Photo: circa 2013 in Lake Tahoe. Spent two days immersed as a student with a dozen of my DI colleagues.
How often should we be excellent? Is it a percentage?
What about that percentage of our customers that get less than our excellent work?
Is that fair to them?
And do they notice the absence right away, or is it easy to fool them?
How do we justify giving some less than our best?
Is it because it’s so hard to set high standards and maintain them 100% of the time?
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On April Fool’s Day 2009, jeff noel began writing five daily, differently-themed blogs (on five different sites). It was to be a 100-day self-imposed “writer’s bootcamp”, in preparation for writing his first book. He hasn’t missed a single day since.
This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.
We arrived at Disneyland and headed into the Park to get dinner. No reservation, no plan. The turnstile Cast Member recommended The Plaza Restaurant for their incredible fried chicken, so off we went.
As we walked up to the entrance, aha, hey, what about Blue Bayou for their Jambalaya and gumbo? Perfect.
But at 5pm and no reservation, the odds were nearly zero. We took the chance anyway.
The initial answer was led with an apology and then Evelyn said, “Let me check on something.”
She returned a few minutes later with, “We can do it but there will be a 30-45 minute wait.” We took the pager and 22 minutes later, we were inside. Thank you Walt for your amazing insistence on excellent Guest Service.
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On April Fool’s Day 2009, jeff noel began writing five daily, differently-themed blogs (on five different sites). It was to be a 100-day self-imposed “writer’s bootcamp”, in preparation for writing his first book. He hasn’t missed a single day since.
This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.
His Customer Service Keynote speech covered the four world-class service basics.
These questions from a recent audience member prompted my response below:
Is there a difference in the customer approach between a consumer oriented organisation (like Disney) vs a corporate relation (like IBM dealing with clients), i.e do you believe that the four world class basics you present apply the same way?
And, is there a place for emotions in the type of environment where we are? How can we leverage emotions in our customer relations?
My reply:
There is no difference. Why would there be? People serve people. The product is literally irrelevant in the equation. Who cares about a great product if the employees are rude and unhelpful? No one.
Disney is a massive, global, 160,000+- employee enterprise. We have divisions (and people) who do similar things like what you do. No one at Disney says, “These things only apply to The Theme Parks.”
The other way to understand this is that the four principles work for employees serving other employees (never seeing the paying customer), as well as Leaders serving employees. There is no difference.
Emotion trumps everything. What makes us (you, me, our colleagues) loyal to a product or service is the emotional connection? We will drive farther and spend more for something we can get closer and cheaper. Yet we invest more time and/or money for the same thing. Why? Because we believe someone treats us better. We like that, and will pay a premium. Trust wins at the end of the day. Emotions and trust are inseparable.
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This website is about our career health. To leave this site to read today’s post on my home health website, click here.
Do we have the courage to act on limited knowledge and insufficient evidence?
That’s what speaking up against status quo requires. That, or ignorance.
Twice yesterday i was quietly stunned by two incredibly weird customer service experiences.
The Dollar Rent A Car representative at Chicago Midway told me i needed to fill up the gas tank within 10 miles of the airport and if i didn’t have a receipt as proof, i would be charged $10/gallon.
The Best Western Valparaiso front desk clerk asked for my credit card for incidentals. When i shared that i would not be making any charges, he revealed that it was really to cover themselves against any damages the guest might create.
It would seem both of them lied.
That is so weird to think that some companies have a culture encouraging this allowing this to happen.
