{"id":55774,"date":"2024-01-17T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/?p=55774"},"modified":"2024-05-08T19:40:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T19:40:03","slug":"deliver-amazing-customer-service-difference-between-perception-and-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-strategies\/deliver-amazing-customer-service-difference-between-perception-and-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe Deliver Amazing Customer Service\u201d: The Difference Between Perception and Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Customer\r\n\r\nThis is an important topic that every CEO, business owner, leader, manager, and supervisor must understand. When it comes to customer service and customer experience (CX), there is a difference between perception and reality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nFirst, how we think our customers perceive our customer service and CX is often not the reality. It\u2019s just our perception. Reality isn\u2019t what we think or believe. It\u2019s what our customers say. Often, there is a big difference between our perception and the reality of our customers\u2019 experiences.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nSome may be saying, \u201cShep, you\u2019ve covered this before.\u201d Yes, however, it is worth covering again, especially since my friend Stephen Van Belleghem released his excellent book, <\/span>A Diamond In the Rough<\/span><\/i><\/a>, where he quotes a Bain survey finding that \u201c80% of CEOs think their company is customer-centric, but only 8% of customers agree.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nOne of my LinkedIn followers, Rajat Chawla, read my <\/span>Forbes article<\/span><\/a> about Van Belleghem\u2019s book and asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s your best advice to bridge the gap?\u201d As I always promise, if you reach out to me on any social channel and ask a question, I\u2019ll answer it there or in my <\/span>newsletter<\/span><\/a>, in my <\/span>videos<\/span><\/a>, in my <\/span>podcast<\/span><\/a>, or on my TV show, <\/span>Be Amazing or Go Home<\/span><\/i><\/a>. So, here\u2019s my answer:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThere are at least three strategies for narrowing the gap between these perceptions:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n
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  1. Leaders need to pay attention to their data. After they do a self-assessment, which is their perception, they should \u2013 if they haven\u2019t already \u2013 survey their customers to discover their reality. That\u2019s the most accurate way to measure the difference.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
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    1. Leaders should \u201cmystery shop\u201d their companies themselves. They should learn firsthand what it\u2019s like to be a customer. They should be looking for the experiences their customers receive during peak hours or in the middle of the night, what a sales call is like compared to a customer service call, and more.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
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      1. Finally, leaders should spend time on the front line, either shadowing (listening in) on customer support calls or taking the calls themselves. I addressed spending time on the front line in my first book, <\/span>Moments of Magic<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0when I covered the <\/span>All Aboard <\/span><\/i>program in which executives spent one day each quarter with a salesperson visiting customers. In my most recent book, <\/span>I\u2019ll Be Back<\/span><\/i><\/a>, I wrote about how Bill Gates visited the customer support center and asked to take customer support calls. The power of spending time on the front line is undisputed! Experiencing firsthand comments from customers is a powerful dose of reality \u2013 hopefully, good reality!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nWhat I love about these three strategies is that other than a little time and effort, there is little or no expense to implement them. So, what are you waiting for? If you haven\u2019t already done so, discover the difference between your perceptions and your customers\u2019 reality. And my wish for you is that there is little or no difference between the two!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n