive side - if you can find a positive side to business closures - this figure is actually down from the same period in 2010, which saw 2 930 companies shut down.

But despite this decline in closures year-on-year, the truth is that almost 2 500 businesses have stopped trading in the past nine months - and that’s a lot no matter how you look at it!

As a customer service professional, I have to ask the question: "How many of these businesses might still have been trading, if they had paid more attention to keeping their customers happy?' While I’m not implying that customer service is a "silver bullet’ solution to challenging economic conditions, there can be no doubt that businesses that place little priority on creating great customer experiences are bound to suffer the ill effects of a recession more than those that have always kept their customers happy.

Nowhere is this more obvious, particularly during the festive season, than the restaurant industry.

While it’s natural for restaurant owners to want to capitalize on higher patron numbers to shore up their finances for what promises to be an equally challenging 2012, doing so at the expense of good customer experiences is tantamount to business suicide. In other words, if your restaurant is enjoying an increase in reservations, but you don’t want to incur higher overheads by employing some extra staff to meet the growing demand, there’s a good chance this may be your last good season. In fact, it may end up being your last season. Period.

While people expect to wait longer for service during the busy times, they don’t expect to be neglected, subjected to poor quality, or have a terrible experience. And that applies whether they are visiting a restaurant or visiting the mall.

So, if your business desires a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year, stay focused on offering great customer experiences, rather than fixating on short-term turnover. Rather than being a cost consideration, see it as an opportunity to stand out from the poor service crowd. In the process, you’ll not only boost their bottom line, you’ll also potentially win some long-term, loyal customers. Which is the best way to ensure your business doesn’t find itself on the next Statistics SA "closures' list.

There is so much more to the customer experience than a smile and a friendly greeting. The way your customer perceives your business or brand is affected by every part of their experience with it - from the appeal of your shop signage and the warmth of the welcome they get, to the attentiveness of your staff and, even, the ease of opening any product packaging involved.

So, when you consider how much money goes into building a brand, it still amazes me that so little is invested in protecting its value. Delivery vehicles are a prime example.

As mobile advertising boards, a vehicle fleet offers a unique opportunity to get your brand, product or service out on the street. But while painting your vehicles in bright colours will surely catch the eye of other motorists, there is the potential for this mobile marketing campaign to backfire - and end up doing more harm than good to your brand, and your bottom line.

That’s because there are few places where emotions run higher than on the roads of South Africa. Poor long-term city planning, combined with largely ineffective public transport systems, means there are a lot of drivers experiencing a lot of frustration - most with no way of blowing off the copious amount of steam that builds up when much of every rush hour is spent at boiling point behind the wheel.

Within this environment, a badly driven company vehicle can easily become a much-needed scapegoat on which frustrated drivers will unleash their anger. And if that vehicle carries your brand, you shouldn’t underestimate the damage that can result.

On the flipside, having vehicles on the road can be a massive brand-building boost. Not just as a result of the advertising they carry, but also because they can help foster a positive perception of your entire business, simply by being driven considerately.

The point is every employee in your business, including its drivers, should be an ambassador and customer experience champion. But until they include a brand building section in the South African commercial driver’s license test, educating your drivers about this customer experience element of their job description is entirely up to you.

And given the obvious ineffectiveness of the stick method in changing driver behaviour, maybe carrots are what are called for. Imagine, for instance, the difference it could make if your drivers knew they would be rewarded for compliments instead of disciplined for complaints. Or if they understood that their good driving habits can have a direct positive impact on the business’ bottom line - and that this could actually translate into a financial benefit for them at year end.

In the end, it’s not really important how businesses get their drivers to understand that they are brand ambassadors, it is just vital that they do. Not just because it will make the rest of us feel safer on the road, but also because it could make their customers feel a lot more positive about doing business with them. Which is a really logical way to drive profitability.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but it really feels as if the commitment by retail stores to customer service has actually declined along with their profitability prospects over the past year or two.  A high school economics student would be able to tell you that the opposite should really be true.

More and more shops seem to be empty. Not just of customers, but even of tenants. There’s a growing number of shopfronts that, instead of displaying this summer’s hottest fashions are displaying last month’s headlines thanks to being "newspapered’ shut. It’s cause for great concern. Not just for us shopaholics, but for anyone who stands to be negatively impacted by a declining economy - and that means everyone.

And yet, shop owners, managers and staff seem unperturbed. There are few stores where you’ll enjoy a warm and friendly greeting, and fewer where you’ll be on the receiving end of a helpful "how can I be of assistance?’ My personal suspicions about the alarming lack of customer service were recently confirmed when I visited an upmarket Constantia clothing boutique. The shop assistant was on the phone and within a few seconds, her conversation confirmed that it was not a customer on the other end of the line. And yet, she ignored me and continued chatting to her friend.

So I helped myself. And after trying on a few items, and selecting two I liked, I finally found myself standing at the counter where Miss Unhelpful was still on her clearly very important call. After informing her friend that she had "better go now because I have someone standing in front of me," she hardly looked my way, rang up the items and apparently forgot how to say "thank you', "come again', or, even, "goodbye'.

And anecdotal evidence from friends and family confirm that this apathetic attitude seems to be everywhere - from niche boutiques to large chain stores. There are few, if any, stores where customers are still made to feel welcome and valued. Service is virtually non-existent and there is simply no desire to create good customer experiences.

All of which seems hugely counter-intuitive to me. If people have less money to spend, surely retailers must realize the importance of making them want to spend as much of it as possible in their stores? Or do South African shop owners still suffer from the misguided idea that winning share of wallet is exclusively about price competitiveness? If that’s the case, I’m not surprised at the number of empty shops.

For those retailers who are on the ball, of course, this situation offers a massive opportunity. Simply by making sure that their staff are serious about service, and their customers enjoy great shopping experience in their store, these businesses will almost certainly set themselves apart from their competition - and end up with a nice fat bottom line for their efforts. But first they may need to administer a few swift kicks to a couple of other "bottom lines'. I’ll be happy to help.

While green is undoubtedly the colour of the future, and caring for our environment is a vital part of business, if your company is focusing so much on its environmental impact that it loses sight of its customers and their needs, it can’t be said to be truly sustainable.

By definition, sustainable means "able to be maintained’. So if your business isn’t focused on understanding what your customers require, how they want to be treated, and how to keep them coming back to enjoy exceptional experiences with your company, then no amount of green is going to keep you from going into the red.

Unfortunately, customer service doesn’t seem to have made it into the sustainability vocabulary of most organisations. However,raising the profile of the customer as a vital success component should be an integral part of any business’s sustainability plan. That’s because:

Customers require care. Businesses are spending a lot of time, effort and money on measuring and reducing their carbon footprints. A lot less time, effort and money is going into measuring the impact businesses are having on their customers and making sure that impact is positive. Just as businesses need to limit the damage they do to the environment, they also need to be aware of the damage that poor customer service can do to their bottom line. They also need to be aware of the positive sustainability and profitability spin-offs of a focus on good customer service and experiences. 

Customers can make or break your business. Increasing numbers of customers want to buy from businesses that are "green’. Interestingly, this concept of customers voting with their feet has been around for centuries - just ask any business that has let its customers down by giving them bad service. Environmental care and customer care aren’t mutually exclusive. As a business you should be focused on both if you want to be sustainable. Otherwise, in both instances, your customers are going to take their business elsewhere.

Customer relationships are a good measure of business health. These days, most consumers look at health, relationships and lifestyle as important aspects in their overall prosperity. They don’t want to do business with a brand, they want to deal with real people who exhibit a real concern for their happiness. Which is why businesses need to nurture solid relationships with customers if they want to be sustainable.

Good customer service lowers costs. Efficiency is key to sustainability. By increasing their energy efficiency, for instance, businesses are not only helping the environment, they are lowering their costs. When it comes to customers, efficiency is equally important. People want the best experience from your company with the lowest hassle factor. And your business stands to benefit from significantly lower costs if it gets customer service right first time, every time.

Those companies that recognise the fact that great customer experiences are core to sustainability, and that have the vision to include the customer service as a sustainability and strategic imperative now, will almost certainly put themselves ahead of the game in years to come. Andlet’s face it, sustainability makes the most sense when it results in market leadership and long-term profitability.

But in the hands of the overzealous, technology can also very quickly kill what could have been a positive customer experience, as I discovered recently when I took my car back to the dealership to have a "nagging issue' repaired.

Soon after I left the premises, I received my first SMS thanking me for entrusting my vehicle to them. "That’s nice,' I thought, "this business clearly understands the importance of creating positive customer experiences by keeping their customers in the loop.'

When I received the second SMS not more than an hour later, I experienced my first niggling suspicions about the wisdom displayed by the company in putting whoever they did on "Customer SMS duty’.

My suspicion proved correct. Over the next 24 hours, I was subjected to a veritable barrage of text messages.

Unfortunately, my smartphone is a business tool, so when it notifies me that an SMS has been received, I have to check it. As a result, by the end of my car service experience, I felt more than a little like Pavlov’s Dog, except every response I made didn’t result in reward - just increasing levels of irritation and a growing feeling that I was not being seen as a person, but rather just a cellphone number plugged into a computerized text messaging system.

This, clearly, is not the response any business wants to their efforts to deliver service excellence or a positive customer experience. As a customer service fanatic, I hate bad service. But I also believe that you can try and deliver too much of a good thing - to the point that your service efforts go from being useful to the client to just being downright annoying.

Ultimately, creating the perfectly positive customer experience requires an approach that carefully balances adequate customer attention and communication with an understanding of that customer’s desire for space and privacy. Oh, and a small pinch of sincerity can also go a very long way.

Consumers today want to feel connected to the companies they interact with. Creating unforgettable customer experiences is how forward-thinking companies have managed to build their market share and stay profitable through difficult financial times. Here's how you can do it too.

Differentiate yourself from the competition

Customer experience is what will set your business apart from your competitors. It is one of the most valuable ways to differentiate your business, and although it requires an investment in terms of attitude and approach, it doesn't necessarily have to mean a big expense.

Unforgettable customer experiences are not done through advertising, lofty promises or gimmicks. They take place through interactions that are engaging and meaningful to your target market.

The challenge is to synchronise the various functions within your business (eg. human resources, marketing, operations) so that every individual in every department subscribes to your business ethos and is willing and able to convey that to your customers. Remember, your brand sells a promise and it is up to your people to keep the promise.

Top tips:

• Test out what it would feel like to be your own customer - from the first point of contact right through to after sales service.
• Identify the service superheroes within your organisation and realise what a valuable asset they are. Nurture them, promote them, and place them in positions where their service ethos can rub off on others.
• Dont hire staff just because they can do the job - hire for attitude!

Retain your customers

To win customer loyalty, you need to offer a customer experience that resonates with your customer's values, beliefs and emotions.

The best way to do this is to learn more about your customers, so collect and analyse all the customer feedback you can get your hands on. And with negative feedback, it is crucial to fix the problem as quickly as possible through personal contact (eg a phone call or email).

Top tips:

• Check and respond to complaints on websites such as Hello Peter (www.hellopeter.com) and Get Closure (www.getclosure.co.za).
• If you have "erred", admit it. Being honest and transparent with your customers will gain you their trust and loyalty in the long run.
• Create a social media presence for your brand. Many businesses shy away from social media because they're afraid of negative feedback. But social media allows you to receive feedback through a platform you can keep track of and respond to, which is far better than having customers bad-mouth your brand without you knowing about it or having the opportunity to fix mistakes.
• Remember that when a customer complains it gives you an opportunity to really connect with them, fix the error, and make a lasting impression.

Build your business through word of mouth

Building a relationship with customers does not happen overnight. It takes time to earn trust and loyalty, but by consistently meeting their needs over time, you will eventually turn every customer into an advocate for your business - and that's the most powerful form of marketing there is! Rave reviews from customers will do more for your business over time than any television advert or marketing gimmick will ever do.

Top tips:

• Focus on every individual your business crosses paths with and ensure they've enjoyed the experience. Remember, losing market share generally happens one unhappy customer at a time.
• Never write off any customer as less important because they're "small fry'. You never know who will be where and doing what in five years time.
• Don't use service providers that don't have the same values or customer service drive as your business - they will end up letting you and your customers down.

Like it or not, the world finds itself firmly rooted in the age of Generation Y. The baby boomers have made way for their offspring - and this has ushered in a completely new way of looking at life, work and consumerism. From a customer service perspective, this is a significant challenge. Particularly since Gen-Yers are certainly not your only customers, but in many cases they are now your frontline staff. And these frontline staff have a very different view on what the concepts of service and communication entail. Don’t believe me? Pay close attention the next time you visit a music store, fashion outlet or gaming shop. While these are obviously not the only stores where Gen-Y sales assistants are the norm, they offer good insight into the mindset and service "attitude’ of the next generation workforce.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not Gen-Y bashing. On the contrary, I believe the rise of a new generation of employees and consumers presents massive opportunities for businesses that take the time to understand them and deliver what they really want. Which is, quite possibly, very different from what the previous generation of shoppers and workers wanted.

For example, as employees Gen-Yers expect far higher levels of recognition and more opportunities for advancement. And if they don’t get these, don’t expect them to hang around waiting. While their formal education levels may not generally be as high as those of previous generations and their communication abilities lack formality, they are nonetheless very intelligent, and their skills are in high demand - particularly as the world becomes increasingly technology driven. As an employer, you ignore these basic Generation Y aspects, or worse, try to change them, at your peril.

From a consumer perspective, the Gen-Yer is a very different shopping animal to what the business world is accustomed. This is the generation of instant gratification and they don’t like to be kept waiting. So, while they may not expect you call them "Sir’ or "Madam’ they do expect you to recognize their value as a customer, understand their impatience (and their language), and give them what they want, when they want it.

In an age where customer service is no longer a differentiator, but a basic entry point for businesses, and creating customer experiences is key to attracting and retaining buyers or guests, organisations need to develop an understanding of the new generation of customers who are, in effect, the future of their business. Like any change, this one is not going to be easy. But given the instant and mass nature of their communication channels, and the fact that peer opinion undoubtedly drives their consumer decisions, if you choose not to try and understand and meet the unique buying and working needs of this new generation, you can expect to find it a lot more difficult to stay in business in the years to come.

And when you do, don’t bother asking "Y’.

Given the fact that this is one of the countries that has been hardest hit by the global economic crisis and resulting recession, one would think that stores, restaurants and hotels would be falling over themselves to make customers feel special and valued. But one would be wrong.

From the moment I set foot on UK soil, it was evident that when it comes to making customers and guests feel welcome the English have as much to learn as we South Africans do. In fact, in many ways, South Africa has an advantage over England on the customer experience stakes because, while both countries don’t deliver anything near the service levels they should, at least in South Africa we do so with a modicum of warmth and hospitality.

For a country that is preparing to host the Olympics next year, the UK has far more important things to build than a world-class stadium. The inability of shop assistants, hotel receptionists and most public servants to muster even the slightest bit of warmth is frighteningly evident. I can’t think of a single interaction that left me feeling welcome as a visitor to the country, let alone a customer and guest.

Interestingly, this lack of service I experienced in England left me feeling a little more positive about what we have to offer here in South Africa. While there is still a huge amount of work to be done, we actually have a fairly solid foundation - in the form of the people employed to deliver the service we require as customers. Sure, sometimes the lack of training, commitment and effort is very apparent, but South Africans are, by and large, warm and friendly people who if given the right encouragement and education will be happy to deliver the kind of service that their customers desire.

And when it comes to positive customer experiences, there’s a lot to be said for authenticity. My visit to the UK left me with the distinct impression that much of the blame for the poor service could be attributed to the fact that there are very few English people who are actually doing the serving over there. The huge influx of Europeans means you are more likely to be served by a "foreigner’ than by a patriotic individual who has a vested interest in creating a good impression of his or her country. And if your employees aren’t interested in making sure visitors to your country leave with a positive impression of it, what hope is there of them doing so for your business.

In South Africa, the opposite is true. Regardless of our cultural background, we are generally fiercely patriotic people who want everyone to love our country as much as we do. Hence the overwhelming success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in terms of delivering positive customer experiences.

Imagine what we could achieve from a service perspective if we could simply harness that patriotism and create an understanding of the potential positive impacts - on the perceptions of residents and tourists - of delivering consistently excellent service and memorable customer experiences.

It’s a business model that has worked for decades and the continued stellar growth in the franchising, licensing and outsourcing industry is testament to its appeal and success.

But if outsourcing a customer-facing or customer care aspect of your business means you effectively lose touch with the needs of your customer and, even worse, fail to ensure that those needs are being met, how sustainable is this business model really?

A case in point: Apple. It’s a brilliant brand that’s still growing internationally in leaps and bounds thanks to the reliability, accessibility and "must have’ appeal of its products. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the people licensed to sell and service these products. A visit (for example) to the iStore invariably leaves the once happy Apple customer with a distinctly lemony taste in their mouth. The focus is clearly on "sell, sell, sell’. Which is all good and well, if it is supported by an equal priority on "service, service, service’. Unfortunately, with the iStore, this is clearly not the case.

If you don’t believe me, just take your iPhone or iPod into an iStore and tell them it needs to be repaired. Then watch as the friendly "sales’ faces that greet you turn into blank stares. Chances are good you’ll leave with your broken iPod still in your pocket. If you’re lucky it’ll be nestling next to a business card of some obscure small business that might be able to do the repairs you need. Again, if you’re lucky.

So, while the Apple mothership must be smiling all the way to the bank when it comes to sales figures, one has to wonder if it is blissfully unaware of the growing tide of discontent amongst those who have so willingly swelled its coffers in recent months and years.

And it’s not just Apple that needs to address the customer satisfaction levels delivered by its licensed stores if it wants to retain a healthy slice of the SA consumer pie. There are any number of international businesses that are potentially facing the same issue.

For instance, after trying, but failing dismally, to get one of our HP printers repaired, but being met with complete apathy and ineptness, N’lighten’s next office printer will almost certainly not be HP. Don’t get me wrong, HP is a great printer - I just couldn’t face the same kind of useless service from HP’s licensed service providers the next time I need help. So I’ll be moving on to a different brand.

The problem, it seems, is not so much that these big companies don’t understand the need for service excellence, it’s just that they don’t have the ability (or maybe the will) to police the service delivery of their global franchise or licensed stores and service providers. And if those stores are the face of your brand, they need to be delighting your customers with service that makes them smile happily. Otherwise you are bound to be facing a serious drop in sales figures somewhere along the line. Even if your name is Steve Jobs!

However, the real key to success through cost savings is not how much you can save, but whether you can save without reducing the value you offer your customers. And while achieving this balance of savings versus value delivery is particularly important during difficult economic times, it’s also an essential component in business success at all times - whether good or bad.

The problem is, however, that a lot of businesses seem to have the misguided belief that the only way to cut costs is by taking shortcuts. Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to a situation where short-term cost saving efforts turn into long-term expenses, as unhappy customers are forced to complain repeatedly, return goods, call back service providers or, in many cases, simply take their business elsewhere.

The cliche about time being money is an overused statement for a reason... it’s true. And in the context of any sales transaction, it’s a truth that applies equally to the buyer and the seller. If a customer has to keep returning faulty goods, sending food back to the restaurant kitchen, or recalling a service provider to re-do a task that wasn’t completed properly the first time, nobody in the transaction is enjoying any form of value.

The time wastage and frustration experienced by customers in these situations is actually costing them money and stands to severely diminish their perception of the business. Of course, apart from the long-term brand damage the business is enduring, it is also losing money every time it has to spend more time fixing what it should have done right the first time.

The good news is that this type of lose-lose situation can easily be avoided simply by staying committed to doing things right first time and only ever taking a calculated and carefully considered approach to saving on costs in a way that doesn’t place customer value creation at risk. To this end, a rule of thumb for any business - particularly one that understands the value of delivering consistently positive customer experiences - should be that if your cost cutting effort has even the slightest potential to result in an unhappy customer, find some other way to save money!

An even better approach is to adopt a "cost saving, value-adding’ approach as part of your business strategy at the outset. By doing this, you can establish a culture of value creation in your staff that includes cost effectiveness and customer service excellence in everything they do. And if it’s part of your strategy, that means you can monitor it. Which also means you’ll never find yourself in a situation where you have to take shortcuts to save money when times get tough - so your customers can be confident of consistent product and service quality from you.

The result: No returns. No complaints. No repeat callouts. No unnecessary expenses. Just satisfied customers who appreciate the value they get from your business, and are happy to return the favour.

But as soon as it becomes apparent to these consumers that any business regards them as little more than a source of income, they have a tendency to firmly close their wallets or purses and move swiftly along to the next establishment that is willing to give them the service and care they deserve.

What I’m getting at is that while staying in business requires turnover, running a successful business for any length of time is about much more than the money. It’s also about fairness, empathy, good service, and probably most importantly, relationships - especially with your customers.

I recently had the misfortune of being one of those unhappy customers whose business was little more than a source of monthly income for a service provider. Instead of making us feel like a valued client, our audit firm left us with the overwhelming sense that we were just another set of numbers to them. No personal attention, no genuine interest, and definitely no relationship. As a consequence they now have the misfortune of one less client on their books.

The lesson to be learned from all of this (and one that N’lighten’s ex-audit firm learned the hard way) is that if you’re going to treat your customers as little more than a walking wallet, they’re eventually going to treat your business with the disdain it deserves - and step out the door for good. And when that happens, it’s not just one customer you’ve lost, it’s also the potential that customer had to generate much more business for you in the long term - but that’s another whole blog entry in itself.

Fortunately, this unhappy situation is as easy to avoid as it is to create. All that’s required from you as a business owner, manager, or client-facing employee is the ability to value each of your customers as more than transaction and deliver the caring, empathetic, service-driven experience you know they deserve. When you can do that, you gain the ability to create consistently memorable customer experiences that build lasting relationships and result in customers that feel like they’re more than just another boost to your bottom line.

And when you genuinely take care of your customers in this way, you can be pretty sure that the money side of your business will start to take care of itself.