We've discussed what Customer Excellence is and is why it is worth the effort. Today I want to show you how to build customer excellence into your organization.

As with most things we discuss on this blog, customer excellence is pretty simple. It can be pretty difficult to implement in the chaos that business is. But it is very doable. You've just got to get four things right.

1. Measurement - If you can't measure it, you're just guessing. And you have no way to know if you're winning. Both are recipes for disaster. Unfortunately, many companies are still struggling to accurately measure customer engagement and satisfaction.

Companies that do measure well often struggle to act on the information they gather. There is little worse than having someone ask for your opinion and then ignore it. In future blogs, we will dive into how to create a system of measurement and response for your organization. This system will allow your organization to continuously learn, grow and adapt to your customer needs, resulting in your customers becoming raving fans of your organization. 

2. Segmentation - No two customers are the same, but they do tend to gather in bunches! We can't know the needs every single, distinct customer but we can lump them into groups that are generally impressed by the same things. Do they want a phone call to ask for their input or a text? Do they like to buy in-person, on the web or via the phone?

The differing generational preferences are pretty staggering today. Most likely your company serves multiple generations and must show them customer love the way they will best receive it.

3. Listening - Listening well is a blend of measurement and segmentation. Listening answers the question of how you will "hear" from each of your customer segments, manage that data and respond in a way that drives customer engagement. "Listening Posts" include customer service hot lines, differing survey methods, online customer forums, focus groups and social media.

4. Comparing - Also known as benchmarking. It doesn't matter how high your customer satisfaction rates are if your competitor's scores squash yours. You will still lose! We are all prone to see ourselves through rose colored glasses. If we didn't, we'd just spend all day beating ourselves up. We are terrible judges of ourselves. That is why we must compare ourselves to our competition and to industry leaders who aren't even competitors.

How good is your business at each of these four critical pieces of customer excellence? If you are falling short on a few, don't worry. We will give you specific examples and methods to excel at each in upcoming posts.

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