We have finally arrived at the tenth entry on Shep Hyken’s Forbes article, The Ten Commandments of Superior Customer Service, titled “Thou Shalt Practice the CANEI Principle”.
What does CANEI mean? As Hyken explains, “CANEI is Dr. Edward Deming’s concept that stands for Constant and Never Ending Improvement. It is about trying to be better at everything you do.” This principle implores us to “Adopt an attitude in which you strive to be better today than yesterday,” to strive for improvement whether it’s possible or not. That drive will push you to be at your best at all times.
This is the essence of our mystery-shopping philosophy at The Brandt Group. Always seek to be better, always test yourself to make sure you don’t lose sight of that drive. This is the expectation and the goal that any business owner must place on his or her staff. As our founder, John Brandt, is fond of saying, “When the teachers stop testing, the students stop studying.” The idea here is not that your employees are lazy or disinterested in doing a good job, so you have to constantly stay on them; instead, this idea merely acknowledges the fact that good isn’t good enough, and that the pursuit of perfection—impossible as it may be—is what will make your staff great and keep them that way.
Mystery shopping isn’t a ‘gotcha’ tool for a manager to wield as a weapon against his subordinates. The better metaphor is that mystery shopping is the whetstone we use to keep our edge because a dull knife makes for a duller chef. If great customer service and keen salesmanship are the necessary tools of your business’s trade, then you need to keep them sharp. That’s how you create and maintain a culture of excellent, so that you can hold your business accountable to make sure you’re always improving.
The world of any business is always changing. New competitors pop up, products come and go, and even a company with a fiercely dedicated staff will eventually experience turnover. Your commitment to embracing the philosophy over constant self-improvement is perhaps the most important investment you’ll make into your business.
What will all this effort buy you?
—A reputation.
You see, you do all these things because superior customer service will give your business the kind of reputation that will lead to long-term loyalty in the form or repeat customers and new referrals. So let’s get started today so we can start working together on forging and maintaining that culture of excellence you expect. We’ll help you measure how successful your sales and service initiatives are, help identify where your business is strongest and weakest, and help you develop the tools to coach your staff to put all of these ideas into practice. We look forward to working with you in your pursuit of the Constant and Never Ending Improvement necessary for superior customer service.
