Preface

THIS BOOK TRACES a quest that I began during the summer of 2004 to find examples of top service providers. I am pleased with what I discovered about certain companies that are known for their customer service excellence, and eager to share my conclusions as to what other companies must do in order to provide this excellence.

To gather my information and make my findings, I personally contacted and interviewed representatives from many of the companies I chronicle. For others, I relied on the experiences of friends and family as well as book and Internet research to verify what I had been told.

I am deeply appreciative for all who have made contributions to this book. The names are far too numerous to mention, as they include contributors who simply made suggestions or called my radio talk show, Talk About Service, and mentioned either a company name or an experience regarding service. These stories and comments are what led me to my findings and conclusions.

Readers should be forewarned that I am a staunch customer service advocate and that I am constantly fighting for improvement in service. That said, I am also something of a customer service skeptic these days as I am constantly dismayed by what so many companies are offering in the name of service, while being completely clueless as to what their customers think of that service.

Consider these e-mail segments, sent to me by one of my listeners concerning her service issues with one of the best-known wireless companies in America:

My inquiry: How come I am being charged for calls in my calling area, incoming calls, and calls that are made on nights and weekends?

Their response: Ma’am, your plan doesn’t cover Tennessee. It covers Iowa and parts of western Arkansas.

Me: OK, Sir, I don’t know if you’re looking at your screen there, but I live in Tennessee. I’ve always lived in Tennessee. I’ve never been to Iowa or western Arkansas and, basically you’re wrong.

And this exchange with the same company:

My inquiry: I changed my address on a form on the back of your bill months ago, but am still getting mail forwarded from my old address. What’s the problem?

Them: Ma’am, sometimes, you have to call and tell us. We’re more likely to get the address change that way. Sometimes they don’t even look on the back.

Me: But, wait a minute. Your company makes the process. I followed your process, right?

Them: Yes, Ma’am, but sometimes it’s better if you just call instead.

Me: OK, well, it seems to me that’s what I am presently doing. Do you think there is any way you can assist me instead of annoying me?

Them: Yes, Ma’am, I will put in your request. Is there anything else I can help you with?

Me: Yes, can you tell me the soonest date when I can cancel my plan?

Them: December 10th. (Note: They did not try to talk me out of this—she could have cared less.)

The listeners of my talk show send me this type of correspondence literally every day. Sometimes it seems that there is a certain satisfaction on the part of some customers to find the very worst example of service that they can, especially when they have personally experienced it. In any case, service levels are discussed constantly, and yet what fascinates me is that so many companies continue to be oblivious to what their customers are thinking and saying about their service!

This disconnect between what complacent companies are providing in the name of service and what their customers are saying about them is intriguing. Just as intriguing to me is what the companies that provide “legendary” service have in common. This became the journey for me: to discover what the great service providers have in common. You’ll see that this is not simply another book about customer service; you won’t find a lot of “answer calls on the second ring” or “get back to your customers quickly.” It is a book about what every company must focus on to provide compassionate service. Not systems to provide it, but rather the ingredients that make it literally impossible not to provide it. These are principles that any company can follow, regardless of industry, location, or size.

Numerous surveys indicate that the biggest reason that companies lose customers is an attitude of “indifference” on the part of one employee. A single employee can be the reason that you lose a customer for life. It’s important for companies to understand that such an employee is not necessarily in management. Donald Trump has been quoted as saying that one of the most important ingredients to success in business is the attitude of the valet who parks the cars at a fine restaurant, the bag boy at a country club, or the bellman who greets patrons at hotels. He says that this can be what makes or breaks a quality experience at the venue.

During this quest, it became clear to me that there was something that drove certain companies to provide exceptional and compassionate customer service. Many were clearly head and shoulders above the others. They include L.L.Bean, Chick-fil-A, Nordstrom, Mrs. Fields, St. Jude Children’s Research Center, The Ritz-Carlton, FedEx, and an outsource company to FedEx—the inspiring Baddour Center, which is staffed by mentally challenged adults and creates complex welcome packages that FedEx uses to greet its customers for the first time. While each is different in its own right—retail, fast-food, service, not for profit, some public, some private—they all share certain qualities.

Each of these companies is driven by a distinct, clearly visible value system that permeates the entire organization. Not coincidentally, these values were introduced into each company by its founder. Similarly, I discovered that each of these firms also understands, and practices, the value of kindness, in their dealings with employees as well as customers. Kindness appears to be a key, if not the key, in companies that “own” their customers rather than “renting” them.

Throughout the book, we will see that ownership of customers does not come as a result of technology, techniques, or organization. Ownership of customers—actually having customers who are going to do business with you regardless of your location, price, or competition—comes as a result of values at the core of the company. I’ll share with you my theory about “the onion effect”: what happens when the layers of a company are peeled back to expose the beliefs that appear at the core.

You’ll find herein very clear distinctions among some companies as to the ways in which they do business. These qualities lead to some companies having a different type of workplace, a different type of employee, and even a different type of customer—a “more fun” workplace, more dedicated employees, and more loyal customers.