Written By: Scott Koepf, Vice President of Strategic Development – Cruise Planners
When I ask the question ‘Why should I do business with you’ to travel agents, the most common response I get is that they will provide good customer service. It is an honest answer but just like customer service itself, the answer is not good enough.
There are two primary reasons I think ‘good customer service’ is not a compelling reason for anyone to choose to do business with you. First, the consumer expects good service as a minimum and to just deliver only what the customer expects will not create loyal customers or unending referrals. I have often said that while your sales figures are an important way to keep score and set goals in the game of retail travel, the best indication of your success as a travel agent can be measured by the number of customers who come back to you and how many referrals you are receiving.
Consumers today do not talk about businesses where they received good service because, once again, it is what was expected. If you eat out at a restaurant and the server was pleasant and brought you your food in a timely manner and did nothing wrong, you would not tell everyone you know that they met your expectations. However, if the server connected with you and added an entirely new and better dimension to what you would normally expect you will not only return but tell your friends. It is the same situation with our business. We must be memorable especially since the product we serve is so memorable in and of itself. In recounting their vacation, if the customer does not even mention the experience they had with you then your service, while good, was not good enough.
Nordstrom built their entire company on this philosophy. Nordstrom sells excellent products but when people talk about Nordstrom the emphasis is on the shopping and buying experience more than the product itself. Nordstrom knows the power of relationships in providing service and you have the same ability to exceed expectations.
However, that leads me to the second reason that good service is not good enough. When agents would tell me that they provide good service and that is why customers should seek them out, I follow with this question: ‘Can you specifically tell me what that good service is?’ I usually get a blank stare or some nebulous answers. So, I challenge you to write up all of things that you will do for your customer throughout the entire duration of your business relationship. Be detailed and specific. How many calls and when? What additional information are you going to provide? Once you have created your list then find how many things are different or better than if the consumer would have gone to another agent. Be honest, if most of the items on your list are pretty standard then you will not exceed expectations and will probably not create a loyal customer.
In many ways it is easier to recognize bad service and fix it than it is to improve on good service. I hope you do not aspire to a slogan coined by Dick Landis, a travel industry icon, for an unnamed airline ‘We are not happy until you are not happy!’ You probably do provide good service today but to take your business to the next level it is imperative to go way beyond good. The fourth husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor said’ I know what to do, I’m just not sure I can make it very interesting.’ You need to go beyond what needs to be done and make the experience of working with you beyond interesting to astonishing.