No business without
customers.
How to find and retain
customers through better
service?
Ene Seidla and Hanno Jarvet
www.hal.ee

No business without
customers.
How to find and retain
customers through better
service?
Ene Seidla and Hanno Jarvet
www.hal.ee

Not up to us = we can’t change
The customer has a right to be
• Obnoxious
• Prejudiced
• Ill-mannered
• Not interested in you, your products,
procedures or constraints
• Self-centered

Not up to us = we can’t change
Environment
• Financial environment
• What our competitors do
• Media coverage
• Bad weather

Levels of Service Enterprises
Advanced
“Who would
Medium you like to
“How do you become?”
want it?”
Basic:
“What do
you want?”
/…R. Kaufman/

“What do you want?”
www.hal.ee

“What do you want?”
• “What do you want?”
Question:
• “Product X, quantity Y, time Z”
Answer:
• Focus: Right 1st time, ISO 9000, 0-defect
• Ideology: Volume, speed, standards, price
advantage
• Breakdowns: Eliminate
• Mindset: The customer is the source of pain
and problems
• Training: Accuracy, Procedures (“Same
procedure, as every year, James”)
• Goal: Customer Satisfaction

“How do you want it?”
www.hal.ee

“How do you want it?”
• “How do you want it?”
Question:
• “My way!”
Answer:
• Focus: Flexible, adaptable
• Ideology: Customize, reengineer
• Breakdowns: Overcome
• Mindset: We will go out of
our way for you
• Training: Solving problems, listening skills,
getting to yes!
• Goal: Customer delight

“Who you would like to
become?”

“Who you would like to become?”
“Who you would like to become?”
• Question:
• “Lets sit down and talk.”
Answer:
• Focus: Rapport, trust, dialogue
• Ideology: Customerize, reinvent, innovation
• Breakdowns: Anticipate
• Mindset: Your problems are our concerns
• Training: Partnerships, intrapreneurship
• Goal: Customer loyalty

Self Positioning in Service
Self Positinoning

Service is a game/event
Goal: creating experiences

When do customers “fall”?
• Not noticing the customer
• “That is not my job...”
• No apologies
• “Our processes...”
• Justifying, making excuses
• Trying to blame someone else
• Demand to be understood
• Not taking seriously
• No visual effort
• No explaination, what/why?
• Clerks talking with each other
• Talking about other customers

Service = Creating experiences
Levels of customer experiences - Examples
Basic – The plane is at the gate, crew is on board, doors open, lights on
Expected – The plane is clean, flight attendants are at the door
Desired – Flilght attendants smile, make eye-contact, greet
Surprising – Flight attendants make small talk, notice your problems and
special wishes
Unbelievable – You are greeted by name, your habits/preferences are
known and anticipated
/…R. Kaufman/

Common customer feedback

Depends only on us
• First 30 seconds
– Eye contact
– Synchronizing the body language (standing
up, meeting and greeting)
– Sincere greeting
– Active listening
– First answers
– Demonstrating to the customer his problem is
worth lilstening to

Depends only on us
• Showing your effort
• Calling them by their name
• Recognition
• Remembering behavior/habits/preferences
• A feeling of mutual partnership
• Explaining (“Is it okay if I ask a few
questions?”)
• Originality, your own personal style

Depends only on us
• Apologizing
– Not explaining/justifying!
– Not saying “I told you so”
– Apologizing without the word “BUT”
• Making up
– Visible effort to straighten things out
– A little gift
– Follow–up to make sure all is well

Depends only on us
• Surprising
– Doing more, than is expected of you
– More than the customer expected – satisfaction
is a moving target
– Gifts
– Remembering anniversaries
– Creativity and devotion

Most customers do not distinguish
between the service and the product
• Service without:
– Eye contact
– Customers name
– Physical contact
Typical customer reaction:
“Bad system”
“The product is difficult to understand”
“Uncomfortable facilities”
“The service was OK”

Most customers do not distinguish
between the service and the product
• Service with:
– Eye contact
– Customers name
– Physical contact
Typical customer reaction:
“Good system”
“The product is easy to understand”
“Comfortable facilities”
“The service was OK”

Service experiences are subjective
• “Someone finally understood
me.”
• “What a fantastic
company!”
• “It was horrible!”
• “A useless company!”

More?
• Do leave a comment.
• Pass it on. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-
Commercial-Non-Derivative License. Visit creativecommons.org for more
details.
• Visit http://www.hal.ee to learn more about HAL Consult.
• Visit our blog: http://halkoolitus.blogspot.com
• Want to hear us give this talk live? Interested in learning more? Drop us a line:
• Email: ene@hal.ee or hanno@hal.ee
• Twitter: twitter.com/hannojarvet