Page 158 - Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization

Hello/Good-Bye 139

front door, and extends to the elevator lobby. No customers
should ever pass by your area without you focusing on them
and being ready to ‘‘hunt’’ them. How many times have you
yourself stepped into a building and the receptionist is be-
hind the counter doing her thing, and you have to get to the
counter to trigger her attention? That receptionist isn’t acting
like a top predator.

If she were, then whenever someone crosses her hunting
ground, her instinct would be to scan the area immediately
in order to figure out what the movement is. And if it’s the
right moment, she would move in to see whether there is
something she can pounce on—I mean, someone who
needs assistance!

Goofy? Sure. But a dollop of goofiness enlivens the training process.
And it adds considerable spark to the daily routine of your receptionists
to have a picture in their minds of themselves as predators, with every-
one who passes through the reception area evaluated as potential prey.

It’s Google—Not You—Who Decides Where Visitors
Enter Your Site. Be Sure They’re Greeted Properly
Anyway

Here’s an online conundrum: ‘‘Hello’’ is crucial—but you can’t decide
which page on your site your visitors first land on. Google is in charge
of where most of your visitors will land. And, of course, Murphy’s Law
will ensure that they land on some arcane, highly technical back corner
of your website—one that definitely doesn’t put your best foot forward!

Let’s outwit Murphy with this three-pronged strategy:

1. Anticipate that ‘‘lost’’ visitors will arrive (via Google, links em-
bedded in Wikipedia, etc.) on obscure inner pages of your site, and
respond by making each page extremely welcoming. Include: