The CX Blog

Most of the companies I work with regarding customer experience strategies are big–big, global-big, huge complex problems with complex solutions. During the course of that, it would be easy to lose sight of the simple things that make the customer experience work.

That’s why a recent experience really stayed in my mind: Wavehounds, a local Seattle surfshop. Wavehounds is run by veteran surfer Todd whose approach to his biz exemplifies everything you really want in a customer experience:

1. Focus on the customer in the moment: I’m not a kid. I’m not a guy. I’m the improbable customer: an older woman who has fallen in love with surfing. Love aside, it takes a lot to go into a surf shop where I might be treated badly, as a novice, as a know-nothing. But Todd was fantastic–he welcomed me and made me feel absolutely at ease in an environment where expert and novice are often…ahem..at odds. (Most surf shops could take a page out of Harley Davidson’s reinvention of itself–HD being part of another arena that tends to dismiss newbies, their future customer base). In the corporate setting, this would be the equivalent to welcoming the customer over the phone or email, making that all important connection by introducing yourself, asking their name, maybe how they’re doing–you give them the sense you’re paying attention, that you’re welcome.
2. Listen and learn: Todd asked about my experience, where I’ve surfed, what boards I’d tried, where I was in the learning curve and what my budget was. But here’s the kicker: he listened to my answers. And that was key when he finally suggested a board for me–I had confidence that this would be the right board for my spot in the learning curve. I asked some questions, asked about other boards, learned a bunch from him, but that initial five minutes or so were the deal makers for me. It gave me the confidence I needed to commit to a board.
3. Guide but don’t push: that’s the listening-to-my-questions part. If Todd had pushed too hard, I wouldn’t have felt like I made a long term connection to a resource I would continue to use and buy from, I would have felt like a piece of meat. I want to be surfing for a while, and even though I was looking for a board, I was really looking for something much more. Todd offered that. Todd is smart.
4. Do something a little extra: Listen, it’s just not that hard, and it doesn’t have to be huge–it just has to be meaningful to the exchange. For agents on the phone, it could be something as simple as recognizing the weather where the customer is–I saw an outstanding sales agent once who closed more transactions simply because he had a google map and weather forecast open on his desktop. In the case of Wavehounds, Todd taught me how to apply wax–both undercoat and over–correctly. It’s not a big thing, I could have learned it from YouTube, but he had time and he made use of it in a way that meant a lot to me, his long term customer.
5. Be proactive: in the big company arena, this would mean knowing what was going to happen to the customer (order shipment process, repair process, etc) and setting expectations, or letting the customer know what to do next. It’s hugely important. In this instance, it meant Todd asking me where I was going to take the board out for the first time. When I mentioned the coast, he just said, “No, you’re not. Not this weekend you’re not.” And he was right–we were going to be experiencing phenomenally high surf, 30 foot waves, and it was not safe for surfing. Instead he clued me into some lesser known spots I’d never tried and didn’t even know about. I loved him for that!

See you out there, bud!