How even the Best Customer-Centric Cultures Can Lose Their Customer Service Mojo (and how to get it back)

Before we get started, a low-key pitch to you from Micah Solomon - Customer Service Consultant - Customer Service Consultant, your author: Greetings! I offer customer service and customer experience improvement consulting, customer service training, and eLearning creation. 483-343-5881 • micah@micahsolomon.com • micahsolomon.com

When the "Guruphone" rings and I slide down my firepole to assist, the call is often from a business that was once thriving but has since lost its way with customers.

The first thing I do is pore through records from those earlier, happier days, looking for hints about what changed. What I find, nearly invariably, are clues that the care taken with customers in the early days was superior to what's happening now.

The Predictable Decline

The focus and attentiveness common when a business has only a few customers tend to slide when the customer roster balloons. Here's what typically happens:

• Employees stop signing thank-you notes by hand
• Managers hide in their offices instead of greeting customers
• Personal telephone operators who knew every customer's name get replaced with voice jail systems
• The little touches that made customers feel special disappear

The Dangerous Assumption

This lowering of standards often stems from a dangerous assumption: that there's an infinite supply of new customers out there if only your marketing and sales departments would do their jobs.

This thinking is backwards. Not only are customers a limited commodity, there's no such thing as "customers" in the plural. There's just one customer: the one being served right now.

The Success Trap

Success can actually hurt customer relationships. As businesses grow, they often:

• Standardize processes in ways that remove personalization
• Hire more employees who weren't there during the "customer-obsessed" early days
• Focus more on efficiency than on experience
• Assume their reputation will carry them through rough spots

The Cleveland Clinic Revolution

Cleveland Clinic faced this challenge in healthcare. Instead of making patients wait weeks for appointments, they now answer the phone with: "Thank you for calling Cleveland Clinic; would you like to be seen today?"

This wasn't easy. Organizational resistance was intense, and the process improvements were daunting. But they made it work through leadership resolve and process innovation.

The Right Mantra

The mantra that's needed is this: If you would've done something for your first customer, you'll find a way to keep doing it for your ten thousandth—without rushing, without cutting corners, and without making any customer feel less than fully valued.

Your Recovery Plan

To win back the focus that made you successful originally:

1. Identify what you did differently when you had fewer customers
2. List the personal touches that have disappeared
3. Calculate the true cost of those touches versus the cost of losing customers
4. Systematically reintroduce the elements that created customer loyalty
5. Train new employees in the "early days" mindset

The Bottom Line

Customer-by-customer excellence isn't just the best way to build a business—it's the most cost-effective way to grow one. The secrets you used to win your first customers still work. You just need to remember to use them.

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A low-key pitch to you from Micah Solomon - Customer Service Consultant, your author: Greetings! I offer customer service and customer experience improvement consulting, customer service training, and eLearning creation. 483-343-5881 • micah@micahsolomon.com • micahsolomon.com