CHAPTER 11
Congruence How to Get the Service Setting in Balance
Service “interior decorator” is a role every service providing organization should have. Businesses hire interior decorators to beautify their corporate headquarters. These professionals select the right paintings, the correct color for carpet and walls, the proper plants, and the best lighting to accentuate it all. But, who decorates the service experience in a fashion that brings tranquility to a customer?
A service experience is obviously far more than the customer’s interaction with people, products and processes. Harvard Business Review defines it as: “ … the internal and subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect contact with a company. It is all the details the customer experiences that determine the stories they tell neighbors.”1 Drive by a restaurant with a long line of people waiting to get in or see a marquee with a misspelled word and you have an impression. Open a bill from Acme Pyrotechnics or log on to www.armadillosunlimited.com and you are instantly flooded with sensory signals that tell a tale.
Customer tranquility comes in part when everything we experience about an organization, obvious or subliminal, fits. Should we, as customers, approach the organization with the slightest bit of uncertainty, anxiety, or angst, the sensory radar is turned way up for subtle clues that guide our feelings and direct our reactions. We can take the deep breath of serenity only when all seems right. We label this chapter “Congruence” because it captures the essence of “fit”—everything seems in sync with the intended service experience. Let’s explore a simple but poignant example.
Miller Brothers, Ltd. is a men’s clothing store in the upscale Buckhead section of Atlanta. They take creating customer calm to a whole new level. According to the store architect, Bill Edwards, “Owners Robby and Greg really listened to comments from their customers and we incorporated those ideas into the design and ambience of the space. The outcome is a well-heeled, clubby feel, with built-in clothing displays to blend with the architecture of the building.”2
Imagine a men’s clothing store with a large fireplace, hardwood floors, comfortable leather couches, a seating and eating area with TV viewing for sports buffs, plus a full-scale and upscale bar. “We wanted our store to be a great place to hang out and have a beer with the boys but also to be the best store in Atlanta. The goal was a place that was sophisticated, but fun,” Robby Miller told us in an interview. “We care about customer comfort just as much as we care about the cut of a jacket or the superior quality of a dress shirt,” added co-owner Greg Miller.
Their focus on creating a tranquil environment does not stop with design and decor. The entrance is a montage of live, colorful flowers. As soon as you walk in the front door, with or without a kid in tow, you cannot miss the table on your right, on which rests a large colorful gumball machine and a bowl of bright shiny pennies. The furniture has a worn, antique feel about it, as if it has been the nesting place for many, many lively conversations. The colors are rich and soothing, much like the inviting den of a rich country squire. You almost expect a fox hound to come through the side door.
The first person to greet you is a well-dressed clothier who smiles, nods, and speaks as if you are an old friend who has visited many times. “Welcome back. You know where we keep the good stuff.” Even first-time visitors have little trouble locating the bar, should that be their inclination. There is no sales pressure. There is also no snooty look if you are there on a Saturday morning in your dingiest sneakers and most faded jeans.
Miller Brothers combines a seasonal trunk sale with low-country barbeque and brew. It’s a memorable occasion. For example, they have not only invited folk hero University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley to stage a book signing in the store, but they also held the late afternoon—early evening special event on the Wednesday before Father’s Day.
Let’s look a bit closer at the details of “congruence” offered by the example. Miller Brothers did not simply provide comfortable seating; they provided cushy, melt-into-the-cushions comfortable seating. Their restrooms are not simply clean, they engulf you in calm. The beer is not just cold; it is super icy cold, as if it had been pulled right out of a barrel of crushed ice. The bar is not stocked with second-rate whiskey, but exclusively with premium brands. Attention to comfort even extends to the potential little customer you might have in tow. Guess where Junior goes while daddy is trying on pants.
Now, before you rush in to the boss, claiming you need to add a bar to calm your customers, pay less attention to the particulars and more attention to the principles employed by Miller Brothers, Ltd. Whatever your role in your organization, there are elements of that setting that you can replicate or influence. Getting congruence into the service covenant includes being an interior decorator for your part of the service setting. Consider these actions that Miller Brothers took:
• They went to school on the whims and wishes of their target customer.
• They paid attention to the details that send signals about the experience.
• They managed the choreography to ensure all parts in the service performance work together like a well-oiled machine.
• They made place, process, people, and performance work as a highly choreographed whole.
• They added simple surprises aligned with the experience they seek to create.
• They took out the clutter that clashes with their desired sensory experience.
• They made certain the set, script, and story (the scenography) worked together for a harmonious total.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a fancy but serious phrase coined by Richard Bandler and John Grinder for an approach to counseling communications.3 They spent countless hours watching famous psychotherapists at work to discern the techniques they shared for putting patients so much at ease that they would reveal their darkest secrets or deepest fears. Among their learnings was the power of “matching and pacing.” If the patient sat with legs crossed, so did the therapists. If the patient used visual language (“I see it as challenging”), or auditory language (“It sounds very tough”), or kinesthetic language (“It feels difficult”), the therapist adopted similar patterns that mirrored the patient’s.
There is much more to the NLP approach, but its power lies in the creation of a deep rapport that comes from synchronization. Imagine if the NLP concept were applied to the service experience. The sight-smell-sound-taste-touch harmony would work as a whole. If you were in charge of an airport, consider the relief you could create for tired travelers if you used consistent, meaningful colors. Author Seth Godin adds: “Imagine how much easier it would be to find out where you were going if every sign with the word TAXI on it had it in yellow instead of white. Once you knew the color of where you were going, you’d just naturally scan for it.”4 That is congruence thinking!
Creating Tranquility Through Scenography
Flying from L.A. to Charlotte, Chip learned his seatmate was the renowned storyboard artist Tom Cranham. Tom’s role as an illustrator was to read a screenplay, review photos of the planned movie set, and then illustrate the movie in cartoon-like style with a new drawing at each point the camera shot changed. The illustrator for such movies as Jurassic Park, The River Wild, and True Lies, he was en route to Wilmington, North Carolina to work with director Stephen King to shoot the horror movie Maximum Overdrive.
“Once I am on location,” the passionate artist explained, “I will make adjustments based both on Stephen’s review of my original drawings and what I learn about how the movie set actually looks.” He leafed through a large drawing pad showing a collection of pictures. Some had the script or notes from the screenplay penciled at the bottom. “Once completed,” he continued, “we make copies so everyone on the set—director, camera crew, sound technicians, and actors—can share the same vision of the end result.”
A part of the goal of congruence is making sure everything in the service scene works well together. Take Stew Leonard’s Dairy Store. The East Coast grocery chain holds a pile of records from a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for sales per square foot, to Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Places to Work,” to the Presidential Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. From the staging of the entrance to the goofy characters wandering the store, to the corny music accompanying mechanical farm animals, to the tacky lines advertising their produce, the entire place is absolutely outrageous, and absolutely works! People, place, performance, and process are all intertwined and coordinated like the operation of a turn-of-the-century carousel. You enter the set and become a part of the set, not as a tourist watching an attraction, but as a partner with Stew, co-creating a wacky, wonderful, grocery-buying experience.
Scenography, the technical name for the work of the storyboard artist (or illustrator), originated in ancient Greece. Artists painted on stones colorful stage scenes for a theatrical production. Here, we use the concept as the strategy of integrating all the sensory elements of a service experience around a compelling service story or vision. The very best service providers in the world use scenography to craft a powerful experience for their customers.
We humans favor symmetry and balance. The concept of homeostasis (emotional stability) has long been a tenet of human psychology. Our psyche reads dissonance in an experience long before our logical mind comprehends a rationale. Far more than the urge to level a crooked picture or the recognition that something is off in a melody we hear, the dissonance arising from the absence of homeostasis even reaches to ideas out of alignment with our beliefs.
Creators of a service experience, once satisfied with the interpersonal or transactional encounter, too often consider their job mostly done. Little attention is given to what the customer’s mind reads as out of sync. Even the couple enjoying that long-saved-for special evening at a swanky hotel senses symmetry and balance when they feel it, even if they can’t detail exactly why. Scenography is the craft of making every component in the service experience “fit” with the promise made, or implied, by the value proposition of the service provider.
Vision
Service scenography starts with a clear service vision, or “experience picture,” around which is crafted three crucial elements—script, set, and story. A service vision is a statement of the unique, signature experience an organization seeks to create for customers at every touch point. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel service vision was inspired by its namesake, The Ritz hotel in Paris. César Ritz in 1898 created The Ritz as the hotel fit for royalty. His intent was not just a physical structure that “enlivened the senses,” but an experience that “anticipated even the unspoken needs of guests.” The hotel is today one of the most prestigious luxury hotels in the world. Horst Schultz, president of the Ritz-Carton Hotel Company from 1988 until he retired in 2002, wrote that its service vision—“ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen”—borrows in part from the original vision of César Ritz.
Script
The next component of service scenography is script. Script is more than the words spoken. It is the attitude or philosophy guiding all the interpersonal connections that reflect the service vision. It spans tone, attitude, non-verbal gestures, signage and signals used to communicate the language of the service vision. The Ritz-Carlton chooses the sounds of elegance and refinement: “My pleasure,” “Certainly,” or “May I escort you?” Associates send non-verbal messages to each other to signal a returning guest. Hotel signage is classy and unobtrusive. Associates practice assertive hosting with noticeable warmth and obvious attention to both detail and personalization.
Outback Western Wear in Magnolia, Texas, is famous for its wide selection of western gear, especially western boots. Western-wear fans in Texas take their boots very seriously, often spending a considerable amount of time getting a perfect fit, the right heel and toe, and the best-quality material, be it basic steer leather, or alligator, kangaroo, ostrich, or goat. A great fit requires trying on many pairs to find just the right one. At one time, Outback Western Wear customers being fitted for boots were asked “How about a cup of coffee or a soft drink?” The most common customer retort: “No thanks, but I could sure use a cold beer!”
The customers were really reflecting an attitude more than an actual request in their response—somehow the store’s opening question did not go with the smell of leather, the sounds of the late George Jones, or the rodeo photos on the walls. Today the store starts the customer refreshment query with, “Can I get you a cold beer?” Sure enough, there is a large barrel of ice-cold beer in the store—not for sale, but for the refreshment of customers over twenty-one. Most customers opt for the coffee instead, but their reaction to the greeting question clearly telegraphs their delight. And, the inclusion of “the right beverage” makes the first impression congruent with the rest of the experience.
Set
Another component of service scenography is set. Set involves shepherding all the signals read by the customer’s senses into a coherent whole. Those signals are to a service provider what stage props, decoration, lighting, and sound are to a play. Service set works when it is aligned with the service vision. Set is most effective when it enhances the experience without being the centerpiece of the experience. What that means is not that the set is necessarily understated; more that it is a near-perfect blend with all the other components.
Crucial to a great theatrical (a.k.a. service) experience is that the physical set is congruent with the vision. The Ritz-Carlton hotels select colors (cobalt blue, for example) found in luxurious castles. Lobby flowers look like rare foliage from the jungle, not ordinary blossoms from the local nursery. Thread count of sheets is as important as culinary perfection; artwork is as crucial as the elegance of staff uniforms.
Story
Story is the theme, the foundation of an alluring narrative, often complete with a backstory. The front or main story is what you see—a fantasy land commanded by a mouse (Disney theme parks), or, in Las Vegas, a trip to Treasure Island (Treasure Island Hotel), or a stroll through the streets of Paris (Paris Hotel) or Venice (The Venetian). A backstory, on the other hand, is sort of an amplified, embellished, exaggerated story behind the story. It can be important in enriching the story and giving service people a more profound understanding of its nuances or mythology.
The story at the Ritz-Carlton Hotels is all about the “warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience” found in a luxurious castle or an elegant inn. “Elegance without warmth is arrogance,” Horst Schultz often says. “Our theme is the creation of an experience that enlivens the senses and instills well-being in our guests.” Associates are schooled in the history of the Ritz-Carlton along with its core values. The backstory, known only to insiders and very special guests, includes secrets like the fact it was César Ritz who suggested Grand Marnier as the name for a liqueur created by his financier, Alexandre-Louis Marnier-Lapostolle, or the importance of the Gold Standard, 21st Day, and Line Up.
Every organization has a proud history or founding vision or unique mission to use as a backstory. Employees at FedEx all know the never-say-die attitude of founder Fred Smith and his struggles to start the company, building on a concept his Yale professor claimed was “interesting but unrealistic,” that netted him a grade of “C.” The story fuels the FedEx determination to get packages to customers no matter what. KFC employees know that founder Harland Sanders was given the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel in the 1930s by the governor of Kentucky in recognition of his contribution to the state’s cuisine. Science Diet, a product of Hill’s Pet Nutrition, traces its ancestry to Mark Morris, a veterinarian who, in 1943, saved “Buddy,” the world’s first Seeing Eye dog, from death by kidney failure, through a carefully crafted, diabetic diet.
Holographic customer service agents are now a part of the regular scene at the Manchester (UK) Airport. It could be a preview of coming attractions. Imagine a holographic person resourced with artificial intelligence and voice recognition. However, key to such technological advances is to ensure they fit. As appealing as Princess Leia might be as a modern art museum greeter, another character might be more in sync.5
Scenography is a critical success factor for service exemplars like Cabela’s, Virgin Air, In and Out Burgers, and The Container Store. They understand that service is like theater—a performance in which all the parts must work together to create a special whole. But, unlike a performance that is witnessed from the audience, service is an experience that involves as it engages; includes as it presents. The more it envelopes the senses of the participant-customer in a manner that is emotionally symmetrical, the more it engraves in the customer the kind of peaceful memory that ensures loyalty.
Creating Tranquility Through Consistency
When it comes to service, consistency is not “the hobgoblin of little minds,” as Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said. Customers require consistency for trust and confidence. Texas A&M researcher Leonard Berry found that the number-one attribute customers value in the service they receive is reliability, an organization’s ability to provide what was promised, dependably and accurately.6 Customers want the service from branch A to be as good as branch B’s; they don’t like having to choose a specific location—or a specific teller, floor salesperson, or waiter—because opting for others represents a roll of the dice. If every Big Mac was dependent on the whims of the cook assembling it, McDonald’s would not be the successful brand it is worldwide.
Customers enter all service experiences with a set of expectations. They enjoy pleasant surprises, but there is a set of givens that must be present for the surprise to feel like a joyful experience rather than a practical joke. Southwest Airlines is famous for its comedy-loving flight attendants. But, let the aircraft encounter rough air and begin bouncing around, their hilarious one-liners will quickly turn into the language of a serious professional focused on safety. Humor in the air only works if passengers already feel safe and secure. You will never hear a flight attendant make the pilot the brunt of a joke or funny line. Passengers want to feel confident that the person up front is respected as a pro.
Consistency starts with having a clear understanding of what customers want to be predictable. Keeping a record of the subject of customer complaints can be a start. Asking for customer suggestions and feedback can keep you up-to-date on their requirements. Watching customers in action can also teach you a lot about their needs, expectations, issues, concerns, hopes, and aspirations. In Chapter 12, “Acumen,” you will find a host of ways to better understand what customers expect and have experienced. What prompts an online chat with a call center rep? When customers ask questions of a service provider—directions, instructions, information—what typically prompts their queries? Are they lost, confused, or uninformed, and what does that teach you about what is important to customers?
Once you have a handle on customer expectations for consistency, turn it into a standard way of delivering service. Make certain the standard contributes to what you want to be known for by your customer. For instance, a hospital wanted to be known as the friendliest, neighbor-serving-neighbor hospital in the region. The nursing department concluded that too often patients stopped employees in the halls for directions. They painted various color stripes on the hall floors leading to a particular department. If a patient stopped an employee to ask “How do I find X-ray?” the stock answer was “Just follow the blue stripe.” However, patients felt the new system, while efficient, was cold and impersonal—just the opposite of the hospital’s service vision.
Ensure everyone impacting the service standard is clear on the expectation behind it. Collect evidence and feedback that let you know how well you are living the new standard in the eyes of your customers. Get a friend to take an empathy walk (be a customer) through your service process and provide you candid feedback about their experience and how well the standard was used.
Standards help create a consistency of experience that builds allimportant customer trust. Whether promising package delivery “absolutely, positively” overnight, guaranteeing credit decisions on home mortgage applications within two days, or ensuring a response to customer phone calls within two hours, regularly living up to the service promise builds credibility and creates a bond with customers that becomes difficult to break.
When people know what to expect each and every time they do business with you (caring, knowledgeable and competent employees that won’t let them walk away unhappy), they are more likely to return with their funds and friends in tow. But if you are seen as erratic and unpredictable—some days delivering on the service promise, other days treating standards as “nice” but not “need-to-achieve” performance goals—it creates a sense of unease and distrust that has a corrosive effect on loyalty.
Creating Tranquility Through Taking Out the Trash
“Take out the papers and the trash” were the opening lyrics of a song by the Coasters that spent weeks in 1958 as the number-one hit on the charts.7 Many teenagers wore out their shoes jitterbugging to “Yakety Yak.” The words hold a strong message for delivering great service.
All service has a certain amount of garbage. And, in a competitive world in which customers demand more value for their diminishing dollar, if you don’t “take out the papers and the trash,” as the words of the hit song suggest, you are not getting the “spendin’ cash” you were hoping for.
Today’s customer’s higher expectations, shorter patience, and greater propensity to go elsewhere with their “cash” should be a wakeup call to ramp up close attention to service garbage, whatever hassles your customers. It means paperwork should be easier, processes should move faster, and every employee that customers encounter should be more helpful.
Organize a “service garbage patrol” to spot and report places where service is a hassle for customers. Some 2010 Convergys research found a strong relationship between effort and satisfaction. When a customer found an experience to be both satisfactory and effortless, they were three-and-a-half times more likely to say they were loyal.8 It means the concept of “first-call resolution” may need to take a back seat to “firstcontact resolution.” Effectively addressing the customer’s issue on the first call may not leave that customer happy if the call was made after not getting the issue resolved on the web plus not getting a response to an email. Garbage patrol includes integrating channels to effectively learn of customer hassles across silos, not just those within a silo.
Go to
Examining the entire context in which a service encounter occurs requires making certain everything works as a whole. A key part is a service vision, a clear description of the unique experience you want to create consistently for customers and colleagues. Tool #5 provides ways to craft that service vision.
Put your customer’s earliest encounters with you under your service microscope, whether they be on the website, in the parking lot, or in the reception area. Are procedures and people user-friendly? Is it easy for customers to figure out where to go, who to see, and what to do? Examine all objects, forms, websites, or systems required for all service transactions. Are they clearly written, easily understood, comfortably navigable, and really necessary? The most precious commodity for most customers today is their time, and if you waste it by creating confusion or discomfort they probably won’t come back for more.
Review your inbound call process. Is the system large enough and sophisticated enough to handle the call load, easy to understand and use, efficient, and time-effective? Do customers have 24/7 access? Can callers quickly and easily get to an operator if they desire and when they desire? If they must be transferred, how will it feel and sound on their end of the line? What do they experience when put on hold—silence, elevator music, or long waits? What is the garbage you need to take out?
Kill stupid rules. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) selected TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank in the United States) as the top bank in the financial service sector on the closely watched index. TD Bank created a “Kill a Stupid Rule” program. Any employee who spotted a rule that kept employees from wowing customers got a fifty-dollar reward.
Make it a tranquil day. Making service comfortable is all about making the experience calm, secure, and accessible. Customers should be able reach you easily whenever they want. What music could you play that could lower customer anxiety? Why not focus their experience on calm and comfort? Recall what your Realtor told you about getting your house ready for a showing—include fresh flowers and the smell of apple pie. Your customers deserve the same concept applied to your product or service.
Customers today have a low tolerance for hassle. While they don’t expect perfection all the time, they return to organizations that consistently demonstrate a commitment to taking the garbage out of service. Service comfort requires vigilance as well as caretaking. It calls for employees willing to raise their hand when they spot customer dissonance. It takes associates who see continuous process improvement as being just as vital as continuous revenue improvement. It requires people who make preventive maintenance an integral part of their stewardship of the organization’s resources and reputation.
There seems to be a rise today in service garbage. As organizations cut costs, trim staff, and reduce trust in their customers, the byproduct is more “papers and trash” littering the service encounter and reducing calm. Take out the trash and your customers will reward you with their spendin’ cash!