Why (and How) to Put Your Customers at the Center of Your Decisions

Shep Hyken sits down with his close friend, colleague and customer service expert Buddy Rice. They discussed how he helped Delta Airlines with their customer service culture, what customers are really looking for, and the RATER service quality model.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:
•Customers aren’t always looking for money or a “yes” to fix their problems. They want a professional that can give them options and solutions to their specific issues.
•In certain industires, especially in the airline industry, people are willing to pay extra to be guaranteed better levels of comfort.
•Empowered companies have employees with the ability to make a decision that’s right for the customer. If you put the customer at the center of your decision, you cannot go wrong.
•RATER is an acronym and model that can help you measure and improve service quality. It stands for:
•Reliability: Getting it right the first time
•Assurance: Keeping your word
•Tangibles: Giving your products/services the best look and feel
•Empathy: Understanding and caring about people
•Responsiveness: Having a sense of urgency
•Creating an organizational mission statement starts at the top with the leadership. The six-step process of creating a vision can be described by The Six D’s, which are:
•Define: Leadership defines it
•Disseminate: Tell everybody
•Deploy: Train people on that vision, and constantly train them over them over and over again.
•Demonstrate: The leadership is the role model
•Defend it: If somebody or a group is out of alignment
•Delight: Celebrate it
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