Shep Hyken, HPU Customer Service Expert, Mentors Students and Staff

Shep Hyken, a world-renowned customer service and customer experience expert, recently mentored High Point University students and staff as HPU’s Customer Service Expert in Residence. While on campus, Hyken shared lunch with students in Cottrell Hall.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 20, 2024 – Shep Hyken, a world-renowned customer service and customer experience expert, recently mentored High Point University students and staff as HPU’s Customer Service Expert in Residence.

While on campus, Hyken shared a power lunch with students and participated in a podcast interview with Elijah Sommer, a senior graduating in December with dual degrees in entrepreneurship and finance. Sommer is the founder and CEO of Forthright Homes, a property manager and broker-in-charge at Terra Trust Property Management and Realtor at Stone Realty Group.

“As the owner of two businesses myself, one of the most insightful things I learned was that in customer service and customer experience, you aren’t just judged against your competitors,” said Sommer, who is from Concord, North Carolina. “Rather, you are evaluated by your customers in those areas relative to their best and most memorable customer service experiences across all other brands and industries. This is important because it shows that just having the best product and the best price in your market won’t be enough to secure your position. You also must be an industry leader in the way you form relationships with your customers/clients.”

Sommer said his biggest takeaway was that an individual can create substantial and enduring growth by being 10% better in all he or she does. “It can often become easy to become mono-focused on one task or one facet of your business. However, a successful business is defined by all of its parts, not just a few pillars in isolation,” Sommer said.

As an award-winning keynote speaker and bestselling author, Hyken discussed best practices to understand customer expectations and consistently deliver better-than-average service. He provided a list of ways to exceed expectations and advised staff members to act like the leader or owner of their business or organization. He noted that leadership is an attitude, not a title.

“At any given time, one person represents all in an organization,” Hyken said. “If there’s an underlying theme to this presentation, it’s that every moment of truth, every interaction we have is an opportunity to create that moment of magic. Even a moment of misery is an opportunity to turn it around and get it right. Customer amazement comes from these consistent and predictable above-average experiences.”

The customer is not always right but is always the customer and should be treated with respect and dignity, Hyken said. If anything goes wrong, staff members can ask what they can do to solve the problem and take care of it with the following steps:

• Acknowledge the problem
• Apologize for it
• Fix it
• Own it
• Act with urgency