WoW 'em

Word's of Wisdom on Customer Service:

Welcome to this week's business insight by Shep Hyken. This
week's insight is titled:

The "Wow" Factor

This is a powerful one. You may have recently noticed a number
of books and articles about a concept called the "Wow" factor.
Many consultants and business experts have been talking about
this for years, but it was probably Tom Peters who really brought
it to the forefront.

The "Wow!" factor boils down to one thing; not just meeting, but
exceeding the expectations of the customer. In short, the basic
idea is to bring the element of surprise into your business. The
concept of Wow! yells out, "Surprise! Aren't you glad you
decided to do business with me!"

A couple of years ago I bought my wife a new car. Normally the
quest for purchasing a new car is not one I look forward to, and
this time was no exception. However, to my surprise, the
experience was great, and the follow-up even greater. The owner
of the dealership knew I was surprising my wife with the car. He
called the next day, on a Sunday, to see how she liked the
surprise. Wow! A few days later we received a thank you note
and a fruit basket. Wow!

Bill Gates, multi-billionaire and chairman of Microsoft, recently
wrote a book on the future of technology, The Road Ahead.
Surprise! The book included a CD with the entire book and more
on it to be popped into your nearest computer. He predicts that
books on CD ROM will be the norm in the future. And shouldn't
his book "practice what it preaches." If you travel with a
laptop computer that has a CD ROM drive you don't have to even
take the book with you. Just take the disk and read from the
screen. Wow!

A few years ago I bought some fruit baskets from Harry and David
for some of my clients. Harry and David is a high-end catalog
retailer that sells food through the mail. One day the mail came
and I was surprised to find a gift box from Harry and David. I
couldn't wait to open it to find out who sent me this delicious
box of chocolate truffles. Surprise! It was a gift from Harry
and David saying thank you for doing business with them. Wow!

The list of examples can go on and on. The "Wow" comes from,
"Surprise! You weren't expecting this, were you?" How can you
build this into your marketing and business strategy? It doesn't
always have to be something tangible that might cost a lot of
money. It can be a follow up phone call or a simple thank you
note. It is meant to make the client feel good about doing
business with you. I remember getting a phone call from a
restaurant that some friends and I had been to the night before.
I wondered why they would be calling me. Did I leave my credit
card there? No, they just wanted to follow up with me to make
sure I had a great meal and experience at their restaurant.
That's all. Wow!

Copyright © 2004– Shep Hyken, Shepard Presentations

Shep Hyken, CSP is a professional speaker and author who works
with organizations who want to build loyal relationships with
their customers and employees. For more information on Shep's
speaking programs, books and tapes contact (314)692-2200 or
Shep@hyken.com. (www.hyken.com)

Shepard Presentations, LLC
711 Old Ballas Road, Suite 215
St. Louis, MO 63141

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