Your service is your reputation
Your reputation is built or destroyed by everyday interactions with your customers, says David McHattie, CEO, Customer Service Benchmarking
Customer service and the relationships you build with your existing customers determine your reputation - and social media gives you the reputation you deserve quicker than ever before.
Reputation is built or destroyed by everyday interactions in which customers decide whether the experience was enjoyed or endured, whether they will return and what they tell their friends.
Having appraised thousands of customer experiences against our benchmark questions we see a polarised picture.
Consider the results of just one question:
"On the basis of your experience how likely are you to recommend and to describe positive elements to others within the next week?"
â- The sector average is just above 70%
â- The best performers score 90%+.
Using the same question US author and strategist Fred Reichheld introduced the concept of Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
His research showed that only when scores of 90% and above were given would guests promote a business, while a score of less than 70% means the guest will be a detractor.
Net Promoter deducts the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to give a simple indication of loyalty and reputation development (or destruction). Our willingness to recommend scores converted to NPS show the performance gulf clearly:
â- The bottom 10% NPS is -92 - demonstrating rapid reputation destruction
â- The best performers NPS is over 70 - growing advocacy and reputation, hitting the highs of Amazon (70.33) and Apple (78.35).
Customers weigh up experiences on an emotional level.
Do they care if you didn't do a table check? Of course not, but they are less likely to return and recommend if your team fail to be warm and welcoming.
REPUTATION: MY SIX TIPS
1 Know what your customers think of you today and how you compare to others.
2 Have a vision for the experience you will deliver to your customers.
3 Make sure your team know their role.
4 Build systems and processes that support the team in delivering excellent experiences.
5 Reward and recognise success using customer satisfaction as the key metric.
6 Have a social media strategy - social media is word of mouth on steroids.
