The big theme parks have always been great places for people watching.  During a visit to Walt Disney World in the mid-90´s, I was sitting on a bench near the hub area in front of the castle and saw a family approaching.

"Here it is," one of the women said to a young lady whose hand she was holding-almost tugging-as they walked.

At first I thought she was referring to the bench I was on.  But the older woman (the mother, perhaps) led the younger woman to a display mounted on a stand close to the bench.  The rest of the family came around to watch.

The young woman rested her hands on the display, and at once her face lit up with joy.  But she did not actually look down at the display before her, and I realized she was blind.  Her family had led her to a map of the magic kingdom in Braille, a display I hadn´t even noticed.  As she ran her fingertips across every inch of the map, her family explained where they had been earlier in the day, and where they were right now, and where they were planning to head next.  One member of the family took a photo of the girl happily exploring the map with her fingers.  And then off they all went on their merry way.

I sat there for a few moments, unable to fully understand why a lump seemed to be forming in my throat.  Then, as now, I made my living speaking about and writing about customer focus-wasn´t I a hardened veteran of the competitive battlefield?  Why should this one particular example of customer focus affect me this way?

It was the way her face had lit up.  It was the joy her family took in seeing her experiencing something during their visit to the park that was meaningful to her alone.  Someone in the vast Disney organization cared enough to go to the trouble of thinking about all the different kinds of guests that visit the complex, and what kinds of things might help make their visit special to them in some unique way.  (I´ve discovered over the years that I´m far from the only one who can sometimes be moved just by observing customer service raised to such a level.  There´s something about it that strikes a deep chord, a feeling that if it can happen here, why can´t it happen elsewhere?  Why can´t our whole world somehow be more like this?)

One Size Doesn´t Fit All

-While some supermarkets invest in barricades to prevent the theft of shopping carts, others invest in the carts themselves, and offer versions tailored to:

• Shoppers with young children:  Miniature carts to let kids feel they´re participating in the shopping; carts with built-in infant safety seats and beverage holders; carts outfitted with the front portion of a play-sized vehicle (complete with steering wheel) to allow youngsters to pretend they´re "driving" the cart
• Shoppers with disabilities:  Carts connected to the front of sit-down motorized scooters

-Besides listing the regular fare for grownups, menus at the Texas Roadhouse chain of steakhouses cater to

• Young children:  (with items like hot dogs and macaroni-and-cheese)
• Older children:  (with items that duplicate the adult menu, but in smaller portions and at proportionately lower prices)

In addition, the chain acknowledges local customers in all of its locations by commissioning a huge one-of-a-kind mural painting in each restaurant that depicts a local landmark or setting.

-England´s travel company Going Places prepares promotional flyers for its various travel destinations.  The flyers bear a printed designation targeting them to individual customer categories:  young [childless] couples, families with young [children], families with teenage children, etc.  Each flyer emphasizes those attractions in the destination cities that will appeal most to these various types of customers.

-Every store in Ireland´s Superquinn chain of supermarkets features a Superquinn Playhouse, a professionally-supervised play area where shoppers with young children can leave their youngsters while they shop.

-Many of the stores in the Wegmans Food Markets chain cater to busy professional people with their Market Cafés (take-out or in-store dining for up to 200), À La Carte (soups, gourmet sandwiches, etc.), and Chef´s Case (cold or ready-to-heat entrees, side dishes, and salads.)

-Some cruise lines offer special cruises for particular customer groups:  singles, low-carb dieters, jazz lovers, fitness enthusiasts, etc.

This kind of zeroing-in on specific customer categories is one of the most immediately visible and recognizable indicators of customer focus in any business.  The more an organization can be seen avoiding a "cookie cutter" one-size-fits-all approach to the customer experience, the greater the likeli ­hood customers will see the organization as "responsive," or "caring," or otherwise delivering greater value.

For businesses seeking to more actively embrace diversity, in particular, this kind of tailored approach affords opportunities to heighten customer satisfaction while reinforcing the diversity ethic at the same time.

Shaping The Experience

In any given business setting, it´s probably safe to assume that most teenaged customers wouldn´t have the exact same expecta ­tions as most senior citizens-yet many businesses count both groups among their most important customer categories.  The object in tailoring the experience is to generate ideas for building special elements of delight into the experience for both groups-for all key groups-that leave no one feeling in any way left out.

The actual process begins with a listing of key customer categories.  For each category, the goal then becomes to identify one or more unique expectations that would apply primarily to the customer category in question.  The creative part of the process involves generating ideas to meet-or if possible, exceed-each of these particular expectations for each particular category of customer.

It can sometimes be difficult to identify truly unique expectations for the various customer categories.  Yet any ideas that do come out of this process have tremendous potential for inspiring positive customer feedback-the kind of feedback that has a highly energizing and motivating effect on employees.  These kinds of ideas also typically generate positive word-of-mouth, the most effective shortcut to competitive advantage in any business.

In most workplace settings, employees have little occasion to even think about who their actual customers are, or how various categories of customers might have entirely different expectations, or how delivering a once-size-fits-all kind of customer experience may ultimately be as disappointing to some customers as it is satisfying to others.  Even if workers new to this kind of creative brainstorming have difficulty pinpointing individual categories of customers, and unique expectations related to each-the mere act of making a first effort to do so can represent a significant learning experience for them, and a significant cultural shift toward greater customer focus.

This is where small businesses have it all over their bigger competitors.  It´s much easier to turn around a speedboat than a battleship.  The ability to shift its culture toward greater customer focus with relative speed and ease is the "slingshot" that equips any small business to knock its larger competitors right off their feet.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of small businesses never learn to take full advantage of their advantage.  By uncovering ways to tailor the experience to diverse customer groups, businesses can take a shortcut to customer focus-and to a powerful competitive edge.

Adapted from Customer Service From The Inside Out Made Easy by Paul Levesque (Entrepreneur Press, 2006). For an excerpt of the book visit www.customerfocusbreakthroughs.com.   Novations Inc. offers workshops and training programs based on the process referred to in this article.  For more information, contact Novations at 1 (800) 308-2668 or info@novations.com.