Service Recovery Done Right
March 10, 2010
As I’m writing this, I’m on my way home from speaking at a conference in Colorado Springs. It was held at the Broadmoor Hotel, which is a fantastic property with great service from everyone from the front desk clerks to the hotel operator.
So last night, when I was finished with the program, I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner, figuring that it would be a great experience. And since I had to be on a 4:30 a.m. shuttle to the airport, I really wasn’t up for a late night with a lot of people.
I made a reservation at the Charles Court restaurant for 6:00 p.m. and was seated at a nice table with a view of the lake. The waitress came to the table, greeted me by name and described the evening’s specials, including a grouper dish that sounded great. As it turns, out, I really like grouper - when it’s cooked right, it just kind of flakes apart when you take a fork to it.
Well, that one had my name on it, so that’s what I ordered. And when the dish came out, it looked great. Unfortunately, there was a problem: the grouper was tough and chewy: it had been overcooked.
So when the waitress stopped by to make sure everything was fine, I mentioned this to her. Without missing a beat, she apologized, and offered to bring me something else or have the chef prepare another order of grouper. I asked her to bring the menu so I could take a look, and decided on something else.
When she came back, she apologized again, and told me that she had spoken to the chef and he agreed - it had been overcooked. She was actually a bit worked up about this herself, since she had just recommended it - and placed six orders for the grouper for another table she was working.
That would have been enough, but the restaurant manager came over to apologize himself, confirmed that, or course there would be no charge for the grouper, and all but insisted I have dessert on the house.
Even at a first-class hotel like this, there will be occasional missteps - because of the sheer size of the place it’s unavoidable. And it’s probably the same at your company. Problems are going to happen.
But if you address them quickly and definitively, you can build a level of customer loyalty even greater than if nothing had gone wrong in the first place. Make sure you have “service recovery” procedures in place to handle these situations when they occur.
Say “Hello!”
January 14, 2010
Sometimes the little things say a lot about a business. Last weekend, we went to a free wine tasting at the Angus Barn restaurant in Raleigh. This is a local institution of sorts, and is one of only 72 restaurants to hold Wine Spectator’s Grand Award.
The wines we tasted were okay, not great, but the highlight was the tour of the restaurant’s 30,000-bottle wine cellar. To get to the cellar, you had to walk right through the main kitchen, and pass by the teaching kitchen where Iron Chef winner Walter Royal was giving a demonstration.
The interesting thing was that everyone we passed in the kitchen and in the back hallways - from the chefs to the waitresses to the dishwashers, stopped as we walked by, smiled, and greeted us. “Hi!” “How are you today?” “Thanks for coming in!”
Clearly, they had been trained to do this, but it wasn’t just one or two people - it was every single employee we passed!
Creating that kind of culture - and seeing it play out in “real life” means that everything else about the place is going to be done right. That’s why they’ve been around for 40 years, and why it’s the local institution it is.
Do you have similar processes in place in your company? Do your employees - even the ones who don’t have regular customer interaction - know what’s expected of them and how their work ultimately does impact the customer?
Figure out how to make that happen in your organization and you’ll have a good reason to celebrate the new year!
First-Class Treatment
December 22, 2009
People who don’t travel frequently as part of their jobs tend to think that air travel is somehow a glamorous experience. Those of us who do travel regularly know otherwise. But first-class treatment can make travel significantly more enjoyable.
Because of my frequent flyer status on American Airlines, I frequently get to upgrade to first class. I’ll admit that this makes air travel significantly more comfortable. But if you have images of caviar, linen tablecloths, and crystal salt and pepper shakers, let me assure you that this kind of domestic first-class travel hasn’t been the case for some time.
Tough economic times, September 11th, and the general state of the airline industry have reduced the benefits of first-class on all but the longest flights to a comfortable seat, an occasional meal, and a free drink.
But every so often, a really good flight attendant can make the experience special. On flights where a meal or snack is served, the flight attendant will ask each first-class passenger his or her meal preference. Using a sheet prepared with each of their names, the flight attendant will normally ask, “Mr. Smith? Would you prefer the chicken or the fish?” and proceed to dutifully write down each passenger’s selection, hoping that the selection of choices doesn’t run out.
But on one recent flight, it happened in a slightly different way. The flight attendant made her way down the aisle without a tray, paper, or pen, and said, “Mr. Koslowski, welcome aboard! Would you prefer the chicken or the fish? Fish? Wonderful. Thank You. Mr. Jackson? Fish or chicken for you this evening? Chicken? Great!”
And with great interest, I watched her as she did this with each of the 22 first-class passengers in our 757 aircraft, calling each passenger by name and making no notation whatsoever of the passengers’ orders.
Throughout the flight, she continued to call each passenger by name, and remembered what each person was drinking when she asked if they would like a refill.
Besides making us all feel very special, this extraordinary effort had an additional benefit for the flight attendant. American Airlines sends its frequent fliers SOS (Some One Special) coupons that they can use to recognize employees who provide outstanding service. These are particularly valuable to the employees; the last time I checked, they can get a confirmed first-class flight to Europe with just 14 of these!
I give out these SOS coupons regularly to flight attendants, pilots, and ticket, gate, and reservations agents who go out of their way to be helpful. So it was with a smile on my face as we were departing the flight that I watched as three other passengers handed the flight attendant SOS coupons before I had the opportunity to add my own to the stack.
If you figure that the flight attendant probably works three flights a day, you can see how these coupons can add up very quickly. Does the flight attendant make the effort because of the tickets, or is she just conscientious and the coupons are an extra bonus?
I’m not sure, but it doesn’t really matter - the passengers feel special, and an excellent employee is rewarded for her effort.
Look at your own reward and recognition systems and see if they are eliciting and rewarding the behaviors you want to see. Then all of your customers will feel like they’re receiving first-class service.
Bagel with Strawberry Jam
December 17, 2009
Frequent travel can become old in a hurry. But it doesn’t take a lot to make a person feel more at home - even on the road.
Several years ago, as my business and client base had expanded, I found myself in Ottawa, the national capital of Canada. It is a great city to visit and has a lot to offer a traveler.
When I travel to Ottawa, I usually stay at the Westin hotel in the Rideau Center, adjacent to the Byward Market section of town. During this stretch of business, I stayed there quite frequently. As a result, the staff came to recognize me when I checked in and visited the restaurant for breakfast.
While this was impressive in and of itself, what was truly remarkable was what happened six months later when I had the opportunity to visit Ottawa again.
As I approached the front desk, the front-desk clerk greeted me with a big smile and said, “Mr. Rosenberg! We haven’t seen you for a few months; welcome back to the Westin!
Wow! If you think that made me feel special, what happened the next morning surpassed even that. As I entered the restaurant to get my free continental breakfast, Leonard, the restaurant manager, gave me a similar enthusiastic greeting. ”Mr. Rosenberg! Good to see you again! Would you like the usual fresh-squeezed orange juice and a toasted bagel?”
I was speechless. And those of you who know me will appreciate that this is not a common occurrence. Not only did Leonard remember my name after six months, but he actually remembered what I ate for breakfast - right down to the flavor of the jam.
I have returned to Ottawa on business many times since then, and there should be absolutely no doubt in your mind where I stay when I go there. The effort they took to know their customers has created a level of loyalty in me where I don’t think twice about where to stay.
Whether it is remembering your customers’ names, going the extra mile, or simply following up after an order, successful businesses are built on extraordinary customer service and strong customer relationships.
It’s important to remember that sometimes even the littlest details can make a big impression.
The Cancellation Department
December 15, 2009
Technology can be extremely useful when it works. But even when it works well, poor customer service and technical support can make matters extremely difficult.
My cell phone is a both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because I travel extensively and it allows me to keep in touch with my office, my clients, and my family. It’s a curse, because inconsistent service, incorrect information, and regular billing errors have caused me to spend about each month on the phone with their customer service department.
Those of you who have attended my programs know which company I use, although I have heard very similar stories from customers of virtually every carrier.
Last month, I was trying to correct a $600 overcharge on my bill. It was fairly late, maybe 10:30 pm when I tried to contact a customer service representative. Fed up with spending ten minutes trying to navigate their “automated assistant,” I hit a random sequence of keys to confuse the system and get routed to an actual person. In a few seconds, I was on the phone with a customer service representative.
But not just any person, I got “Dave,” who was by far the most competent employee of this particular company I had ever spoken with.
He corrected the problem with the bill and explained why the problem had happened. He told me about an issue they were having that made it impossible to accurately post my usage to the web site so that I could manage my minutes. He made a note to follow up with me in a few weeks to make sure everything was working correctly.
Oh yeah, he also recommended a different plan that offered me more minutes at a lower cost than I was paying. I thought I had died and gone to “Customer Service Heaven,” which anyone who knows me will tell you is high praise indeed!
I asked Dave how I was lucky enough to have him as my customer service representative and his answer was quite interesting. ”I don’t work in Customer Service,” he explained, “I work in the Cancellation Department. When people decide to cancel their service, they are sent to me and I do whatever is necessary to keep them with us.”
Now clearly, they had the right person in that job, but I couldn’t help but think that if they had competent people like this answering the phones in the first place, they wouldn’t even need a Cancellation Department!
Study after study has shown that it is more costly to get a new customer than it is to keep the customer you already have. Keep this in mind and be certain that you give the best possible service you can when it really counts - at the moment the problem arises.
What’s a Customer Worth?
December 10, 2009
One of the most serious and costly mistakes companies make is failing to recognize the difference between the value of a customer today and the long-term value of that customer.
Many organizations, when faced with a difficult customer situation may succumb to the tendency to “just let this one go,” allowing the customer to leave rather than make an exception to a rigid policy to accommodate the particular situation.
But this kind of shortsighted approach can have long-term implications on the sustainable viability of the company. For example, a single bad experience with an airline, compounded by their unwillingness to correct the situation, could very easily convince me to avoid traveling with that airline in the future.
Of course, this would be a bad move on the airline’s part, since I am a frequent flyer. A very frequent flyer. At the time of this writing, I’ve earned over three million total miles in the American Airlines’ Advantage program.
Do the math with me based on the following very conservative assumptions:
My average ticket costs $500
I fly twice a month
I work ten months out of the year
I will travel at this level for 20 years
This makes my lifetime value to an airline $500 x 2 x 10 x 20, or $200,000! And, as I said, this is a very conservative estimate. Over a twenty-year period, I’ll almost certainly spend at least twice that amount, and probably more.
The point is that when you are determining the value of the customer - whether in a difficult situation or simply for planning purposes - you must look not only at the value of the current transaction, but also at the long-term cumulative value of that relationship.
Keep this in mind as you look at your customer service policies, or in the future you might find your business grounded!
Pizza Anyone?
December 8, 2009
Some companies sell products that are so special and unique that they almost sell themselves. Other companies sell commodity items that are so commonplace as to be practically boring.
Pizza could be classified as one of these. Large pizza chains use a variety of advertising and marketing campaigns to distinguish themselves from the pack. Dominoes had a guaranteed delivery time. Little Caesar’s offered two pizzas for the price of one. Papa John’s claims that better ingredients make a better pizza.
Does this kind of branding help sell more pizzas? It’s kind of hard to answer that question definitively since there are many other factors that affect gross sales.
A client of ours told us about a small pizza shop in Holidaysburg, PA, that has a unique approach that has shown measurable success.
Once a week they show up at my client’s building at lunchtime with ten pizzas. Nobody ordered these pizzas; they just bring them. When word gets out throughout the building that there are pizzas for sale in the lobby, they are all sold. All ten pizzas. Every week.
I don’t know this for fact, but I would bet money that they do this on different days for different offices in the area.
They demonstrate extremely well that you can’t just wait for business to come to you, sometimes you have to go out and stir things up a bit. Their creative method for creating demand - bringing hot fresh pizzas into a building of hungry employees at lunchtime - yields measurable results, week after week.
Look at your own organization. Are there ways you could be creating demand for your products or services by making them more available to potential customers?
How Much Is That Feature?
November 26, 2009
You would think that a simple question like, “What does this cost?” would get a definitive answer. But some days it just seems impossible to get a straight answer.
We recently needed to establish new phone service at home and called our local phone company to place the order. Since we value our privacy, we don’t give out our home phone number except to friends and family. But with the widespread use of Caller ID, placing an order over the phone delivers your phone number to the company, and it frequently ends up in their telemarketing database.
Fortunately, there is a feature called “Per-Line Blocking” which prevents your number from being delivered to the called party. In many states, this is a free service. I believed this was the case for us as well and asked the customer-service representative if this was the case.
“No,” she explained, there was a monthly fee; she thought it was $1 or $2 per month. I didn’t think this was the case, so I asked her to look into this and get me the exact cost. She called back two days later and said that it was “less than $5 per month.” ”How much less?” we asked. She didn’t know.
I explained that I was pretty sure it was supposed to be a free feature, and she said she would get the exact amount for me. Three days after that, she called back and said that the cost for Per-Call Blocking was $2.49 per month.
But I explained to her, I was asking about Per-Line Blocking, not Per-Call Blocking. With this feature, you enter a code to block the number from being sent; in Per-Line Blocking, the blocking is the default, and you have to enter a code to actually deliver the number. Again, I explained that I thought this feature was supposed to be provided at no charge.
Finally, the next afternoon she called back and said that she had the correct price this time. It was free!
Why did it take four calls to get the correct information? And had I not kept asking for clarification, I might have ended up paying for a feature that was free.
As a service provider, it’s important to know the specifics about your products and services, particularly if you’re the person dealing directly with the customer. Make sure your customer contact employees have access to the tools, data, and systems they need to correctly answer questions and provide accurate information. Or the next call your customers make may be to your competitor.
The Safety Pin
November 19, 2009
Motivated employees can be an integral part of your overall business strategy. But when your recognition programs backfire, your employees can end up doing more harm than good.
Many companies have extensive and sometimes expensive employee-recognition programs that go a long way towards maintaining an aligned and motivated workforce. Other companies have similar programs that have no impact on performance whatsoever as you’ll see in the example below.
Several years ago, I was attending a conference in Charlotte, NC. As I checked into the hotel, I noticed that the front-desk clerk was wearing what looked like a large gold safety pin with about 15 round metallic discs threaded along one side.
After completing the registration process and receiving my room key, I asked the clerk about the interesting piece of jewelry she was wearing. She explained that the safety pin was part of their employee-recognition program. Each time the hotel received a positive comment card about an employee, that employee received one of the small discs to add to their safety pin.
It wasn’t surprising to me, then, that this particular clerk had so many discs; she had been very professional in her interaction with me during the check-in process and I mentioned this to her.
I was a bit curious as to whether these discs motivated her to provide outstanding service. When I asked her about this she looked around nervously, leaned over the counter and whispered, “No, not really. I’d be a lot more excited about this program if they offered some additional compensation or award for top performers like me.”
If you’re going to make the effort to develop, deploy, communicate, and administer a program to recognize and reward excellent performance, then be certain that it will actually motivate your employees. Otherwise, you might just get “stuck” yourself.
Take a Marketing Shower!
October 23, 2009
I always say that great marketing examples are all around…if you pay attention, and hotel showers are no exception.
I was getting ready for a program I was doing that morning and happened to notice something odd about the shampoo: instead of being completely round like these small bottles are, it was round most of the way…with a flat part on the back. This prevented it from rolling off the little shelf in the shower as usually is the case.
Then I noticed that the shower seemed a bit larger than the usual hotel shower. The reason? The shower curtain, instead of being straight had a “bowed” curtain rod, that pushed the top of the actual curtain farther out, making the shower seem larger.
Both of these were very clever design modifications that make the customer’s experience better. This is the kind of thinking you should employ in your own business, and, just in case you’re in need of more examples, you’re in luck: this kind of creativity isn’t limited to hotel bathrooms!
In the post-9/11 era, when airlines started cutting back and downsizing, planes became more crowded as the number of flights was slashed, creating a severe lack of space in the overhead storage bins.
Most airlines started strictly enforcing carry-on limits, but a few smart ones did something different: they reconfigured the overhead bins so standard carry-on “rollaboards” would fit lengthwise instead of having to be put in sideways.
And in keeping with our theme of asking the right questions, here’s one you should ask yourself:
What can you do to enhance the customer experience in every part of your business?
It doesn’t take a lot of effort to consider this, and the long-term results can be incredible. Plus, people genuinely appreciate it when you try to make their lives easier.
