The impact of great ideas poorly executed

Years ago, I received a handwritten thank you card from someone I had interviewed for a Training Coordinator position. This really stood out for three reasons.

First, I'm a big proponent of using the handwritten note to create more personal relationships with your most important customers. 

Second, very few candidates for this position had bothered to send any form of follow-up correspondence, so the card made this particular candidate even more distinctive.

Third, well, it's better just to show you. Here's the front of the card:

The message inside was the standard "Thank you for interviewing me, I'm very interested in the job." However, it was the post script that really caught my attention:

For my readers who aren't familiar with San Diego, the Hillcrest neighborhood has a large LGBTQ population. I'll never know why this person felt the need to make a joke about this in a thank you card. However, this comment did make it easy for me to rule out this candidate for the position.

This card also serves as an excellent example that it's sometimes a better idea not to do something at all than to do it poorly.

Why your customers often see what you don't

The classic nine dot puzzle is one of my favorite customer service training exercises. Give the puzzle a try if you haven’t seen it before:

• Connect all nine dots using four straight lines
• You cannot lift your finger off the screen (or, if you prefer, your pen off the paper)

Why is the puzzle so hard for most of us to solve?

The secret is our instincts affect how we view potential solutions. Most of us see a box that doesn’t exist. As a result, we try to solve the puzzle by staying within the box. (See the bottom of the post for the solution.)

It’s a useful training exercise because it helps customer service professionals realize that we tend to see the service we provide through a certain frame. The trouble is customers view our service through their own frame and their frame is frequently different than ours.

Last week, I wrote about an experience where two employees took very different approaches to replacing a disappointing bottle of wine. The two employees each had their own way of framing the problem. The first employee looked at the problem as a bottle of wine that needed to be exchanged. The second employee looked at the problem as a customer who was disappointed with their product.

As you can imagine, I was much happier with the service I received from the second employee since her frame was the same as mine.

Adopting the customer’s perspective is not always easy. It sounds great in theory, but it is much more difficult in practice. Chalk this up to the Dunning Kruger Effect, a phenomenon I recently wrote about by comparing customer service to professional baseball.

There are a few ways you can help your employees change their frame and see things from the customer’s point of view:

• Create a Customer Service Vision that defines outstanding service
• Have your employees use your product or service and evaluate their experience as a customer.
• Review customer feedback to understand what drives satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Are you still trying to solve the puzzle? You can view this short video to see the answer.

Two different approaches to the same problem

Customer service problems can and will happen. I wish they didn’t, but they do. And when they do occur, how the company resolves the problem can make a big difference.

I recently experienced two very different problem solving approaches from the same company. The first approach made the problem feel much worse. The second was wonderful.

The Situation
My wife, Sally, and I recently opened a nice bottle of wine to go with a special dinner she had made. Unfortunately, the wine had a strong vinegar taste that made it undrinkable. This was a fairly expensive bottle that we had bought at the winery three years ago, so naturally we were disappointed.

We’re planning another visit to the winery in a few months, so I decided to send them an email and ask for a discount on our next purchase.

Approach #1
Don’t respond.

It shouldn’t shock me that companies don’t respond to emails in this day and age, but it does. Three days later, I emailed the winery a second time. This time I did receive a response. It was very uninspiring:

Jeff,

I forwarded the email to my tasting room manager.  You should hear back from her soon. 

The Hospitality Team

Can you spot the problems with this message? I see at least three:

• Who is it from? I'm pretty sure "The Hospitality Team" isn't their real name.
• Who is the tasting room manager? Let’s give this person a name too so I know who will be contacting me. Maybe they will become my new BFF.
• When exactly is soon?

“Soon” turned out to be two days later. Sheesh – I really need to get a dictionary because I thought soon meant, well, sooner than two days. 

The email I did receive was underwhelming:

Dear Jeff,

I left a voice mail for you today. Please give us a call to verify the address that we can send the call tag. Or if easier, just email back.

Best regards.

Mary Ann

This was a little better than the first message. But it was still poorly done.

First, the person’s voice message and email were focused on her needs rather than mine. Mary Ann wanted to get back the empty wine bottle. I wanted to get a discount on a future wine purchase and to have my frustration acknowledged by a caring and compassionate customer service professional.

Second, it’s a good rule of thumb to use the customer’s preferred method of communication. I had emailed because it was more convenient, but Mary Ann had called me and left a voice message with most of the information she wanted me to have. 

I did end up calling AND emailing, but did not receive a response.

Approach #2
Solve the problem swiftly with caring and enthusiasm.

I was contacted by someone else named Elizabeth the day after my last email to Mary Ann. Notice Elizabeth’s very different approach:

Hi Jeff!

I just wanted to reach out to you regarding your bad bottle of wine.  I apologize you didn't receive the response from our tasting room manager, but we would be happy to organize getting a new bottle to you!  What address do you prefer to receive shipments to?

And just so that we can continue to improve on our end-- out of curiosity, where and when was the bottle purchased?

Again, we apologize that the bottle was a disappointment.

Regards,

Elizabeth

I replied to Elizabeth’s email with my shipping address plus an explanation that I had purchased the bottle at the winery. She quickly responded to let me know she received my message and apologized once again. A new bottle arrived the very next day.

It’s too bad I didn’t encounter Elizabeth first. I had emailed to ask for a discount and she had responded by overnighting me a replacement bottle which feels like outstanding service to me. It’s the hassle in the middle I could have done without.

Learn from the pros by visualizing outstanding service

Last week, I wrote a post comparing customer service to professional baseball. I’d like to continue the sports metaphor by sharing an activity that customer service professionals can borrow from professional athletes.

You can prepare for big moments by visualizing yourself succeeding.

It all starts by clearly describing what success looks like. All organizations should have a clear definition of outstanding customer service. (If yours doesn’t, you are welcome to use this vision tool to create one.) The next step is taking this definition down to an individual level so that you can articulate how you personally contribute to outstanding service.

Finally, it’s time to create a drawing, collage, or other form of visual art that depicts you providing outstanding service. Don’t worry about the artistic merit of your visualization. What’s important is that you can see yourself succeeding.

Example #1

This example comes from a company that sells flowers and plants to florists. A customer service rep at one of the company’s wholesale locations focused on helping customers make their small businesses more successful. He used his product knowledge to help florists select items that would sell well in their stores. Here is his vision drawing:

Image courtesy of Mellano

Example #2

The second example comes from a research hospital. A customer service rep who worked in a department called research stores helped keep researchers supplied with the equipment necessary to conduct their experiments. His vision was to help researchers solve problems by sharing solutions he had learned from others. Here is his vision drawing:

Image courtesy of Gerald Smith

Create your own visualization

You can use this simple exercise to try this visualization technique yourself.

1. Create your drawing
2. Look at it at the start of each day for 30 days
3. Try to make your vision actually happen

How customer service is like professional baseball

Baseball’s spring training is now underway so I thought I’d offer a simple analogy to describe how customer service is like professional baseball:

Many of us think we’re experts, but only a few of us truly are.

Both baseball and customer service are easy to understand at a fundamental level. Even the most casual baseball fan knows that it’s a good thing when your team scores a run, three strikes and you’re out, and the seventh inning stretch is when we all stand up and sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Customer service basics such as prompt, friendly, and attentive service are also universally known.

The trouble with having a little knowledge is it tends to make us susceptible to believing we have a lot of knowledge.

Sometimes referred to as the Dunning Kruger Effect, researchers have consistently found that the less knowledge or skill we have in a particular area, the more we overestimate our ability. This has proven true in arenas as diverse as grammar skills, humor, or multitasking.

You see this happening all the time with baseball fans. Go to a game and you'll hear no shortage of opinions about what’s wrong with the hometown team and what should be done to fix them. Yet none of these rabid fans get so much as an interview when their team is hiring a new coach.

The same holds true in customer service. Everyone has an opinion about what it takes to provide amazing customer service but we’d see more great examples and fewer service failures if customer service really was simple. 

In reality, customer service, like professional baseball, is hard. Very hard. We have to deal with faulty products, dumb policies, crabby co-workers, and domineering bosses. If we’re lucky enough to work at a company that is largely free of these problems, we still have to contend with a wide range of customer expectations and needs. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I am saying it's not always easy.

There’s one more part of the Dunning Krueger Effect that is as true in customer service as it is in baseball. 

While nearly all of us overestimate our ability, the very best underestimate their ability. They never stop trying to improve. They worry that the competition has somehow figured out how to do it better. For them, good enough never is.

I hope this is the reason why I work hard every day to provide my clients with the best possible service.

Unfortunately, I also know this means that I really don't know what I'm talking about whenever I get a brilliant idea about how the Padres can win more games.

Applebee's customer proves the customer is always right

Applebee’s is the latest company to be caught up in controversy over a receipt. This time it was a server who took a picture of a customer’s receipt and posted it online.

By my count, this is the fourth receipt-related service failure to go viral within the past twelve months, but this one adds a few new plot twists. The public outcry was largely directed against the customer who wrote “I give GOD 10% why should I give you 18” in lieu of a tip. The server who posted the photo was fired, but an online petition urging Applebee’s to reinstate her is gathering steam. And, I’m not even sure Applebee’s is at fault for what’s happened so far (more on that later).

What I do know is this incident offers further proof that the customer is always right.

The true meaning of the customer is always right
It’s unclear who first said “The customer is always right.” I tried to learn the answer while doing research for my book, Service Failure, but the best I could do was narrow it down to a few business leaders from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One of the best examples was a quote attributed to the legendary retailer, Marshall Fields. He purportedly said, “Right or wrong, the customer is always right.”

The Applebee’s customer was clearly wrong, but we wouldn't be talking about it if the server hadn't photographed the receipt and posted it online. The server neglected the advice from Marshall Fields when she went out of her way to prove the customer was wrong.

Poking a sleeping bear
Proving a customer wrong is generally a zero sum game. It tends to escalate the situation by engaging the customer’s defense mechanisms and can trigger powerful emotions such as frustration, embarrassment, or shame. In many ways it’s like poking a sleeping bear where nothing good will come out of it, but a lot of bad things are likely to happen.

In this case, the Applebee’s customer was told by friends that her receipt was posted online. This led to strong feelings of shame and embarrassment and now the Applebee’s customer was an angry bear.

Angry bears don’t apologize for their misdeeds. They call the offending restaurant and roar and roar until someone gets fired. In this case it was the server who posted the receipt online who lost her job.

Why Applebee’s isn’t (entirely) to blame
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post suggested an employee’s viral service failure is the company’s fault. That still holds true, but from the perspective that most people have heard about the Applebee’s receipt incident but don’t know the names of the individuals involved. 

The negative publicity generated by this incident may be part of the cost of doing business. The Applebee’s restaurant in question is a franchise, which means that Applebee’s doesn’t have direct managerial control over the restaurant’s employees. They also took swift action to address the issue and even confirmed that the server in question had been fired.

The situation has created some unfortunate PR challenges for Applebee’s. I’m just not sure what else they could have done. (Ideas, anyone?)

Book Review: Uncommon Service

Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of your Business.
by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

I've read a lot of books about customer service and I must admit that many of them tend to blur together. As I read Uncommon Service, my excitement grew because I realized I was reading something that was, well, uncommon.

This book is a practical guide for leaders who want to use service to strategically differentiate their companies from the competition. The central premise is that great service fundamentally comes from the choices made in assembling an organization's business model.

One of the biggest take-aways for me was that companies can't do everything well. Smart companies understand what their customers truly value and excel at that while allowing themselves to be mediocre or even poor in even other areas. It's a trade-off necessary to focus time, energy, and resources on what really counts.

I immediately thought of In-N-Out Burger as I read about this concept. They focus on burgers and fries rather than offer a wide selection of entries like other fast food restaurants, but their burgers are really, really good. (A few years ago, I reviewed a terrific book about their story.)

I enthusiastically recommend Uncommon Service if you are interested in customer service from a strategic perspective.

Spreadsheet Jockeys are clueless about retail service

All super heroes have at least one nemesis. Batman has the Joker. Superman has Lex Luther. Outstanding Service has the Spreadsheet Jockey.

What’s a Spreadsheet Jockey? It’s an executive who designs systems and strategies to serve their customers based on data points and intuition without gathering any input from the people who are actually serving customers.

The sad, inevitable result of Spreadsheet Jockey management is service failure. Here are three examples where a spreadsheet jockey designed a system that any frontline employee could tell you would fail.

Upsell or No Sell at Staples

A month or so ago, I read an incredible story on Bruce Temkin’s blog that described how employees at Staples office supply stores were refusing to sell computers to customers who didn’t accept any of their upsell offers.

You might be tempted to say, “Fire those scoundrels!” until you learned that a fear of being fired was the cause of their behavior.

A Spreadsheet Jockey at Staples had created a standard that required sales associates to average $200 in add-ons for each computer they sold. The penalties for failing to meet the standard included progressive discipline and possible termination. While designed to increase revenue, the new policy actually gave employees a strong incentive to avoid selling computers altogether.

Why?

Let’s say you sell a computer to a customer who doesn’t buy anything else. That’s $0 in upsells on that computer, so you’d need to sell $400 in add-ons on your next computer sale to maintain the $200 average and avoid getting fired. That made a person who didn’t want any add-ons a threat to your job unless you could somehow ensure the sale didn’t go through.

A $100 solution to a $20 problem

My wife recently returned a briefcase to the store where she bought it so it could be repaired under warranty. The leather zipper pull on the main compartment had torn off, which would have been a simple repair if the luggage store had an onsite repair shop.

The fact that it couldn’t do the repair onsite shouldn’t have been a major obstacle. In a normal, sane world, the luggage store would have a relationship with a local repair shop that could help them facilitate the repair within a day or two. They might even have an authorized repair center in town that could provide same day service if my wife was willing to do a little driving.

Unfortunately, things are never that easy for customers when a Spreadsheet Jockey designs the system. The luggage store’s actual process involved shipping my wife’s bag to their corporate repair depot in New York, making my wife wait an estimated four weeks, and then shipping the bag back to our home in San Diego.

In the end, it made more sense for my wife to pay to get the repair done at a local shop than to be without her bag for four weeks while she waited for it to be repaired under warranty.

Labor models can’t see inside your store

I recently spoke with a friend who works in a retail pet store that is continuously victimized by corporate Spreadsheet Jockeys.

Exhibit A is Saturday morning, the store’s busiest time of the week. My friend would love to schedule extra sales staff to help boost sales, but his hands are tied in two ways.

First, the store’s labor model doesn’t allow him to bring in extra staff. A labor model is a tool often used in retail that tells each store how many employees they can have on each shift. It is a Spreadsheet Jockey invention that relies on data analysis to optimize labor costs, but it can also take away an individual store’s ability to react to opportunities such as a busy Saturday morning.

The second problem was the store had to take associates off the sales floor to process the weekly stock shipment. The delivery schedule was set by another Spreadsheet Jockey to optimize delivery logistics, but it didn’t factor in the impact on operations. The store had limited overstock space, so they had to get the new stock unboxed and out on the sales floor as quickly as possible. Replenishing stock is also a labor intensive job that’s usually done during slower periods, not on a busy Saturday morning when they should be helping customers and generating revenue.

A simple cure

Adam Toporek recently wrote an excellent post on his CustomersThatStick blog about the virtues of management by walking around in a customer service environment. His was point was that Spreadsheet Jockeys need to temper their data analysis with a dose of reality.

Look at the best retail operations and you'll see this happening. Executives are constantly spending time in their stores, asking questions, and observing. They realize that nobody understands their challenges better than associates, and those same associates probably have some good ideas about how to fix them. 

TPS named a 2012 Champion of Learning

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has recognized Toister Performance Solutions, Inc. as a 2012 Champion of Learning. This designation is given in recognition for efforts to promote Employee Learning Week, an employee learning awareness campaign that is held during the first week of December.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that Toister Performance Solutions has earned this recogntion.

Hire better by redefining your purple squirrel

A client of mine recently struggled to find the perfect candidate for an open managerial position. They wanted someone who had outstanding technical and managerial skills, but this combination was proving impossible to find. They were also a small nonprofit organization, so the perfect candidate had to be willing to work for a salary that was well below market.

Recruiters often use the term “purple squirrel” to refer to the perfect candidate for hard to fill positions like my client's. Like purple squirrels, these people are often difficult, if not impossible to find.

It’s time to get real
A recent post on the Harvard Business Review blog advised companies to stop searching for the perfect candidate because it is often a futile effort that does nothing more than waste time and money.

In my client’s case, searching for a purple squirrel had caused them to leave an important position unfilled while they searched for someone who didn’t exist. They found a fair number of people with the required technical skills but not the managerial skills or vice-versa. On the rare occasions when they found someone who appeared to have both, they quickly learned their budget was nowhere near that person’s salary expectations.

It was time for my client to face reality if they wanted to fill this position. 

Redefining your purple squirrel
When my client turned to me for help, we were able to create a solution in just two hours by using a worksheet to profile of an ideal, rather than perfect candidate.

This simple tool, available for free on my website, works by differentiating between qualities a successful employee must have and qualities you'd like an employee to have. For example, a call center employee must have the ability to effectively communicate with customers over the phone. It would be nice if they also had experience using the call center's customer relationship management software, but this isn't essential since training is available to new hires. 

The worksheet helped my client realize they had confused wants with needs. They wanted someone with outstanding technical skills, but technical skills weren’t essential to the job. They were hiring a manager, not a technician, so what they really needed was someone with enough technical knowledge to effectively manage their team.

Assessing organizational fit
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins famously suggested that successful companies focus on getting the right people on the bus. The worksheet helps you go beyond job-specific criteria and identify what type of person would be a great fit with your organization. In other words, who are the right people for your bus?

In my client’s case, they realized that the only way to find someone whose salary expectations fit their budget was to find a manager who was truly passionate about their mission. Further analysis revealed that all of their successful employees had this trait in common, regardless of position.

Success!
My client was able to hire a manager to fill their open position within days of redefining their purple squirrel. Best of all, they were really excited about the person they'd hired and didn't feel as though they had settled on someone who wasn't qualified.

Check out this short tutorial video below if you'd like to see how this tool works (click here if the embedded video doesn't appear). When you are ready, you can download the worksheet and give it a try.