One definition of the verb “enchantment” is “to attract and delight.” Any successful small business owner has to master the art of enchantment: getting customers through the door and making them happy enough to return.

The way to enchantment begins with the basics of excellent customer service. Robert Spector, author of The Nordstrom Way and highly sought-after speaker on customer service, an area in which the famous department store he profiled is considered the gold standard, often begins presentations by sharing memories of the small butcher shop his Russian immigrant family used to own.

Although Spector admits he never really enjoyed his turn at working in the family business, he did take away some lasting impressions of customer service that even today inform his perspective as a renowned expert in the field.

“What really struck me was the fact that customer service is the same, whether it’s Spector’s Meat Market, Amazon.com or your local car wash,” said Spector, who gave the keynote address at the International Carwash Association’s Wash Different Workshop, held Sept. 24-25, 2013, in Rosemont, Ill. “You want to take care of the customer. You want to create an inviting place for that customer. You want to give the customer good products and good service at a fair price. And if there’s a problem, you’re going to take care of it. That’s how you create loyalty.”

AN INVITING PLACE

Showing customers that you value their business isn’t complicated, said Tiffany Riordan, a marketing consultant and owner of The Beacon Firm in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“It can be something as simple as when somebody walks into your store, looking up and acknowledging them and saying hello,” Riordan said.

For a car wash company, beyond the obvious requirement of a clean environment, the key to attracting customers is finding a way to stand out. “Create an experience that’s a little bit different, because to the average person, a car wash is a car wash,” Spector said.

Spector has written a series of books on The Nordstrom Way, including the most recent, The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: The Handbook for Becoming the “Nordstrom” of Your Industry, published in March 2012, along with many other business books. For Lessons from the Nordstrom Way, published in 2000, he interviewed the owner of Mike’s Carwash, the tri-state chain famous for its stuffed-animal and cartoon-character décor. At Mike’s, Spector said, “It’s actually fun to go through the car wash.”

Headquartered in Fort Wayne, Ind., Mike’s Carwash has 42 locations in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Marketing Director Sally Grant said the kid-friendly theme has been around since Joe Dahm founded the company in 1948. Dahm noticed that small children were often frightened by the equipment noise when they rode through the car wash, and he thought putting a few stuffed animals around would provide a calming distraction. The idea worked, and over the years it’s become an integral part of the company’s brand. Attendants will even draw cartoon characters on the windshields with a soap bar when they spot kids in the back seat.

“Now, it’s a real focus of ours: making sure that our stuffed animals are clean, fresh and ready to go,” Grant said. “We really take that seriously, knowing that it’s important to our customers and their families.”

A CULTURE OF DELIGHTING CUSTOMERS

According to Spector, one of the reasons Nordstrom excels in customer service is that the company empowers its sales force to make decisions that enhance the customer experience. It’s a formula any type of business can apply.

“The Nordstrom story, after all is said and done, is a culture story,” Spector said. “It’s not about selling shoes. Any organization can do it.”

Erik Schlesselman, whose 3-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son happen to be thoroughly enchanted by Mike’s Carwash, is chief sales officer for The Cellular Connection, the largest U.S. Verizon Premium Wireless retailer. With headquarters in Carmel, Ind., the company has locations in 38 states. Schlesselman said The Cellular Connection invests a lot of resources in training its workforce, emphasizing that the most important connection for the company’s success is between the employees and the customers.

“We take the time to really drive home how important it is to build an effective relationship, to build an effective rapport — and then position [products] based on the needs and wants of the customer, not necessarily the retailer,” Schlesselman said.

THE CHARM OF A HASSLE-FREE EXPERIENCE

Research by the Arlington, Va., advisory firm CEB suggests that a company’s efforts to exceed customer expectations may actually be less important than minimizing the effort customers have to use to get what they want. Researchers surveyed more than 125,000 customers and 5,000 service reps at 100 companies. Their results are reported in a book called The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty.

The surveys found that 94 percent of customers having a low-effort service experience would buy from the same company again, while 96 percent who needed a high effort to obtain satisfaction from a business said they were unlikely to be repeat customers.

Sometimes the key to customer loyalty is in anticipating customer needs. Kerry Millhiser, owner of Kerry’s Papery in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a marketing client of Riordan’s, was looking for ways to turn the wedding invitation orders that are the mainstay of her business into opportunities to gain long-term customers. She and Riordan came up with the concept of “branding the bride,” offering to supply a host of future needs like change of address notices, monogrammed accessories for the new home, baby shower invitations and birth announcements. Millhiser also sends out monthly newsletters — one version for new brides and another targeting customers well beyond their wedding days.

Millhiser also makes sure that every customer who places an order receives a handwritten thank-you note. “I come from the travel and hospitality industry, where I’ve always been schooled in customer service — how to treat your customer and always follow up,” she said.

FOCUS ON RELATIONSHIPS

Sparkling Image Car Wash in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has something in common with American television’s most famous fictional watering hole: It’s a place where “everybody knows your name.” Owner Brenda Waddell has been at her current location for more than 40 years.

“Being in the same location for as many years as we’ve been is a great advantage to us because we do see the same customers,” Waddell said. “We see their families. We see their friends. Word of mouth is huge in our industry.”

At Nordstrom, the fact that all salespeople work on commission creates an incentive to cultivate the kind of personal relationships that lead to repeat sales, Spector said. Nordstrom salespeople get to know their customers’ favorite brands and styles. They’ll send cell phone photos of new merchandise that might interest them — or even send the item itself to the customer’s home for a tryout under the store’s unconditional return policy, Spector said.

Winning over customers by anticipating their needs and making their lives easier is important. But if you really want to enchant your customers, find a way to make them happy when things go wrong.

Matt Shoup, owner of M&E Painting LLC in Loveland, Colo., said his policy of honesty and accountability when problems arise has earned loyalty from his customers.

A few years ago Shoup’s painters were working on a home in Windsor, Colo., while the homeowner was outside observing the job with her 9-month-old baby in her arms. When the time came to paint the front door, the paint sprayer jammed, covering everything and everyone near it — including the baby — with black paint. Once the baby checked out OK, Shoup immediately had the homeowner tally up the cost of the damage so he could write her a check. He also sent a gift card as an extra gesture to make things right.

The result was that the customer was “very thankful and happy with the job,” according to Shoup, and M&E went on to land many other house painting jobs in the same neighborhood.

“My philosophy is, if you drop the ball, pick it up and hit a grand slam with it,” Shoup said.