SuperService

Consumers are accustomed to having everything at their fingertips. The rise of the internet, combined with smartphones, means that consumers expect a simple buying process and immediate response when asking a question. Easy, right?

Ultimately, companies need to offer their customers convenience, either by finding an easy way to solve a problem or by fulfilling a need with a product or service. If brands can do this and impress customers in the process, they are offering something I call a SuperService.

You provide a SuperService when anything to do with a customer touchpoint is executed smoothly. How to achieve this? Setting up a customer experience engine is the first step. This framework manages all customer interactions. The process of building it successfully involves:

1. Documenting of all customer touch points, from initial awareness through to losing a customer.

2. Identification of what the customer needs to be impressed with at each touchpoint.

3. Using analytics to monitor the performance of each customer interaction and the implementation of systems to make them more efficient.

4. Building a matrix team to work across the organisation, using the acquired data to for increased customer self-service.

Once one has the right framework, it should be used in designing the best customer experience possible. The key to success? The customer needs the minimum amount of interference to be wowed.

In order to deliver a SuperService, every team needs to re-evaluate their purpose. The following are some suggestions:

1. Customer service teams: Capture customer feedback metric and use it to build self-service tools. This way, customers can manage their own issues.

2. Logistics/Technology: Focus on making sure everything runs smoothly while optimising the delivery process to make it faster, more efficient, and accurate.

3. Sales: Change the processes so that the price isn’t the only driver behind the purchase; they should also enjoy the experience.

4. HR: Create a culture that delivers great customer experiences, instead of focusing solely on output and results.

Implementing SuperService in any company is a daunting task. It requires a change of focus from price and promotion to delivering a great customer experience.

One of the greatest examples of a company that provides SuperService is Netflix. The company serves over 100M customers. However, it has the lowest number of support requests of any company, as well as one of the best net promoter scores. To buy a Netflix subscription, consumers don’t need to speak to the sales team. They simply buy it online. The UX is one of the easiest and most seamless experiences ever created by a brand.

How to measure a SuperService initiative? The key metrics are the same as for any other newly-implemented initiative in an organisation:

1. Increasing sales: The goal is to increase the number of orders. To achieve this, the brand needs to meet an existing need better than the competition.

2. Improving the net promoter score: First, measure the net promoter score. Then, track what moves this score in the right direction.

3. Reducing inbound requests: Work with the customer service team to identify the most common issues, and implement either product or organisational changes to reduce them.

4. Maximise margins: Making all these changes should not only increase sales but also help improve margins, either immediately or in the closest future.

Many brands are unable to keep up with changing consumer habits. Implementing a SuperService framework enables them to detect the changes before they start to impact revenue.