Business. It's all about human-to-human relationships. When your employees leave their husbands/wives in the morning, shove a cup of coffee down on the way to work, and step into their office space, they morph into corporate executives and their behavior shifts from natural, human interaction, to a robotic, professional performance.
As leaders, we need to remind our employees that our customers are PEOPLE. They have human emotions and gaining their trust will earn their loyalty, which is what we should be striving for.
The first step in improving your company's customer experience should be: identifying WHOM your customer that you want to satisfy IS. This person should be the exact same type of person with the same personality and attributes in the mind of each employee. As a leader, you need to ensure that they are on the same page and that "we", as a business, are speaking to the same person in the same language.
See your businesses as a HUMAN. There is an ongoing love affair between the company and its customers. We need to express our love from time to time in order for them to keep interested and to maintain that harmonious relationship.
In a regular couple's relationship or marriage, we need to send flowers on Valentines Day, make a concerted and sentimental effort in celebration of the significant other's birthday, and we need to spoil one another with "Date Nights" and other customary romantic acts in order to preserve the love and to keep the "spark" going! The same goes for a company-to-customer relationship.
Your employees are the drivers of your business and it is up to you to inspire this behavior in order to keep your customers in love with your establishment.
Apologies subsequent to negative feedback are not done via passive e-mail. They are done by picking up the phone, setting up a meeting, or sending a sincere letter with a box of chocolates, suggesting "please give us another chance". Just like a boyfriend would do to win over his girlfriend whom he rudely snapped at as he hadn't had his morning coffee yet.
Thank your customers. Don't send a "thank you" attached to an invoice. Call them every once in a while and remind them that you really, genuinely appreciate their business. Keep the flame lit.
Much like the honest relationship that your business has with your customers, it is also imperative to have a similar relationship between you and your employees. You need to hear their ideas and their suggestions. Ask them what is in their way and how delighting your customers could be made easier.
In conclusion, The key to a successful and evolving business is pure, genuine, human relationships, where the leader listens to the feedback of the employees in order to improve and, in doing so, the employees listen to the customer in order to enhance their experiences with the business.