3
What Is Legendary Service?
As she searched for a parking space at school the next morning, Kelsey thought about the challenge Steven had given the department staff concerning finding ways to beat the competition. She also thought about what Professor Hartley had said in the first class: if a company takes care of its people, the people will take care of the customers, and the customers will want to come back. Once again, she wondered: Could it really be that simple?
Later, when the professor was speaking to the class, it was as if he’d read her mind.
“What’s the difference between a great company and a mediocre company?” asked Professor Hartley.
Getting no response, he said, “Okay, I’ll tell you. Great companies have learned how to let their customers know that they care about them and want to earn their business. They also know the importance of building relationships with both internal customers—their people—and external customers—the ones who buy their product or service. Focusing on relationships, such as applying the three points I asked you to write about in your papers, is an organization’s most powerful competitive advantage. Let’s do a quick survey to demonstrate this.”
On the whiteboard, the professor drew a box and inside it wrote the numbers 1 through 10.
“I want you to think about all the activities you’re involved in, things you do, and places you go in a given week—shopping in stores; shopping online; upgrading your phone; or going to a movie, to a restaurant, or to the dry cleaner. Now think about the kind of service you get at each of those places. If you had to average out the service you receive, where would it fall on this chart? The number 1 represents service that’s so bad it couldn’t get any worse, and 10 means you get treated like a rock star. When you know your number, come up and make a check mark on the board next to the number you’re thinking of.”
When all the class members were back in their seats, he said to them, “Now look at the board and tell me the rough average of everyone’s check marks.”
“Five,” several students called out.
“And what kind of score would you call that?” asked the professor.
“Average.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t brag about anything that’s average. Do any of you?” he asked.
The students shook their heads; some chuckled under their breath, and a few said, “No.”
“Now think about your workplace. If your customers rated the type of service they typically receive, how would they rate it?”
Again, a number of students called out, “Five.” The only exception Kelsey heard was one of the people who had said she loved her job, and she called out, “Nine”
“Even though most of you rated your place of employment as delivering average service to its customers, I doubt that the CEO of any organization that wanted to stay in business would be okay with that score. In fact, most companies would probably say they’d like to be legendary in the eyes of their customers. That would be like scoring a 10 on our scale.
“Let’s look at how we define Legendary Service” Professor Hartley tapped a key on his laptop, and the screen read:
“Simply put, companies can achieve Legendary Service by showing their customers they care about them.”
Kelsey smiled as she thought about the interaction she’d had with Diane, the mom who was sending her son off to college. Diane had said she could tell that Kelsey really cared.
“Your next assignment is to create a five-minute presentation for the class where you give examples from places where you shop, visit, and work—in person, on the phone, or online—where people are showing they care about you or others,” said the professor. “If you pay attention, you should be able to find plenty of material to fill up your time.”
Kelsey could feel the gears turning in her brain. She felt she had a good start on the kind of attitude the professor was talking about. Even though I’ve only been at Ferguson’s for a year, I think I really might be able to help make a difference in the way the store does business. Was this crazy? Could she help create a positive customer service culture at Ferguson’s even though she wasn’t a manager?
Kelsey decided not only to look for examples around her but also to try to create stories with her own customers. If, with Steven’s help, she could keep passing along Professor Hartley’s concepts to her teammates at work, customers might begin to notice that Ferguson’s service was improving. She actually found herself looking forward to going to work.
On her way home from class, Kelsey stopped at the pharmacy to pick up her grandma’s blood pressure medicine. Kelsey had been going there for more than a year, but the jaded pharmacy clerk, Bianca, always acted as though she’d never seen her before in her life. Excited about the idea of creating great customer service even if she was the customer, Kelsey decided that today was the day she was going to win Bianca over.
As she approached the counter, she noticed a blue ribbon hanging below Bianca’s name tag. It was embroidered with the word WOW.
“May I help you?” Bianca asked in a monotone as she stared at Kelsey, visibly bored.
“Hi, Bianca, good to see you again. How’s your day going?” asked Kelsey with a smile.
“Fine,” said Bianca, still expressionless.
Kelsey paused briefly and said, “Um, okay—do you have a prescription ready for Katherine Wilson?”
Bianca turned, pulled a small white bag out of the W basket, circled back to face Kelsey, and handed her the bag.
Kelsey dug in her purse, pulled out a five-dollar bill, and, still smiling, handed it to Bianca. “I think it’s so great my grandma can get her pills at a discount because she’s on a fixed income,” she said cheerfully, trying to make conversation. “By the way, what does your WOW ribbon stand for?”
Bianca looked down at the ribbon under her name tag. “Oh, that’s to remind us to do things to make our customers say, ‘Wow.’” She rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly.
Bianca tapped a few buttons on the register, exchanged bills, handed the change and the receipt to Kelsey, and said ro-botically, “Thank you for shopping with us. Come again.” She immediately tilted her head to look at the customer standing behind Kelsey and droned, “Next.”
Wow, thought Kelsey ironically.
It was obvious that instructing employees to “wow” customers or wear ribbons on their name tags wasn’t enough to make great service magically happen. As Kelsey drove home, she realized that finding—or creating—the Legendary Service her professor had talked about might be trickier than she had anticipated.
As Kelsey walked up the steps to the front door of her grandmother’s house, she felt her mood lift, knowing that her grandma always had something cheerful to say when she walked in.
“Grandma Kate, I’m home,” she called out, as she did every day.
No response. She knew her grandma should be home because she didn’t drive and hadn’t mentioned having plans with anyone.
“Grandma Kate?” Kelsey called a little louder as she started moving quickly from room to room. When she approached the kitchen, she could hear her grandma calling her name softly.
Kelsey turned the corner and saw her grandmother lying on the floor. She rushed over to her. “Oh, Grandma, are you okay?”
“Yes … yes, I’m okay” her grandmother said hesitantly. “It’s nothing, really. A few minutes ago, I tripped on the rug in front of the sink and fell. And it’s just like that commercial—I can’t seem to pull myself back up. What a klutz!”
As Kelsey attempted to help her up, she could see that her grandma’s left wrist was already bruised and swollen. Kelsey convinced her she needed to see a doctor, and they headed to the urgent care center.
The doctor on duty confirmed it was a moderate sprain, gave Kelsey a sheet of directions to follow at home for the first two to three days, and put Grandma Kate’s wrist in a removable brace. “Keep the brace on as much as you can,” he told Grandma Kate. “I’m referring you to the Move Right Physical Therapy Clinic. Make an appointment there for early next week, once the swelling is down. They’ll get you set up with some therapy.” He turned to Kelsey and said, “I think you’ll both really like this place. They’re good at what they do and they really care about their patients.”
Hmmm, Kelsey thought. There’s that word again!
Back at home, Kelsey made Grandma Kate a cup of tea and helped her get comfortable in her chair before she called the physical therapy clinic. Because it was after five o’clock, she assumed it wouldn’t be open, but she wanted to leave a message.
“Good evening, and thanks for calling Move Right Clinic,” a friendly voice answered after the second ring. “This is Barbara; how may I help you?”
“Oh! I didn’t expect anyone to answer. I need to schedule an appointment for my grandmother. She sprained her wrist today,” explained Kelsey.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll be happy to help you” said Barbara. “Yes, we’re open until seven o’clock three nights a week to accommodate our customers’ work schedules. Let’s see what time we have available that would work best for your grandmother”
After getting all the information she needed, Barbara scheduled Grandma Kate to come in late Monday afternoon. “That should allow time for the swelling on her wrist to subside before we start working with her. Have her keep it in the brace the doctor gave her, and I’ll see you both on Monday,” she said.
“Thanks so much.” Kelsey hung up the phone and turned to Grandma Kate with a smile. “She was so sweet. I think we will both like this place, Grandma.”
The next morning at work, Kelsey overheard two of her teammates talking while they stocked the shelves.
Amy grumbled, “It’s taking us three times as long as it should to fill the shelves because the customers keep asking us questions. Nobody takes the time to look for things on their own.”
“I know what you mean,” Rob said. “The other day Steven practically accused me of going slow on purpose, but it was because I had to keep stopping to help customers. I couldn’t get anything done.”
Kelsey approached the two and said in a hushed tone, “Guys, don’t forget—we have to keep showing our customers we care about them so that we don’t lose them to ShopSmart.”
Rob looked at Kelsey. “Ha! It’s not like the managers here treat me like they care. I work hard, and I do everything they ask me to do, but do I ever hear, ‘Thanks, Rob,’ or, ‘You’re doing a great job, Rob’? No. I feel like I’m just a number around here. Why should I go out of my way to act like I care?”
Amy nodded in agreement. “I hear ShopSmart pays the same and treats their people better. I’m thinking of going for a job over there”
Kelsey had to admit that Rob and Amy had a point. Senior managers at Ferguson’s didn’t do anything to show the employees they cared about them. It made her think about what Professor Hartley had said about internal customers: focusing on relationships with both external and internal customers is an organization’s most powerful competitive advantage. Ferguson’s managers had a lot of work to do if they were going to win over not only their external customers but also their internal customers—their employees—and keep them from leaving.
Grandma Kate was standing in the living room, purse in hand, when Kelsey got home from work that afternoon.
“Hi, Grandma—what’s going on?” asked Kelsey, amused at the mischievous expression on her grandmother’s face.
“You’ve been working too hard, Kelsey. I want you to turn around right now, and I’m going to treat you to dinner. I’ve made reservations at Giuseppe’s, your favorite place.”
“Grandma, you don’t have to do that,” Kelsey softly protested.
“You know I love to surprise you—and you’re always doing things for me,” said Grandma Kate. “Besides, I need to get out of the house—this sprained wrist is making me feel like an invalid. I need a distraction. Of course, you’ll have to do the driving.”
“Okay, then, if you insist!” Kelsey laughed, turned around, and marched out the front door, with Grandma Kate close behind.
As Kelsey and Grandma Kate entered the tiny Italian restaurant a few minutes later, the scent of garlic and marinara was so intense, they could almost see it.
“Mrs. Wilson! Kelsey! How wonderful to see you again. It’s been too long,” said the owner, a dark-haired man standing at the host station. He grabbed two menus and, with a sweep of his arm, invited them to follow him. “I’ll seat you at a window table—I remember, Mrs. Wilson, how you like to watch the people walk by.”
“Ah, Giuseppe—I don’t know how you can remember a little thing like that,” said Grandma Kate, beaming.
“Sometimes it’s the little things that matter the most,” Giuseppe answered with a smile. “Now let me tell you about tonight’s specials. … “
All through dinner, the restaurant staff demonstrated to Kelsey and Grandma Kate what Legendary Service was all about. Not only had the owner himself greeted them by name and remembered their table preference, but the server was attentive and gracious, and the busser kept their water glasses and bread basket full. The food was excellent, as always, with portions that would supply leftovers for at least two days.
By the time the two women left the restaurant, the Friday night crowd was in full swing, with a line of people stretching down the sidewalk. Kelsey remembered Giuseppe once saying he had thought about expanding the size of the restaurant
or opening another location, but he didn’t want to risk losing the family atmosphere or the reputation for service that he had built over the years.
Kelsey was convinced, now more than ever, that great customer service was the key to a successful business.