A challenge many companies face is providing a top-notch customer experience. The reason—particularly for business-to-consumer (B2C) companies with high volumes of customers—is that so many of their customer touch points come in the form of entry-level, low-paid staff, often with high turnover. Teaching these employees the basics, let alone the intricacies, of customer relationship management can be challenging.
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However, having good examples can help. Here are a few we’ve learned from Tesla:
A Good Experience Creates Loyal Customers
Tesla is an American automotive and energy company founded by Elon Musk. It’s known for its bold, innovative moves—and great customer service.
Recent Experian research finds that Tesla has the most loyal customers of any car company, and other research finds that Tesla’s customers have an overall satisfaction rating of 90%. Furthermore, a staggering 80% of customers buy or lease another Tesla for their next car.
The reason for such loyalty, some experts say, is that Tesla goes through pains to ensure a stellar customer experience throughout the customer life cycle.
Own the Customer Experience
It’s worth noting that Tesla is different from other car companies because it does everything on its own—for example, it doesn’t partner with external companies to sell or service cars. That might not be feasible for all companies, but the point is that wherever there’s a customer touch point, you are influencing the experience.
All of those touch points come together to create brand perception. Manage them well, and great brand loyalty can be the result.
Be Mission-Focused
“Tesla describes itself as more than just a car company,” says Blake Morgan, a contributor to Forbes. “Its purpose is to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.’ Customers can tell that Tesla exists to do more than just sell cars.” She adds that having a strong mission helps employees engage and promote that mission and helps customers feel part of something bigger.
Customer service isn’t necessarily the most difficult skill to teach, but using examples can really help employees—especially those without much real-world work experience—put it into perspective.
This is especially the case when you can show them examples they could relate to as customers. In two follow-up posts, we’ll look at some other examples we’ve learned from Tesla’s experience.