Recently, my wife Janet and I experienced unfavorable and unsatisfactory interactions with some large corporations in the local San Francisco Bay area (i.e. banks, hotels, and auto rentals). The companies will remain nameless. We’ll take a wild guess because we believe that we are not alone: we think many people have had similar troubles. Ya… think?
VALUABLE LESSON
While we have been frustrated by these situations, we consider ourselves fortunate that we could experience the impact first hand because it affords us the opportunity to understand a valuable lesson: each interaction is an opportunity for EXCELLENCE. And, it can be measured.
Look close by to get an idea about how you might measure it.
We are not hyper-sensitive to situations but we are focused – I am a business coach/mentor and Janet is an event planner, so we take our services interactions seriously – they are the life-blood of what we do and strive to deliver.
LIFE-TIME CUSTOMER
I’ll describe one of the first-hand unfavorable occasions with a hotel in a bit, but each one of these companies may have lost a life-time customer. Their unfocused attention and misunderstanding of interactions is a grave error in a services approach, which is so vitally important in our competitive world today.
Rightly or wrongly, we expect high levels of service excellence for lots of reasons:
- we are conditioned from advertising and the media,
- excellent companies exist and spread their good news to the detriment of average and less-than-average businesses,
- we want what we see others getting,
- we want it now, and….
- by gosh, it better be very good, especially if we are paying a premium!!!
Here is a point worth considering: if you consistently satisfy and delight your customers/clients, you have an opportunity to serve them for a life-time. Re-read the last sentence a few times to let the significance touch you.
This should be an easy task in our world today, since service levels provided typically fall short of average. Can you think of some interactions you have had yourself recently? Maybe… a clothing store, or how about the electronics plaza – yeah? Not only do the staff in these organizations have inadequate training, they don’t clearly understand what should occur in an interaction.
Well – not so great examples – since they are commodity based businesses but hopefully it reminds you of the less-than-average services you encounter frequently. Now think about your own business and what comes up?
Do you understand the financial impact of losing a life-time customer or client? It is significant, especially when you consider that 80% of your revenues come from your top customers.
It is time to be reminded of the importance of this characteristic. Start again now to imagine what affect this could be for your business…
We had three separate occasions which were very irritating - just in the past two weeks. The occasions have provided us insight, while prompting this blog.
IT MATTERS
If you are a business owner, in management, or in a service capacity responsible for making a difference with people, you don’t want them going away whispering about you.
In the picture close by, the couple may appear to be having an intimate exchange, yet imagine someone passing low level barbs about you and your company’s lack of service excellence.
Remember too, that in today’s world, people blog and spill the beans in great detail, within minutes of the occurrence: they shout it out loudly!!!!
OK, sure….. we all want to produce great service – no one could dispute that.
But, WHEN and HOW?
We’ll use our dinning experience as an opportunity to demonstrate some ideas.
ONE EXAMPLE
We decided to play all afternoon in Half Moon Bay, California, then capped-it-off by visiting a hotel spot where we can really enjoy the ocean view, drinks, and each others company: to unwind. We finally decided to eat dinner there too – the place is typically billed as being world class – we deserve it, right?
We sat down for dinner, ordered, and had a great conversation until our meal arrived. Up to this point the service was excellent, especially being left alone to enjoy ourselves, which was very nice not having our water glasses filled every two minutes.
OK, the meal arrives and we try it: my salmon was raw, her chicken was rubber. BIG SURPRISE. We called the waiter over, mentioned the issues and he removed both plates to do-over. Thirty minutes pass. I am foaming at the mouth for food and Janet is beginning to wonder if I will make a fuss – loudly.
Nope… but I am seething and more foaming. I look around wondering where our waiter is and what is going on. 15 minutes later, I begin to start speaking about leaving and going some place else – soon, very soon! Finally completely famished (i.e. my tongue is picking up lint from the carpet) the do-over is about to arrive, and I am standing up to leave and she pulls me back into my seat – calm down Bob! I cool my jets and accept a sincere apology from our waiter.
The do-over has been done really well – mine is a 9 and Janet’s is an 8 (i.e. scale of 0 to 10 – this is very good). Yet, when I stood up to leave, I was no longer a life-time customer. Even though the waiter had made an apology no one else came by – strange, huh? (If you hotel senior management need some hints on how to do things – check out the One&Only Palmilla in Mexico as a model for believing customer service is why you exist).
OK, so where is the SERVICE EXCELLENCE for this billed-as-a-world-class-company? What should have occurred?
We talked about this on the ride home from the coast, came up with a few things to share with the firm, but agreed to offer positive suggestions and see what occurred for them and how they might handle our concerns.
QUESTIONS THAT CAME UP
Our experience produced more questions than answers – as noted below:
- Why didn’t the waiter tell his management about the issue? (training & beliefs)
- Why didn’t the manager come by our table and suggest an interim food or drink alternative while we waited. (lost opportunity & beliefs)
- Why didn’t someone call us when we told the waiter our experience surprised and soured us on their company? (service follow-up & beliefs)
- Why did we have to initiate a call to the hotel? Why did we have to listen to someone who repeats the words world-class with no suggested resolution? (training & beliefs)
- Why did Janet get directed to the food & beverage director when she called the General Manager? Why did the director take two days to get back to us? (training & beliefs)
- Why did we really care about this at all and not just blow it off? (training and beliefs)
We look for opportunities to do things better and have also had great experiences with world class companies. However for the most part, the advance advertising falls short on delivery many times, and in some cases its merely a hope for excellence.
OPPORTUNITY
It seems to us that the real opportunity exists exactly at the moment of contact in the interaction, when you are in the midst of delivering and/or receiving the service. It happens in those moments – where training, beliefs and excellence have the opportunity to show up and occur, or not!
Not later or after – because it will be clean-up and way past the moment you might make a difference.
It is possible to recover but it takes great effort, action and expense. (American companies stop and consider what you are doing. Take note of sister companies in Japan that send executives to front doors to restore faith, honor, save face, and…..better yet – retain a life-time customer). Who would have thought that we would outsource our customer contact off-shore? The very point of intimacy moves off-shore – my gosh are you sitting on your brains!!! But that’s for another blog.
OK, so if you buy this concept that service excellence occurs at the moment of delivery, then it might open up all kinds of possibility. Consider a mind-set that has you creating excellence “in the moment”. What comes up for you now?
WHEN
All of your possibility exists inside the belief system of your company, how people operate inside those beliefs, how they use their training, and what power(s) they possess to make things right when things go wrong. This isn’t about when-things-go-right because you designed your service delivery to delight, it’s for the other. That other, is filled with endless possibilities, especially in determining what you do and don’t do. For world class firms it must permeate all things, while its people execute throughout everything they do.
HOW
Change the belief system, focus attention for what occurs in the moment, train and empower people to get it right the first time and recover quickly when it doesn’t. Sounds easy and it is. Stop sitting on your brains and start designing the right stuff for your business. If you can’t articulate why you exist, you won’t.
Just change two things – your beliefs and have all your actions stand inside of your beliefs.
More to come….
