Customer delight

Customer delight is about going the extra mile to provide added value. But the great thing is this value doesn’t end with the customer interaction. When you delight your customers, it ends up coming full-circle back to your organisation. Gone are the days of customer satisfaction. In the modern world it is all about customer delight – to deliver more than what is expected. The service delivered should have a wow factor. It’s also about listening to your customer concerns.

Foreseeing future issues that might occur and taking the correct preventative steps. There are many ways to promote customer delight as a practice in your own business. The first step is to survey and report regularly on customer happiness – and then take action on the results.

When most people hear about Customer Delight, they think it’s the same as Customer Satisfaction; however, there is a very important difference between the two, and it comes down to exceeding versus merely meeting expectations. So let’s take a moment to compare:

Customer Satisfaction: Expectations are met

Customer Delight: Expectations are exceeded

Is it really that easy? Let me give you an example:

Scenario One (Met Expectations): You go to Starbucks, order your cup of white mocha, and receive your drink within two minutes in a cup with your name misspelled.

Scenario Two (Exceeded Expectations): You go to Starbucks, order your cup of white mocha, and the barista asks you if you’ve tried the new fall peppermint white mocha yet. They tell you that they usually order the white mocha, but they love the new drink so they're making a personal recommendation. You decide to go with the barista’s recommendation and try the new mocha; you receive your drink within two minutes (in a cup with your name misspelled) and you love it!

I don’t know about you, but when I order a coffee I pretty much always expect to receive the drink I ordered, and that’s about it. When anything less than this occurs, I’m not happy. However, when anything above and beyond my expectations occurs – and I feel like whomever I interacted with really tried to connect with me – I’m delighted!

Japanese customer service: An American had gone to Japan on an official visit in the seventies. He visited one of the electronic stores in the evening and bought a two-in-one electrical cord. He opened the packet in the hotel room. To his surprise he could not find the electrical cord. He chuckled to himself “such things happen even here…and everyone talks about Japanese customer service in such glowing terms.”

The next morning at six, the American was woken by the persistent ringing of his room bell. He opened the door and found a very sad and scared salesman who sold him the two-in-one. Tagging along was the General Manager (GM) of the electronic store.

The missing electric cord was discovered at the store within ten minutes. The salesman went into a panic attack. But he had presence of mind. He notified his General Manager. The American made the payment using his credit card. The GM called the credit card company in USA requesting the American’s details.

The credit card company refused to give the details. The GM then contacted the CEO of the concerned two-in-one company. He pleaded with him and said that the country’s prestige was at stake. The CEO of the electronics store then spoke to the CEO of the credit card company. After a lot of persuasion the CEO of the credit card company instructed his company’s officials to give the American’s details. The details included the American’s residential address and the landline number in USA.

The GM then got the details of the American from his wife. He also got to know the hotel’s address in Japan where the American was staying! And all this happened when the American was blissfully sleeping! The GM tendered an unconditional apology and said “Sir we are very sorry that your pleasure was spoilt. Please forgive us. We are giving you a $100 USD coupon that you can redeem in any of our stores across Japan”. The American was stunned at the level and the sincerity of the service rendered.

Customer delight is about creating an individual experience for every customer to enhance their relationship with your brand. It’s about creating a human interaction: Whether making a drink for someone, checking in on a current customer account, or relating to your customers as you would to your friends.

Network example: In the year 1988 I worked as a sales executive with Indian Communications Network Limited. Network was the market leader in the Electronic Typewriter Industry and it was well known for its salesmanship. Way back in 1988, we were marketing typewriters worth more than Rs 50,000 and it was a big success. Even our cheapest typewriter was over Rs 10,000/-.

On that eventful day, I was the office sales executive. Office sales executive is the backup. The city had many sales executives and the office sales person takes the place of the sales executive who is on leave or if all the sales executives are present then he is stationed in the office to take care of the walk-in prospects (walk-in prospects are customers who might walk into the office to buy a product).

A customer walked into the store in the evening. He was a well-built man with ripping muscles. He appeared to be quite knowledgeable and asked us intelligent questions. It was crystal clear that he was not a window shopper. We had to tread more carefully. May be this man meant business!

The prospect asked for a demonstration. I along with our stores-in-charge demonstrated the typewriter. We were still very skeptical. In those days a sale could not be transacted so easily. We had to struggle and make many sales calls and stretch for hours every month before we could get the dream document - the purchase order.

We had come to know, by that time that our prospect was a Superintendent of Police (SP) from a district in Andhra Pradesh. He was fond of technology and wanted an electronic typewriter to make his correspondence more professional and appealing. The SP quietly watched the demonstration and said “I will take it. How much does it cost?”

My heart skipped a beat. We have been struggling to get orders and here was a prospect who was dropping an order literally into my lap. I gave out the financials and he quietly listened. He never asked for any discount. We watched with an open mouth as he took out the entire amount in cash (usually customers paid us 10% in advance and the rest 90% after lot of persuasion). We quickly made out a purchase order and got it signed by him and handed him the receipt for the sale.

Things took an interesting turn. Our customer asked us as to when we could deliver. “Minimum 21 days are needed sir” I added. “Why do you need 21 days?” All our orders were booked directly to our factory in Noida. The machines were delivered directly from our Noida factory to the customers. Of course the consignment was taken by us (with authorisation from the customers) from the airport and we delivered to the customer.

“That’s a problem! Can you push it to 14 days? I have some urgent work”. I promised to try and followed it up with the head office. It was an uneventful fortnight and the SP promptly called on the 13th day which was a Wednesday. Luckily the machine had arrived. I told him that we would deliver and install the machine on Friday. “As you know sir tomorrow is Diwali and it is a holiday”. “That’s right” he said.

“But it would be nice if you can install it tomorrow itself, as I have to make a presentation to the District Collector. Try your best. I know that it is not possible, but that’s my need” the customer requested. By his voice I could make out that he was annoyed and upset. But he didn’t lose his cool and spoke very politely.

I went to my RM (Regional Manager) and explained him the situation. My Regional Manager could understand my predicament. “We love our customers at Network and we want to serve them at all times, but I am helpless,” said the Regional Manager. Diwali was the biggest festival of India and there was no person who was willing to work on a festival day. The problem was that the district was 250 kilometers away and the entire day would be spent in delivering and coming back to Hyderabad.

I volunteered to take care of the training. Electronic typewriters were considered to be technically advanced and all customers were trained in its usage. I went to the service department and explained the situation. A service engineer, Durga Prasad accepted the challenge and volunteered to take care of the installation.

On Diwali day we started off at 6am in the morning and took a train. Our day was very eventful. The SP was delighted by our gesture to install the typewriter on Diwali. We were given royal treatment. We installed the machine, trained the typist, and showed him how to make good presentations. The SP was overjoyed. We were dropped off at the railway station. It was almost 10 in the night when we reached Hyderabad.

Yes that Diwali had become a normal working day for me and Durga Prasad. But we had achieved something that will last for a life time. We had succeeded in delighting the customer who will remember us and our organization forever. Yes, we were the company that sacrificed our festivals so that our customer’s day would be joyful.

By:Dr M Anil Ramesh