I am obsessed with innovation. I always think about how to improve on all aspects of life and business. But it’s challenging because you are dealing with all functional areas–such as marketing, sales, product, human resources, finance, and customer delivery.
Customer delivery is one of the most challenging areas for me so I will share my thoughts on this.
Currently, Hilsoft is in product and service business. We build software products and deliver them by doing a thorough implementation process. We acquire knowledge on how our customers do things, then we install and guide them on how to configure the product to fit in their process. Then we train them on how to use and generate reports.
This process requires a series of meetings and consulting sessions.
This weekend, I thought of some ideas on giving our customers the ultimate great experience and I will try my best to implement this soon.
1. Develop a customer engagement script. Just like in fast food or drive-thru where you are greeted with enthusiastic “hellos,” I am thinking of developing a good and proper script in greeting a customer–shaking their hands, introducing ourselves, proper uniform attire, and giving a clear agenda for a meeting.
2. Gifts and Snacks. Normally, the host provides the coffee or snacks. I’d like it the other way around. As the service provider, I’d like the idea of giving simple gifts or snacks to the people present in the meeting, making it a trademark or a signature of Hilsoft whenever there are meetings with clients.
3. Clear sign-off and delivered product. At times, customers are confused about what happened during our visit. Did we install something? What did we install? Did I understand the training? With a clear sign-off process, the whole implementation process shall be documented and proper acknowledgments are executed.
4. Response Time. I always preach this in our team and I will never stop preaching it. A quick response time will be our edge if we can implement it correctly. Not only that, response time + consistent updates, feedback, and resolution time will give our customers the ultimate realization that partnering with us is all worth it. Providing unique, innovative script and some humor in feedback will make it more exciting.
5. Personalized engagement with human touch. Imagine this: the service provider enters the meeting room with an enthusiastic smile. Introduces himself/herself with confidence and gives a concise agenda. After discussing the agenda, the service provider asks you to sign the minutes to make it clearer, then asks how you do outside work. Discusses your hobbies, asks how many children you have and gives you interesting stories outside work.
Before ending the meeting, he/she leaves you with a simple gift that you can practically use like a simple pen, notepad, paperweight, or a cookie sachet. And then after leaving the premises, there’s a follow-up text thanking you and telling you how happy they are to talk to you and giving you a commitment to solve your challenfes. Imagine that sense of security and confidence that you made the right decision to get their services, right?
I would like Hilsoft to be known as a company that does that. I know this is going to be a long process, trial and error but I commit to do this as long as it takes.