All ArticlesQuick Answer:
Exceptional customer service comes from what John DiJulius calls Secret Service: low-cost, behind-the-scenes systems that capture customer intelligence — buying habits, history, personal preferences — and feed it to frontline employees through silent cues and visual triggers, so they can anticipate and deliver on needs the customer never expressed. Done consistently, it makes price irrelevant: customers stop comparing you to the competition.
What Secret Service Looks Like
We would like to introduce to you our guest blogger, John DiJulius. John is a Customer Service Speaker, Author, and Consultant. He is coined “THE authority on world-class customer service.” John’s blog today is about the secret behind great execution that delivers exceptional customer service. Learn more about John and The DiJulius Group.
Delivering exceptional customer service results in making price irrelevant, thus delivering stronger revenues and profits. It takes great execution to achieve this. I call this Secret Service. By executing Secret Service consistently, it is possible for your organization to make price irrelevant: based on the experience your customers consistently receive, they have no idea what your competition charges.
Secret Service systems should not add cost or complexity to your organization. 
Secret Service systems are what we call low-hanging fruit; they must meet the following criteria:
- Low or no cost
- Simple to execute consistently
- Make an immediate impact on the customer
Implement hidden systems that deliver remarkable customer service.
These systems obtain customer intelligence and utilize it to personalize the customer’s experience, leaving the customers to ask themselves: "Wow... how did they do that?" or "Wow... they really care about me that much?" To achieve this WOW, you need to execute with behind-the-scenes systems that employees use to anticipate and deliver on the unexpressed needs of the customer by using a system of silent cues, visual triggers, and visual aids. Use your encounters with customers to learn and capture data about their preferences (i.e., buying habits, purchasing history, referrals, personal preferences, where they live or work). This is the customer insight that fuels your Secret Service process with:
- Silent cues
- Visual triggers
- Detectives
It takes great execution to capitalize on this opportunity. The opportunity is to channel this customer insight to frontline employees and help them create memorable experiences that take customer engagement to an unexpected level by:
- Engaging the customer
- Personalizing their experience
- Remembering and using their preferences
- Distinguishing between new, returning, and VIP customers
- Anticipating and delivering on their unexpressed needs
The results that we have seen from many of our clients are:
- Stronger relationships with their customers
- Increased emotional capital and brand equity with their customers
- Turned their customers into brand evangelists
- Made price less relevant to their customers
Superior Customer Service is a key differentiator.
That's what gets you remarkable customer service that makes your customers want to come back for more in ways that your competition cannot duplicate. This is a strategy that thousands of businesses incorporate today as their value proposition, differentiating themselves from their competitors and making superior customer service their point of difference.
John DiJulius
John has helped organizations build world-class customer and employee experiences. He is the best-selling author of six books and the founder and Chief Revolution Officer of The DiJulius Group.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.