Often it’s the little things that make a big difference in creating Make-You-Happy Customer Service. It’s the difference between making your client fill out all the paperwork, or doing most of it for them. In retail it can be as simple as telling the customer to “walk this way” and going with them to find what they are looking for instead of telling them which aisle to go to. In any environment just doing slightly more than anyone else is willing to do will make you stand out. Thirty-five years ago when I used to go around to retail store and sell label guns it was not only making repairs in the field but showing the client how to keep the labeler working smoothly so they didn’t waste time.
A client of ours Rolf Williams, with Jerrol’s Book and Office Supply, trains his staff to walk the client to the item while asking what they’re working on. They have a lot of people working on arts and crafts coming into the store. Rolf says more times than not this leads to sales of other products. https://www.jerrols.com/
So, not only does doing the little things lead to customer service that creates happy clients, it often leads to sales right then and there.
I discuss this idea in my book The Happy Customer Handbook. You can get it for free at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com. I just ask that you pay $2.97 to help with shipping and handling.
Secret #34 in the book is Do Macro and Micro Well. When I talk about doing the macro and micro well, I mean doing the big things well, but also doing the little things well. Disney is an excellent example of this.
For instance, Disney does big things like, ‘creating a new theme park’ incredibly well. Their Animal Kingdom is an example of doing a big thing well. That’s doing the macro well – – the easy to see things. But what about the micro… the small things? If you’ve ever been to a Disney theme park you’ve seen this in action.
Disney theme parks are among the cleanest places on earth. Everything is picked up – almost spotlessly 24/7. That’s one example of doing the micro well. I use many Disney examples in our Customer Service training at American Retail Supply so our team knew about litter and Disneyland when a number of us went to the park together.
At Disneyland, a piece of litter is on the ground for only about three minutes before it is picked up. One time, while we were in Los Angeles for a trade show, our sales team went to Disneyland. While in line for Star Tours, I saw a piece of litter way in the back behind some of the props. I told one of our sales reps, ‘I bet they don’t get that in three minutes.’ We rode the ride and when we were done, we saw the line was gone so we ran around to ride again. As we ran through the line the second time, I saw the piece of litter was gone. That’s doing the micro well!
Here’s another Disney example of doing the micro well. Let’s say you go to Disneyworld in the morning, park your car, and take off for the theme park. Before you even enter the theme park, you are going to be told seven different times where you parked. They don’t want you to come out at the end of the day frustrated because you can’t find your car.
But what if you still forget where your car is? What happens then? You might go to a Disney employee (cast member) and say, ‘I can’t find my car,’ or maybe a Disney cast member will see you wandering around and say, ’Having trouble finding your car?’
The Disney cast member will then ask if you know the approximate time you arrived that morning. He’ll then look at his log and find out where they were parking people at that time. You’re going to find out that you were in ‘Pluto’ in aisle ‘J or K’. And then he’s going to run you over there in his little cart and help you find your car. That’s doing the micro well.
Do the big things well in your business, but don’t miss the small things. Often the little things really make the difference. Can you imagine how frustrated you would be if, after a long day at Disneyland, it took you two hours to find your car? Versus wandering around for ten or fifteen minutes and someone helps you find your car in a way that would probably not happen anywhere else on earth. You would tell dozens of people about your experience.
What does this have to do with Fly Fishing? One day I told Travis that just about everything in fly fishing and marketing (I put customer service under marketing) relate and he gave me the same look I got when he was in high school. The, “Ya sure old man” look.
Doing the micro well is an absolute must in fly fishing. If you’re not a fly fisherman you might think that bait fishing (sitting in a boat fishing) and fly fishing are a lot alike. The reality is most fly fishers are a bit anal retentive and often bait fisherman like to just sit back and wait for the fish to bite. I have ADD and the ADD works well with fly fishers because you have to be detailed and always looks for the next thing. So if you’re anal retentive and ADD like me, but need a way to relax try fly fishing.
To give you the idea of the detail you need to for fly fishing, one day while fishing the fish were feeding all around me. I literally saw 3 or 4 round circles on the water’s surface from fish eating little teeny bugs. I tried everything in my bag and I couldn’t catch anything. Finally I was to the smallest little bug in my bag and still nothing. Finally I tried snipping off the tiny tail off my tiny bug. The tail was no bigger that the bottom of the y in this y… and BAM. The very first cast I hooked an 18 incher and caught about 6 more before they quit eating.
Be sure to take care of the little things. They can often make a big difference. Learn more about doing the micro well in my book The Happy Customer Handbook. You can get it for free at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com. I just ask that you pay $2.97 to help with shipping and handling.
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