On October 16th, In Business held their 9th Annual Expo and Conference with a keynote provided by Dennis Snow, a customer service expert and veteran of Disney.
Dennis spoke at length about customer loyalty and what businesses can do to inspire this in their customers. Walking through examples that he had seen throughout his career, Dennis made the case that there are three things all businesses should be doing that will enable them to capture this elusive, but vital gift from their customers.
During a poignant portion of the keynote, Dennis asked the audience what those who had been to Disney remembered about their experience. Many attendees shouted out things like customer service or cleanliness of the parks, but no one said the rides, which is arguably why anyone would go to Disney in the first place! Dennis explained that the reason no one mentions the rides at Disney is because Disney has succeeded at providing an experience for their customers, where their visits to any Disney theme park is about so much more than the rides.
So how can businesses and associations encourage loyalty in their customers? Dennis believes that all businesses should:
Look at everything through the lens of the customer – when a business or association is evaluating their processes, instead of focusing on what the business is doing at any step in the process, they should really be asking themselves what does the customer see during this step in the process, and how can we move that experience from mediocre to exceptional.
Pay attention to the details, because everything speaks – businesses or associations should be looking at all the interactions with their customers and removing the distractors that would take away from the customer’s experience. Dennis gave an example of the trash at Disney and how a part of the Disney culture is that all cast members are responsible for keeping the parks clean, regardless of if they are a maintenance worker or VP for the company.
Create moments of wow – businesses or associations should be constantly thinking of little things that will make a customer say “wow.” It’s important to look at both big and small things, because it could be the combination of multiple small “wows” that inspire customer loyalty.