How to offer a five star experience (on a budget)

If you think it takes a big budget to provide your customers with a five-star experience, then business strategist Kobi Simmat author of How to Build a Business Others Want To Buy, has some low-cost, no-cost business strategies that will prove you wrong.

I have worked as a business improvement consultant for over twenty years. I help convert micro businesses into multi-million-dollar operations and prepare them for a seven or eight-figure exit.  I start the process by encouraging my clients to change their mindset about customer service, and it begins by asking this key question: ‘What’s the five-star version of this look like?’  This is a foolproof technique for turning every touch point into a moment of connection.

Even if you have a one-star product, a bargain basement price point, and a minimal marketing budget, you can turn every touch point into a five-star experience, and it can take your business from zero to hero in a very short space of time.

Why experience matters

Here’s an example of what a one-star versus a five-star experience looks like, and why it doesn’t have to cost the earth to deliver it.

I took a taxi to the airport a while back.  The driver was late, got lost on the way, and talked on the phone the whole way there. Compare that with the Uber I took from the airport when I returned home.  The driver did everything right. He:

• texted me to let me know he had arrived
• got out of the car and opened the door for me
• offered to turn the radio off, up, down or to my preferred station
• asked me if the temperature was to my liking
• didn’t engage in conversation until I initiated it
• offered me a bottle of water and some mints

This Uber driver understood what it was to be ‘of service’ and turned every element of the drive into a five-star experience.  It didn’t cost him much to offer it, either. Other than the mints and bottle of water, all of those five-star elements cost him nothing.

(Of course, I gave him a five-star rating, a generous tip and took his personal business card to book him directly the next time I needed a ride.   When you offer a five-star experience, it tends to take care of the marketing for you.)

How McDonald’s masters five-star experience

Most people don’t associate McDonald’s with being a five-star dining establishment. It is by any standard, a one-star dining establishment in terms of price and atmosphere, but its consistency and dedication to turning a fast-food encounter into a five-star situation creates customer loyalty.  It starts with the fact that they turn each touch point with the customer into a five-star experience.  For example, when you buy a burger from them, you know the experience is going to be consistently five-star in the sense that:

• The food will be hot, fresh and taste exactly the same each time
• You will be served with a smile by well-groomed staff
• If the order is wrong, cold or you’ve just changed your mind, they will refund your money and do so without a fuss
• There won’t be a stray hair in your hamburger

This consistency extends to their communication with the customer. The young guy behind the cash register might have had a big night out the evening before, but he has a script to follow and a system for customer service that removes any anomalies that an individual may bring to the exchange. A system has been created, and everyone follows it.

You may be thinking, ‘That’s all well and good for McDonalds. They’re a multi-billion dollar company, with thousands of staff and millions of customers. But even those few five-star touchpoints listed here could reasonably be offered by any fish and chip shop proprietor if they had the motivation and mindset to do so.

It comes down to CX

You don’t need to be a McDonalds to offer a five-star service and you don’t need a big team or budget to deliver on it. Offering a five-star service is not so much about the money you throw at it; it’s the mindset you bring to it.

When you have a five-star mentality and a system to deliver it, you, as a leader, can take your hand off the rudder and step back and take care of the bigger picture because you know the service is being delivered to a specific standard each and every time.  This is how you stop working in the business and start working on the business.

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