Wow Your Clients, Keep Your Clients

quote:http://www.game4boss.com/Article/59.htm

He went to his chest of drawers to fetch his one pair of cuff links-and found them gone. They had been left behind at a hotel on a business trip the previous week. Panicked-with dreadful visions of paper clips in his shirt cuffs-he called Seattle's downtown Nordstrom's department store and explained his crisis to Sandy, the clerk in the men's department who answered his call.
Sandy was just coming off shift, and had plans for the evening, but duty called. She located some cuff links that would suit her customer, finished her shift, and drove to her customer's house to make the delivery. A lifelong Nordstrom adherent was made. Rob now goes out of his way to buy from Nordstrom. Nordstrom's customer service has nearly gained legend status. The upscale department store has created a service culture that gets customers and keeps customers.
Customer satisfaction is inversely proportional to the size of the gap between what your clients expect to get from you and what they actually receive. A large negative gap-they got a lot less than they expected-creates very little or no satisfaction. A large positive gap does the exact opposite: When you WOW them with way more than they anticipated, they become raving fans. Make sure you set appropriate expectations in all your communications with your clients. If anything, err on the conservative side in order to keep the gap on the positive side.