Are you creating customer advocacy through your employees?
Earlier in my career I traveled 80% of the time. And after I experienced lost luggage a time or two, (yes, it took losing my luggage) I learned to pack as light as possible.
This meant I leveraged everything a hotel had to offer from their lotion to their hair dryers.
I was up and out of the hotel every morning at 5:30a.m. and I had an efficient system in place.
Until I didn’t.
One morning, in the dead of winter at 5a.m., my hair dryer malfunctioned (gentlemen bear with me here), it would only work if I continuously pressed the on button - seemed like an easy problem to solve. I called the front desk, and the front desk employee began looking for a replacement.
Unfortunately, because the hair dryer was connected to the wall there was no replacement, and they were fully booked.
The front desk employee came to my room and offered to hold the on button while I finished blow drying my hair. I took her up on that offer.
She didn’t have to do what she did. She could’ve easily said “sorry, you’re out of luck leave with wet hair.”
But she didn’t.
She displayed:
✅ Ownership
✅ Creativity
✅ Responsibility
✅ Kindness
✅ Empowerment
Those behaviors made me not only a loyal customer but also an advocate of that hotel. So much so, I spoke to every new hire class about my experience.
That meant every 4 weeks – a minimum of 160 people heard about that employee at that specific hotel. In a years’ time 2000 people heard this story. In turn, the hotel gained business.
It was all because of that one employee.
If you don’t know what behaviors create customer advocacy AND if you’re not teaching your employees these behaviors, you’re missing the mark.
And you’re missing an opportunity to grow your business organically.
What results is customer advocacy lending in your business?