Our small town has two grocery stores. While some things cost less in the larger 'super market' than they do in the small store down the road, I'm willing to pay a little extra because of the way I'm treated as soon as I walk through the door. My experience has value and it has me going back again and again.

More and more businesses are learning the experience, regardless of price or quality of goods, has become the new benchmark for customer loyalty. According to one study*, satisfaction (finding what you need) represents a small part of what customers want and accounts for only 14% of the total experience. 80% reported they want to feel confident and reassured as well as have a 'sense of delight'! In other words people want to have positive emotional experience.

While many businesses espouse a quality customer experience, few deliver. In the same study, 51% of consumers say they feel apprehensive, nervous, worried or mistrusting as they enter a customer experience.

Successful businesses know that good customer care begins by taking good care of the people who work there.

First, no one can give what they don't have. Quality customer care starts by giving employees what they need to take care of themselves. Technical skills alone aren't enough. Helping employees develop a new level of mental and emotional management, especially at stressful times (an angry customer!), is an essential aspect of showing care for employees.

Second, employees must demonstrate care for each other. The care you want extended to customers must be modeled in the organization's day-to-day operations so that it becomes part of the working experience and culture.

Third, there's a huge difference between required courtesy and sincere care: Simply saying the right thing versus feeling it! Helping employees develop more caring qualities enables them to bring more importance, authenticity and consistency to the customer's experience.

Whether your 'customers' are in the next department or half way around the world, adding more care is a good capital investment, human and other wise!

Take care,
Kim Allen

*Research by Richmond Events LITD, commissioned for the Marketing Forum 2002.

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