I ran across a very interesting video blog by Chris Hurn, the CEO and co-founder of Mercantile Capital, so I had my Social Media and IT director, Andrew, post it on our Facebook page.

Since I wrote a book about service excellence at the Ritz-Carlton, Chris’ blog post,  “Joshie at the Ritz-Carlton: An Extraordinary Customer Experience,” caught my attention.  Chris recounts the aftermath of a family trip to the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida.  Upon arriving back home from an excellent stay, it was determined that one of Chris’ young children had left a security/comfort item at the hotel. Joshie a giraffe pillow blanket was missing and Chris’ son was inconsolable.   While trying to comfort his son, Chris did what most parents would do – he told his son that Joshie would return as soon as the stuffed giraffe finished his extended vacation at the Ritz-Carlton.

In the meantime, Chris was in contact with Aaron, a loss prevention control officer at the Ritz-Carlton at Amelia Island.  Aaron and colleagues at the hotel not only found Joshie and expedited his return to the family but the Amelia Island team added a few surprises for Chris’ son.  In the shipping box with Joshie was a binder highlighting some of Joshie’s solo escapades at the Amelia Island property.  Specifically, there were pictures of Joshie looking stylish in sun glasses while lounging on a deck chair near the pool, as well as images and narrative talking about him driving a golf cart on the beach and so much more.

Ok, you are probably saying “I am not in the business of returning stuffed animals to distraught children, so how does this relate to my company?”  Well in short, it’s one thing to fix problems that occur when you are delivering service and quite another to help a customer when they make an error (e.g. leaving Joshie behind).  As someone who has left my share of personal items in hotel rooms, I can attest that some hotel staff seem to care less about my forgetfulness.  That is in part evidenced by how seldom their staff find my  missing property (with the exception of hotels like the Ritz-Carlton, of course).  Even if businesses help customers with the customer’s oversights, most companies will only invest minimal effort to do things like return Joshie quickly.  At the Ritz-Carlton, however, staff routinely go the extra step and do things like produce a story book with supporting pictures to enrich a Joshie homecoming.

How often do you help customers when their service needs occur as a result of their own shortcomings? Moreover, how regularly do you personalize those non-essential kindnesses you elect to extend?

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has earned it’s mystique as a “world class” customer experience provider through the actions of people like Aaron and other well-selected and excellently trained ladies and gentlemen at properties such as Amelia Island.  Those investments pay off through picture books of Joshie which prompt dad’s like Chris and uninvolved bystanders like me to move the company’s service legacy forward.  What service excellence “Joshie” stories are your customers blogging about today?

My mother often exhorted me to appreciate that “if I couldn’t say something nice, I shouldn’t say anything at all.”  I typically adhere to that motherly wisdom and it has served me well.  On this occasion, however, I have to sidestep Mom’s sage input.  Spirit Airlines, a low-fare, no-frills, air carrier based out of Ft Lauderdale, Florida has reached a new low when it comes to insensitive, rigid, customer-unfriendly policies.

You have likely heard of the plight of 76 year-old Jerry Meekins, a Vietnam war veteran whose end stage cancer and doctor’s input resulted in him cancelling a Spirit Airlines flight to visit his ill daughter in New Jersey. After initially denying    Mr. Meekins request for a cancellation refund of an approximately $200 ticket, the company continued to implode.

Here are a few of the ensuing official utterances from Spirit spokespeople, “At Spirit, we treat all of our customers equally and with respect. That means our non-refundable fares are non-refundable – for everyone. We are very saddened to hear about Mr. Meekins’ diagnosis and sincerely hope his health improves and that we have the opportunity to serve him again on his current ticket and many more flights.”

After experiencing days of consumer outrage here’s the unapologetic response from Ben Baldanza, the CEO of Spirit, the airline that not so coincidentally leads the country in customer complaints, “A lot of our customers buy <travel> insurance and what Mr. Meekins asked us to do was essentially give him the benefit of that insurance when he didn’t purchase the insurance.… Had we done that, I think it really would’ve been cheating all the people who actually bought the insurance … and I think that’s fundamentally unfair…We feel very badly for Mr. Meekins, however, this is a country and society where we kind of play by the rules…And he wanted to really not do that and that’s really not fair to the 10 million other Spirit customers and that’s why we made that decision.”

Personally, I was willing to offer free consultation to Mr. Baldanza as to how he could have taken a “values based” customer-centric approach to Mr. Meekins’ circumstance and provided a successful resolution for Mr. Meekins, 10 million Spirit customers, and Spirit itself; however, before I could tender my offer and while writing this blog Spirit’s leadership reconsidered.

The breaking PR statement quoted CEO Ben Baldanza, in part as follows “In my statements regarding Mr. Meekins’ request for a refund, I failed to explain why our policy on refunds makes Spirit Airlines the only affordable choice for so many travelers, and I did not demonstrate the respect or the compassion that I should have, given his medical condition and his service to our country. Therefore I have decided to personally refund Mr. Meekins’ airfare, and Spirit Airlines will make a $5,000 contribution, in his name, to the charity of his choice, Wounded Warriors.”

I understand that Spirit Airlines is a discount carrier competing almost exclusively on price but in the end, as I have said previously, “all business is personal” and if your company can’t be flexible enough to address some of the unique and extreme circumstances of customers, it is unlikely you will survive.  I will be interested to see where things go from here for Spirit Airlines. Will we, and will Spirit Airlines, learn that adherence to policies without input from values and compassion ultimately results in more that $200 of nonrefundable ill will?

Would you believe me if I told you that a company which experienced a data breach affecting  twenty-four million customers was later determined to be one of America’s most highly rated  on-line retailers?  Well consider yourself told!

The story is that of Zappos -the albeit unconventional but world class customer experience provider profiled in my recent book The Zappos Experience – 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and Wow.  In January 2012, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh posted an open letter to customers which read “there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on Zappos.com, including one or more of the following: your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of your credit card number (the standard information you find on receipts), and/or your cryptographically scrambled password (but not your actual password).”  Tony went on to acknowledge, among other things, that “we’ve spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It’s painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident. I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers’ critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed.”

Now, fast forward three months to a survey conducted by Hub Magazine asking “How good is the customer service at the retail establishments you frequent?  Overall the results of the April 2012 study suggested that only 4 of 23 retailers received excellent ratings from at least 50% of respondents.  More specifically, the survey “asked readers to rate the customer service at each retailer as ‘excellent,’ ‘good,’ ‘fair’ or ‘poor,’ and invited comments. Zappos was most highly rated as ‘excellent’ (68%), followed by Trader Joe’s (58%), LL Bean (58%) and the Apple store (54%). Happy, friendly, knowledgeable and accessible employees were frequently cited as making the difference for these retailers.”

We all know that trust is earned slowly and lost quickly.  However, customers ultimately gauge brands on how well those companies deliver consistent service that protects them, gets product delivery right, and engages people in a positive emotional way – reflecting authenticity, gratitude, and respect.  By this analysis, Zappos has had an extraordinarily successful history.  Across 12 years, Zappos has demonstrated operationally excellent service enriched by a commitment to forging strong emotional connections and loyalty.

If you have that type of track record, your customers will accept a service set-back as long as your company does what it takes to not have the same breakdown occur again, if you honestly acknowledge your shortcoming, apologize, and redouble your commitment to service excellence.  Zappos is an extraordinary example of a company that makes mistakes but more importantly makes customer advocates via their overall service culture and their ability to grow and learn from their victories and shortcomings.

Could your company stumble on the Zappos scale and quickly regain your stride while maintaining the loyalty and respect of those you serve?

During a consulting visit with one of my clients, a senior level leader stated “we don’t hear much negative from our customers.”  He then asked an interestingly odd question, “should we be asking for complaints?”  Like most questions of this nature, there are no easy answers!  However, here were just a few of the highlights of the spirited discussion that ensued:

• Complaints are a gift from customers.
• The voice of the customer is essential to improving service delivery and the relevance of future consumer experiences.
• The absence of complaints is not necessarily a good thing, nor is the presence of a steady stream of comments reflecting dissatisfaction.
• Asking for customer input is a delicately important part of the overall customer experience.

So you might be asking, what was the byproduct of this discussion?  In the end, I suggested that asking directly for “complaints” is not a good idea.  It signals that customers should be dissatisfied about some aspect of their experience.  Additionally, I noted that well-designed “customer listening”  affords consumers the opportunity to provide input on transactional aspects as well as holistic impressions of their service experience.  Asking customers general impressions of their experience, accompanied by questions like “what else might we have done, if anything, to have made your experience more enjoyable/effortless/positive?”, results in opportunities to demonstrate authentic interest and a desire to improve existing goods and services.  Efficient inquiries of this nature typically help your brand move forward while being readily welcomed by consumers.

All too often companies do not ask for feedback, ask in a way that customer’s feel compelled to give a positive albeit not honest answer, or ask too many time consuming and intrusive questions.  In summary, I strongly believe we should not be asking for complaints but instead should be seeking opportunities to be better for our customers at their next interaction with us.  What do you think? How might I serve you better in my next blog post?

I’m fairly simple minded when it comes to business.  I believe justice ultimately prevails and inevitably companies reap what they sow.

So when people insert hidden fees, fail to be transparent in their pricing, or grab for more than what they deserve I assume those behaviors will ultimately be their undoing.  Similarly, I contend that people who consistently do the “right” things for the “right” reasons will have sustainable business success.

A recent Nielsen survey tends to validate the positive impact that comes from socially conscious behavior.  However, it also suggests that doing good does not affect all consumers equally.  Specifically, the research indicates:

“that the majority of consumers express a general preference for companies making a positive difference in the world. 66% of consumers around the world say they prefer to buy products and services from companies that have implemented programs to give back to society. That preference extends to other matters as well. They prefer to work for or invest in these companies. A smaller share, but still nearly half, say they are willing to pay extra for products and services from these socially conscious companies.”

As you might guess the group most concerned about socially responsible business practices are individuals under the age of 40 with 51% of consumer between 15 and 39 saying they will pay extra to do business with a socially conscious company (compared to 37% for individuals over 40).  The Nielsen researchers go on to note that “socially-conscious consumers are more likely than consumers overall to trust ads found on social networks and they were also more likely than total respondents (59% vs. 46%) to say they use social media when making a purchase decision.”

It is helpful to have empirical data to support the monetizable and trust benefits of doing the right thing.  It is also beneficial to know how young, technologically savvy consumers value social responsibility.  However, even if “giving back” couldn’t be proven to be profitable, isn’t it still be the right thing to do for your staff, your customers and your community?

While George Orwell’s 1945 book Animal Farm was intended to be an allegorical critique of Stalinism, one of the commandments which evolves during the book’s journey has always intrigued me from the perspective of client service and customer experience.

That commandment reads as follows:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

In my twisted brain, this “commandment” is both accidentally and poorly applied in the world of customer service.

For example, I have consulted with organizations where leaders had indicated that everyone is “equal” when it comes to playing a role in customer service but also where the organization had failed to provide service training to non-customer facing staff.  In essence, these staff are told they are customer service providers but they are not helped to see how their efforts travel out to the benefit of paying clients.

On the reverse side, have you ever been served by a person who you thought “should have never been placed in a customer facing role.”  In these scenarios, the Animal Farm commandment is violated because selection of customer facing staff treats all people as equal when it comes to service talent.  In essence, the commandment in these organizations is that “everyone has equal talent and none is more equal than anyone else when it comes to interacting with the customer!”

So what does this mean to you and how might we craft the best service variant to the Animal Farm commandment.  Well here is my effort to adapt the commandment to apply to customer service settings.  My commandment reads as follows:

“Everyone is equal in serving customers (and should be trained to maximize their impact from wherever they are located in your organization). Additionally, existing differences in service skill should guide how staff members are deployed.”

Under my revised (and significantly longer version) of Orwell’s commandment, how would you rate your company’s ability to address equality as it relates to service effort and inequality as it relates to tactical selection and placement of your customer facing service professionals?

I believe if you effectively maximize real equalities and inequalities in service impact and skill, you can take your business from ordinary to excellent.

What do you think?

Former Apple & Microsoft executive Linda Stone coined the term “continuous partial attention” to describe the growing phenomena whereby we split attention between multiple sources of interaction such as pulling out our iPhone to check a text message chime instead of continuing to interact with friends or customers.  There is something about a phone call, text message chirp, or an indication that “you’ve got mail,” which seems to compel many people to drop face-to-face personal contact and rush to the summons of the electronic intrusion.  Literally, I have had to encourage a former staff member to move on to better suited employment, after repeated instances in which I observed him engage in text messaging in the presence of clients.

Before I sound like I am “holier than” those who frequently begin a service interaction with me only to interrupt it to respond to some other information source, I realize that I also suffer from “continuous partial attention disorder” (not with external customers) but when it comes to my own staff.  Sadly, it is all too common that I will interrupt a call with my SVP of operations to jump on an incoming call from an unknown number.  More often than not, I fail to give my team member full respect and attention and instead frantically rush to a caller trying to sell me a newspaper subscription. That serves me right but servers my team member wrong!

I see “continuous partial attention” as an emerging challenge for service providers; particularly, with the proliferation of mobile technology.  I have now been misserved by people who have done everything from continuing to listen to music through one earbud while interacting with me, to individuals who have failed to cease a personal mobile phone conversation to initiate service, and even those who were playing drawing games with friends during a business meeting.  What examples have you encountered?

Imagine how you would stand out, if your business was devoid of “continuous partial attention.”  I am redoubling my commitment to create a “fully present zone” within my business both as it relates to my internal as well as external customers.

I just wonder if there is any hope for encouraging my teenage daughter to do the same during dinner?

In his outstanding blog post titled The Unexpected Demise of Great Brands, Peter Horan outlines the death or near death experiences of once mighty companies such as Kodak, Sears, Digital Equipment Corporation and Circuit City.  Noting that these brands went from “great to gone in less than a generation,” Peter suggests:

“These were major companies with thousands of employees and significant revenues. And yet, in a relatively short time, they slipped off the precipice. DEC was the second-largest computer company in the world as recently as the mid-90s. Circuit City was a fixture on the landscape of many American towns. The cause of death: the unexpected.”

Peter’s observation frames a major challenge for business leaders.  Much of our time is spent managing daily operations, and stewarding improved operational excellence which we hope will have an iterative effect on quality and competitiveness.  Simultaneously, we have to watch for “unexpected” market or competitive forces that may blindside us.  Now, if that isn’t a daunting and depressing characterization of the complexity of modern leadership challenges!

So how do you find your “true north” and execute boldly in a manner that circumvents disaster while staying relevant in the marketplace?  In short, by constantly listening to and observing the customer segments you wish to serve.  Companies with whom I have had the good fortune to work and write about have constantly made course corrections guided by their ever changing customer base.

Starbucks, for example, determined that they had paid too little attention to expressing gratitude for customer loyalty and, as such, needed to devise an engaging loyalty program.  It also heard the need to innovate and leverage it’s cafe experience out to consumer goods categories, while also expanding The Starbucks Experience to collateral beverages such as opening of their new Evolution Fresh juice retail store concept.

What is your customer telling you – through their words and actions?  If you are an indefatigable listener you will likely avert the unexpected and unwelcome demise of Peter Horan’s once great companies!

What a week!  Amid a travel filled 5 days of consulting and speeches, I had the good fortune to speak at a conference for a large American Banking Association conference.  The timing of my presentation could not have been better (or worse depending upon your perspective) as it followed a scathing op/ed article that was published in the New York Times.  That opinion piece was written by a leader of one of the world’s largest investment banks who decided to leave the bank because, as he put it”…the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money… It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of …success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients… It wasn’t just about making money… I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years.”

I’m not here to address the veracity of the disgruntled employee’s claim; however, I think the comment frames the trust issue each of us face with our customers everyday. How does a customer know if you are sidelining their interests in pursuit of your own financial gain?

Trust is a delicate and precarious human emotion built on a foundation of congruent words and action, a willingness to seek mutual gain, competencies to deliver against your promises, and a track record of delivering results.  So…

What specifically are you doing to authentically demonstrate that you are living your corporate values?  How would your customers know that your intent is to serve mutual benefit?  Do you have the skills, talents, and personality to deliver against your brand promise?  Does your experience garner the trust from past performance and a reasonable promise for the future?

If we aren’t able to answer these questions we may be facing a similar op/ed article someday!

Raise your hand if you think service and convenience stores are opposing concepts.  You can put your hand down now, since this is a blog and I can’t see you.

My general impression has always been that convenience stores sell….well convenience and commodities.  But my perception was challenged by a fairly recent strategic course adjustment championed by Kyle Krause, a second generation leader of the brand Kum and Go. Kyle, along with his senior leadership team, is banking on the fact that a refreshed look/feel, energy conscious building design, meaningful social involvement, and compassionate service can go a long way in setting industry standards and delineating Kum and Go from a listless sea of competitors.

The early buzz on Kum and Go’s service-centric approach is extremely positive. In fact, an independent survey shows Kum & Go’s customer satisfaction is among the best in the US, ranking close to Apple and Harley Davidson! Recently, I reviewed “wow stories” from Kum and Go customers who raved about clean bathrooms, managers that personally sought out products at other locations, and front line staff that offered cell phones to people who were frustrated by nearby inoperable pay phones.

Today’s consumer has a vast array of commoditized choices but in the end all business IS personal – even petroleum pumps and Hostess Twinkies.  I’ll travel an extra block or two to be served by staff that consistently treats me with dignity, respect, and a caring attitude.  You throw in a clean bathroom and I might just be loyal for life – even if you are off my beaten path.

How well is your operational service excellence and your staff compassion lifting you from your herd of competitors?

Good luck Kyle and the Kum and Go team. I am rooting for you and all those who genuinely commit to transforming service levels in their respective business sectors!