LEGENDARY SERVICE! That term has a nice ring to it, and your customers long for it. Let's examine the costs and profitability benefits entailed when your company provides it.

My wife and I will celebrate an important event in a few weeks and we plan to invite a few dozen close friends to a party. We believed that our friends would enjoy a glass of sparkling cider, so I called the customer service department of the manufacturer to see if we could buy cider in large size containers. The answer was "No," but we were instructed to find a store that sells their 8.5 ounce bottles and use them.

The representative offered no assistance in finding a source, and since our efforts to locate one have been unsuccessful, I now have the name and contact info of their closest competitor. Our favorite cider source has lost a sale and likely a customer.

Customer service is the expectation of all who buy your products. Providing service is one cost of doing business. To provide Legendary Service, senior managers must actively support and fund four important concepts. Service then becomes a competitive advantage; therefore it helps generate increased profits.

1. Word Of Mouth Power (WOMP) There is no other form of advertising as powerful as WOMP.



2. Lifetime Value Of A Customer - all the revenue your company will receive from a customer as long as he/she does business with you, PLUS all the revenue derived from his/her referrals.



3. Legendary Service Team - A person or small group of highly experienced people who are trained and trusted to use Heroic Efforts to help customers with special and unusual needs get them met by any means possible, thus creating "delight" and WOMP.



4. Heroics - Go above and beyond the reasonable call of duty to satisfy a customer. In return for heroic efforts, customers should be encouraged to help you promote your efforts, products or services in the media, e.g. a TV or newspaper story.

Discuss with your team what they believe could can be done to render Legendary Service. Will something like this work for your company?

• Recognize the "specialness" of the situation in a customers' eyes, and refer it to your Legendary Service Team.



• Don't tell customers what you will do; ask them what they want done; then do a little bit more.



• Advise them of your "Heroic Efforts" to grant their wishes. (Their benefits) The more spectacular the better. Only "Spectacular" results create legends.



• Ask customers to work with your PR department to develop a newsworthy event featuring your legendary service. Lots of pictures of your CEO and their CEO congratulating each other on a fabulous outcome. Be certain your company's name and contact info are well displayed. If the results don't create a media story, pay for an ad.
  
  When WOMP is generated, your service department moves from the cost side of the ledger to the revenue side as it retains current customers and helps sell new ones. (Your benefit)

Your staff can use three skills to help provide Legendary Service:

1. Resolving Complaint Issues
2. Probing Strategies To Learn Customer Expectations
3. Suggestion Selling