The phrase customer delight is becoming more commonly used in customer service today. You can even take a training course on customer delight strategies! The phrase tends to conjure up connotations of an American diner where the staff can’t do enough for you; they are often overly helpful and never fail to say “Have a nice day!” as you leave.

Although in the UK we are slightly more reserved than our America cousins, we still want a great customer experience. So customer delight simply means to put the customer at the forefront of your business and ensure that every interaction they have with you is not just a good one, but a great one!

So why is it important to ensure Customer Delight?

We are now in the era of the customer, where Customer Delight is the new standard. In today’s competitive environment, delighting customers rather than simply meeting their expectations can often be the difference between business growth and business stagnation.

Customer Delight requires more interaction, better communication and ultimately leads to better and happier clients in the long run.

Some may argue that it is more cost-effective to simply avoid bad service than to go all out to provide the best service. And other will argue that the true purpose of business isn’t to satisfy the customers at all but to satisfy the shareholders in the business.

However the majority of fast-growing businesses demonstrate that this simply isn’t true!

There is an almost linear relationship between customer satisfaction and business success. Ok….so you may be thinking how much this is all going to cost? The answer is often that it’s the small things that make a difference. Change your mind set from seeing service as an expense, or inconvenience but an opportunity to skyrocket your profit!

How to achieve Customer Delight

There are lots of ways to drive customer delight.  Perhaps start by mapping out the touchpoints where you interact with your customers. And extending this to think about where you could engage with your customers, but perhaps currently you don’t.

We’ve outlined some simple, inexpensive and practical ideas to help you start to transform your business from a good one to a great one!

Ask for feedback

By asking your customers to provide feedback you’re communicating that you value their opinion and you care about what they have to say. Your customers will feel important because you’re re-enforcing that you value their opinions.

There are a number of ways to achieve this, ranging from a formal customer satisfaction survey to simply calling the customer and asking `How did we do? Did we get things right? `

For some businesses this level of personal customer satisfaction clearly won’t be practical.  But there are lots of other low-cost mechanisms to achieve a similar outcome.

A post order email saying to the customer that you value their feedback can have a positive impact.

Rating sites have also become hugely popular; sites as a TrustPilot, Reevoo or Rated People allow your customers to provide feedback.

Say Thanks

It sounds simple.  It costs nothing. But so many businesses don’t say `Thank you` and make you feel valued.

Be available when your customers want you to be

Good communication underpins all great businesses.

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a simple question and not being able to get an answer from someone at the business.

Clearly being available 24/7 isn’t a practical option for most businesses.

But you can set internal standards such as the time taken to reply to emails.

Live Chat on your website is another way of offering customers accessibility to information.

Both Live Chat and Telephone Answering to take calls when you’re unavailable, on another etc, are simple, low-cost solutions that you can outsource that can have a really positive effect.

Consider the importance of looking after your staff

“Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business,”
Richard Branson

This principle is at the heart of creating a great place to work, where people are appreciated, engaged, productive and thriving. Where they actually WANT to work.

Employees, who feel valued and appreciated by their bosses, are infinitely more likely to go above and beyond for the company. Going that extra mile can be the turning point from ‘Customer Satisfaction’ to ‘Customer Delight’.