Brand loyalty ... construction or destruction through the service and value

How strong is your brand? Can your brand survive poor service or poor value? How to use it or lose customers value perception opportunities tell a lot about your leadership style.

Each point of view it or contact employees have with customers is the ability to increase or decrease the perceived value of your customers to do business with you. The key idea here is the perceived value. No matter how important it is believe to customer service to be, is nothing more than a conduit for the perceived value of the customer.

The crucial question to you, "You're wrapping, or wasted, opportunities to provide perceived value to your customers?" Too many business people today simply focus on customer service, believing mistakenly that the service is the end of the game. Also could be further from the truth. Providing customer value perceived is the end game for successful businesses of today.

A few years ago, I delivered a full-day workshop for the partnership management team of a national brand hotel in downtown San Diego. The hotel Executive Lead stated intention to raise the average room night by about 12 percent. He suggested that the best service to customers was to increase the response rates for night stay.

To the amazement Hotel Executive, I told her group that customer service was not the answer. In the hotel business, this is sacrilege! The customer service is simply a conduit to provide perceived value. I continued to tell the group that their response was to increase the perceived value of their customers to keep their property. And 'the value for the customer amplified perceived that it would build brand equity and give their guests a reason to pay more.

Regardless of industry, every interaction with a customer is an opportunity for you to increase or decrease the perceived value of you, your service or product, and your brand. The important issue on which you should focus is the fact that reality is equal to a conversation they have with yourself about yourself. What are your customers saying to themselves about you, your location and your brand? What is their reality?

Making the point

This idea applies to any company that wishes to go beyond the traditional commercial activities towards building lasting business relationships. As a professional speaker, I often have the opportunity to visit New Orleans. Due to conferences, I usually stay in or around the French Quarter - often at the Sheraton.

A year ago, in New Orleans, I attended a convention of a group of which I am a member. This trip, I was across the street from the convention site, a property of the national mark that had not yet visited. Since I was there for five nights, I've had enough interaction with the hotel staff to use this opportunity to stay as an example of perceived value - have tried and lost.

For simplicity, I created a scoring system from my visit where I award a positive or negative to each of the areas of great value hotel's perception of opportunities. While my example is a hotel stay, you can easily apply this kind of scoring system for your business, no matter the industry. Apply this idea to the system for enterprise silos where customers have contact with people and the systems in your organization.

Room Rate

The room rate negotiated with the hotel association has ended up being not less than 75% higher than comparable hotels in the quarter for the same period. Although this is not the fault of the structure, the hotel management should be aware that many of the participants knew that they were paying more to stay at the hotel site and support the association. Many knew they could stay at the Ritz Carlton no more than two blocks away, and stayed for much less.

As such, the management could have and should have, made an effort to balance the problem of perceived value with a gift basket inexpensive room, drink vouchers or some other value-added concept. These ideas are not expensive and would only cost the hotel wholesale and retail. Thus providing a high perceived value for guests in a low exposure to the cost. If you load more competition for a product or a similar service, what to do to increase your customers' perception of the total value of your package? What do you do to justify in the minds of your customers, the cost has increased over the competition? Unfortunately, this hotel has done absolutely nothing. For the first opportunity to perceived customer value, the hotel I assign a negative.

Guest Arrival

When I arrived at noon at the hotel, there was a bell person in sight to help me with my luggage so I just took the taxi myself. On this occasion, the perception of value, even if the hotel management knew the flow of arrival for the day and that many participants were paying a much higher price than the Internet and the current price special city, the management chose not to plan further assistance bell staff arriving for the conference participants.

If you know a busy time or challenging approaches, we plan, implement and run the situation is imminent? Or, take the business as usual approach? If you do not plan, implement and run, your clients' mental conversation with yourself about who you will definitely be a bad thing. For the second opportunity for the customer perceived value, the hotel I assign a negative.

Check-In

At the registration desk of this hotel national brand, luckily there was a lot of help in order to check-in went quickly and without complications - as it should. Moreover, the woman who assisted me was able to accommodate my request for position without problems. For the third opportunity perceived customer value, the hotels have a positive reward.

The sizing of the positive opportunities is what every company wants to hear from its customers. But at this point, the hotel has twice as many negative as positive rewards. In this regard, the world of providence, it usually takes to overcome a ten guys Atta Ah Shucks, and each negative one is Ah Shucks.

Cleaning

The second day of my visit, after being away all day, I had to call in late afternoon for cleaning my room cleaned and prepared as a basic service that had been overlooked. Later that evening when I returned to my room, I again had to call the waitress neglected as a clean room by replacing packet of coffee for the next morning. When a customer requires the organization to meet their own expectations of base-level service, it makes no sense to make sure it is done well? Perhaps you might also want to make just a little extra? New Orleans is the home of lanyap, in the sense of giving a little extra. The next day was a repetition of the previous, as I had to call back in the late afternoon to get my room clean.

You should learn from their mistakes and not repeat the same mistake two opportunities to perceived value in a row? To add to my strong feelings of being ignored by the experience of the night before, the next morning, the last morning of my stay, the maid knocks at my door (to see if I had checked) I rudely awakening. It is why we have a computer system? Unable to communicate with the front desk cleaning? Do you have unused capacity, possibly because it takes a bit 'of time in serving your customers? How could your technological capabilities to better serve your customers and help them have a more positive conversation with themselves about the value you deliver? To have to call two days in a row and being so rudely awakened, I cleaned a negative premium.

Bell Desk Staff

While the staff of the bell that was missing on my arrival, I see that as a programming problem. Most other times seemed to be present and very useful. One day, during my visit, I returned to the hotel with several boxes of beads for an evening. The concierge was very helpful in helping me in my room with boxes. Moreover, when he realized that I had several more boxes that had to be transported to another place that evening, he suggested I contact the Bell Captain and a request for additional hotel car to transport my things the couple of blocks. I took his suggestion, the car was given and the bellman was very helpful. The bellboy who rewarded with a tip of $ 40 for his effort. It 'was a great experience! The only thing that the first delivery boy would have done better was to organize the machine itself. But, I do not blame him for not doing this because chatting with the bellman, I read between the lines and understand hotel policy were involved. The bell staff assign positive.

Banquet Staff Interaction

Unfortunately, during my stay, most of my interaction with the staff banquet hotel was much less desirable. From the arrogant behavior of a banquet supervisor for the behavior of a very rude bartender event, the sign of the value lost completely. I could not believe my eyes when a bartender event was more interested in chatting on a cell phone so interested in serving myself and the other participants - this is an extremely ready for the possibility of improvement through better staff training.

Think, for conferences held at the hotel, participants usually have more interaction with staff banquet of all other departments. Or, in a retail situation, it is the employees who work the sales floor, or in the distribution are the customer service representatives. The lowest paid in the front line employees have a major influence in how customers perceive and then determine the value of your organization offers. While it may be unfair to the scores of servers for this nationally recognized brand that has done an acceptable value for this opportunity, I award banquet staff negatively.

Hotel Management

My early interaction with the hotel management had been rather positive. Unfortunately, the last evening at the hotel was distinctive and indelible mark in my mind forever. The sad fact of the matter is that it was easily preventable.

On this trip, I took my 18-year-old son together so you can enjoy the French Quarter of New Orleans to hand first. This evening, I happened to go to my room to fetch something. When I arrived in the room, my son was standing outside. He could not enter the room because a door was locked. After being on hold for over ten minutes, he twice called the desk to ask for help getting this useless room door unlocked.

Why do I say this situation was avoidable because the hotel has a door down the hall that was being used as the gateway for the last two single rooms in a situation as a suites. But, when the premises were sold individually, none of the two bedrooms have access to unlock the outer door - rocket scientist who made this decision? The hotel management simply decided it was best to leave the door open, but do not encode individual room key card to gain access. Do not you know - the door was pushed closed somehow causing my child and was refused entry to our room.

When my son told me of the situation, I also called the front desk asking for assistance. We waited another 10 minutes, but no help had arrived. Being a person based solution I took a new approach. I called the front desk again and told them that I would have to sound the fire alarm, if nobody cared enough to come and give me access to my room. Surprisingly, it worked. A security person immediately came out of nowhere with an electric release devise.

Why do I have to resort to threats to get people to simply do their job in a timely manner? Moreover, not as I work, the need to become aggressive basically ruined my last evening at the conference. To the credit of the security of the person who did open the outer door, offered me dinner for my troubles. As I was leaving the next morning, offering zero value created for me. At this point, however, his offer was just not good enough.

I asked the security guard to call the night manager to the room. And the effect, I asked the security guard to stay, telling him that I might not be able to control myself. The mine, to effect the strategy did not work. When the night manager arrived, he spent more time telling me that the hotel was full and that they were understaffed and that is why their service was so poor. My Gosh! Never admit that the customer did not care enough about them to have a reasonable complement of support for their visit. I said the night manager that I wanted an adjustment on my case, for the evening, for all the pain - has passed the buck saying that he should do it approved by the Director General of the hotel.

If you want your employees to have an emotional ownership in the success of your business, enabling them to make decisions, especially in this case, because it was a huge decision. Heck, even last the receptionist at the Sheraton across the street could make that decision. This power is a chain-wide policy Sheraton allowing employees to do what is needed in the area of ​​guest satisfaction.

The next morning, the phone, I chatted with the CEO - we'll call him Mark, because that is his name. After explaining my total dissatisfaction with my stay at his estate, Mark was fundamentally cryptic and did not want to make a decision control, saying that he would investigate and get back with me. He asked if there was anything he could do for me that morning. I told him that there was - check out would be nice. He said he would take care of it.

A few days later, I received a letter from Mark, saying: "I can assure you that the feedback from hundreds of your peers, as well as the organization of events for the XYZ Association, has been nothing short of exceptional ..." Mark basically told me I was full of it, and rather than make the adjustments required for the final night, he welcomed the opportunity to host me for a weekend stay as his guest - as I wanted to stay longer there?

For the grand finale, a couple of weeks later, when my credit card statement arrived, I noticed that I was charged an extra $ 50 on my sheet from the hotel guests. I called the hotel to see the extra charge and was put on hold for five minutes (I actually timed the wait). When I finally got someone to guest relations, I was told the extra $ 50 is charged a late check out! Holly cow - and to add insult to injury! It took a while 'doing, but I did get the charge credited $ 50. For the management of this property I award three negatives. One negative about the lack of power, a negative for the CEO to effectively deny my experience as invalid and a negative for the general manager does not do what they told me that she would refer to the late check out charge.

Let my total "conversation I had with myself on this structure and the brand"

Positive: 2

Negative: 7

Since this visit scary, I have often been tempted to mention the property name in a series of meetings industry events in which I was invited to speak. Although I have not mentioned this visit from the platform, in private discussions with meeting planners who most certainly. Recently, I was the closing general session speaker for an association of meeting planners at their annual meeting and had the opportunity to meet a sales person from this property at that meeting. Needless to say, in a private chat with this seller, did not hold back.

About a week after the annual meeting of the meeting planner, I received another letter from Mark, general manager of the hotel, reiterating its offer in which he stated: "... and you can be assured that your next stay will be unforgettable all the right reasons. "

It 's been about a year after this visit from being a terrible hotel and attended a meeting of the association itself in a different city. The convention used the same national brand, and again I had an awesome visit - a visit memorable for all the right reasons. But as I sit at my desk finishing this yearlong writing exercise article, I can not help thinking the visit of a year ago has done permanent damage to my perception of this particular brand nationally. And even though I just recently had a wonderful visit in this same brand I think guys vs. Atta Ah Shucks because it takes ten positive experiences to match just off a bad experience.

In building a memorable brand, the lesson for us all to be aware of how our actions and decisions not only affect us locally, but also the brand nationally. What are you doing to make sure that you and your employees are doing everything necessary to ensure that you understand, rather than wasting the opportunities for value perception given to you by your customers?

You vote

As a final note, maybe I'm getting too hard on Mark? Please share with me your views by e-mail your vote - who do you suggest?

Mark accept the offer of a memorable visit.

Start by telling the story of the platform.

Please send us your vote for me Ed@Rigsbee.com.

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