My father-in-law has this thing when he goes to a full-service restaurant. Essentially, his tip starts at 20%, and then decreases if and when his water glass becomes empty. While the specifics are fuzzy and the methodology suspect, the takeaway from a successful server’s perspective is to be anticipatory of what your customer’s needs may well be to maximize financial reward.
Though I don’t subscribe to my father-in-law’s system of gratuity, it does illustrate the importance, from the customer’s viewpoint, of anticipatory engagement.
One of the greatest pitfalls, and easiest to fall into for a business, is to become insulated from your customers. It’s easy to do without even realizing it, often until it is too late. The excuses are many and varied: New initiatives, staff changes, company growth, changing roles, technological changes, downsizing, pivoting, restructuring, sales goals, re-branding, workload, etc.
Check that list again. Not one of those things has to do with your customers.
Zero.
We’ve all heard the adage that customer service is not a department, but an attitude. Never lose sight of the fact that without your customers, you have no business. Period. And with so many choices so easily accessible in any market, you are completely expendable.
In 2016, Amazon was voted the highest-rated company for “excellent” customer service by USA Today for the seventh straight year. And they didn’t just win; they killed it. Like, there was them and then there was everybody else. A giant redwood amongst the bonsais. And so on.
As part of their consistent obsession (their word) with customer satisfaction, way back 2012 they patented a new technology called anticipatory shipping, that is now being implemented and cutting delivery times even more. The way it works…well, it’s complicated, but the short answer is that it uses complex algorithms to study ordering habits by region. This way, they can anticipate when a particular distribution center may be running low on X, Y or Z, and ship it there before the orders start rolling in.
It worked. Free two-day shipping begat one-day/same-day shipping begat 2-hour shipping. And Jeff Bezos briefly became the richest man in the world. It’s not exactly wizardry. But it’s close. To go back to my father-in-law analogy, it would be as if Bezos were the server and showed up with a water tower at the table.
The biggest part of anticipatory customer service is thinking from your customer’s point of view. Steve Jobs famously said, “It’s not the customer’s job to know what they want.” It is yours. Know what they want before they even know they want it. Then when they realize what they want, you are ready. This rings true across the industries and markets, and can be a clear differentiator for your business.
See what the MIMICS CRM module can do for your customers.