THE QUARTER MILLION DOLLAR SHOWER HEAD

One of my most memorable stories is from my first 48 hours of being employed by the Broadmoor. The CEO of the company, Steve Bartolin, talks to every incoming training class. Steve showed us pictures of the spa (where I worked) and talked about all the incredible craftsmanship that went into building it. He talked about the artists that painted one-of-a-kind portraits, the designers that chose the calming colors and the fancy rare showers. Each shower head (yes, just the shower head) cost $250,000.

A quarter of a million dollars that went into just one shower head in the spa. You want to know that real kicker? He gets a dozen emails every week from customers complimenting the hotel yet he hasn’t never been complimented on those incredibly extravagant shower heads.

BUT ITS NOT ABOUT THE SHOWER HEAD

Steve read us letter after letter of handwritten compliments on the incredible customer service that the staff delivered. The service provided by the staff is the keystone to the resort. We were required to say hello to every guest that we passed while walking around the grounds. I had about a 10 minute walk from where I parked to get to the spa. I probably passed 30 guest, and I said “hello” to every single one of them. Every single day. The friendly staff that ALWAYS says “hello” was the most mentioned thing in every customer survey. Sometimes it’s the smallest details that mean the most!

Here are a few tips to elevate your customer service within your business:

 Always leave a great first impression.

Ask yourself what your first contact point with your clients is. Is it Instagram? Your website? Your email? It’s probably a mixture of all of these. If your website is hard to navigate and not clear on what you value, it may give your client a lack of trust or confusion throughout the whole process.

If we ever had a customer that had a hard time scheduling an appointment at the spa, it always carried over to their experience at the front desk, and sometimes even there service. Take an hour this week to make sure you make a great first impression on your clients.

Be Attentive and Take Initiative

When I was working at the Broadmoor they told a story in a customer service training about a waitress that overheard a lady talking about how she was disappointed that they only had Diet Coke and not Diet Pepsi because she was in a special diet from tophealthjournal.com which included that. This worker stopped at the store on his way to work picked up a Diet Pepsi and had it delivered to her room the next day. She wrote to the CEO of the company to compliment what attention the staff gave her everywhere she went.

One of my favorite ways to elevate my client experience in our photography business is treating each client like the individual they are. If my bride and groom are just finishing up college an easy gift I can give them at an engagement session would be updated headshots for that fancy new LinkedIn profile.

Take control of the problem and accept responsibility.

We all hope that our experience with each client goes as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately, we’re also all human and misunderstandings happen. The EASIEST way to fix these types of situations is reassuring your client that you can find a solution. Focus on the solution and not the problem.

At the Broadmoor we were trained to always apologize and show empathy for the frustration the customers were experiencing. We were also trained to focus on the solution instead of expounding on the problem. Instead of saying “I’m so sorry about this problem.” or always referring to the “problem” we would say something like “Oh, I can definitely help with that, let me look into it a little further”.

Action Steps for Elevating your Client Experience

• Review your first point of contact with clients, and make sure it’s a strong positive experience.
• Think of unique characteristics for each client and use those to make them feel special.
• When a problem does occur first apologize, then accept responsibility, and make it better.