Chip Bell on How to Create Customer Evangelists

What is the best way to get your customers to truly become your advocates? Shep Hyken speaks with keynote speaker and author Chip Bell about the best way to inspire customer loyalty. First Up: Shep Hyken’s opening comments focus on how to inspire loyalty with your customers. He challenges you to go back to your team and ask them to take a look at other industries. How have companies in other industries been able to create what he calls Moments of Magic® for their customers? Next ask the team, “What would happen if we could do the same thing here?” Featured Interview: Shep begins his interview by asking Chip Bell about his definition of customer loyalty. Bell says that there are many ways to define a loyal customer. Some experts define loyalty as a customer who comes back. Others say it is someone who buys more, or trusts you more. Some even say, in the case of purchasers of Harley-Davidson jackets or Bass Pro Shop Shirts, it is someone who uses your product as part of their identity. But Bell asserts that the best expression of customer loyalty is customer advocacy. In other words, the customer talks about you, tells stories about you, and tweets about you. In essence, the customer becomes an extension of your sales and marketing staff. They’re not just coming back; they’re bringing their friends with them when they do come back. In fact, they have become your evangelists. Bell talks about the concept of “value add,” which is taking what the customer expects and adding a bit more to the experience. The challenge you face, is that as the customer’s expectations climb, you’ll quickly run out of additional offerings. Instead, Bell suggests the concept of “value unique,” which is to create for the customer an experience that is unique, unusual and unexpected. Yet, at the same time, the experience is appropriate and simple. Bell insists that value unique is not a process to try to create a ten percent increase in the level of your customer service. Instead he challenges you to ask, what would I do if I wanted to increase my level of service by 100%? What would I do totally differently? Top Takeaways: • The best expression of customer loyalty is customer advocacy. This goes beyond asking the Net Promoter Score question of “On a scale of 0 to 10, what is the likelihood that you would recommend us?” • Your customers are not just comparing you to others in your industry, but to those in other industries who provide a gold standard customer experience. • Bell talks about the concept of “value add,” which is taking what the customer expects and adding a bit more to the experience. The challenge you face, though, is that as the customer’s expectations climb, you’ll quickly run out of additional offerings. Instead, Bell suggests the concept of “value unique,” which is to create for the customer an experience that is unique, unusual and unexpected. About: Chip Bell has helped many Fortune 100 companies dramatically enhance their bottom lines and marketplace reputation through innovative customer-centric strategies. Bell reveals the best practices from the organizations leading the customer loyalty charge, giving his audiences powerful cutting-edge ideas and unique strategies they can immediately put into practice. Bell has authored eight national best-selling books. His latest book is Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, best-selling author and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices