<B>by Hugh & Sylvie Stanley</B>

Recently, my wife and I went to a well-known restaurant in Port Louis. We are usually careful as to what we eat and we minimise the amount of fat in our diet. I asked the waitress for a pain baguette without butter or mayonnaise and to add some salad to my order. She looked at me as if I was a Martian and told me that what I wanted did not exist on the menu. I pointed out to her that there was pain baguette and salad on the menu and all she had to do was inform the kitchen that I wanted something different. She told me that she had to get the manager to deal with my ?request?. The manager came out and told me that they could not accommodate my request as it was the lunch rush and they had too many customers to serve. I pointed out to her that I was also a customer but as I felt she would not accommodate my request, I gave in and ordered something that was on the menu. Upon leaving the restaurant forty minutes later, I swore never to return. A couple of points need to be raised here:

I may have been hasty in my decision never to go back there. I may go again but I will be sceptical and I will certainly not recommend it to friends.

They were too operations- focused and not customer- focused. Customers pay for lunch, the kitchen doesn?t.

A key to great service is a simple word: flexibility. The companies that provide the best service think in terms of the customer. How hard is it to give the customers what they want when all the produce is already in the kitchen?

Some companies create rules. Others create guidelines. Guidelines provide for flexibility and allow the staff to please the customers and treat them as royalty. Customers are royalty when it comes to business survival and we need to ensure that every customer who visits our business feels satisfied and that we meet or exceed their expectations. Often customers are told, ?We can?t? when we really mean, ?We won?t?. How do you treat your customers? Like royalty or like annoyances?

Unfortunately we have a malaise deep in the Mauritian psyche where we believe that most customers are ?ti dimoun? and that wowing them with excellent customer service is not really important. This may have been so for a long while but the time has arrived where there is so much competition that customers now have a wide choice. Why should a customer shop with you and not somewhere else? What drives a customer to come back to your shop?

Intense competition has permeated all levels of the market place, from corporate giants in telecommunications, filling stations, chicken producers, supermarkets, car retailers, textile manufacturing, sugar, insurance, tourism, and air travel to smaller sectors such as restaurants, snack-bars and take aways, retailers of shoes, clothing and furniture to name but a few. What are the owners and decision makers in those sectors doing to improve the level of customer service in their respective businesses?

In their book ?The Experience Economy? Joseph Pine and James Gilmore talk about a concept that is so important to being competitive and standing out in today?s tough business environment. They talk about the price of coffee. At the commodity level, the cost of beans for a cup of coffee is about fifty cents. At the goods level in a supermarket, the cost of a cup of coffee is about Rs 5.00. In a take away shop in a food court, the cost of buying an actual cup of coffee is between Rs 25 and Rs 50. However, in a coffee shop called Starbucks, you would pay around Rs 150.00 for a cup of coffee. So how does Starbucks get that much for a cup of their coffee?

At Starbucks, it is not just about the cup of coffee. You also get the Starbucks experience. There is a particular feel as you sit in their plush armchair, the aroma of coffee drifts lazily and lures your sense of smell, the daily newspapers are there for you to read and the delicious cakes and cookies make one and all forget diets and calories. The stores are designed and the employees are trained to give you the Starbucks experience.

<B>Creating an experience</B>

Lexus, one of the top luxury carmakers in the world, touts the ?Lexus Experience.? They want buying and driving one of their cars to be an experience, not just a purchase. And like Starbucks, they are successful at creating the experience. People are willing to pay more money for a Lexus car, not just because it manufactures a great car, but because of the great service and experience it delivers. In Sydney, Australia, when you buy a new Lexus you also receive a free parking space at the Sydney Opera House. I personally interviewed 10 Lexus owners and they all told me that it was the best car they had driven. When I asked them why, they could only tell me it was more a feeling than specific reasons.

Disney is probably the most expensive theme park in the world. Why go to Disney when you can go to a closer, much less expensive theme park? Nothing against these other parks, they are a lot of fun and are actually pretty nice. But Disney creates an unbelievable experience for its guests, which is why people will save for years to take a holiday in Florida or California, just to go to Disneyland.

So what can we learn from Starbucks, Lexus and Disney? They create unparalleled value for their customers - or guests - and they do it through creating an experience.

In the training that we deliver, we talk about creating value, delivering more that what the customer expects. Take it a step further. What experience can you create? It can be as advanced and as appealing to the five senses as Starbucks. Or it could be as simple as the perception a customer has when he/she visits your place of business. For example, do you have an office that is modern, old-world, cluttered, serious, fun, small, big, etc.? What image do you try to create with your office? What does your customer feel when he/she walks into your place of business?

Here is a way to start creating the customer experience. Ask yourself two questions: 1) When my customers or clients do business with me, what do they feel? 2) What do I want them to feel? Once you have the answers to those questions, you are on your way to not just creating value for your customers and clients, but also to creating the experience.

Wishing you continued success!

Hugh and Sylvie Stanley run Quantum Vision Ltd, a training company specialised in stress management, change management, personal development and visionary leadership. They can be contacted on 759 5705 or email: [email protected]