Page 127 - Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization

CHAPTER NINE

What’s Worth It, and
What’s Not?

Pointers on Value, Costs, and Pricing

Customer loyalty is a thing of wonder—and it’s a hard-nosed kind of
wonder that you can take to your accountant. Loyalty makes customers
less price sensitive, more willing to spend money with you, more will-
ing to take a chance on extensions to your product line (assuming you
don’t abuse this trust in inappropriate ways), and much more immune
to competitive entreaties. But no company can afford to spend all of
its revenue trying to maximize the customer experience or guarantee
customer loyalty. Fortunately, there isn’t a need to. In Chapter 6 we
explained how systems derived from manufacturing can help service-
focused companies minimize their costs behind the scenes. In this chap-
ter, we work through some of our clients’ most common concerns
about how to control costs while still providing superior service.

What Does Loyalty-Enhancing Service Really Cost?

We would argue that service that wins you loyal customers is well
worth it at nearly any cost—because of its immense benefits. Still, what
does it cost? In some cases, superior service clearly does cost more to

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