What is WOW? Maybe the easiest way to describe it is: Who WOWed you? If you can recall that story – and recall how many times you told it – you’re on your way to understanding the process of WOW.

Here are the elements that can set the stage for WOW in your business:

• Everyone is friendly. It seems too simple to just say, “Everyone needs to be friendly.” What it really means is that morale is good enough inside the company to make friendly possible. If you are not training attitude proactively, then attitude will be sporadic and friendly will follow suit.

• Everyone is helpful. Here’s the help strategy that will work 100 percent of the time: “Tell me what you can do, not what you can’t do.” Most companies take pleasure in telling you what is NOT possible, telling you what their policy is, and giving some lame excuse for what cannot be done. Every time you tell customers what you can’t do, it drives them closer to the competition. Eventually they will jump.

• Everyone is available. My company has no voicemail. If someone is on a call, someone else helps the customer. No one in my company or in your company is too busy to help a customer, including you. No one in my company is either on their phone or away from their desk, and no one in your company should be either. A voicemail message that says, “Your call is important to me” is an oxymoron. If it’s so important, pick up the phone!

• Ease of doing business. 24/7/365 is the new 9-to-5. The easier it is to do business with you, the more of your customers’ available dollars you will gain. Please don’t take my word for it, just ask Barnes & Noble about Amazon.com. Amazon has taken over the book world because the company made it easy to do business: Click. Buy!

• Delivery beyond expectation. Whatever you promise for delivery, you must exceed the promise. Fast delivery is no longer an option; it’s an expectation. Everyone knows Zappos.com. What everyone doesn’t understand is that Zappos overnights your first order to gain your attention and respect, and to begin earning your loyalty.

• Call ahead to warn of backorder. It never ceases to amaze me that companies will still backorder without prior notification. You know you are out of it, and you know the customer needs it. Go buy it from a competitor and ship it! Backorders with no proactive communication make your customers angry – angry enough to leave you and shop someplace else, like Amazon, where they tell you in advance whether an item is in stock and email you your order status.

• Value messages to help THEM. Big question: What are you tweeting? Bigger question: Are you tweeting? Biggest question: Why are you NOT tweeting? One value message per day will breed loyalty, not just WOW.

• All things proactive. I never have to worry about servicing my car. Hendrick Lexus calls me when it’s time. I never have to worry about servicing my copy machine. Technocom just shows up. Dr. Menaker tells me when it’s time to have my teeth cleaned, and Signature Healthcare tells me when it’s time for my yearly physical. Maybe that’s why I’ve been a loyal customer for the past 10 years or more of each of these companies, price notwithstanding.

What’s WOW to me?

• It’s having a flat tire and Hendrick Lexus driving to my home, fixing the tire and refusing to charge me. WOW!

• It’s going to my hotel room and finding an autographed baseball – signed by the staff of the hotel. WOW!

WOW is WONDERFUL ORIGINAL WORK that leads to W-O-M (word-of mouth advertising), FOR YEARS.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by email at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2011 Jeffrey H. Gitomer