The six elements of good customer service/experience – The definition of “Good Customer Service/Experience” Keeps Expanding

Let’s assume that you deliver a good product or service…

I have written in the past that good customer service/experience requires three elements:

• be competent
• be nice
• be fast

It’s time to add some more elements to the formula.

Now, good customer service also has to include these elements:

• be simple (i.e., easy to understand and execute)
• be convenient; hassle-free

And, we might also have to add this element:

• be creatively “additive” – in other words, these days there have to be good “I wasn’t expecting these added bonuses” elements to good customer service.

The “be simple” (easy to understand and execute) element is demonstrated by some innovations in real estate transactions. Recently, in the Dallas Morning News, A Passion for Learning (print edition, 6/26/16), there was an item about how Virginia Cook Realtors uses the new generation of zip forms, and trains its professionals to use them for maximum advantage. Here’s a brief account of a successful “win” for Lori Sparks of Virginia Cook Realtors:

She was taught how to prepare and transmit documents much faster. “I was taking way too much time. I learned how to integrate documents and auto-populate contracts.” The result: Her clients’ offer got in before others and was accepted.

And the “be creatively additive” element was so very obvious at a recent night at Globe Life Park to watch another winning effort by the Texas Rangers. I thought back to my early years watching baseball games in person. Back then, we watched… the game. Just the game. Now, in between innings, before the game, after the game, with giant-screen tvs, participation from young children on up, there is something to watch every minute that the game is not being played. Many of these additive elements cost the Rangers some money, I’m sure. But the overall package is a night of fun for all.

Here’s a simple reminder: getting by on the “bare minimum” will not cut it. You have to excel at all of the elements, and then you have to keep innovating…

So, here are the six current elements:

• be competent
• be nice
• be fast
• be simple
• be convenient
• be additive

And, coming soon, I’m sure there will be a seventh element, and then an eighth, and then…