Amazing Customer Service

A few years ago a book was released that talked about the fifth stage of brand promise: amazement. First, you have to lead the employees through the stages to the final amazement stage before they can lead customers. The author describes Ace Hardware as fulfilling the brand promise. He cites several examples of employees going above and beyond to amaze their customers. Other companies can do this too. It takes leadership, a unrelenting focus on customer service creating a culture that's customer-centric, striving for competitive edge and creating a sense of community internally and externally.

You can probably cite your own examples of good and bad service.

A lot of these experiences are driven by service by design. Recently, I had to replace a wet/dry vacuum's filters. I went to my local Ace Hardware (only by coincidence). They carried the filter brand I needed. But what was amazing to me was that the brand didn't have umpteen thousand styles. They had one type of filter that fit every machine for the past 30 years. Are you kidding me? One filter style? You mean, in three decades, some engineers were rebuffed when they thought they had a better size or mounting mechanisms? The company controlled its brand by making it easier for its customers to replace their filters by maintaining the same design for several generations of users. Besides being good for the end user, it was also good for the hardware store. They didn't have to have a zillion versions in their inventory, and more importantly were less likely to disappoint their customers if they were out of stock for a particular make/model's filter. It was a win-win-win.

Now that's amazing customer service.