究竟什麼是驚豔──為何重要？

你與顧客的互動永遠超乎水準時，顧客就會感到驚豔。令人感到驚豔的不是這些優質互動，而是它們的一貫性和可預期性。要讓顧客驚豔，你必須每次都嚇到他們──你的員工便是其中關鍵。要讓顧客驚豔，你必須先讓員工驚豔，然後他們就會接手完成它。

What exactly is customer amazement– and why is it important

Customer amazement happens when you deliver customer interactions which are better than average all of the time. It's not so much the occurrence of these superior interactions that amaze but their consistency and predictability. To amaze customers, you've got to knock their socks off every time – and your people are the key to achieving that. To amaze your customers, you've first got to amaze your employees. They will then take it from there.

Ace Hardware 五金與家具零售集團是先讓員工驚豔、後讓客戶驚豔的好例子。這家公司在 70 多國擁有 4600 間分店，大部分由當地人士持有與經營，然而在過去 6 年始終在市場資訊公司J.D. Power的顧客滿意度調查中榮獲第一，打敗家得寶與勞氏等規模更大的企業。或許這也是為什麼《彭博商業周刊》將 Ace列入顧客最滿意的十大美國品牌，與蘋果、 L.L. Bean及四季豪華連鎖飯店相提並論。

A great example of a company which amazes its customers by first amazing its own employees is Ace Hardware . There are more than 4,600 Ace Hardware stores in over 70 countries with the majority being locally owned and operated. Yet Ace Hardware has ranked highest in the J. D. Power customer satisfaction survey every year for the past six years, outranking bigger companies like Home Depot and Lowe's. Perhaps that's why Bloomberg Businessweek ranks Ace in the top ten US brands for customer satisfaction, putting Ace Hardware in the company of Apple, L. L. Bean and the Four Seasons luxury hotel chain.