Do you have a place where customers can sing your praises on your website? Or do you have everything set up on your website for customer complaints? Both need to be planned for. But one needs to be expected more. What are you expecting more of? Are you offering customer service that makes your customers go wow?
As I sat down for supper with Roy Atkinson, one of the top customer service guys in IT and customer service, I shared a principle that was once shared with me by Debbie Lawrence. Debbie asked me… “Are you playing to win, or are you playing to fail?”
This is an important question to answer in business. Unfortunately many businesses are playing to fail, and sabotaging themselves all along the way. They think of ways why they cannot succeed. They plan for failure. And when it comes to customer service, they expect more people to complaints than customer praises.
Roy told me he liked my website testimonial page because it focused on praise. He also shared a story on how hard it was for him to praise a company that had delivered some super customer service. He could not find any place to leave some praise on the company website. And when he called, the people at the business could not figure out how to handle the praise either. It was like they had not planned for it at all. Can you imagine a business or a company not knowing how to handle praise?
So let me please ask you these questions… “Do you have a place on your website where people can sing your praise?” Have you planned a place for this? Do you expect that more people will want to sing your praises than not?”
This whole concept of praise strikes at the very core of company leadership. It flows all the way to the bottom of the organization as well. What the leadership thinks, believes and expects determines the attitude of everyone in the company or business. When people expect praise, they work hard to achieve it. It’s the natural result of what they do on a daily basis. When employees focus on failure, they expect to drop the ball with the customer. So what do you expect from your customer service people? Are you making them winners or failures?
Just imagine the power of putting a praise box on your testimonial page? Imagine everyone in your organization planning for praise and success? Imagine an attitude in the company planning for great results? Imagine what customers would think when they saw the praise box? That little praise box could be the start of something big.
Let me ask you this question, do you have a praise box for your customers? Are you working hard to achieve customer compliments? I am a firm believer that you get what you prepare for. Prepare for praise.
