What the Heck is a Customer Service Vision?

I've written about customer service visions a lot on this blog.

More recently, I started calling them customer experience visions. (Here’s why.)

The customer experience vision the number one thing that companies need to consistently deliver outstanding customer service. My research into elite customer service organizations reveals that nearly all of these companies have one.

So, what the heck is it?

This post will give you a short primer on what it is, examples from leading companies, and tools you can use to create your own.

What is a Customer Experience Vision?

Let's start with a basic definition.

A customer experience vision is a shared definition of an outstanding customer experience that gets everyone on the same page.

In some companies, this is a standalone statement that's separate from other items like mission, vision, and values. In other companies, it's integrated into another statement.

Here are just a few things that can do double duty as a customer experience vision:

• Corporate mission statement

• Corporate purpose statement

• Corporate vision statement

• Corporate values

• Brand promise

• Customer service philosophy

• Customer service standards

Here's a great example from REI where the company uses it’s purpose statement as the customer experience visiont:

A life outdoors is a life well-lived.

This statement gives all REI employees clear direction on how they should do their work.

Imagine you are planning a big hike. The employees working in a typical sporting goods store would likely picture the hiking section if you asked them for help finding hiking gear.

Employees in this store focus on the stuff they sell, not customers. They don’t think about what the customer is trying to accomplish or what could help customers be more successful.

By contrast, walk into REI to get help planning for the same hike. Unlike the typical sporting goods store, REI employees are guided by their vision, “A life out doors is a life well-lived.” This is what REI employees picture:

This is me on top of Mt. San Jacinto, having a great time.

This hike was a new challenge for me. It was longer, at a higher altitude, more remote, and featured a wider temperature variation (50 degrees!) than I had ever encountered.

Fortunately, a helpful REI associate knew exactly how to prepare for a hike like this. He patiently guided me through the store and pointed out exactly what I needed. His advice, combined with resources on the REI website, helped me plan for the hike and ensured I had an amazing time.

What makes a great vision statement?

Good customer experience visions have three hallmarks:

1. The definition is simple and easily understood

2. It describes the type of experience you want your customers to have

3. It reflects both who you are now and who you aspire to be more consistently in the future

Take another look at the example from REI and you'll see how it fits the test. It's one clearly worded sentence. It implicitly focuses on customers. And, it's authentic because it represents who REI actually is today.

The reason a customer experience vision like this is so essential is that it gives every employee, from the CEO to the frontlines, a clear guide to follow. I like to refer to it as a compass that points people in the right direction. Without a compass, it's easy to get lost.

You can read more about the three hallmarks of a memorable statement.

Customer Experience Vision Statement Examples

Here are just a few examples from companies that are well-known for outstanding customer service.

The Ritz Carlton

We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.

Southwest Airlines

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.

L.L. Bean

Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back for more.

USAA

Service. Loyalty. Honesty. Integrity.

In-N-Out

Quality, Cleanliness, and Service

These examples are all a little different, but they all fit the three hallmarks of a strong customer experience vision. Imagine working for any of these companies and you can see how easy it would be to learn the vision.

Develop Your Own Customer Experience Vision

A customer experience vision is essential if you want your company to be customer-focused. 

It can also work on a team level, if your span of control is a department and you don't think the rest of the organization is ready to get on board.

You can use my step-by-step guide to help you create your own.

Here are a few more tools that can help you:

• Book: The Service Culture Handbook

• Website: Service culture resources

• Video: Leading a Customer Centric Culture

Here's What Experts Say Is The #1 Way To Improve Customer Service

Customer service leaders are constantly trying to improve service. A new report from OneReach asked 63 industry experts to weigh in on what companies can do to get started.

It was an honor to be asked to contribute since "Where do I start? is a challenging question for many customer service leaders. I've tackled this topic here before with an action plan for taking customer service to the next level. 

My take is the first step in any journey is to select a destination. For customer service, this means defining outstanding service by creating a customer service vision.

Not all experts agree with me. The OneReach report is valuable because it provides a variety of different perspectives. It's interesting to see that 63 experts had 11 different ideas for where to get started!

On a side note, this report is also a great list of customer service experts to follow on Twitter!

Below is an infographic that summarizes the results. You can read an overview on the OneReach blog or download the full report.

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Have companies defined outstanding customer service?

In his famous book, Built to Last, Jim Collins observed that companies that endure over a long period of time possess “cult-like cultures.” This is certainly true in customer service. Think of the companies best known for outstanding customer service and you’ll almost certainly find a strong, customer-focused culture.

These cultures are anchored by a clear definition of what outstanding customer service should look like. It gives employees, managers, and executives clear direction when making decisions that impact customers. Without a shared definition, it is very difficult for companies to provide consistent service since everyone has their own idea of what's best.

I recently conducted a survey to discover whether companies have created their own unique definition of outstanding customer service. 

Is outstanding service clearly defined?

Only 62 percent of respondents were positive that their organizations have defined outstanding customer service.

Has your organization created its own definition of outstanding customer service?These results indicate employees at a large number of companies may not have clarity when it comes to how they should treat their customers. 

Does company size matter?

Yes. The larger the company, the more likely it is that outstanding service has been clearly defined. The chart below shows the responses from small, medium, and large companies (based on number of employees).

Percentage of companies that have defined outstanding service, arranged by number of employees.

What do you think is the explanation for such a big gap between small and large employers?

Are employees aware of the definition?

Respondents that indicated their company had defined outstanding service were asked to estimate their employees' awareness of this definition on scale of 1 - 5. The responses indicate awareness is generally high when a shared definition exists. There wasn’t any variation among companies of different sizes so I'm showing the aggregrate data.

If your company has a definition of outstanding service, how aware are your employees?

This question was tricky because respondents were asked to estimate their employees’ awareness of their company’s definition of outstanding service. Do you think the results would be different if we actually quizzed employees in each of these companies?

In my own experience, and this is purely anecdotal, leaders tend to overestimate how well their employees know the company's definition of outstanding service. 

Conclusions

If your company doesn't yet have a clear definition of outstanding customer service, I suggest you create one right away. You can use my customer service vision worksheet if you're not sure where to begin.

If your company does have a clear definition of outstanding customer service, you've taken the first step on the journey to a customer-focused culture. You can use this guide to keep your company moving in the right direction.

Survey: Has your company defined outstanding service?

Update on 2013-05-30 16:17 by Jeff Toister

The survey is now closed. You can view the results here.

Why your customers often see what you don't

The classic nine dot puzzle is one of my favorite customer service training exercises. Give the puzzle a try if you haven’t seen it before:

• Connect all nine dots using four straight lines
• You cannot lift your finger off the screen (or, if you prefer, your pen off the paper)

Why is the puzzle so hard for most of us to solve?

The secret is our instincts affect how we view potential solutions. Most of us see a box that doesn’t exist. As a result, we try to solve the puzzle by staying within the box. (See the bottom of the post for the solution.)

It’s a useful training exercise because it helps customer service professionals realize that we tend to see the service we provide through a certain frame. The trouble is customers view our service through their own frame and their frame is frequently different than ours.

Last week, I wrote about an experience where two employees took very different approaches to replacing a disappointing bottle of wine. The two employees each had their own way of framing the problem. The first employee looked at the problem as a bottle of wine that needed to be exchanged. The second employee looked at the problem as a customer who was disappointed with their product.

As you can imagine, I was much happier with the service I received from the second employee since her frame was the same as mine.

Adopting the customer’s perspective is not always easy. It sounds great in theory, but it is much more difficult in practice. Chalk this up to the Dunning Kruger Effect, a phenomenon I recently wrote about by comparing customer service to professional baseball.

There are a few ways you can help your employees change their frame and see things from the customer’s point of view:

• Create a Customer Service Vision that defines outstanding service
• Have your employees use your product or service and evaluate their experience as a customer.
• Review customer feedback to understand what drives satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Are you still trying to solve the puzzle? You can view this short video to see the answer.

Learn from the pros by visualizing outstanding service

Last week, I wrote a post comparing customer service to professional baseball. I’d like to continue the sports metaphor by sharing an activity that customer service professionals can borrow from professional athletes.

You can prepare for big moments by visualizing yourself succeeding.

It all starts by clearly describing what success looks like. All organizations should have a clear definition of outstanding customer service. (If yours doesn’t, you are welcome to use this vision tool to create one.) The next step is taking this definition down to an individual level so that you can articulate how you personally contribute to outstanding service.

Finally, it’s time to create a drawing, collage, or other form of visual art that depicts you providing outstanding service. Don’t worry about the artistic merit of your visualization. What’s important is that you can see yourself succeeding.

Example #1

This example comes from a company that sells flowers and plants to florists. A customer service rep at one of the company’s wholesale locations focused on helping customers make their small businesses more successful. He used his product knowledge to help florists select items that would sell well in their stores. Here is his vision drawing:

Image courtesy of Mellano

Example #2

The second example comes from a research hospital. A customer service rep who worked in a department called research stores helped keep researchers supplied with the equipment necessary to conduct their experiments. His vision was to help researchers solve problems by sharing solutions he had learned from others. Here is his vision drawing:

Image courtesy of Gerald Smith

Create your own visualization

You can use this simple exercise to try this visualization technique yourself.

1. Create your drawing
2. Look at it at the start of each day for 30 days
3. Try to make your vision actually happen