What I Found

I have been speaking and writing on customer service for years. I have been involved in consulting projects that involved customer loyalty and retention. I’m going to tell you right now that I have never encountered a place where the basic concepts of customer service, the underlying principles, are so inherently practiced as at the Baddour Center. If you need to “fix” your customer service operations, you need to go there with a bucket and bring back everything you can in the way of attitude, pride, and trust.

Most companies will tell you that the first contact with a new customer is the most important. This will usually form the basis of the opinion that that customer will maintain for a long time—perhaps forever. Assuming that this is true, FedEx must put a lot of trust in the work being done at the Baddour Center.

I learned quickly that every welcome package that goes to new FedEx customers in the United States is put together there. Every single one! And I noticed right away the complex machinery being used. This is not a group of people who are licking and stuffing envelopes.

I also learned that these packages are personalized to either the company or the individual to whom they are sent, with over 200 possible iterations. This leads to the creation of over 35 million new airbills a year being created in addition to the thousands of packages that are assembled to welcome new customers.

I strolled around the facility and found that I was welcomed by, and introduced to, several of the workers. They noticed me as they worked; they anticipated my approach. They would begin to smile as I got near, and almost giggle when I would begin to speak. To a person, they would tell me their name and describe with great pride what they did and how it fit into the big scheme of getting these important packages out to “our customers.” I honestly felt that if I had a critical package that needed to get somewhere, I couldn’t think of safer, more caring hands than these for that package to be placed in. FedEx obviously feels the same way; getting the welcome package out quickly is an important part of the company’s stellar customer service.

I found it interesting to note that there was a warehouse of printed material that was used to put together the welcome packages. I saw shelves and shelves, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of paper products. It was explained to me that FedEx originally sent someone out to check on the inventory once a week, just to make sure it was taken care of. That’s probably not a bad idea when dealing with their huge amount of product. Today, they check it only twice a year—because it’s obviously in good hands.