The way we think about customer service and experience needs a major shift. For years, I’ve been preaching a critical truth: customers no longer compare us just to our direct competitors. Their expectations are set by the best experience they’ve had with any company or brand.
When customers interact with your business, they’re mentally benchmarking you against companies like Amazon, Apple, Costco, and Chick-fil-A. These organizations excel at creating experiences that keep customers coming back again and again. This creates a challenging standard for the rest of us to meet.
After a less-than-stellar experience with your company, customers might think, “Why can’t they be as good as Amazon?” Even if you’re the best in your industry—what I call “best in class”—that might not be enough to meet these elevated expectations. You’re simply the best dog in a horse race.
Moving Beyond Industry Standards
Being best in your industry is commendable, but it’s a limited view. To truly excel, we need to start comparing ourselves to recognized customer experience leaders across all industries. This doesn’t mean you need to become Amazon or Apple—that’s not realistic for most businesses. But using them as models can help you transition from merely best in class to genuinely world class.
So how do we make this shift? It starts with understanding what makes world-class companies so appealing to their customers. My annual customer service research consistently shows that the best companies share four key traits:
- Consistency: Customers can predict their experience every time they interact with the company. This predictability builds trust and keeps them coming back.
- Quick response: Whether it’s Amazon’s instant confirmation emails or faster-than-expected callbacks, customers love prompt communication.
- Empowered employees: Customers get frustrated when dealing with staff who can’t make decisions. Hiring good people, training them well, and letting them solve problems creates better experiences.
- Friction-free processes: The best companies make doing business easy by eliminating hassles and reducing customer effort.
What makes these principles so powerful is that any company can implement them. You don’t need Amazon’s technology budget to respond quickly to customers or empower your team to make decisions.
Practical Steps to World-Class Service
I recommend examining your customer journey with fresh eyes. At each touchpoint, ask yourself: “What would a world-class company like Amazon do here?” or “How would Apple handle this situation?” This simple exercise can reveal opportunities you might miss when only comparing yourself to direct competitors.
For example, if a customer calls with a problem, don’t just aim to handle it as well as others in your industry. Instead, consider how the world’s customer service leaders would respond. Would they offer multiple communication channels? Would they follow up to ensure satisfaction? Would they track the issue to prevent it from happening again?
When I work with companies trying to improve their customer experience, I often find they’re too focused on industry benchmarks. They celebrate being better than their competitors without realizing the bar is actually much higher in their customers’ minds.
Consistency creates predictability. And if the consistent experience is what customers want and know they’re going to get, they keep coming back for more of it.
The companies that truly stand out don’t just compete within their industry—they compete with every great experience their customers have had anywhere. They understand that in today’s connected world, industry boundaries mean little to customers who expect excellence everywhere.
By adopting this mindset and implementing the four traits of world-class service, any company can elevate their customer experience. You don’t have to be the biggest or have the most resources—you just need to be willing to look beyond your immediate competitors for inspiration.
The path from best in class to world class isn’t about massive transformation. It’s about consistently applying these principles across your organization until excellence becomes your standard operating procedure. When you do, you’ll find yourself not just winning in your industry, but creating experiences that stand alongside the very best in the world.
