This past week I attended my first Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National Golf Course. I surprised my husband with the tickets for Christmas, and we were both blown away by the experience and the operation. I say “operation” because each day approximately 30,000 people descended on this golf course all at once and it moves like a tremendously well-oiled machine.
Every staff member is friendly and highly trained, they have concessions (with surprisingly cheap beer and sandwiches) all over the course, very well attended parking lots and washrooms. The course was immaculate, and we never waited in any line more than 5 minutes. Disney, move over because (for golf fans like us) THIS was the happiest place on earth!
As a speaker, you might think that what you do on the platform is the only thing that matters, but that is not true. From the moment of the first contact, and sometimes before that, the client is noticing everything about the experience of working with you.
How would you rate your customer experience?
It is not just how well you perform in front of the audience; it starts with how quickly you return calls, turn around paperwork, provide the client with information needed for planning, turn in your final invoice, etc.
[Tweet “#Speakers: Delighting customers starts way before you hit the stage. Here’s some tips:”]
Add to this the idea of congruence. If you do not walk your talk during your communications with the client, they will notice. An example would be a customer service speaker who does not return phone calls for a week. (As a little aside, Joe Calloway’s goal is to return calls within 24 hours).
Here are some ways you can ensure you are delighting your customers:
- Call the client back quickly
- Get a contract out right away
- Provide answers to all of their questions in a timely fashion (not leaving everything until they are on site scrambling to get ready)
- Book research calls
- Provide an easy to use meeting planner link for everything they need (photos, intro, a/v needs, bios, etc.)
- DO NOT bother them too much (remember you are one small cog in their giant wheel)
Want to take delighting customers to the next level? Here are some ideas:
- Overnight a book when you are in the running for a gig
- Offer out of the box ideas on how you deliver your content
- Participate in the planning to help them achieve their goals
- Recommend other excellent speakers
- Stay longer than they expected, or arrive earlier than anticipated and participate in the event
- Talk about something that happened at the convention that morning or building something extra special into your presentation
Delighting customers is something that we continually work on here at Speaker Launcher. However, we don’t have it Mastered, not like Augusta National. It is a work in progress.
If you have ideas about delighting customers, please share them in the comments below.
See you soon wealthy speakers!
