What Do Customers Really Want?

The goal of a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.
-Sam Walton

It’s a question we should always ask and yet we often find so difficult to answer. How an organization handles this question (and the answers) will determine its ultimate success. If you consistently offer your customers what they want (at a price they feel is fair), you’ll have all the customers you can handle.

In 2009, Stiritz Group surveyed several thousand people across the country on “what do customers really want”?

Here are the results of that Service Survey. The results are in ranked order from most popular response to least popular.

"What Do Customers Really Want?"

1. Listen to me.
2. Know more than I do (about your product or service).
3. Be easy to work with.
4. Help me get what I came for.
5. Smile.
6. Tell me your name.
7. Acknowledge my presence.
8. Don’t treat me like I’m an interruption.
9. Show me you care.
10. Don’t waste my time.
11. Be honest.
12. Offer alternatives if you don’t have what I want.
13. High quality and low prices.
14. Don’t try to sell me. Just help me.
15. Do what you say you’re going to do.
16. Keep me informed.

According to Stiritz, “This survey is based on real answers from real people so we think it can be useful for many organizations as they work to improve their customer service. This list of 16 customer wishes seems basic and intuitive. Yet we don’t believe most organizations are delivering these things to all their customers all the time. If they were, this list would have been much shorter.”

This list is your gold-plated ticket to increase customer loyalty.

So, if you’re not delivering on these 16 “service wishes”, maybe your competitor is?