4 Customer Service Secrets to Help Your Business Take Off

Hey Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business and life you love, and today it’s time for one of my favorite segments called:

I love your branding baby.

You know, actually Zach, today’s episode has a little twist because it’s more about customer experience.

I love your customer experience baby.

Still works.

In this segment, we highlight a business that’s just doing things right and then we break down how to apply those smart lessons to whatever you’re working on.

Now today we’re talking about an airline company and before we go on, I have to say that when it comes to air travel over the course of my entire career, I’ve pretty much flown everything except a spaceship. I mean I’ve flown single engine planes, coach, economy, premium economy, business class, first class, private jets, helicopters, you name it. Now, given all that experience, it takes a lot to blow me away at this point and yet JetBlue recently did.

Now, look, no company is perfect. All of us make mistakes and even JetBlue had a flight attendant quit by grabbing two beers off the service cart, activating the planes emergency chute, and then sliding onto the tarmac. Bye bye.

But JetBlue has done something really impressive. They’ve taken the top spot in JD Power’s, North American Airlines satisfaction study for 12 consecutive years. Now, truth be told, until recently, I hadn’t flown them in a really long time. In fact, I was flying Virgin America almost exclusively, but then they recently got sold so I had to find a new main squeeze. And so far I am super impressed with JetBlue. Here are four lessons that really caught my attention.

Lesson number one: create an A+ experience right out of the gate, or in this case before the gate. Here’s what I mean. When I got to the JetBlue terminal at JFK, something was different. It felt different. It was more calm and spacious, and the design had this uber intentional kind of vibe to it. There were a ton of check-in stations, like more than I’d ever seen, which meant there was no wait time for me to check myself in.

There were clear directions and clear signage and more than enough JetBlue employees around if needed. Now, I would love you to think about your business. So from the very second that someone says yes to your product or your service, how can you give them this royal treatment? You know, you don’t need a whole team of flight attendants, right? It could be as simple as a series of emails that welcome your customers and really make them feel taken care of and appreciated and already enticed to come back again.

Lesson number two is: use your customer’s language. Okay, so this next part so impressed me. So as I approached the gate, I knew I needed to get some work done before hopping on that flight and I was bracing to try and find one of those like long vertical outlet hubs where there’s 30 people clustered around trying to plug their stuff in.

So to my very pleasant surprise, I found rows and rows and rows of these comfortable, cute little workstations all with their own outlets and a huge sign above it that said, “The Juice Bar,” I mean, seriously. How many times have you said to yourself, “Oh crap, I ran out of juice on my phone,” or “My computer has zero juice. I need to go find a plug.” So when JetBlue says Juice Bar, they are speaking my language and it’s a very smart play on words that lets me know, “hey, they get me.” And I gotta tell you this, every single customer wants to feel like you as a business owner just get them.

Now, another quick example, when I saw the help desk, right? Instead of saying something formal like “information desk,” the sign said, “just ask.” So not only is the latter more friendly and inviting, but it implies that my question is welcome and not stupid.

So the bottom line is this: using your customer’s language is key if you want to create more sales and raving fans, and in the words of this tweetable, “your customer’s language is the jet fuel to make your business take off.” Now, if you’d like some help in this, I want you to go check out thecopycure.com. It’s our writing program that shows you step by step how to find the exact words that your customers most want to hear.

Lesson number three is: details matter, so go the extra mile. So wherever you are on the plane, JetBlue has really given thought to the details and I love this. So for example, free wifi, and I know it sounds silly, but so many damn flights that I’ve taken make me pay this extra 25 or 30 bucks just to get work done when I’ve already paid a sh*t ton of money to fly. So free wifi for the entire plane, I got to say that’s a nice perk when we’re all so used to being nickel and dimed.

Next I got to talk about snacks. So on longer flights they have this self-service snack situation in the economy cabin which is so humane and I have to tell you that in Mint, which is their business class that I fly because I mean business, Brett, my fantastic super cool flight attendant brought me this refreshing lime mint spritzer. I was so impressed with that beverage branding – flying in Mint class and getting a mint drink. Nicely done.

And last but not least, Brett also call me by my first name, Marie instead of Ms. Forleo. Now, of course he could have called me Forleo and I would’ve been down for that, but who doesn’t want to hear their first name? And he kept calling me by my first name throughout the entire flight. It was kind, it was friendly, and it gave me the sense that he actually cared about me. So what I want you to do is think about all the little details in your business: where and how can you go the extra mile for your people? What can you do to make people just feel that things are more personable and thoughtful?

Finally, lesson number four: have your customer’s back. So here’s what I mean. That great customer experience continued even after I landed. So I had to call up JetBlue to change my returning flight. Now, the first good thing, they did not leave me on hold listening to crappy music for like 17 hours. Instead, they gave me the option to be called back. They looked out for me by saving me time, my most valuable resource.

Now, second, once I did get on the phone with a rep, she actually told me how I could save the most money for my flight change. Once again having my back, because saving money is like making money, and you know when you’re trying to change a flight, you often have to play this weird, not helpful guessing game.

Welcome everyone. It’s time to…

Guess your flight.

Is there anything on the 4:00?

Sorry. Try again.

Maybe any seat on something before 2:00 AM.

Oh, there is, but that will cost you a $2,000 change fee. Thank you for playing.

And look, party people. All of these simple lessons illustrate values of respect and caring and creativity, which you would think are a given in business these days, but sadly they’re not. That’s why you should take these smart lessons and use them to give yourself a major edge in business.

We at Team Forleo know you have a choice in your education and entertainment and we want to thank you once again for choosing MarieTV.

Now we would love to hear from you. So we’ve got a two-parter today. Which of these lessons, if implemented, could make your business fly high in terms of customer experience. And number two, tell us about a great customer experience you had because I’m sure we can all learn from it. Leave a comment below and let us know.

As always the best conversations happen at the wonderful land of marieforleo.com. So go there and leave a comment now and once you’re there, be sure to subscribe to our email list and become an MF Insider. You’ll get instant access to a powerful audio training called How To Get Anything You Want and you’ll get some exclusive content, special giveaways, and some personal updates from me that I don’t share anywhere else.

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that very special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV.

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I love your experience… oh my god.

Free wifi, free wifi, free wifi.

They have self-serve snack situation. I kind of liked that. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, exciting.

I am a magical. I’m a magical wonderland. F*ck y’all. I can’t even, okay wait.