A Wren Says

“If you go, make sure Clara’s working. If not, I can’t guarantee it will be good.”

So many of us have a version of this. We have a place we love going to, but only if a certain employee is there to manage the experience. Be it the barista who knows how to the make the drink right or the client advisor who makes you feel special, the right employee can make your experience unforgettable. As a business, these employees are invaluable. They drive repeat customers to your business. The problem is that it has nothing to do with your brand experience.

If you rely on these moments of individual brilliance, you might has well hope that be relying on luck. You have to move from having a few (or one) good employees who intuit how to treat people well to having excellent service experiences. Consistently.

Managing the client experience is your job as the leader. It is your job to think through how you want clients or customers to feel during their time with you. And from that, you design the elements of the space, the service encounter, and the personnel selection process to reach your goal. And most importantly, you empower your employees to provide that experience.

There’s no escaping it. You have to consider what you want your brand story to be. That is the basis of consistently excellent service experiences. Figure out who you are and want to be first, and then you can be the brand they all want to come back to time and time again.