Just do all you can to avoid frustrating.

In a fascinating podcast from HBR, Matthew Dixon of the Corporate Executive Board takes a stand against the conventional wisdom that you want to “delight” your customers.

Roughly paraphrasing him, he says, that “delighting customers when it comes to customer service is like always relying on the Hail Mary pass. You have to go above and beyond. In reality, people just want their expectations met and to have them done so with as little frustration as possible.”

So, if I go to your FAQ section and I can’t find the answer so that I am forced to call you. That’s not good.

If your business processes take too long, have too much paper, or involve unnecessary steps, that’s what leads to disloyalty.

And it’s more significant than any “delighting” you could do.

In fact, his data suggests that “Customers will punish you harder for failing at the basics than they will reward you for delighting them.”

So, you create Raving Fans by executing on your promises…and simplifying the lives of your customers and clients.

You create Remarkable experiences when “it just works as I expected it to.”

That’s not to say you can’t/shouldn’t supercharge your Word-of-Mouth by giving customers reasons to talk about you (be it your business cards, voice mail messages, or invoices), but the bread and butter of loyalty, satisfaction, and growth is the “blocking and tackling” of your business processes. Nail those down and you’re on your way.

Next step for you:

As I was listening to this podcast, I was simultaneously scanning my blog feeds, when I came upon Josh Duncan’s review of the same podcast. So, hop on over to his blog and check it out