Avionics News September 2015 - 47

DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU SHOULD BE SIMPLE AND
EFFICIENT, AND YOUR SERVICE SHOULD BE DESIGNED TO
MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR CUSTOMERS, NOT YOUR SHOP.

ANYTHING ELSE POTENTIALLY
CAUSES EMOTION- SUCKING HASSLE.
The bad news with that strategy is customers are easy to sway
away by anyone who offers only incrementally better service
than you. And they're your customers - you paid for them - so
it makes sense to use a little creativity to stay ahead of the game,
according to Callinan.
In between, it gets more complicated. Consumer research
suggests that customers' opinions are biased toward judging the
last interaction they had with a business, and not just their first
impression, according to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing,
so it's a never-ending process. What's more, customers who are
"extremely satisfied" with service delivery come in two groups:
those rationally satisfied, and those emotionally satisfied. Emotion carries much more weight when it comes to advocating for
your shop, according to Rick Sidorowicz of The CEO Refresher,
and it's those customers who literally fall in love with your shop
who are your biggest fans - and who spend more, work with you
more frequently, and are less likely to jump ship for another offer. To do that, you need to touch their emotions even more than
you soothe their brains. That's where the "wow" comes into play.
Enabling delight
Making it happen, though, will require you to take a look at
how your avionics shop serves its customers and finds opportunities to shine. Here are seven potential ways to manage the
customer experience to build a shop that will make most customers happy.
1. Pay attention to your customers. Listen closely (or ask
directly), and they'll tell you what they want and expect, both
emotionally and rationally.
Of course, in general terms, they want a fair price, good
value, honesty, a positive relationship, and satisfaction, and
they look to your employees - from the person answering the
phone to whomever delivers the finished airplane - for advice,
reliable information, efficiency, and even empathy and appreciation, according to Evanne Schmarder, author of Unconventional Wisdom Works. Yet each of these means something else
to different people.
Likewise, customers use a variety of channels - such as word

of mouth, online reviews, or your website for education, or social
media, collateral and bid materials, and your shop's look and feel
for selection - to create a snapshot of "experience" with your
business that they measure against those expectations.
2. Map your service path. Chart every one of those interactions, or touch points, your customers could possibly have with
you - including where the relationship starts before the sale and
stops afterward - so you can control the experience at each touch
point and make captivating moments. Make note, too, of every
department that has a role in these steps.
Then describe the emotions your process creates in customers. You'll want to make that emotional reaction deliberate rather
than accidental. To do so, define what the customer experience
you want to deliver looks (and feels) like, how you could measure success, and who, from a supervisory level, needs to help
shape service delivery, according to Shaw.
3. Embrace hot spots. These touch points are the ones you
identify that most shape your customers' emotional response to
your service, according to Callinan. These are often make-orbreak interactions, so know where they occur for each customer
segment, and plan a strategy that helps customers pass through
them positively. Simply deliver, and you'll satisfy the customer;
miss the mark, and you'll disappoint; but over deliver at these,
and you'll start to create a fan, according to Schmarder.
4. Manage expectations. As far as the customer is concerned,
his expectations are like little promises, according to Schmarder.
If you can't meet an expectation - or if it's unrealistic - you have
to clarify this.
At the most basic level, this involves "under promising
and over delivering." Be modest about your guarantees so
you blow him out of the water with your results, according to Callinan.
At a more tactical level, discuss with the customer what
he can expect so you're both on the same page. This is
important because he'll come to you with service bias;
he's paying "a lot" of money, and he expects "a lot" of
Continued on following page
avionics news

september

2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News September 2015