PRAISE FOR
Can Your Customer
Service Do This?
AND
Micah Solomon
Whether he’s undercover or on the stage, Micah Solomon consistently
delivers fresh and practical insights about customer service. In an era
of transactional, impersonal exchanges, his approach oers a human-
centered, future-focused strategy that will propel you and your brand to
ever greater heights.
— Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of
To Sell Is Human, Drive, and e Power of Regret
In my work at Wharton Executive Education, when I’ve needed someone
to deliver actionable customer service skills to one of my global clients,
Micah is who I’ve turned to. What sets his approach apart is his ability to
help companies turn lofty customer service visions into tangible change
throughout an organization. In Can Your Customer Service Do is? Micah
provides a comprehensive guide that covers all aspects of customer service
excellence. is book will not only spark your imagination; it will trans-
form your organization.
— Deb Giffen, Director, Wharton Executive Education
Great customer service is like great leadership—everyone talks about it,
but few get beyond repeating slogans. is book shows you how to actually
do it—how to become rst good, then great at it. If you are serious about
providing great customer service, you should read this book.
—Phil Steitz, former global CTO, American Express
Micah Solomon is my go-to expert on exceptional customer service and
building a customer-focused culture.
— Herve Humler, cofounder and emeritus chairman,
the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
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Micah Solomon conveys an up-to-the-minute and deeply practical take on
customer service, business success, and the twin importance of people and
technology.
—Steve Wozniak, Apple cofounder
When customers can switch allegiance faster than you can take a breath,
there’s no more important priority than customer service. Having built sev-
eral customer service solutions myself, I particularly love Micah’s wisdom
on what can happen when informed humans and advanced technology
such as AI are combined. is is a must read for any company that wants to
dierentiate itself.
—Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and founder, Freshworks
e service revamp we’ve undertaken with Micah Solomon and his team
has created an elevated level of Member Service that’s an essential part of
CHROME FCU and our recent and ongoing growth and achievements. In
Can Your Customer Service Do is? Micah generously shares the secrets that
can help readers get started down the same, rewarding path.
— Robert J. Flanyak, CPFC, President and CEO, CHROME Federal
Credit Union
Micah Solomon’s new book Can Your Customer Service Do is? is a com-
prehensive guide that will revolutionize the way you approach customer
service. It oers fresh perspectives from a master in this eld—and will
inspire readers to elevate the level of the service they provide to new
heights.
— Matthias Debecki, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions,
Zech Group SE
Can Your Customer Service Do is? provides a mountain of tips and strat-
egies gleaned from the author’s extensive experience. ese will help you
deliver the customer service and experience that your competitors will
only be able to dream of—unless you make the fatal strategic error of shar-
ing your copy of this book with those competitors!”
—Adrian Swinscoe, Forbes contributor, bestselling author,
podcast host and producer
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Other books by Micah Solomon
Ignore Your Customers (And ey’ll Go Away):
e Simple Playbook for Delivering the Ultimate
CustomerService Experience
e Heart of Hospitality:
Great Hotel and Restaurant LeadersShare eir Secrets
High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service:
Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World
of Social Commerce
Exceptional Service, Exceptional Prot:
e Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service
Organization (coauthored with Leonardo Inghilleri,
Introduction by Horst Schulze)
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CONTENTS
vii
Foreword by Peter
Economy, Inc. Magazine
Introduction: The Dream of Perfection
1
CHAPTER 1
Climbing the Loyalty Ladder:
Propel Your Organization up the
Three Rungs of CustomerService 15
CHAPTER 2
Gold-Touch Customer Service:
A Loyalty-Building Practice Anyone
Can Master 23
CHAPTER 3 The Power of Purpose:
How to Drive Iconic Customer Service 39
CHAPTER 4 The Power of Recognition:
Put the Mrs. Gold Principle to Work 53
CHAPTER 5 Service Recovery:
How to Repair Broken Customer
Relationships and Make Them Stronger
Than Ever Before 69
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CHAPTER 6 Language:
The Driver (and Destroyer) of
ExceptionalCustomer Service 87
CHAPTER 7 Technology:
Deliver an Iconic Customer Experience
Without Losing the Human Touch 109
CHAPTER 8 Communicating Via Telephone:
How to Use the Least-Sexy Customer
Service Channel to Keep Your Cash
Registers Ringing 125
CHAPTER 9 Put It in Writing:
The Secrets of Exceptional
Correspondence with Customers 147
CHAPTER 10 Surveys and Beyond:
Find Out What Your Customers Really
Think (If You Truly Want to Know!) 159
CHAPTER 11 Customer Service Excellence Is a
Moving Target:
How to Build a Culture of Innovation
So You’re Always Keeping Up 171
CHAPTER 12 Make It Stick:
Secrets of Effective Standards Setting and
Customer Service Training 191
Afterword 211
Acknowledgments 213
Index 215
vi
CONTENTS
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FOREWORD
M
icah Solomon is a customer service transformation
expert, a true artist in this very niche eld.
I don’t say this lightly—it’s not hype or hyperbole. Micah
rst landed on my radar screen almost 10 years ago, when
I was doing research on how companies deliver, or fail to
deliver, great customer service. I realized quickly that, while
a lot of people talk a big story about delivering great cus-
tomer service, very few back up that talk with action. While
there are lots of reasons for this disconnect, in many cases
the problem is they don’t know how to turn their lofty cus-
tomer service visions into tangible change throughout their
organization.
Micah is one of the very small handful of people who do.
In fact, when I proled Micah in the pages of Inc. Magazine,
I proclaimed him “e World’s #1 Customer Service Turn-
around Expert.” And over and over, I’ve seen just how
powerful Micah’s approach can be, with all sorts of busi-
nesses, in all types of industries.
Transformational, in fact.
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ere’s a reason why Micah is in demand: he’s a category
of one in the eld of customer service transformation—an
essential discipline today. Micah oers a lifeline that com-
panies reach for whenever interactions with customers start
to go south. And, more positively, when they’re ready to turn
customer service into a competitive advantage and driver of
growth.
When Micah speaks, people listen. And they should.
I confess that I’m a bit jealous of Micah because he seems to
have more fun with his job than anyone I’ve met in a long time.
When I see him onsite delivering live training, or on the
soundstage lming a customized eLearning training module,
or doing anything else that is involved in customer service
transformation, it’s clear that both he and his audience are
having a ball.
One particularly fun part of his work (at least, that’s how
it looks to me!) is the hands-on mystery shopping that Micah
and his talented team undertake at the start of a customer
service transformation engagement. is is when Micah and
his team literally go undercover, onsite, as part of a current-
state analysis of where his client company’s customer service
experience stands right now.
is means that, on any given day, you could nd Micah
(or probably not nd him, as he’s pretty good at disguises)
“shopping” a bank, car dealership, grocery store, tech startup,
or multinational organization.
Or, as in the example you’re about to read, one of the
world’s grandest ve-star hotels.
What I’ve seen over my years covering the business land-
scape and collaborating with CEOs and other executives
at multiple organizations is this: e world is getting more
and more commoditized. It’s becoming very much a sea of
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FOREWORD
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sameness, with customers ever more inclined to switch from
one provider to another on little more than a whim.
Yikes! at’s not a pretty—or protable—situation for a
company to nd itself in. Happily, a direct and lasting way
you can distinguish your own business from similar compet-
itors is by delivering great customer service.
Apply the customer service lessons you are about to learn
in this book—in every interaction, at every touchpoint—and
I promise you that your organization will thrive.
And so will you.
I’ll let Micah pick up the story here. I know you’re going to
enjoy the ride!
Peter Economy
The Leadership Guy at Inc. Magazine
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FOREWORD
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INTRODUCTION
The Dream of Perfection
C
hances are, my morning started a bit dierently from yours.
I was undercover, in disguise, performing the mystery
review component of a customer service initiative for one
of my clients, a famous-name, ve-star resort hotel. Mys-
tery shopping is one of the many interesting and enjoyable
aspects of my work—if you can even call it work—and today
I was having a particularly good time.
After a glorious room service breakfast, I headed into the
resort’s ve-star, Forbes-rated spa, where I was massaged,
manicured, pedicured (that last service was overdue, if you
must know), and “facialed” by the spa’s exquisitely trained
and attentive sta. All the while, I was observing and com-
mitting to memory impressions of the customer service
behaviors happening all around me: how the spa’s employees
interacted with the rest of the spa clientele and, of course,
how they were treating me.
en, after I recovered from the (nominal!) hardships of
my morning activities, I slipped into the hotel’s restaurant
for lunch, where I similarly sleuthed my way through each
phase of the meal. Before I was even seated, I was assessing
each customer service touchpoint as it was revealed to me,
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from the ease of making a reservation to the quality of the
hostess’s greeting to the dessert presentation to the gracious-
ness with which my nal bill was delivered.
And my job wasn’t done, yet.
Making today even sweeter was knowing that when night
rolled around I’d be snuggling between my guestroom’s
Egyptian cotton sheets (with a stratospheric thread count,
naturally). And that just before I called it a night, I’d be con-
ducting one nal, delicious test: a call to room service to see
if they could bring me a late-night cup of cocoa in a timely
manner and, per my instructions, “not too hot,” hoping that
request would not devolve into lukewarm or even at-out
cold cocoa, or be overlooked entirely.
Tomorrow, I’ll format my condential report and for-
ward it to the resort’s leadership. Since nearly everyone has
done their job well during my visit, they’re going to like what
they read.
And that, I’d say, is a perfect day—because of the spot-on
performance of the resort’s sta, and because, let’s face it, my
job can be a romp.
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Is that Micah in one of his less-subtle disguises?
Looksthat way, but, as his publisher, we’re sworn to secrecy.
That’s Micah In Disguise. Here’s Why.
It’s a prickly sensation to spot my own face on a WANTED-
style poster pasted up on a hotel’s valet stand, or on the
swinging door of a restaurant kitchen, or at a bank branch
on a memo marked “urgent!” that a bank manager has
received and left on their desk. It means that word of my
work as a customer service transformation expert-slash-
Sherlock Holmes has somehow leaked out and spread
through the ranks of a company even before I’ve visited
their place of business.
But it’s rather missing the point to try to uncover me—
to “make” me, as they say on the spy shows—since I only
visit a business to help that business improve, rather than to
look for “gotcha” moments.
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INTRODUCTION
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Still, I suppose it’s understandable.
So, over time, disguising myself has become more
important and my disguises have grown more elaborate. (If
you spot someone with Groucho eyebrows and a grease-
paint mustache, that’s probably not me, but it might be.)
My work in customer service transformation aims to take
a company ever closer to the ideal of customer service per-
fection. is requires choreographing multiple employee
behaviors via training, eLearning, best practices delineation,
and a deliberate framework for reinforcement, plus reviewing
and rening all related processes, to create exceptional—
spectacular, even—customer service.
In the upcoming pages I’ll personally mentor you on how
to make such service the norm at your business, customer
after customer, interaction after interaction.
Don’t worry if you’ve yet to succeed in providing such an
extraordinary level of customer service at your business, or
if you haven’t gured out how to do so on a consistent basis.
We’ll get there—together.
Good Enough . . . Isn’t
If you’ve felt instinctively that there’s more excellence that
can be brought to your organization’s customer service
experience, that there is an elevated state out there that is
achievable (even if most companies in the marketplace don’t
even try to achieve it), then this book is for you.
4
INTRODUCTION
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is won’t be a book about taking shortcuts, or about pro-
viding a “good enough” customer experience. (And, candidly,
if that’s what you’re looking for, you should put this book
aside until your mood and mindset are ready for a change.)
Instead, it’s about going deeper and higher, adding more
polish, even some swagger, to the the experience you create
for your customers.
It’s going to be an exhilarating, if strenuous, ride—a ride
with phenomenal and company-changing results. You’ll
be creating as close to a “promised land for customers” as
can be achieved, where your employees are mission-driven,
empowered, and creative in the solutions they deliver to
your customers; where heated moments with customers are
rare and easily resolved (and the resulting customer reviews
after such resolutions are almost uniformly phenomenal);
where your company growth is stimulated day after day
by this secret weapon you’ve now added to your arsenal: a
uniquely close connection with an activated and engaged cus-
tomer base.
What Is Customer Service?
Customer service is the assistance an organization provides
to those who use its products or services.*
* And, occasionally, even the assistance given to those who ultimately don’t
become customers, i.e., when you graciously assist someone on their way to a
provider who is more suitable for their needs.
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The term can also encompass internal customer service,
which is a rather beautiful way to describe the assistance
and support given by one colleague to another at work.
A related term is customer experience, often abbrevi-
ated as CX. There are entire essays written on how these
two terms—customer service and customer experience—
are or aren’t synonymous. This debate doesn’t interest me
much; of course you can only provide great customer ser-
vice if you’re providing a great customer experience, and
vice versa. So I’m happy to use the two terms interchange-
ably, depending on context and audience.
Exceptional Customer Service
Lets Your Company Escape the
Deadly Commodity Zone
In cold, hard business terms, why is delivering exceptional
customer service so valuable? Why is it worth the investment,
when you have other business challenges and opportunities
also calling out for attention?
Well, not to go all Eeyore on you, but it’s highly unlikely
that your company or brand oering is entirely unique. Most
companies hover a lot closer to the deadly commodity zone
than anyone at those companies realize. So, the odds are rea-
sonable that this may include your company as well.
What is the commodity zone? It’s one of the scariest places
for a company to nd itself. It’s when your business is viewed
as more or less interchangeable with the competition, where
6
INTRODUCTION
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your current customers are happy to jump ship to one of your
competitors, for a myriad of minor reasons:
A slightly lower price
A faster website
A shinier app
A slightly more convenient location
Or, sometimes, for no discernible reason at all.
Happily, there is a way you can keep your brand from
becoming a commodity—replaceable, interchangeable—in
the eyes of the marketplace. Build such a reputation for cus-
tomer service excellence, and such a strong connection with
every customer you touch, that your service becomes a point
of distinction, a survival lifeline, and, ultimately, a powerful
engine for growth. You may never have to worry about being
viewed as a commodity again.
The Long-Term Payoffs from
Exceptional Customer Service
An exceptional customer experience will create multiple pos-
itive results for your business, most centrally the creation of
passionately loyal customers.
Passionately loyal customers are:
Less price sensitive.
More likely to be interested in any new products,
services, or brand extensions you may roll out in
thefuture.
More understanding when things go sideways. (is
is true. I promise! Once you’ve done so much, so well,
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for your customers, you achieve a state where the little
mistakes—and even the occasional massive blunder!—
are looked upon in a better, more forgiving, light.)
A loyal customer is also your best form of marketing, bar none.
ere is nothing more powerful in growing a business than
the ambassadorship of customers who are so engaged, so acti-
vated, that they take on the mission of spreading the good
word about your company as crusaders for your brand, who
share their passion for your company with their online con-
nections and real-life contacts as well.
. . . And the Personal Benefit
You’ll Experience Right Away
ere’s one more benet that you’ll experience immediately
as you dig into the work we’re going to do together. Even
before you achieve the state of customer activation, loyalty,
and ambassadorship that I’ve just promised, the benets
of your new approach will make themselves known to you
personally. You’ll nd yourself shoring up relationships
within your company, and you’ll discover that your own work
becomes more pleasant and rewarding.
Who Are You, Micah, to Be
Making These Promises?
An exceedingly legit question to be asking, before you com-
mit to spending your time and brain cells with me.
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INTRODUCTION
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So, here goes:
I’ve built my reputation client by client and engagement
by engagement, working with everyone from small organiza-
tions with miniature budgets to some of the world’s largest
and most respected brands. And I’ve always done my work
with the same aim: to achieve an exceptional level of cus-
tomer service excellence.
I’ve written ve books on the subject (the one you’re reading
is my fth), and I’ve shared my expertise via Harvard Business
Review, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times,
the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and on
CBS, NBC, and other networks.
I’ve also involved myself in customer experience technol-
ogy innovation, including as an early investor in some of the
technology included in what we all know and love (or hate)
as Apple’s Siri, as well as using my own methods to grow my
own company, a manufacturing operation that I built up
from my spare bedroom to a place of prominence in our eld
of play, a story known to readers of Seth Godin’s landmark
book, Purple Cow.
Apparently, I Was Born This Way
(Maybe You Were, Too)
But it’s not only my professional experiences that have
brought me to this point. ere’s a case to be made that I was
born this way, as a particularly particular person when it comes
to all things that we now call the customer experience.
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And Here’s Some
(Reconstructed) Evidence from
the Solomon Family Archive
Long ago (I was 11 going on 12), my parents received a letter
from my sleepaway camp counselors upon my return from
my rst summer away. My folks squirreled away that original
letter to protect my feelings, but I did manage to see it briey,
and it read something like this:
Reconstruction of the note Micah’s parents
received from his summer camp counselors.
Oh boy. I must have been an exhausting kid to have at sum-
mer camp. Still, I like to think that the very qualities that
made me such a trial and tribulation to my camp counselors
also make me particularly well suited for the work that now
consumes my professional life.
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What About You? Are You as
Obsessed with CustomerService
Excellence as I Am?
Sometimes I meet other people who are likewise obsessed
with customer service excellence. Often, they confess this
when they come up to meet me after a training or speech or
at a book signing. at’s where they’ll tell me (usually in a
quiet voice) some version of the following:
I’ve always been passionate about customer service, but
sometimes it feels like I’m the only one. Nobody else seems
to care about this stu the way I do, but I live and breathe
it; it’s in my bones.
ese customer service enthusiasts span every discipline
and industry. ey’re nurses and administrators in health-
care, tellers and managers at banks, enlisted soldiers and
ocers in the military, and people serving in our federal,
state, and local governments. Including, most recently:
The banking vice president who told me, “If it weren’t
frowned on when I personally take customer support
calls, I’d do it every day in a heartbeat. Sometimes I
hear such insensitive language used by us on these
calls that it sets my teeth on edge.”
(If you share this banker’s passion for improving the
language we use in conversations with customers, see
Chapter 6 for guidance on the proper word choices to
make in customer service.)
The owner-operator of a chain of car washes who
told me, “I’m driven to excellence every day by my
awareness that customers could just wash their cars at
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home, when it comes down to it. It’s the experience, the
something extra we strive to provide at our car washes
that either makes paying for our services worth it
or not.”
(If you, like this car wash owner, are devoted to
providing that little extra something for every customer,
you can discover how to systemize this via “gold-touch”
customer service in Chapter 2.)
The manager at a much-beloved retailer who told
me that her own company’s famously high service
standards are such that it’s hard for her to enjoy being
a customer anywhere else, because she always nds
herself “biting my lip” to avoid sharing unsolicited
suggestions when she’s supposed to be enjoying herself
as a customer.
(For a discussion of customer service standards,
with pointers on developing your own, visit the
nal chapter of this book, Chapter 12. I’ve also gone
ahead and included a hefty helping of such standards
throughout this book that you can borrow from me
verbatim.)
The healthcare administrator who shared her belief
with me that “the consideration and compassion with
which we deliver healthcare here makes a tangible
dierence to the experience of our patients,” and, she
believes, to the success of their medical outcomes
as well.
(If you share this healthcare administrator’s interest
in consideration and compassion, visit, in particular,
Chapter 4.)
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Note: If you share this interest in improving the patient experience in
healthcare, please send an email with the subject line “Bonus Patient
Experience Resource” to health@micahsolomon.com and I will send
you my RESPECT Patient Experience Model, along with other patient
experience–specific resources. Please also include a sentence or two
about who you are, what you do, and what you’re facing daily at your
work in healthcare!
***
All in all, if you are consumed by a desire to create a level of
customer service excellence higher than most everyone else
in business even considers to be possible, this book is for you.
So, let’s dig in and get started.
The Book Club (or Video Club)
Methodof Finding Your Secret
CustomerService Army
If you’re feeling alone in your passion for service, it may be
helpful and heartening to identify who else in your organi-
zation shares this interest, because they may be all around
you, hiding in plain sight. A low-risk trick for identifying
fellow service enthusiasts in your organization is to start a
book club dedicated to the subject. (And how about this
for a good deal: If you want to start your club off with the
book you’re reading right now, and buy book copies from
me, I’ll host a session or two for you for free! Email me at
club@micahsolomon.com and let’s make it happen!)
Or, if your colleagues aren’t particularly book people, make
it a video club, featuring and reviewing customer service
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INTRODUCTION
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videos. (You can visit this page on my site, micah .pub/MAMA,
for a free training video to get you started.)
For a look at a training video like the one
pictured, visit micah.pub/MAMA.
If all this sounds like too much work, you can always shoot
me an email at micah@micahsolomon.com and I’ll sympa-
thize with your customer service obsession personally.
Liberties I’ve Taken in This Book
Anecdotes that feature clients of mine, past or present, have
been altered to make those involved unidentiable. Loca-
tions, brand and personnel names, and the nature of an
industry were all fair game to be tinkered with in the process
of writing this book. I’ve also used simplication and con-
densation for the sake of making examples clearer and more
useful. Finally, some material in this book is adapted from
my previously published articles.
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INTRODUCTION
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CHAPTER 1
CLIMBING THE
LOYALTY LADDER
Propel Your Organization up the
Three Rungs of Customer Service
T
he way I see it, your decision to read this book already
puts you way ahead of the game. (Here’s my logic: there
are literally billions of human beings out there who, unlike
you, will never read this, or any other book, on the subject of
customer service improvement!) And because of your demon-
strated interest in the subject, I’m going to assume that you’re
already providing “pretty good, much of the time” customer
service. You’re already getting quite a few things right—at
least on most days and in most customer interactions. So,
take a moment to pat yourself on the back.*
If I’m right about this, it means that you’ve already learned
the value of customer service from the moments when you
* But don’t strain your neck.
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have gotten it right, and you’re now inspired to take these suc-
cesses even further. You’re ready to elevate and polish your
relationships with customers to a level sucient to build
the customer connections (and business results) that you’ve
always hoped to achieve.
In other words, you’re ready to get out of the middle of the
pack—what I call Rung 2 of the Service Level Ladder—and
ascend to the top. is middle rung, Rung 2, is where you’re
judged to be more or less satisfactory by your customers, but
you’re not yet loved (or even probably remembered) for the
quality of customer service you provide.
is second rung is, of course, loads better than Rung 1
(unacceptable service), but it’s never going to inspire the kind
of engagement, passion, and loyalty you need from custom-
ers to grow your business.
e problem is that a merely satised (Rung 2) customer will
still have a wandering eye. And how can you blame them? If
your more-or-less-decent customer service is no better and
no worse than what your competitors are also able to supply,
where’s the value to a customer limiting themselves to only
one supplier—you?
In other words, here’s what you need to remember:
A merely satised customer belongs to the
marketplace.
A loyal customer belongs to you.
is is why it’s so important to elevate your organization’s
performance to Rung 3, the level of truly iconic customer ser-
vice, where customers now consider you their only possible
supplier—a category of one—and go out of their way to sing
your praises and share the word about the extraordinary level
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of customer service you provide. Once you’re viewed this way
in the marketplace, you’ll be able to use your new, elevated
status to grow your company reputation and to reliably and
repeatably grow your bottom line.
Becoming Iconic:
Moving Your Organization up
the Customer Service Ladder
In the upcoming pages, you’ll learn the secrets of climb-
ing up the ladder to Rung 3: how to provide personalized,
memorable, loyalty-building customer service via elements
that include the more or less magic principle of gold-touch
customer service (Chapter 2), how to harnessing the power
The Service Level Ladder
(© 2023 Four Aces Inc., Micah Solomon, President)
CLIMBING THE LOYALTY LADDER
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of recognition (Chapter 4), how to put in place an eective
service recovery framework for when things aren’t going
smoothly (Chapter 5), the right and wrong language to use
(Chapter 6), how to deploy customer-focused technology
without losing the human touch (Chapter 7), the principles
and practicalities of inspiring customer-centric innovation
(Chapter 11), and more.
The Art of Anticipatory
Customer Service
ese elements by and large share one organizing principle:
the principle of anticipatory customer service.
Anticipatory customer service means getting to where the
hockey puck is headed before the puck gets there. It’s giving
the customer what they want:
before they ask for it,
before they even know they want it,
even if they never get around to asking for it.
e baseline customer service equation is when a customer
asks for something and you provide it to them. is has value,
of course, but it’s not enough to give rise to special feelings in
a customer and to linger in their memory.
But iconic, loyalty-building customer service occurs when
you seek out and take care of desires, needs, and questions
that a customer has left unexpressed. Customers don’t ask
for what they need because, among other reasons, they aren’t
knowledgeable enough to realize that they could benet from
some aspect of your product or service or they don’t even
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know that you can oer it. Or, maybe, they aren’t an asser-
tive person in public—they don’t want to be “too much of a
bother.” (Yes, such gentle, unassuming customers do exist.)
Anticipatory customer service involves hearing more than
what a customer says out loud. Uncovering and taking care
of unspoken needs and wishes and answering unasked ques-
tions is a master principle of service that will bring your
company into a new reality: a destination populated with
delighted customers who provide you with the kind of loyalty
and enthusiastic referrals that will help your company grow
and prosper for the long term.
ere is nothing more powerful in the world of business.
CLIMBING THE LOYALTY LADDER
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CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY
CLIMBING THE LOYALTY LADDER
Propel Your Organization up the
ThreeRungs of Customer Service
T
he way customer service is delivered in our world ranges
from truly amazing to depressingly bad—and a lot that
falls in between. To make the delivery of customer service
as simple to visualize as possible, I have developed the Service
Level Ladder.
The Service Level Ladder has three rungs—the higher your
people and your organization climb up the ladder, the better the
service they’re delivering:
Rung 1. This is the lowest step on the ladder, unacceptable
service. If your organization is stuck on this rung, you’ve got
your work cut out for you. I’m going to guess, however, that
this isn’t where you are. Why? You’ve invested in reading
this book, so you already know how much value there is in
service.
Rung 2. Satisfactory service. Satisfactory service is a big step
above unacceptable service. Satisfactory service fulfills the
baseline commercial equation: a customer asks for something
and you respond by providing it. The problem is that
satisfactory customer service can still leave you, in the mind
of customers, interchangeable with your competition. It’s not
enough to create strong customer emotions or make them
loyal to you; it’s not enough to keep them from leaving you
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for the competition for all sorts of trivial reasons—or for no
discernible reason at all.
Rung 3. Iconic (anticipatory) service. Rung3 customer
service builds on satisfactory customer service by adding
another element: anticipation—hearing (andacting on) more
than what a customer says out loud. Thisis where you give
customers what they want:
before they ask for it,
before they even know they want it,
even if they never get around to asking for it.
When you master this level of service, it becomes a loyalty-
building, competitive advantage that will grow your business
customer by customer, year after year.
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CHAPTER 2
GOLD-TOUCH
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
A Loyalty-Building Practice
Anyone Can Master
F
eeling the ever-more insistent tug of nature, but not
wanting to leave my laptop unattended for even a
minute,* I asked my server at the ve-star Madera restaurant
in the heart of Silicon Valley,
“How comfortable should I feel leaving my laptop on the
table while I step out for a minute?”
“Very comfortable,” she answered, “because I will be here
with it,” moving into an arms-crossed, standing-guard
position like a sentry at the Tower of London that she
* One of the things that made my laptop so precious that day was that it con-
tained an early manuscript of the book you’re now reading!
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was still maintaining (with perhaps a bit of humorous
exaggeration) when I returned.
What my well-trained server, Audrey Boisvert, was prac-
ticing was gold-touch customer service.
Gold-touch customer service comes in two varieties.
e rst is the do-extra: giving a customer more eort than
they’ve asked for or could reasonably expect. e second is the
tell-extra: providing a customer with unexpected, additional
value by answering a question with particular thoroughness
or by making a connection with a customer on a human,
shared passion level.
If you want to transform your company’s relationship
with customers, I encourage you to practice gold-touch cus-
tomer service whenever you nd or can create a do-extra or
tell-extra opportunity. It’s a simple practice that can enrich
customer interactions and elevate how customers think of
your business.
Gold-Touch Examples in Various
Industries and Contexts
In the examples of gold-touch customer service that follow,
you’ll notice they generally aren’t massive, splashy, scene-
stealing gestures. Yet each one is more than enough to
distinguish a company from its competition, brighten a cus-
tomer’s day, and put that customer one step closer to true
brand loyalty.
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Do-extras:
An auto dealership employee could pair a customer’s
cellphone to their new car’s system before they drive
o the lot, rather than allowing them to drive away
only to get frustrated (and perhaps even into a fender
bender) while trying to handle it themselves on
the road.
A hair salon employee could run out and feed the
parking meter for an arriving client so they don’t have
to fumble around trying to nd change.
A clothing salesperson at a department store could
send Girl Scout cookies in the mail to a customer
who has mentioned a weakness for, say, in Mints
(that’s me!) or Caramel deLites (that’s me when
in Mints aren’t available). My salesperson at
Nordstrom, in fact, does this. (She’s the fabulous
Joanne Hassis at Nordstrom’s King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania, location.)
Tell-extras:
A paralegal could respond to a rst-time legal services
client who asks about hours of operation with, “e
building opens at seven.” (Here, they’ve answered the
question the client actually asked.) “And you’ll want to
head to the last bank of elevators to access the higher
oors, including ours.” (Here, they’ve added a valuable
tell-extra.)
Someone scheduling or conrming an appointment
for a job applicant—yes, in many senses, job applicants
are customers, too!—could volunteer, “Your interview
is at 9 a.m.” (is answers the applicant’s expressed
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question.) “And be sure to bring your driver’s license
to get into the building—they can be sticklers for that
downstairs.” (is provides a useful tell-extra that may
head o later frustration.)
A cashier at the checkout line could admire—
sincerely—one of the articles a customer is purchasing.
(is one requires nuance. Trader Joe’s is both by
and large great at this and occasionally mocked for
sometimes appearing to do this by rote.)
A company that sells a potentially confusing product
could include helpful, very specic links, or even—
and this is one of my favorites—a brief and highly
personalized introductory tutorial video. (e ip
side of this is that you need to curate what you send.
Too much information, à la the nal archives scene
in Raiders of the Lost Ark, is nearly as unhelpful as
toolittle.)
One of the Most Powerful
Kinds of Gold-Touch . . .
. . . At least of the tell-extra variety, is when you’re able to
make use of a distinctive nugget of information that you’ve
picked up about a particular customer. is kind of detail is
often right there and ripe for the taking, but you need to have
your ears perked up, your eyes open, and your antennas, so
to speak, extended. ese nuggets can be a customer’s hob-
bies, recreation choices, love of dogs or cats (or their revulsion
thereof), food or beverage preferences, and the neighborhood
where they live, as well as, more seriously, details like food
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allergies, challenges with low vision, physical mobility (dis-
ability) issues,* and the like.
Always be on the lookout for these one of a kind gems.
Like Any Good Deed,
Gold-Touch Has the Potential to Backfire
Watch out for these common gold-touch pitfalls:
Resist the impulse to oer personalization based on
information that the customer will feel uncomfortable
knowing that you have. e front desk manager of a
hotel shouldn’t call a guest in their room and try to
gold-touch them by oering an exclusive bourbon
tasting based on “how much you’ve enjoyed the
miniature bottles of liquor in your minibar.” Yes,
things like this do happen. No, this isn’t a way to
endear yourself to your guests.
Avoid basing a gold-touch on information that
was condentially shared with you or shared as
a requirement of service. While a customer will
understand your need to ask their date of birth for
legitimate compliance reasons, if you then use it as
a public marketing vehicle via LinkedIn postings or
unsolicited postcards, it may not be appreciated.
Avoid basing a gold-touch on anything that comes too
close to an obvious danger area, like religion or politics.
* Although attention to disability-related issues should be considered part of
the standard service we all provide, I’m putting them in the gold-touch cate-
gory because, in practice, they are rarely given proper consideration by most
service providers. Please be the exception.
GOLD-TOUCH CUSTOMER SERVICE
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Be Gentle with Your Employees
If Their Early Gold-Touch Efforts
Go a Little Sideways
Be careful to avoid quashing the tender eorts of employ-
ees who are just learning the art of providing gold-touches.
Searching for opportunities and then delivering gold-
touches is a mindset, a behavior, and eventually, if all goes
well, a habit. But as with anything creative and personal, it
can be tricky to get exactly right. Most commonly, when an
employee is starting out, they’ll be too overbearing or too
personal; alternatively and not as commonly, they may be a
little one-size-ts-all in their approach.
If employees start feeling defeated and begin tying them-
selves into knots with the fear that their gold-touch attempts
won’t meet your high standards, then the habit is unlikely
to take root and ourish. Everyone in leadership positions
should take pains to applaud rather than criticize employees
who go about their do-extras or tell-extras in a dierent way
from how they imagine they would have handled it themself.
And remember: whenever an employee is diverted from their
regularly scheduled activities to provide gold-touch customer
service that couldn’t be planned for in advance, it isn’t fair
to give them grief about the regularly scheduled work they
weren’t able to accomplish during that time.
With a Gold-Touch, It’s the Thought
ThatCounts (At Least to Some Extent)
Here’s another reason you shouldn’t fret if a gold-touch isn’t
perfectly designed and executed: there’s a signicant element
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of, “it’s the thought that counts, and that sure was thought-
ful!” credit that customers will give a business for making a
gold-touch eort regardless—well, almost regardless—of the
grace or awkwardness with which it was executed.
In addition, providing a gold-touch will telegraph to the
customer that you’re up for handling other forms of assis-
tance they may need in the future. In other words, the more
you provide gold-touch service, the more you become their
provider, and the more closely the customer feels engaged
and aligned with you.
Gold-Touch Doesn’t Always Have to
Be Hand-Crafted and Spontaneous
Although the most meaningful gold-touch gestures are spe-
cic and applicable only to the customer to whom they’re
oered (because they’re based on an employee’s knowledge
of, and cues picked up from, that specic customer), a gold-
touch doesn’t always have to be as personal and spontaneous
as all that. Choreographed, scripted, universally applicable
gold-touches can have value, too:
e pet grooming outt that sends every customer
home with a blue or pink bandana around its neck*
after making it through its grooming ordeal.
e car dealership that puts a bottle of chilled water in
the cupholder of every car after service, to be discovered
by the driver upon exit. (e environmentalist in me
oers this example with some hesitation.)
* Its furry customer, that is, not its human customer—except, I suppose, upon
request!
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e theme park where every employee, whether a
groundskeeper or an executive, knows to drop their
assigned tasks and jump to:
– Oer directions any time they see a guest beginning
to unfold their theme park map.
– Oer to take a photo when they see a family group
forming for a sele that will be improbably large
and neck-and-shoulder straining unless taken by
someone not in the group.
Just keep in mind that, on the one hand, these choreo-
graphed, preplanned gold-touches have the potential to reach
the largest number of customers, on the other hand, they
tend to lose their impact over time as they become an expec-
tation rather than an extra.
On the other other hand, you may be fortunate enough to
have a choreographed gold-touch become a brand trademark
and attraction, as the chocolate chip cookies at DoubleTree
hotels have become. Now how cool would that be?
Seriously Now, Micah, How Am I
Expected to Find Time for This?
I can picture your eyes rolling as you read this, thinking,
“sure, sure, whatever you say, Micah, but fumbling around for
opportunities to gold-touch our customers is the last thing
anyone at my company has time to squeeze into their already
busy days!”
Well, good point. Forget everything you’ve just read.
Just kidding.
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While more elaborate gold-touches do take time, if you
don’t have time for those yet,* there are still, in my experi-
ence, opportunities that will arise for gold-touches that are
ripe for easy plucking, so long as you have a gold-touch mind-
set and are paying even a smidgeon of attention:
Any time something doesn’t go as well as expected, you
have a chance to go the extra mile in a gold-touch sort of
way. Let’s say you’re a security company that had to delay
installation due to an unexpected room layout within a
customer’s house. In this case, you could do something
as simple as working closely with the customer to
conveniently reschedule the updated installation.
Any time something goes right (e.g., when a customer
of the security company volunteers how happy they
are to nally have the right system installed after
the miseries of working with prior vendors) you also
have a chance to add a gold-touch, whether it’s simply
expressing to the customer your happiness at hearing
their thanks, or sending them a card congratulating
them on their new success.
Any time a customer neglects to ask for something
that you, in your professional judgment, know they
would benet from. is could be, for example,
recommending that a customer add water leak sensors
to their security system, a solution that could, as you
explain to the customer, “save you from thousands of
dollars in nancial losses and weeks of inconvenience
while the water damage is repaired.” And while this
could be considered an upsell, if it’s a thoughtful and
appropriate recommendation, most customers won’t
see it that way.
* I predict you will start to make time once you see how eective gold-touching is.
GOLD-TOUCH CUSTOMER SERVICE
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Even a Funeral Can Benefit from a
Choreographed Gold-Touch
I have found that the funeral industry (“deathcare,” as it
is sometimes a little cringily called) often attracts particu-
larly customer-focused personnel to its ranks. The majority
of funeral directors and their staff are attuned to what can
impact their grieving customers and will respond by doing
whatever it takes to make their customers comfortable, as in
the following instance.
While grief may be the overarching emotion for adults
after a loss, hunger can strike almost as acutely when you’re
a child.
“My kids and I had run out of the house early the morn-
ing of my father’s [the children’s grandfather’s] funeral
without eating much,” a young mom tells me. “As a result,
on the way to the gravesite for burial, after having already
made it through the morning viewing, my kids were getting
hungry and well on the way to hangry.
“Then, a godsend happened on the way to the limou-
sines: the funeral professionals handed each of us a brown
bag of buttered bagels and bottles of water. I’ll never for-
get their kindness and forward thinking.”
How to Create an Environment Where
Gold-Touch Behavior Will Flourish
As I’ve been emphasizing, your goal should be to create an
environment and culture where gold-touch behavior becomes
the norm. Here are my suggested ways to accomplish this:
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Build gold-touch into your customer service training.
Gold-touch is a principle that should be routinely
taught and retaught in your customer service trainings.
(See the “Two Free Gold-Touch Tools for My Readers”
callout for how to access my eLearning training video
on gold-touch for free.)
Two Free Gold-Touch Tools for My Readers
1. I encourage you to email me for a private link (on your
honor to keep it private) to my eLearning training video
on gold-touch at goldtouch@micahsolomon.com.
2. For a standalone, printable version of my Gold-Touch
Prompts to Get You Started, email me at prompts@
micahsolomon.com and I’ll hook you up right away.
Please take a moment in your email to tell me about
your situation, company, and yourself!
Make gold-touch part of employee onboarding
(orientation).
It’s never too early for an employee to
learn about gold-touch. Start on day one.
Lead by example. Provide gold-touches to customers
yourself. Do so especially when you know employees are
watching. (Your cherry-picking secret is safe with me!)
Celebrate gold-touches and those who provide
them.
When you catch employees engaging in gold-
touch behavior, recognize (and maybe even reward)
them right then and there. Also, take the time to
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systemically build ways to celebrate these eorts on
your physical or virtual bulletin board, your internal
newsletter, company events, and elsewhere.
Empower employees to step out of their planned
routines to offer gold-touches as needed.
If employees
are always on edge, worrying that management will
later reprimand them for having stepped away from
scheduled tasks to provide a gold-touch to a customer,
they will never feel safe oering gold-touches.
Build breathing space into employee schedules. Being
theoretically empowered to creatively provide gold-touch
moments—but in reality lacking the time to actually
carry them out—isn’t a winning combination.
Gold-Touch Prompts to Get You Started
Do-extra:
• Are there preferences your customer has exhibited in
the past that you can fulfill now? (Bring them a Diet
Coke while they’re waiting if they asked for one last
time, avoid the standard plastic wrap if they asked
you to leave it off on a past visit, etc.)
• Is there something you can add to what you’re
selling that the customer would appreciate, without
it breaking the bank for you (e.g., throwing in an
extra blueberry muffin when they order a dozen)?
• Is there additional effort you can provide that the
customer would appreciate (for example, walking
them to their car while holding an umbrella for
CAN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE DO THIS?
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them on a rainy day, or walking around from behind
the retail cash wrap counter to hand them their
purchases from a side-by-side vantage point)?
• Is there a chance for you to do something that’s not
within the scope of your business (e.g., a real estate
manager could do a drive-by for an out-of-town
customer who saw a house they fancied online)?
Tell-extra:
• Interests: hobbies, pets, kids, sports teams, etc.
• Something the customer might benefit from knowing
(for example, “You’ll want to have a screwdriver
bigger than X on hand before you start assembling
your new purchase”) beyond the generic instructions
the manufacturer includes with your product.
• Any time a customer neglects to ask for some
information that you, in your professional judgment,
think they would benefit from.
***
I can’t pretend—and neither should you—that gold-touches
take zero time. But I would argue that gold-touches ulti-
mately take less time than the hours of prospecting you’d
otherwise need to replace customers who have drifted away
from your company because they weren’t touched by you in
this loyalty-building way. And the marketing value of gold-
touched customers spreading the word to others about their
delightful experience with your company is truly beyond
measure.
GOLD-TOUCH CUSTOMER SERVICE
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CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY
GOLD-TOUCH CUSTOMER SERVICE
A Loyalty-Building Practice Anyone Can Master
G
old-touch customer service is a simple practice that can
quickly elevate how customers think of your business.
Gold-touch comes in two varieties:
Do-extra: When you give a customer more of your effort
than they’ve asked for or would reasonably expect.
Tell-extra: When you provide customers with additional
value by answering questions in a particularly thorough
way or by connecting with customers on a human, shared
passion level.
Often, the best kind of tell-extra is when you make use of a
particular tidbit of information that you’ve picked up about a
particular customer. The secret to finding these nuggets is to
have your ears perked up, your eyes open, and your antennas,
so to speak, extended throughout your day as you interact with
customers.
Remember
Gold-touch customer service takes time to learn and often
takes employees away from their regular duties. Leaders
should applaud gold-touch efforts that their employees make,
rather than coming down on employees for having temporarily
stepped away from their regular work.
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Successfully Delivering Gold-Touch Customer Service
Takes Practice
Likewise, leaders should go easy on employees who don’t get
gold-touch customer service exactly right the first time. You
don’t want them to be afraid to attempt gold-touch service in
the future because you chastised them when their early efforts
were delivered awkwardly as they learned the ropes.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M
icah Solomon, President and CEO of Four Aces, Inc.,
is a leading authority, consultant, author, speaker,
trainer, and content creator on customer service, the cus-
tomer experience, hospitality, and customer service culture.
His bestselling books have been translated into more than
a half-dozen languages and are the recipients of multiple
awards. His expertise has been featured in Forbes, the New
York Times, Harvard Business Review, the Washington Post,
Entrepreneur, Bloomberg Businessweek, and many television
networks and aliates.
A business leader and entrepreneur himself, Micah built
his own company into a market leader—a story that readers
(Photo Credit: Danielle Barnum)
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of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow will be familiar with. He was
an early investor in the technology behind Apple’s Siri, and
his broad expertise touches on technology, the hospitality
industry, manufacturing, the automotive industry, bank-
ing, nancial services, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs),
retail, the patient experience in healthcare, and the nonprot
and governmental sectors (federal, state, and local).
rough his consulting rm, Four Aces, Inc., Micah and
his team are available to readers of this book in the following
areas of professional practice:
Customer service transformation initiatives and
customer service consulting
Training and training design (live and via custom-
created eLearning)
Keynote speaking
Book authorship/coauthorship/ghostwriting
Content creation and influencer work
Expert witness work (practice limited to customer
service and the customer experience)
You can reach Micah and team right away (seriously—try
us!) in real time or nearly real time via the following channels:
Email: micah@micahsolomon.com
Website: micahsolomon.com
Live chat: chat.micahsolomon.com
Text or voice: (484) 343-5881
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$27.00 USD
CUSTOMER SERVICE
“At Wharton Executive Education, when I’ve needed someone to deliver actionable customer
service skills to one of my global clients, Micah is who I’ve turned to. In his latest book, Can
Your Customer Service Do This?, Micah provides a comprehensive guide that covers all
aspects of customer service excellence. This book will not only spark your imagination; it
will transform your organization.”
—DEB GIFFEN, Director at Wharton Executive Education
“If you are serious about providing great customer service, you should read this book.”
—PHIL STEITZ, former global CTO of American Express
“This is a must-read for any company that wants to dierentiate itself.”
—GIRISH MATHRUBOOTHAM, CEO and founder of Freshworks
“Micah Solomon is my go-to expert on exceptional customer service and building a customer-
focused culture.”
—HERVE HUMLER, cofounder and emeritus chairman of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
“Micah Solomon conveys an up-to-the-minute and deeply practical take on customer service,
business success, and the twin importance of people and technology.”
—STEVE WOZNIAK, cofounder of Apple
“The service revamp we’ve undertaken with Micah Solomon has created an elevated level
of Member Service that’s an essential part of CHROME’s success. And now, in his new book,
Micah generously shares the secrets that can help readers get started down the same
rewarding path.”
—ROBERT J. FLANYAK, CPFC®, President and CEO of CHROME Federal Credit Union
Praise for Can Your Customer Service Do This?
and Micah Solomon
