Chapter 4
Never a Customer, Always a Guest
You don’t build the product for yourself.
You need to know what the people want and build it for them.
Walt Disney
In an age when consumers all across the country bemoan the state of customer service, The Walt Disney Company is repeatedly hailed as a superior service provider, perhaps the best in the world. On the day Disneyland opened, Walt himself announced the theme park’s motto: “At Disneyland, the visitors are our guests.” Since then, the bar has continually been raised to new heights in the company’s desire to delight its guests.
That visitors should be treated as guests is also a theme that emerges in nearly every movie Walt Disney made. The dwarfs welcome Snow White into their cottage; forest animals care for Bambi after his mother dies; the Banks family invite Mary Poppins into their home; and, of course, “Be Our Guest” is the title of one of the best-known songs from the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast. The guest motif is present in every corner of Disney, from the Magic Kingdom to Animal Kingdom.
Walt Disney knew instinctively what his visitors wanted. He didn’t need to do expensive research into customer tastes because, as he once put it, his audience was “made up of my neighbors, people I know and meet everyday: folks I trade with, go to church with, vote with, compete in business with, help build and preserve a nation with.”17 Disney’s understanding of his customer base coupled with his innate drive for perfection meant that audiences got more than they ever knew they wanted, whether in watching his films or visiting his theme park.
Know your guests, treat them honestly and with respect, and they will keep coming; that pretty well sums up what Walt Disney believed. The crowds that throng the Disney parks today, both here and abroad, testify to the enduring soundness of his belief. During the first week of November 1996, 793,000 people visited Disney’s theme parks in the United States alone—and this in a week that didn’t even include a school holiday.
Most of the companies we work with and others we have studied have wholeheartedly adopted Walt Disney’s belief that customers should be treated as honored guests. Many of these companies are not in the service business per se; they have simply made it their business to provide excellent service. As you read their stories, you will see how an obsession with customers begets the kind of innovation that ultimately spells success.
How Important Are Your Customers—Really?
You’re probably wondering which companies don’t try to please their customers. In reality, plenty. All too many companies seem to consider customers as nothing more than a necessary nuisance. Oh, they may say otherwise, but they don’t deliver. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then the road to business failure is littered with placards proclaiming “The customer is always right.”
A cavalier attitude toward customers is shortsighted in the extreme. The hard truth is that it costs five times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an old one. According to Frederick F. Reichheld, director emeritus of Bain & Company and author of Loyalty Rules! How Leaders Build Lasting Relationships, a 5 percent increase in customer retention results in a 25 to 95 percent increase in profits.
So if the payoffs are so great, why do companies fail when it comes to dealing with customers? The answer is lack of leadership. Without question, the CEO is the primary role model for every company value, and service is no exception. In an example of a leader who just didn’t understand his responsibility, the CEO of a well-known rental car company was quoted as saying, “There’s nothing more irritating than having the person next to you on a plane say, ‘And what do you do for a living?’ I used to be polite and tell them about my company, only to have my ear bent about the story of the dirty car in Chicago. Now when people tell me that story, I empathize with them and say, ‘I know it’s a lousy company. That’s why I’m quitting.’”
Shocking, isn’t it? Whatever happened to the customer focus of this CEO? Maybe he never had it.
Nearly two decades ago, Tom Peters told it like it is in his revolutionary book Thriving on Chaos:
Each of us carries around a crippling disadvantage: we know and probably cherish our product. After all, we live with it day in and day out. But that blinds us to why the customer may hate it—or love it. Our customers see the product through an entirely different set of lenses. Education is not the answer; listening and adapting is.
The accuracy of Peters’ words is borne out by an example with which we are particularly familiar. Bill’s uncle, the owner of a newspaper distributorship in Chicago, had only an eighth-grade education and knew nothing about return on investment, asset turnover, or market segmentation analysis. He built his business on the simple premise that his customers paid him to deliver the paper at a reasonable time in readable condition. The customers’ happiness was his primary concern. For three decades, Uncle Shorty never forgot the customer’s perspective, even if that meant leaving the dinner table to attend to a complaint, which he did on many nights.
After 30 successful years as owner/operator, he sold the distributorship to people who went out of business within 10 years. How could the new owners go under when they had been handed a thriving business of long standing? It’s very simple: They did not attend to customer needs and solve customer problems. They made the mistake of operating the business like the monopoly it was, neglecting their home-delivery customers and allowing service to the local retail stores to deteriorate.
The retailers’ anger over shoddy service was compounded by the fact that they had no other choice but to buy from this distributor. Eventually, the growing number of complaints made directly to the Chicago newspaper publishers caused the distributor to lose its franchise.
All too many owners and CEOs are like the rental car executive or the newspaper distributor. They feel it is beneath them to concern themselves with dirty-car stories, or late deliveries from their docks, or doing whatever it takes to make a customer happy.
Although a “customer first” policy usually makes its way into most of the mission statements we’ve read, far too few companies really live those words. One of our clients, Illinois Power (currently doing business as Ameren Corporation) is an exception, however.
In 1991, this company won the U.S. electric utility industry’s top honor, The Edison Award, awarded by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). In 2002, they won the Edison Electric Institute’s Emergency Assistance Award for providing critical assistance to neighboring companies struggling to recover from numerous tornadoes and a devastating ice storm. Their efforts to better the company’s relationship with customers and improve service through employee teamwork and empowerment have paid off. Illinois Power president and CEO Larry F. Altenbaumer commented, “This award acknowledges their [employees] skill, professionalism, and willingness to work under tough conditions. This is the same dedication and commitment our employees bring to providing safe, reliable service to our own customers every day.”
What really illustrated Illinois Power’s commitment to its customer-first policy was the creation of a 24-hour customer center. Remember those Denny’s commercials filling our living rooms with that serious voice echoing, “If a restaurant really loved you, it would never close.” A service organization is a different animal, though. Being there for customers 24 hours a day proves to us that Illinois Power’s commitment to customers is more than just a line on the company mission statement.
Test the Welcome Mat
An innovative way to discover if you are doing a good job of pleasing your customers is to turn your employees into guests. New employees of Four Seasons Hotels are required to spend a weekend at a Four Seasons property to experience five-star service firsthand. John Young, retired executive vice president of human resources told us:
Orientation is probably the biggest single training program which contains the necessary messages about our culture. It is spread over the first three months of employment. There are seven stages of orientation and the culminating event is the trial stay. Each new employee has the opportunity to stay at one of our hotels as though they were a guest—everyone from the dishwasher on up through the organization. We just believe that’s so very important because many of our people have not had the opportunity to stay in a five-star hotel, and they just can’t afford to stay at our properties. After orientation, they have complementary group privileges, so they get the opportunity to stay at any of our properties around the world. In the trial stay, they complete a rather extensive guest service questionnaire that cites our standards. Then they rate how their experience compared to those standards.18
And you can be certain that Four Seasons would do anything in its power to solve a problem that an employee encountered just as they would for a noncompany guest.
One of the best ways to know for sure if customers really count is to evaluate how an organization deals with guest problems and complaints. At one of our Dream Retreats, we learned from a participant whose daughter manages a Limited, Inc. store location in Arizona that the company will dismiss a store manager who receives three unresolved customer complaints.
At first, we were somewhat taken aback by the severity of this practice, but after a little research into the effects of customer complaints on the bottom line, we realized that the policy makes very good sense. The Technical Assistance Research Programs Corporation of Washington, D.C., which publishes statistics on customer complaints, has found that for every customer complaint that an organization receives, there are 26 other dissatisfied customers who will remain silent. Each of the 27 dissatisfied customers will tell 8 to 16 others about the experience, and 10 percent will tell more than 20 other potential customers. If you do the arithmetic, you will find that three complaints translate into more than 1,000 potential customers hearing about the poor service a company provided. No company can afford to drag its feet when handling customer complaints.
The results of a recent customer service study conducted by Coldwell Banker indicated “a strong correlation between the quality of a company’s customer service and its long-term success.” The findings also revealed that a typical consumer switched businesses they dealt with twice in the past three years because of “bad service.” When asked to define the differences between great and poor service, consumers ranked the top characteristics of companies with “great service” as follows:
Resolving questions and problems (66 percent)
Knowledge of the product or service (49 percent)
Being easy to reach (35 percent)
Understanding requirements (35 percent)
We have been wowed many times by Disney’s exceptional attention to guest problems and complaints. One example occurred when we were visiting Walt Disney World with a group of clients. After we had all checked into the hotel, we quickly departed for dinner. As we were riding along in one of the in-park buses that shuttle visitors around Walt Disney World, the driver asked us how our rooms were. One of our clients mentioned that the faucet in his bar sink had an annoying drip, and he added that he hadn’t had time yet to report it to maintenance.
“Sir, I’ll take care of it for you,” the driver assured him.
We didn’t give it another thought, but when we got back from dinner about 10 o’clock, the faucet was fixed. And then, more impressive yet, shortly thereafter the driver showed up on his own time to make sure that the problem had been taken care of. This is the level of service you should aim for when you ask your employees to treat every customer like a guest in their own homes. The bus driver was truly committed to making the guest experience the best it could possibly be. That is service with a capital “S.”
John Dunn is chairman and CEO of Dunn Hospitality Group (DHG), a privately held company that owns and manages 19 Midwest hotel properties, mainly Marriott and Holiday Inn brands. In our work with John, we were impressed by the cordial and most welcoming environment of his properties. No pretense, no stuffiness, but simply a commitment to offering guests comfortable accommodations at affordable prices with a dedicated staff to service their needs. In each hotel room, hangs a framed copy of a so-called ancient prayer for “The Stranger within Our Gates” It reads:
Because this hotel is a human institution to serve people, and not solely a for-profit organization, we strive to ensure you will experience peace and rest while you are here.
May this room and this hotel be your “second” home. May those you love be near you in thoughts and dreams. Even though we may not get to know you, we hope that you will be comfortable and happy as if you were in your own house.
May the business that brought you our way prosper. May every call you make and every message you receive add to your joy. When you leave, may your journey be safe.
We are all travelers. From “birth till death” we travel between the eternities. May these days be pleasant for you, profitable for society, helpful for those you meet, and a joy to those who know and love you best.
“This piece constantly disappears,” says John. “We have hundreds of customer comments on how meaningful this saying was to them. Most of our franchisors do not allow foreign objects in hotel rooms, but we continue to leave it there and accept those ‘digs,’ if you will, because it’s an integral part of who we are.”19
“The Stranger within our Gates” inspired John to bring his team together to create a Mission Statement and Codes of Conduct. Nearly every DHG management meeting begins with a ritual recitation of both the Mission Statement and Codes of Conduct. DHG Associates who carry the company card inscribed with both creeds are awarded $5. For reciting both the Mission Statement and Codes of Contact, an additional $20 is awarded. “It’s not about the money,” John admits, “it’s about the importance of using the Mission Statement and Codes of Conduct in our daily lives at Dunn Hospitality. Getting everyone on the same page is difficult, but the Dream and Believe principles help us achieve this.”
Like Disney, Dunn Hospitality Group has a great reputation for handling complaints. Each DHG employee has very specific responsibilities, but a complaint from a guest is owned by the employee who receives it, no matter whose area of responsibility the complaint involves. If you’ve ever complained to a front-desk employee about the absence of coffee at your morning seminar or a lack of toilet tissue in your room, the response at most hotels was probably something like “You should talk to the banquet manager” or “Housekeeping takes care of that.”
At a Dunn hotel, however, any complaint is solved directly by the person receiving your complaint, from the front-desk manager to a bellhop or a housekeeper. You can count on it.
The Dunn Hospitality Codes of Conduct
We Work while Others Enjoy Their Stay
We are open 365 days a year in all kinds of weather; convenience for our guests is our aim.
We are here to make things easier for our guests.
We Create a Friendly Atmosphere
Two musts: Practice a friendly smile; use courteous phrases.
Maintain a neat, professional appearance.
Never complain or comment on operating or personal problems.
Treat each guest as a special individual.
One personal experience, good or bad, can make the greatest impression.
Use the guest’s name whenever possible.
We Know the Answers
Any question, find the answer.
Do not send guests in circles.
Eliminate call transfers when possible.
We Know Our Roles
All associates understand and strive to achieve their natural work group goals.
Maintain uncompromising levels of cleanliness of our facilities.
Record each incident of guest dissatisfaction.
Every associate is empowered to resolve a problem of guest dissatisfaction and prevent a repeat occurrence.
We Make Our Facilities Clean and Safe
Provide a safe environment for guests and associates.
Notify the appropriate supervisor immediately of hazardous situations or injuries.
Protect our assets. This is the responsibility of all associates.
We Are a Team
We believe that our atmosphere needs to be friendly and informal.
We take our jobs seriously, not ourselves. We create fun in our roles, which creates fun for our guests.
We communicate openly; we do not promote barriers between people.
No examination of extraordinary attention to customer complaints would be complete without a story about Nordstrom, the Seattle-based department store chain that wrote the book on making customers happy. As the following anecdote illustrates, the slightest dissatisfaction is taken quite seriously.
Bruce Nordstrom, cochairman, was leaving one of the stores on his way to a meeting when he overheard a woman say to her companion, “I’ve never been so disappointed in all my life.” Nordstrom beckoned to a sales associate and asked her to find out why the woman was disappointed. The sales associate followed the two women out to the street and politely asked what had happened to them in the store.
The ladies laughingly explained, “It’s not the store. The problem is that we have champagne taste on a beer budget. We fell in love with a dress and it’s way too expensive for us.”
Now, at virtually every other department store in the world, we would bet that the sales associate would have made a mildly sympathetic comment and wished the ladies a good day. But not at Nordstrom. This associate escorted the two back into the store to a department where they each bought two dresses that cost less than the original find.
Equally important was what happened when Bruce Nordstrom returned from his meeting: He made a point of finding the sales associate to ask about the two customers. By indicating his interest in the outcome, the top man sent the employee a strong signal that service is of paramount importance to the Nordstrom’s of Seattle. In the words of Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Solving Customer Problems Sparks Innovation
A few years ago, Ken Thompson, chairman, president, and CEO of Wachovia Corporation, said in his introductory remarks for Bill Capodagli’s keynote address to Ken’s staff, “We must rededicate ourselves to solving customer problems. That means we must do what our customers ask of us unless it is illegal, immoral, or unethical. Just do it. Execution is the key.”
Customer service is more than just taking care of customer-expressed needs and demands. Companies must also investigate and solve customer problems in the areas of product, process, and service. Before that can happen, however, an organization’s leadership has to create an environment that encourages everyone to listen to customer problems and try to accomplish the impossible. It takes effort to do this well.
As we outlined for you in Chapter 3, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts is one company that does this extremely well. Known throughout the world as a luxury hotel chain, Four Seasons is very sensitive to the needs and problems of its guests, as an incident at Four Seasons Hotel New York amply illustrates.
Just as a guest was being whisked away in a cab, the doorman noticed that the man’s briefcase was lying by the curb. Checking inside the briefcase, the doorman located the phone number of the man’s firm. He called the guest’s secretary and told her what had happened.
“He’s on his way to a very urgent meeting in Boston,” she said, “and I’m sure he needs the papers in his briefcase.”
Without hesitation, the doorman asked for the guest’s flight number and volunteered to take the briefcase to him at the airport before he departed. With a substitute on duty, the doorman jumped into a cab and raced to the airport, but he was delayed in traffic and arrived too late.
The doorman again called the secretary, who thanked him for his efforts while expressing regret over the whole situation. But the doorman told her not to worry because he had just purchased a ticket on the next shuttle to Boston and would personally deliver the briefcase to the man at this meeting. Without asking anyone’s approval, the doorman flew to Boston and saved the day!
In most companies, one of two scenarios would happen next. Either the doorman would be a hero for solving the guest’s problem, or he would be fired for failing to gain the appropriate approvals before flying off to Boston. At the Four Seasons, he was neither a hero nor a scapegoat, because extraordinary service is all in a day’s work. Every Four Seasons employee is expected to do whatever it takes to ensure that each guest has a positive and memorable experience. The environment demands it.
Problem solving is so ingrained, in fact, that Four Seasons employees have been known to jump into action long before an individual has become a guest, as we discovered when working with the CEO of a large consulting firm in Chicago.
In preparation for a major retreat where partners from around the world would be in attendance, we suggested using a hotel at the airport to conserve expenses. But the CEO insisted on using the Four Seasons, and he explained his preference by relating an extraordinary tale about the hotel’s downtown location.
It seems that the CEO was a board member at a Chicago museum that enlisted Nancy Reagan as the featured speaker at its fund-raising event. The CEO was expected to join other board members in the receiving line to greet the then First Lady. Arriving at the Four Seasons after a hectic day at the office, he noticed that people entering the grand ballroom were in formal attire. Not having checked his invitation for several weeks, he had forgotten that this was a black-tie event.
There he was in his business suit with no time to go home and change. As he stood in the lobby contemplating what he should do, the concierge, seeing the look of consternation on his face, approached him and asked, “Is there anything I can do for you, sir?” After the CEO explained his dilemma, the concierge volunteered, “One of the waiters is off today, and I know he would not mind if you wore his tuxedo.”
When the two men went to the locker room, they found a clean shirt but the tuxedo had been taken to the cleaners. The CEO thanked the concierge for his trouble, but the concierge refused to give up. “You can wear my tuxedo!” he offered as he began to disrobe.
Not deterred by the fact that he was two sizes larger than the CEO, the concierge attempted to staple the arms and legs to make them look presentable. And when that didn’t work, the concierge called the hotel tailor who came immediately and fixed the tuxedo on the spot.
The CEO took his place in the receiving line and no one was the wiser!
To top the whole thing off, when he returned from the event, he found that his business suit had been pressed and hung neatly on a hanger. The CEO, wishing to express his gratitude, began pulling out all the cash in his pocket plus his checkbook. But the concierge refused to accept any payment, insisting that he had only been doing his job, which was to serve the guests and solve their problems.
“But I’m not even a guest,” the CEO said. “I just walked in off the street.” To which the concierge replied, “Well, maybe someday you will be.”
The CEO was sold on Four Seasons, of course, and decided that the honored guest at the first dinner of the retreat would be that concierge. The CEO presented him with a brass clock, which he graciously accepted while reiterating, “I was only doing my job.”
Another well-known name in the hospitality business with an equally well-known reputation for providing stellar service is Marriott International. In our work with one of the Marriott hotels, we got an immediate sense of the company’s motto: “Go beyond.” Go beyond what your customers expect and surprise them with your ability to solve their problems. An incident at one of the company’s smaller hotels outside Seattle illustrates how this value is lived every day at Marriott.
A guest checked into the hotel and began to prepare for the first big speech of her career. When she unpacked her laptop computer to retrieve her speech, she realized that she had forgotten to bring the computer cord and the battery. The hotel management quickly located compatible replacements, but this guest’s problems were just beginning.
As she booted up the machine, her hard drive crashed. Any computer user can imagine her panic. But once again, the hotel came to her rescue by allowing her to use a desk and a computer in the hotel’s accounting office. Staff members coached her on using the unfamiliar machine and then enlisted other employees to listen to the guest rehearse her speech. In a final gesture of superior service, they all showed up for the big event, where she was enthusiastically received by her audience.
Innovative problem solving has given rise to centuries’ worth of inventions and products, most of which we take for granted and many of which we would be hard-pressed to do without. Consider the ubiquitous Post-it notes, those sticky little squares of paper that decorate every imaginable surface in homes and offices across the land.
No wild-eyed inventor came up with the notion in a dingy little basement workshop. Rather, the product came about as the result of a problem that a 3M employee recognized and solved.
This particular employee, who happened to be a member of his church choir, was annoyed that he often lost his place in the hymnal. One day at work, a solution dawned on him. He experimented with some glue that had been shelved because of its inferior bonding qualities. Not strong enough to serve its intended purpose, it turned out to be just right for holding little yellow squares in place on a hymnal page.
What began as the solution to an individual problem turned into a wildly successful and profitable product line.
Customer problems are sometimes difficult to discern because they surface only under certain conditions or situations. Nevertheless, problems are certainly there for the finding. And while your customers’ problems may not open the door to a Post-it note gold mine, they can offer you the chance to provide the kind of customer service that will set your organization apart from the crowd.
Superior Process Equals Superior Service
We continually stress that innovation is needed in every process, not just in products and services. Nowhere is the acceptance of that idea more urgent than at the many companies that deal directly with the consumer market. How many of them have an adequate—not extraordinary, mind you, just adequate—process in place for providing customer service? Few, indeed, if we are to judge by the inordinate amounts of time that most of us waste on the phone waiting for a human voice to respond to a need, or, for that matter, to rescue us from the annoying music we are forced to listen to.
In an effort to help the Mead Johnson Nutritional division of Bristol-Myers Squibb improve its customer service, we facilitated a complaint analysis team. The team was given responsibility for reengineering the customer service process, specifically for figuring out how to cut the time that callers were kept on hold. At Mead Johnson, mothers might call in because their children are sick and they have questions about the baby formula they are using. No mother with a sick child has the time or the patience to hang on the phone; she needs and often demands immediate assistance.
A surprising statistic that surfaced from the team’s work was that a majority of the calls came during the lunch hour. It was obvious that employee lunch hours needed to be staggered, with some taking an earlier lunch, others going later. This simple solution considerably cut the time callers had to spend on hold.
Clearly, innovation in process is alive and well in some organizations. As Dr. William Cross, retired vice president at Mead Johnson, says,
We have tried very hard to find out how we are meeting our customers’ needs and where we need to improve. Putting all the emphasis on the customer’s needs and continually improving how we meet those needs—that’s how we have been able to eliminate waste from our systems.
Another of our clients, a builder of prefab houses, has found an unusual way to bring his customers into the process. From the initial step of signing the agreement and on through the entire construction process, photographs are taken to record events. Furthermore, a photograph of the family is attached to the work order. As construction proceeds, from digging the foundation to hanging the front door, the camera is present to shoot pictures for and with the family. Besides making the home seem real to the buyers, it also helps to personalize the project for the workers. They are not just building Work Order No. 48, they are building a home for a family they have come to know. Such face-to-face interaction motivates the workers to do a good job and to take pride in their efforts.
In our experience, large manufacturing companies often rank customer problem solving far down on their list of priorities. Senior management, in many instances, believes that middle managers should devote all their energies to strategy, systems, and training issues. Most plant managers seem to be trapped in a world of direct supervision and paperwork.
Besides allotting scant time to customer interaction, plant managers also have little time for determining misalignments between short-term objectives and long-term vision and mission. The Vision Align tool in Chapter 3 provides a method of incorporating the “voice” of the customer into the manufacturing process. We urge plant managers to spend at least 30 percent of their time on customer needs and problem solving.
However, before a company can hope to excel with an innovative product, service, or process, it must know its market. Perhaps most disturbing to us is that the majority of organizations know neither what customers want nor what their problems are. To demonstrate this point, we have asked workshop participants to list the most important features or services needed at a retreat or seminar. Top answers consistently include unlimited coffee and easy access to restrooms. When we ask hotel managers what things most attract business customers to their hotels, they usually say, “Our great food, ample parking, and atmosphere.” What’s more, this phenomenon is not unique to the hotel industry. From computers to automobiles to restaurants, we have found the same story. Companies all too often simply do not know or understand their customers.
Even Disney has made mistakes when entering new markets. EuroDisney, the 4,800-acre theme park built outside Paris, got a lot of press when it stumbled badly after its 1992 opening. Disney erred by opening a park suitable for an American audience in a country whose culture differed from ours in many respects. For example, originally, no wine was served in the park. No wine? In France? The French have never accepted American culture with wholehearted enthusiasm to begin with, and they sourly regarded EuroDisney as just another example of Yankee imperialism.
Disney soon made changes, however, and today the park, which was renamed Disneyland Paris, is beginning to rank with the other theme parks in popularity and in revenues. Mistakes can indeed be a valuable learning tool if a company ferrets out the causes and then uses the feedback to design appropriate solutions.
Getting Your Company on Track
From the beginning, Walt Disney instilled his organization with the idea that every moment should be magical for its guests. Since nothing is more important at Disney, the company makes sure every employee buys into that belief through its formal training programs at Disney University. New recruits are immediately made to feel that they can play a significant role and be a part of something with a higher purpose.
In most organizations, however, the people who have the primary contact with the customer are usually the least educated, least trained, least respected, and have the least input regarding the direction of the company. And, unfortunately, too many customer service training programs deal only with how to smile and greet the customer, leaving service providers without a clue about how to solve a problem. Treating customers with respect and communicating in a pleasant manner are indeed important, but smiles alone will not improve customer service.
If your organization is among the ranks of the clueless, do the following two things well and listen for favorable customer response:
1. Become a customer problem solver. We are convinced that the quality of orientation at most companies would have to increase tenfold to reach the “pathetic” level. Orientation for front-line workers usually consists of how to fill in the time card and how to complete an order form. In rare cases, a 30-minute session on how to talk to a customer is added. Organizations then disguise unskilled front-line employees by hanging a sign on them that reads, Trainee. What that really means is, “Don’t expect me to know anything; I’m trying to figure out what goes on here too.”
Within the first week of employment, your front-line coworkers should be able to answer the following questions with assurance:
What products and services do we provide? It is not a matter of being able to point to the catalog and describe the products, but rather of knowing how to solve the problems and fill the needs of the customers.
What are the organization’s vision and values?
What is the mission for my department?
Who are our competitors and what is our competitive advantage?
To whom do I turn for assistance with a problem I cannot solve?
2. Gain customer feedback. Customer perceptions are very powerful and often become reality. Therefore, every system in the organization must be evaluated through customers’ eyes. Two critical questions to ask yourself are:
What is the level of ease of doing business with our organization?
What do we consider to be exceptional service?
Many customer-feedback tools, such as surveys and focus groups, require a considerable investment of people, time, and money to put in place. Evaluate your budget to ensure that you are not skimping on these critical activities. Recognize also that you have a wealth of customer information at your fingertips just waiting to be tapped. Consider anyone who has customer contact as a barometer for measuring both positive and negative customer perceptions. Ask accounting clerks and order entry clerks alike to call customers and ask the simple question, “How did we do on that delivery last week?”
Simple efforts like these let your customers know that you care about their experiences. They also send a clear message to employees about the value of customer perceptions.
In his recent interview with Jan Carlzon, former CEO and turnaround architect of Scandinavian Airlines, Bob Thompson, CEO of CustomerThinkCorp, asked Jan about his application of what he famously termed “moments of truth”—the various points at which the airline’s employees came in contact with their customers. Through numerous interviews with his customers, Jan made the startling discovery that the perceptions of his company did not match those of his customers. In Jan’s own words, “We asked them about different things: What is your perception about our head office? What is your perception of our technical and maintenance station? What is your perception about our aircraft and so forth? What is your perception about meeting with people? We found out that the only perception they really had was the meeting with people. We did the research to prove a point to the technical and operation people, to convince them that their tools were no longer, perhaps, the most important we have.”
The Positive and Negative Power of Perception
The Physics Department at San Jose State University prided itself on having a freshman physics class that was so difficult that 50 percent of the students routinely flunked out of or dropped the class. One semester, a professor decided to do an experiment. In the first of two identical classes, he stated during his opening lecture that 50 percent of the students would flunk or drop out. In his second class, he stated that the normal flunk-out rate was 50 percent, but in looking through the students’ transcripts, he was astounded to see that everyone in this class had an exceptional aptitude in math and science.
You can probably guess the results. In the first class, 50 percent of the students dropped out or flunked. In the second class, every student passed with a grade of C or better.
The point of this story is that perceptions really do become reality.
Perception Becomes a Grim Reality
The power of perception takes on a strangely disturbing cast in this story of a railroad worker in California. The man was sent to check on some freight in a refrigerated boxcar. While inside the car, the doors shut accidentally, trapping him inside. When the man failed to check in at the end of the shift, a coworker found him dead in the boxcar. The following words were written on the walls: “No one is hearing my cries for help. My hands and feet are getting colder. I don’t know how much longer I can last.”
The eerie fact of this story is that the boxcar had been sidelined on a spur because its refrigeration unit was not working. The temperature outside was in the eighties, and although the temperature in the boxcar was slightly lower, it was nowhere near freezing. There was also plenty of air for the man to breathe. So what happened? His perception of freezing to death was so strong that it became reality.
Plumbing & Industrial Supply has a heightened understanding of customer perceptions and a firm set of long-term beliefs. Thus, when an elderly gentleman came to the retail counter area of the company one day, he received a reception that is, we’re sad to say, not typical of most businesses.
The apparently lonely old fellow asked a lot of general questions and didn’t seem as if he were a serious buyer. “My initial reaction,” said the counter attendant, “was to return to my other duties of stocking shelves and processing orders. However, having just attended a three-day retreat in which we talked about treating the customer as if he were a guest in our own homes, I continued to converse with the man for about two hours.”
The following day, this seemingly unlikely customer returned to place a $500 order. What’s more, he related that he had told his sons, who were taking over his construction business, about the fine hospitality he had received the day before. He assured the counter attendant that his company looked forward to a long-term business relationship with Plumbing & Industrial Supply!
Walt Disney would have appreciated the counter attendant’s story, for he always focused special attention on those who dealt directly with theme park visitors—the ticket takers, the waiters, the security officers, and the people who operated the rides and other attractions. That’s because he recognized that those people were the ones who made the invaluable direct impression on the Disney guests.
If you have ever visited one of the Disney theme parks, chances are that you’ve had a cast member stop to chat with you and ask which attractions you’ve been on, whether you need anything, if you’re having a good time, and so forth. In other words, they treated their guests like any good host would.
To ensure that his front-line cast members would always deliver superior and pleasing service to the guests, Walt Disney went out of his way to make sure that employees were satisfied with their jobs and with the company. No one had to tell Walt that workers who are happy take pride in their work and do it well.
“Front line equals bottom line” is still an accepted rule at The Walt Disney Company. Walt also recognized that teamwork is a necessary component of the good show. Many of our clients are utilizing empowered teams and reaping the benefits of more efficient and effective performance. Guests may come first, but cast members are not far behind, as you will see in the chapter that follows.
Questions to Ask
Do you know your “guests”?
Are your employees empowered to solve customer problems?
Do you view your front-line as your bottom line?
What special training do your front-line people receive?
What is the turnover rate among your front-line staff?
Actions to Take
Ask coworkers to experience how the customer is being treated in your organization.
Recognize and reward outstanding customer service.
Establish a mechanism for customers to comment on how they’ve been treated by coworkers.
Encourage coworkers to regularly visit customers to discuss customer problems and dreams.
Pay a little more than the going scale for front-line coworkers.
Encourage every coworker to call two to three customers each week to ask, “How are we doing?”
Recruit people who like people.
You can’t expect to have a group of 35 people without a few among them exhibiting a “show me” attitude. “I was trying to establish a culture that was strange to them—a departure from the norm that they had always worked in,” Whirlpool’s McColgin asserts. Yet in the end, the cohesion of this international team and the prevalent belief in the goals that were set proved the skeptics wrong.
Jerry challenged the team members to utilize their international expertise in discovering and fulfilling the needs of their international clients and suppliers. The members from Brazil, or India, or any other of the countries represented were, in effect, wearing two hats. Professionally, they were engineers or marketing people, but back home they were also customers, who were now sitting right in the room with Whirlpool’s American employees. They knew what the needs of their own people were.
Focus groups were also used in this international market to determine customer dreams and desires for the product. Several participants said that they wanted ice trays. Corrosion resistance was an issue in tropical regions. A quiet motor was important in countries where the refrigerator often stood in the living room. And the number of kilowatts per hour—the cost of the electricity—was a major factor in other areas.
Seriously listening to the customer resulted in cost savings and a better product for the team’s international customer base.
Our Featured Organization: Griffin Hospital
CHANGING THE FACE OF HEALTHCARE
In the mid 1980s, Griffin Hospital’s maternity ward was a nightmare for expecting mothers. Not only was the all-male obstetrical staff growing weary of the stress from working in the department and eager for retirement, but it was also rumored they didn’t like women at all. At least one patient described the Griffin maternity ward as a “dungeon.” When deliveries had plummeted by 50 percent, the hospital board met over whether to close Griffin’s maternity ward and open a geriatric center. Nearly split down the middle, the board ended up listening to its only female member. She had argued that the community was growing with people of child-bearing age and that if these newcomers did not choose to have their babies at Griffin, they would be unlikely to return to the hospital for other services. In the end, the board voted to save the maternity ward.
According to Patrick Charmel, then assistant administrator of the hospital, this marked the birth of a new patient-centered movement at Griffin Hospital. “Today when patients come here, they expect a superior patient experience. Certainly they expect to have a good surgical outcome, but they also want a good experience. They want a friendly environment that smells good, they want great food, their families embraced, their questions answered,” explained Patrick.20
At such a critical juncture in Griffin’s history, Patrick thought, “I don’t know a lot about maternity service, but I know who does: women of child-bearing age, especially those who have had children.” That one seed of truth launched the philosophical shift at Griffin, from following old school principles to treating women like guests and finding out what they wanted from maternity units. What seems obvious to many businesses today was not so obvious back in the 1980s. The concept that talking to customers and changing direction based on their input was both a novel and a good idea. In hospitals, however, you’d be lucky if you found anyone who believed that this practice was the least bit acceptable.
Griffin orchestrated focus groups as a first step, but in Patrick’s mind, that wasn’t enough. So, he and a Griffin marketing manager turned themselves into “secret shoppers.” Posing as husband and wife, they contacted several hospitals around the country and pretended to be shopping for an obstetrician and a hospital suitable for delivering their child. Most hospital staff who received their calls were taken aback, stating, “we don’t do tours.” The rest viewed their request as a bother. After all, people were traditionally supposed to find their obstetricians first. Finally, a number of hospitals begrudgingly extended an invitation to Patrick and his “wife,” who stuffed a pillow under her skirt to fake pregnancy.
After several months of visiting various maternity units, they returned with great ideas and began knitting them together into what was to become a state-of-the-art program. Griffin emerged with a patient-centered, educational focus—one that embraced patients’ families. Sibling preparation classes, grandparent classes, and intensive programs for both moms and dads were pioneered. Gone were the posted visiting hours that had frustrated both patients and their families. And, the facility’s facelift was just staggering with its double beds, Jacuzzis for labor pain relief, and beautiful lounges where loved ones could wait. In came a brand-new staff of young, idealistic male and female doctors who understood what mothers wanted and needed.
It didn’t take long for Griffin to double its business and become the talk of the town with its new childbirth center, a place where expectant mothers were thrilled to go to bring their children into the world.
“We looked at that and said, “Wow—now we have seen such great success in using this consumer-research model, how do we take this hospital wide?” recounts Griffin vice president, William Powanda.21 In keeping with their maternity behavioral paradigm of “patient as guest,” they took their employees to off-site retreat locations and asked them what they liked and didn’t like as customers of healthcare. They knew that their employees were critical to the success of a new hospital model; after all, they would be the ones to live it each and every day. The retreats were a catharsis for many staffers who had been delivering patient service for 20 years and now realized that they hadn’t really been meeting the needs of their patients. Some cried and asked themselves and one another, “Why didn’t I see this before?” To be fair, painfully few hospitals anywhere in the world were designed to support nurses in providing true “guest service” to their patients. And, surely there was no need for that in the old paradigm.
Even with the escalating staff buy-in to a new way of life at Griffin, the facility was in such disrepair that fixing would be a daunting task. To begin with, the patients’ rooms had no air-conditioning, although many of the nurses’ stations did. This was certainly inconsistent with the new model where the goal was to make patients feel at home.
Patrick and the vice president of patient-care services were charged with transforming both the care delivery model and the facility. The primary goal was to build the facility to deliver the best care. On one fateful benchmarking journey, Patrick and his associate discovered a new humanistic model of health care called Planetree, which was alive and well in a 13-bed hospital unit in northern California. The Planetree environment was tranquil, with soft lighting and soothing music, and above all, it supported patient empowerment.
The whole premise seemed to dovetail beautifully with Griffin’s belief that creating a warm and caring place where patients are intimately involved in their care and treatment is imperative to delivering quality healthcare. “Signs throughout the facility encourage patients to read their charts. Between 40 and 50 percent do, once, and about 15 percent do it a second time,” Powanda says. When Griffin first proposed a ground-up Planetree construction project, there was something of a “giggle-factor.” The state Commission on Hospitals and Health Care would not take the idea seriously. Charmel told us, “They thought it was too West Coast. But ultimately, the commission agreed to fund it as a pilot project, the only restriction being that it not cost any more per square foot than any other health facility would spend for a more traditional renovation.” Bill Powanda says, “We tried to be economical in purchasing equipment. For example, our furniture was custom-designed and purchased directly from the factory at a significant discount. I think we got maximum value for the total allowance that the commission gave us.” Like Disney, Griffin does not try to cut corners in its “on stage” patient areas, but “back stage” office areas are very Spartan-like. The result is the look and feel of a private hospital or fine hotel, for the cost of a not-for-profit facility.
Having been inspired by its numerous positive effects on patients and their families, Griffin acquired Planetree in 1998. With Susan Frampton as its dynamic president, Planetree now assists other hospitals which are focused on adopting the practices that have brought Planetree international recognition. Under Patrick’s leadership, Griffin has developed a unique culture where nurses and technicians walk the halls exchanging supportive comments like “That’s very Planetree,” and these quips serve to reinforce a culture dedicated to creating only the best memories for everyone who passes through its inviting doors.22