(Originally posted on 11/5/13. Refreshed and enhanced in order to further capitalize on the popularity of the info.)

A key ingredient to creating a "wow" customer service experience is your ability to be attentive and to actively engage through the use of strong listening skills.  We have to be attentive during every interaction with the customer, otherwise there will be a disconnect between what the customer is saying, both verbally and nonverbally, and what you are doing.  We must give our customers our complete attention so we can truly understand what is being said; simply listening to and hearing what customers say is not enough.  The words being spoken are just the beginning.  You must pay attention to all of the extra, little things. 

In the last two months we had two very different hotel experiences in two different beach towns. The impressions that were left with us are so contrasting. I have now truly realized how my overall happiness, like many of today's travelers, is driven by the experience rather than the money I spend or save. There is much for every business to learn from this, which I will summarize after you first read the snapshots of our two hotel stays...

There seems to be some confusion around the definitions of "customer service" and "customer experience." Many organizations still think they are the same, or perhaps they recognize some of the differences, but do not understand what the overall effect of a great experience does for the customer and for their business. The function of customer service and the customer experience, which will always work congruently, are two very different business strategies.

In an economy where the customer is becoming increasingly more demanding and competition is all around you, what can you do to stand out and give your customers what most are missing and many don't have? There are a million pages of research that shows that the customer values good customer service, even more than the quality of the products and services themselves. So getting it "right" seems more compelling than ever. Should you get it "wrong," any efforts made for improving your service are for nothing.  

Our last couple of articles have been about some extraordinarily sad service mishaps. Service mishaps that should not have gone the way they did ~ and in some cases are still going on! They were not hard things to fix or manage, by any means. So the question remains, why do some companies/businesses understand the basic fundamentals of producing good customer service exchanges, while others struggle with these basics?