An Inside Look at Amazon's Fulfillment Center Operations

Do you ever wonder how Amazon orders arrive so fast with near-perfect accuracy?

The company's operational excellent is the backbone of Amazon's reputation for outstanding customer service. I recently toured Amazon's ONT2 fulfillment center in San Bernardino, CA to get an inside look at exactly how the company does it.

Here's a quick profile of this particular facility:

  • Specializes in small and medium-sized items

  • It's the size of 28 football fields

  • Employs more than 2,500 people full-time

  • 14 million products are shipped from here

  • Amazon's oldest fulfillment center in California

The center is called ONT2 after the nearest airport (Ontario, or ONT) with the 2 designating this as the second center in the area.

The tour revealed cutting-edge technology seamlessly blended with smart logistical management. There was even a genius operational practice that was completely counterintuitive.

Pictures weren't allowed inside, but I took good notes on the process required to pick, pack, and ship your order to you.

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

The Pick Process

This is where the items you order are selected from inventory, or picked, and sent via a conveyor belt to a packing station. 

The process is initially quite counterintuitive. Inventory items are stored in seemingly random locations. One inventory bin might contain a stuffed animal, a video game, a protein shake, and a few other mismatched items. Amazon actually does call this "random stow."

Amazon puts items in all these random locations so they can assign individual pickers to tight areas. This minimizes time spent wandering around the warehouse. It also ensures that each picker has roughly the same amount of work.

Computers make this process possible. Pickers are routed by computer to maximize efficiency. (More advanced warehouses eliminate the walking entirely and have robots carry shelves of products to the pickers!)

The pickers in ONT2 push around carts with tote bins and carry around hand-held scanners. The scanner tells the picker what to pick next and where to find it. A series of three bar-code scans ensures pickers select the correct item:

  1. Scan a bar code on the tote bin.

  2. Scan a bar code on the shelf where the item is located.

  3. Scan a bar code on the item itself.

The picker can't continue until these three scans are accurately completely. Once they are, the picker's handheld scanner directs the picker to the next item which may or may not be part of the same order.

 

The Pack Process

Once filled, pickers load their totes onto conveyor belts. The belts whisk the totes to packing stations where orders are packed for shipping.

Stations are separated into single-item orders and orders with multiple items.

For single-item orders, packers are prompted by computer to select the correct size box and pack the item. A series of scans ensures the correct item goes in the correct box. 

For orders with multiple items, packers first sort items from a tote onto a cart with multiple shelves so the items from each order are grouped together. An order might have items delivered via multiple tote bins if it contains items picked by different people. The computer and scanning process keeps everything organized.

Here, I was amazed at the speed at which packers operated. They selected items, assembled boxes (which are stored flat), put in protective filler, and taped each box shut in a matter of seconds. 

 

The Ship Process

Orders are routed from packing stations down a conveyor belt to something called a SLAM machine. 

SLAM stands for:

  1. Scan

  2. Label

  3. Apply

  4. Manifest

The machine scans boxes one at a time. A shipping label is then generated and applied.

The boxes are weighed as they travel down this line and the weights are compared to the expected weight for each shipment. If the weight is off, the box is automatically pushed off the shipping line into a quality control station for inspection.

I was lucky enough to see part of Amazon's rigorous quality control methods on display. Operators detected a problem with the SLAM machine where labels were being misapplied. They immediately shut down the entire line and attempted to fix the problem. 

The operators quickly isolated the issue to one of two label applicators on the line, so the disabled to problem applicator until a technician could arrive and restarted the line.

From there, boxes are automatically routed by destination and carrier (USPS, UPS, etc.). The boxes travel along conveyor belts until they reach a warehouse bay door where workers load the boxes into waiting trucks.

 

Take Your Own Tour

Cameras aren't allowed in the fulfillment center, but I did find a news story that showed behind-the-scenes video of this process.

Amazon currently offers tours of six facilities. Check here to find a center near you and book a tour!

What Maslow's Hierarchy Says About Customer Service Employees

We've all felt beaten up by a customer.

It's part of the job. A customer is angry, maybe even unfair. Intellectually, we know they're complaining about the product, the problem, or the situation.

The attack still feels personal.

Years of pithy advice tells us to "not take it personally." That's an instinctive impossibility. We're wired to take it personally.

What happens next is interesting. Some people are able to recover, overcome the instinct, and serve the customer with a smile. Others get defensive or angry, and service quality declines rapidly for that customer and perhaps the next customer, too.

If you manage customer service employees, or you serve customers on the frontline, it's important to understand the psychology behind this. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs gives us a clear explanation.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

In a paper written in 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed what's now famously known as Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs.

It ranked our basic needs as humans in priority order:

  1. Physiological

  2. Safety

  3. Love and belonging

  4. Esteem

  5. Self-actualization

The idea was you had to meet highest priority needs before you could concentrate on the next highest priority.

So you'd be willing to risk your physical safety (priority #2) if you had unmet physiological needs such as food, water, or air.

Serving that angry customer is the lowest priority for humans, sitting at #5, self-actualization. According to Maslow's Hierarchy, we can only commit to doing this if our higher priority needs are being met.

 

Meeting Higher Priority Needs First

In my book, Getting Service Right, I shared a story about Paul. 

He was working in a nightclub's office when he received a call from an angry customer. The customer had apparently been contacted by his credit card company about a fraudulent charge and he assumed that someone at the nightclub had stolen his credit card number.

Here's an excerpt:

At first Paul tried his best to be helpful, but he quickly realized the man just wanted to vent. The customer's repeated accusations, "Your server stole my credit card number" and "You guys need to be more careful," soon wore thin. As Paul explained, "I could feel my blood pressure going up. I could feel my face get flush. I felt like, 'Don't accuse my coworker of doing something that you don't know that they did.' There are a million ways that credit card numbers get stolen. It was so frustrating to me."

Paul found it difficult to serve this customer because his #4 need, esteem, was being challenged. The desire to be awesome at customer service (self-actualization) took a back seat to a strong desire to avoid further insult.

It's even worse in other companies.

Paul actually liked his coworkers and felt a need to stand up for the server he felt was falsely accused. This suggests his #3 need, love and belonging, was being met in the workplace. Paul felt a part of the team.

But what if he didn't?

I encountered one of these employees on a recent trip to the pet store. This particular chain is infamous for constantly rearranging merchandise, so you can't find what you're looking for from one visit to the next.

An employee was helping me locate a certain brand of dog food when she started to vent. "I guess they [the pet chain's management] just want you to wander around so you'll shop more," she said. 

Notice the use of the word, "They." 

She didn't feel part of the team. Her sense of identity, at least at work, wasn't strongly attached to her employer. She clearly felt embarrassed and frustrated by a corporate policy and took steps to distance herself from it.

How could she possibly provide great customer service when she didn't care?

 

Take Action

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs helps explain the old adage, "Happy employees lead to happy customers."

Many leaders make the mistake of using incentives and gimmicky programs to motivate their employees. Research shows employees don't actually have a motivation problem. The real issue is de-motivation.

Employees want to do a great job, but many feel they can't. 

Customer service leaders can do several things to overcome this challenge, foster a sense of team unity, and fulfill employees' need for love and belonging:

  1. Create a customer service vision that provides a unifying purpose.

  2. Make it easier for employees to achieve the vision.

  3. Work together as a team to solve common problems.

You can take action too if you're an individual contributor.

While writing The Service Culture Handbook, I discovered many companies with customer-focused cultures have a peer recognition program. Coworkers recognize each other for delivering outstanding service that aligns with the company's vision.

You can do this even if you don't have a formal program.

Take a moment to recognize your coworkers for their efforts. Go out of your way to build positive and supportive workplace relationships. This will help make your organization a better place to work and it will become even easier to serve your customers.

Insider Perspectives: Brent Abshire on Disaster Planning

Brent Abshire, Earthcare Management

Brent Abshire, Earthcare Management

Is your business ready for a disaster?

A disaster has the potential to have an extreme negative impact on your customers, your employees, and the future of your business.

You might experience a technical disaster, such as the computer malfunctions that have caused several airlines to ground their flights. It could be a PR disaster, such as the one many companies have recently faced when they got caught in a political crossfire.

Or your business could experience a natural disaster, such as the flood that submerged parts of Houston, Texas in April 2016.

Earthcare Management, a full-service landscape management company, suffered millions of dollars in damage when its office and equipment yard flooded.

I spoke with Brent Abshire, Earthcare Management's President and Owner, to hear how he and his team handled the disaster, avoided layoffs, and came back stronger than ever.

Q: When did you first learn your business had been flooded?

"It started raining pretty heavily on Sunday, but it wasn't until Monday when the flooding happened. I woke up Monday morning, turned on the local news and saw an aerial view of my shop from the station's helicopter!

Photo courtesy of Brent Abshire

Photo courtesy of Brent Abshire

"I could tell the shop was flooded from the picture on television, but I didn't know how bad it was going to be."

 

Q: What did you do once you learned about the flooding?

"There was flooding in the streets around the neighborhood where I live, so I was stuck at home on Monday and couldn't get in to the office.

"I knew it was probably going to be pretty bad, though, so I immediately started making calls and hunting down replacement vehicles and equipment. I called the John Deere guy and ordered about 100 machines [lawnmowers, etc.]. I called my truck guy and rented 65 trucks. I ordered about 1,000 tons of gravel rock to put down in our equipment yard because I knew that was going to be a mess too.

"I was able to meet with my management team on Tuesday by mid-day. The shop was still flooded, so they came over to my house and we made a plan to assess the damage, clean everything up, and get back up and running.

"We were able to get to the shop by Wednesday. We had to wade in the last 1/4 mile because there was still water.

Photo courtesy of Brent Abshire

Photo courtesy of Brent Abshire

"My insurance agent came out to help assess the damage. The office itself was a total loss, but we started cleaning up and salvaging whatever equipment, trailers, and tools that we could.

"I had the whole family help. Friends came and helped us too."

 

Q: How did the flooding impact your clients?

"When I met with my management team on Tuesday after the flood, we targeted the following Monday to get back to our normal operations.

"Many of our landscape management clients experienced the same flooding we did, so their properties had a lot of debris. We called them and said, 'We can't mow, but we can pick up trash and help you get cleaned up.' They were happy to hear from us.

"By Thursday, we got about 25 rented trucks in, so we were able to start sending out crews to our client sites to help them get cleaned up. We kept at it through Sunday while other employees stayed at the shop pulling equipment out, putting new rock in the yard, and cleaning up tools.

Photo courtesy of Brent Abshire

Photo courtesy of Brent Abshire

"We were able to resume our normal schedules by the next Monday."

 

Q: Disasters like this can have a big impact on employees who risk losing their jobs when there's no work. What happened to your employees?

"Nobody lost their job. We actually grew as a result of the flood.

"My employees are really committed. It was a team effort throughout the whole process. I think they thought, 'If the flood didn't stop this guy, we'll do anything!' I know many of our employees had friends or family members who lost jobs because the place where they worked flooded too, so it probably made an impact that we got people working so quickly.

"We're also contractually obligated to serve our clients, so it was very important that we keep our deals."

 

Q: Were you able to learn anything from this experience to help you prepare for another disaster in the future?

"We did some research and learned that once rainfall reaches 8 inches, we should start evacuating the equipment yard. The office is pretty seamless since we have offsite backups for the computers. What really hurts is losing our equipment because that's what we take out every day to make money. 

"A couple of weeks ago, we did a small-scale simulation where we practiced a procedure for moving vehicles and equipment out of the yard. It went well, so now we're going to run a large-scale simulation.

"The plan is to practice our disaster plan one or two times per year and never stop practicing, so everyone will know what to do if this happens again."

Inside Gallup's New Employee Engagement Report

Employee engagement efforts are stuck in a rut.

That's the verdict from Gallup's 2017 State of the American Workplace Report. The latest study pegs employee engagement at just 33 percent among American workers. 

That's not much of a bump compared to Gallup's 2013 report:

Gallup's report also noted that the best organizations have an average employee engagement rate of 70 percent! 

So what do the results tell us? And, what actionable advice can we take away from Gallup's research? You can download the full report, or you can read the highlights below.

 

Defining Engagement

You'd expect Gallup to explicitly call out a definition early in the report, but it doesn't. In fact, I couldn't find a specific definition anywhere. 

You can't improve something if you can't define it.

Imagine you wanted to be a football player because all of your friends were playing football. You spent a summer lifting weights. You practiced blocking and tackling. You threw passes and ran routes. Then, on the first day of tryouts, you arrive at the field and realize that everyone meant soccer. 

Yeah, it's like that. So here's my definition of employee engagement:

Employee engagement is the extent to which an employee deliberately contributes to organizational success.

This means companies need to do two things to engage their employees:

  1. Make sure employees understand how the organization defines success.

  2. Secure employees' commitment to help.

Gallup's report does shed some light on a few issues that can help us improve.

 

Challenge #1: Culture

Jim Clifton, Gallup's Chairman and CEO, calls out culture as a primary culprit in the report's opening statement:

The very practice of management no longer works.

One of his top recommendations is to focus employees beyond just collecting a paycheck and build a culture of purpose.

I've spent the fast few years researching organizations with highly engaged employees for my new book, The Service Culture Handbook (April 4, 2017). Every single one I looked at had a clear, customer-focused purpose statement called a Customer Service Vision.

For example, Publix is one of the top-rated supermarkets in the country. Their customer service vision?

Where Shopping is a Pleasure

Think about the simplicity of that statement. Every Publix employee knows their job is to make shopping more enjoyable for their customers.

Once every employee commits to the same purpose, a culture is born. You can use this step-by-step guide to create your own customer service vision. 

 

Challenge #2: Ineffective Management

Only 21 percent of people who responded to Gallup's engagement survey agreed that their performance is well-managed.

My research clearly shows employees have a de-motivation problem. New employees start their jobs full of hope and promise until management sucks the spirit out of them by making it difficult for them to succeed.

Here are some top management challenges according to Gallup's report:

  • Unclear or misaligned expectations

  • Ineffective or infrequent feedback

  • Unfair evaluation practices

Let's go back to the definition of employee engagement. An engaged employee is committed to organizational success.

It's awfully tough to be committed if the definition of success is a moving target, your boss isn't giving you feedback on how to achieve it, or your boss isn't evaluating your performance based on your actual achievements.

Here are some more stunning findings:

  • Only 30 percent strongly agree their manager involves them in goal setting.

  • Just 44 percent strongly agree they can link their goals to organizational goals.

  • Only 41 percent strong agree their job description matches their actual work.

 

Conclusion

It's a damning report, but employee engagement doesn't need to be a huge mystery. Great managers make sure their employees can answer three questions:

  1. What is our customer service vision?

  2. What does it mean?

  3. How can I personally contribute?

Lessons from the Overlook: How Standardization Drives Service

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a monthly update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

When my wife, Sally, and I purchased The Overlook, we had a lot of big ideas.

We wanted our place to be unique, with a lot of value-added touches that would wow our guests and make them want to return over and over again.

So we brainstormed a list of ideas:

  • Leave bottle of local wine on the counter as a guest amenity?

  • Give our guests free firewood in the wintertime?

  • Put high quality toiletries in all the bathrooms?

It turned out the best way to wow our guests was to do none of these things. The biggest reason wasn't cost, although cost certainly was important.

It was standardization. Here's why standardization is crucial to service.

Photo credit: Jon Millhouse

Photo credit: Jon Millhouse

Fear of Service Failure

When we thought about extras at The Overlook, we also worried about service failure.

In their outstanding book, The Effortless Experience, authors Matt Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick Delisi make a compelling argument that service failures have a much greater impact on customers than wow moments.

That's because people naturally tend to have a negativity bias. Negative experiences are much more memorable and are more likely to sway future behavior than positive ones.

What happens if one guest gets a bottle of wine, tells people about it, but the bottle of wine fails to appear for the next guest?

What happens if we promise free firewood (so guests don't bring any of their own), but the firewood isn't there when guests arrive late on a cold winter night?

What happens if the fancy toiletries aren't replenished and the bathrooms look like the last guest just left a few half-empty bottles behind that weren't removed by the cleaning crew?

We were concerned about all of these potential failures because we knew we'd need to rely on our property manager to handle any extras. Our property management company has a well-defined, standardized process for servicing the 40+ homes it manages.

Asking them to change their routine for just us would be begging for trouble.

 

How Variables Create Failure

Think about cleaning and re-stocking a vacation cabin from an operations perspective. The easiest way to ensure consistency is to standardize.

  1. Write standard procedures.

  2. Train everyone to follow those procedures. 

  3. Stock standard replenishment items (paper towels, toilet paper, soap, etc.)

Our property management company has it down to a science. There are even standard sheets and towels so linens can quickly be replaced without having to launder everything onsite.

Now, imagine changing everything for just one house. 

The procedures change. You need to remind employees to follow the different procedures, and you need to remind them again because the same employees might not service the house each time. You also need to stock special supplies and make sure you don't run out for just that one cabin.

All of those variables are a recipe for things "falling through the cracks." 

Even big companies struggle with this. For example, extreme variability is one of the reasons why McDonald's has struggled with service and food quality.

 

The Standardization Cure

You're much more likely to deliver consistently excellent service if you can standardize your service delivery process. With that in mind, we couldn't just consider our own cabin. We had to think of it from our property manager's perspective. (This is an important aspect of partnership, a topic I covered last month.)

All of our original ideas required our property manager to deviate from a standard procedure.

So we re-thought our approach and came up with some new ideas that didn't require our property management company to alter its normal routine:

Idea #1: Don't charge for snow removal. Standard procedure was for our property manager to shovel and plow snow at each cabin whenever a snow storm hit. It's a required safety item, but most cabin owners charge for this service. We decided to pay for it ourselves.

Idea #2: Stock back-up dishes. Most vacation rental guests expect a few cracked plates or mis-matched dishes. We put in an entire set of matching dishes and then added some back-ups to our owner's closet. Once a month, we inspect the cabin ourselves and replace any broken or missing items so the kitchen feels fully-stocked. (Many guests have commented on this.)

Idea #3: Stock extra kitchen items. The Overlook has four bedrooms, so it's really geared for families or couples traveling together. That means they'll cook a few nice meals in the cabin, so we made sure the kitchen was stocked with items you don't normally find in a vacation rental: a crockpot, extra tupperware, a full set of pots and pans, and even an apron for the chef. It turns out this has become one of the biggest delights for our guests!

Idea #4: Remove clutter. We talked to many people who regularly rent vacation cabins and one of their top pet peeves was clutter. They'd say, "How can I put my stuff somewhere if the owner's stuff is all over the place?!" So we went through the entire cabin and kept every table, counter, nightstand, and chest of drawers as clutter-free as possible.

Idea #5: Provide a nice guest book. The typical vacation cabin has a ratty three-ring binder that contains all of the house rules, instructions for using various items, and information about the local area. We spent a few extra dollars and created a beautiful bound book on Shutterfly. It's a classier way to share the same information.

In his new book, Kaleidoscope, customer service guru Chip Bell calls these items value-unique. They don't necessarily cost a lot of money, but they make The Overlook standout compared to other options.

We've been lucky so far. It's been booked nearly every weekend.

A Powerful and Simple Way to Retain Customers

Customer loyalty is a huge business driver.

Selling to existing customers is typically cheaper, faster, and more effective than selling to new customers. They buy more and buy more often. Best of all, they encourage other people to do business with you too.

Unlocking the secret of customer loyalty would be gold, right?

A new study from customer experience software firm InMoment reveals the best way to ensure customer loyalty is pretty simple. I've synthesized the data with some additional research to give you a few steps you can take to boost loyalty with your customer base.

Spoiler alert: customer service plays a giant role.

The Study Results

Let's start by taking a look at the data from the study. Here's a snapshot:

  • 10,000 brand representatives surveyed

  • 20,000 customers surveyed

  • 12 countries represented (including the U.S.)

The responses to two survey questions really jumped out. The first was "What does it take to foster brand loyalty?"

Notice the differences between what brand reps said and customers said:

Data source: InMoment

Data source: InMoment

The second really interesting question was "What emotions do you associate with a bad experience?"

Data source: InMoment

Data source: InMoment

These charts reveal that the way to win a customer's loyalty is to ensure their satisfaction and avoid disappointing or frustrating experiences.

OK, so what does that really mean?

 

The Story Behind the Data

Notice what customers aren't telling us.

They aren't saying they need to be wowed or amazed. Customers aren't telling us they need to have a magical, life-changing experience.

Customers are saying they want brands to do exactly what they expect them to do.

  • A new product should work the way it was intended.

  • A service should do exactly what was advertised.

  • Getting assistance should be simple and hassle-free.

Consumers were asked to rank a number of factors in order of importance. Number one was personalization. But look closely at the statement driving this selection:

When you reach out for help, the associate and/or the self-service channels already knows who you are (name, status, loyalty, VIP, etc.) and demonstrates strong knowledge of your recent interactions.

This isn't a desire for more personalized marketing or selling. It's a desire for better service.

It's already disappointing when a service failure occurs. It's frustrating and feels disrespectful to consumers when they're forced to repeat their story over and over again in an effort to get an issue resolved.

 

Action Steps

The biggest thing companies can do is fix chronic problems. 

It seems simple, yet it isn't. Research shows 50 percent or more of customers don't complain when they experience an issue. Those who do complain typically lodge their complaint with a frontline employee. That frontline employee, for variety of reasons, probably won't share it with a supervisor.

One step you can take is to ask your frontline employees for the top complaints they hear from customers. In my experience, employees are quick to share when they're asked to help identify and solve these challenges. This exercise almost always yields opportunities for quick action.

Don't forget those customer service surveys. It's a well-known secret that most companies do very little with this data, but it's a gold mine of service improvement opportunities if you know how to quickly analyze it.

Another action step is to get better at managing customer expectations. This is both an art and a science. For example, did you know:

There's an entire training video on Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning devoted to this topic. You'll need a Lynda.com or LinkedIn Premium account, but you can get a 10-day trial for Lynda.com here.

Insider Perspectives: Ideal's Don Teemsma on Field Service

Don Teemsma, President of Ideal Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electrical

Don Teemsma, President of Ideal Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electrical

Every home owner needs a few go-to service providers.

One of mine is Ideal Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electrical. This company is my first and only phone call anytime I need a plumber, HVAC technician, or electrician. 

Ideal has remodeled two bathrooms in my house, installed a new heating and air conditioning system, installed a new hot water heater, fixed a slab leak, installed a new electrical panel, and made numerous smaller repairs over the years.

Yes, I'm a huge fan.

The work is first-rate, the prices are reasonable, and Ideal's technicians are consistently friendly, helpful, and reliable. The company consistently earns top customer service honors from companies such as Houzz and Angie's List.

If you live in San Diego, you should have this company on speed-dial!

There's one aspect of Ideal's service that particularly fascinates me. How does the company get its field service technicians to consistently arrive on time, do great work, and provide great service?

I sat down with Don Teemsma, Ideal's President and Owner, to ask him how his company sustains a customer-focused culture with its field service technicians.

Q: Ideal offers two-hour appointment windows and your technicians are always on-time or even early. How do you manage this while other service companies struggle to maintain a four-hour appointment window?

"We've tried four-hour appointment windows, but people really don't like that, so we've made a commitment to stick with a two-hour window.

"It starts with our dispatch team. We keep track of all our appointments and technicians via computer and a dispatch board. It's the service manager's job to make sure we're on schedule.

"We're constantly moving the board around to make sure we can fulfill that two-hour commitment. If we see a service call is taking longer than expected, the service manager can proactively call the next customer to let them know there will be a delay or find another qualified technician to move the call to.

"Our service area is also an important factor. We really try to keep our service area tight and not overcommit. That's why we generally don't serve cities in [San Diego's] North County like San Marcos or Escondido. There are too many unknowns like traffic conditions that would make it difficult to keep our appointments and provide a rapid response.

"Maintaining the right parts and supplies on our trucks is also important. We try to keep our trucks fully-stocked so they can handle 80 percent of service calls with the parts on the truck."

 

Q: There's a stereotype of a typical repair technician who is pushy and will try to suggest a lot of expensive repairs. How does Ideal avoid that?

"A lot of field service technicians work on commission. This pay structure means it's in their best interest to try to sell additional repairs and services to their customers.

"We don't want to create that incentive because our business is built on relationships. We'd rather earn a customer's repeat business or get new business through referrals from customers who trust us.

"Our technicians don't work on commission. They tend to prefer it that way. They're in this business because they like to fix stuff and make people happy.

"Many of our technicians will refer to a customer as 'my customer,' because they take a lot of ownership and personal pride in helping the people they serve."

 

Q: What else do you do to ensure your technicians are customer-focused?

"It starts with hiring the right people. 

"We look for integrity in our hiring process. If we don't feel someone has an innate honesty about them, we won't hire them.

"Our interview process includes a few assessments but we also put candidates through three interviews to see if they will fit our culture. For example, one of the things I ask candidates about is whether they perform any service in their community. Are they involved in their church or do they volunteer for a nonprofit organization? People who give back to their community in some way are more likely to be successful in our culture.

"One of the things we do around here is encourage people to constantly improve. If you're not the best at a particular skill, keep working on getting better. Our culture is not to be perfect, but to perfect.

"We really strive to inspire technical excellence. Having good skills allows you to perform better work, get jobs done faster, and solve challenging problems. 

"Over the years we've hired a lot of technicians with good skills who have been nurtured by their coworkers until they've gotten really good at their trade.

"We also have an Ideal Mascot: Mr. Bill. He truly embodies our culture and is a great ambassador for showing care towards our customers."

[Editor's note: Bill has worked the front counter in Ideal's showroom for over 17 years and is a wizard at locating hard-to-find parts. His friendly and helpful service was one of the reasons I personally became an Ideal customer. He helped me track down a part for a leaking toilet tank that I couldn't find at any of the big-box hardware stores.]

 

Q: Ideal's managed to maintain a reputation for outstanding service for many years. How do you keep everyone continuously focused?

"We talk about service a lot. We have company-wide meetings four to six times per year. All of our technicians attend a smaller meeting every other week where we talk about customer service, share customer feedback, and discuss opportunities to improve.

"We're also fortunate that most of our customers are repeat customers or they came to us because they were referred by a customer. These customers tend to be understanding that things can and will go wrong occasionally because we've had a great relationship with them and they trust us to do a good job.

"Many of our technicians have worked here for a long time. They like working for a company with a great reputation and they like the culture, so they work hard to help us continuously deliver great service."