“You must start with the basics. You can’t just jump to things that aren’t proven, hoping it will dazzle the customer into buying your products. Check this helpful article out and comment below with examples of ways you have been ‘dazzled’ by a company.” – GC

Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers By Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman

The idea that companies must “delight” their customers has become so entrenched that managers rarely examine it. But ask yourself this: How often does someone patronize a company specifically because of its over-the-top service? You can probably think of a few examples, such as the traveler who makes a point of returning to a hotel that has a particularly attentive staff. But you probably can’t come up with many. Obstacles All Too Common Most customers encounter loyalty-eroding problems when they engage with customer service. • 56% report having to re-explain an issue • 57% report having to switch from the web to the phone • 59% report expending moderate-to-high effort to resolve an issue • 59% report being transferred • 62% report having to repeatedly contact the company to resolve an issue Now ask yourself: How often do consumers cut companies loose because of terrible service? All the time. They exact revenge on airlines that lose their bags, cable providers whose technicians keep them waiting, cellular companies whose reps put them on permanent hold, and dry cleaners who don’t understand what “rush order” means. Consumers’ impulse to punish bad service—at least more readily than to reward delightful service—plays out dramatically in both phone-based and self-service interactions, which are most companies’ largest customer service channels. In those settings, our research shows, loyalty has a lot more to do with how well companies deliver on their basic, even plain-vanilla promises than on how dazzling the service experience might be. Yet most companies have failed to realize this and pay dearly in terms of wasted investments and lost customers. Read the full article at: Business Harvard Review