by Winslow Swart
Of the things that never get old or go out of style are satisfied customers and engaged employees. Whether you are measuring customer or employee retention, or the many other quantifiable metrics, the ROI of investing in internal and external service quality and culture always pays dividends.
Here’s an interesting example of the cost of not paying attention to customer satisfaction: A small, high-end retail grocery chain calculated it cost them over $1,000,000 in annual sales to lose only two customers per week due to poor service. That seems exaggerated, so we look at the math.
Two customers a week meant a loss of 104 customers per year. Say each had a family and spent an average of $892 in groceries per month. Multiply that by 12 months and that equals $ 1,113,216.
That's eye opening. That such a small per customer number can have such a big impact also helps justify a good training budget.
When we think of world-class service, brands like Nordstrom and Ritz-Carlton come to mind. At Nordstrom department stores, sales clerks walk around the counter when handing you your shopping bag, treat you extremely well when you are “just looking” and never really question exchanges or returns.
Ritz-Carlton hotels are known for creating service legends, like when a concierge hopped on a plane to personally return a forgotten briefcase to a guest. At a certain price-point, and in some industries, we grow to expect such service. What really inspires us are the game changers — companies that go beyond expectations for reasons of their own.
During their high-growth period going from a $25 million company to a $1 Billion company, San Antonio's Rackspace Technologies got into providing “fanatical support” for their customers. In the early years, employees would compete for the coveted “straightjacket” for customer service “fanatic” of the month (this practice was abandoned as it made light of mental health and was replaced with other gamification strategies). What was truly unique at Rackspace was their commitment to answering the phone in two rings in an industry that didn’t even answer the phone, ever. Other service level promises distinguished them as well.
Employees of Pike Place Fish in Seattle committed themselves to creating a “world-famous” service experience for their customers, and one another. As a result, a bunch of retail fish-mongers garnered the attention of the global business community seeking to improve their own service cultures. Their transformation was both inspiring and infectious, and as you can see, we are still talking about them.
Zappos is another good example. An e-commerce company, selling shoes mostly, caught everyone’s attention by being fiercely customer-centric, paying their employees extremely well, and having a serious amount of fun doing it.
Firms like these raised the bar, not just in their own industries, but for all of us.
Their examples resonate because they are not distracted by what is expected of them, they challenge their own status quo, and inspire us all to do the same.
So, how do you transfer the magic of these firms to you and your company to create legendary, world-class service? It is not just a simple matter of randomly coming up with an idea that sounds good and going for it. What you and your team commit to must resonate with your core culture and service or product offering while adding value for your customers.
Ask your employees, “When was the last time you were delighted or amazed by excellent service? How can you convert that experience to the work we do here at our company? When was the last time a firm tried really hard to ‘lose' your business? Do we do ever do that here and when, how?”
A few ideas for creating legendary service for your employees and for your customers:
Conduct well-designed team building and brainstorming sessions focused on changing the game and raising the bar with extraordinary service (both internally and externally).
Have a plan for implementation that generates small wins and track your success
Reward winning behaviors, not just results. It may take a little while to move the needle.
To delight customers with world-class service, start with each other. For any change effort to work best, it is important to energize everyone at all levels of the company. From executive management to maintenance crews, there is a compelling and resonant way for everyone to support and get involved in creating world-class service, and this should be part of the plan.