WHERE LEGENDARY CUSTOMER SERVICE BEGINS

By Bill Capodagli, co-author of Disney Way: Harnessing the Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Ask any CEO if he or she is committed to excellent customer service and the answer typically is, “Of course we are!” But ask why their organization’s service isn’t among the ranks of the Walt Disney Company, the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, or any other extraordinary service provider and the excuses are tiresome: “We can’t pay enough,” or “People don’t care,” or “Our turnover is high.”

Now assume for a minute that these excuses are valid (which I am convinced they are not), and ask a leader, “What are you doing to alleviate this problem?” and witness their awkward scramble for an answer. If an organization is truly committed to legendary customer service and their lame excuses were valid, why wouldn’t they be using all available resources to solve these problems?

So what is the secret? It may seem amazing that the solution to achieving legendary customer service does not lie in some “slogan driven” training program, but rather in a simple two-step process: (1) Hire to the culture of the organization; (2) Provide a multi-day orientation program that encourages new hires to embrace a new set of values.

Think about it – Disney, the Four Seasons, Nordstrom, and other celebrated service providers hire from the same employment pool and pay about the same wages. What these companies do better than others is hire and orientate.

Hire to the culture. World-class service providers require multiple interviews with potential employees in addition to the one or two human resource interviews. The purpose of these multiple interviews is to assure that the candidate fits the culture of the organization. At the Four Seasons, in addition to a diverse mix of employees, each hotel or resort manager must also interview all potential hires before an offer is made. Kathleen Taylor, President of the Four Seasons’ worldwide operations explains: “It is not for the GM (General Manager) alone to say, ‘Yes, I like the person’ or ‘No, I don’t.’ It shows the potential dishwasher that his [or her] job is really important. He may go home that night and tell his mother or friends, ‘Wow, I met the GM today,’ and on his first day at work, he knows the GM, and the GM knows him.” Equally important to ensuring that a candidate fits the culture is consistently demonstrating that everyone's role, no matter where in the hierarchy, is important to creating magical moments of service.

Hiring to the culture of your organization assumes you can define your organization’s dream (or vision), values and behaviors (Codes of Conduct, as defined in our best-selling book, The Disney Way). If your culture needs defining, it would be wise to work on those critical elements before embarking upon the hiring process.

Over the years I have heard many executives argue, “Why be so concerned with hiring the right person? Anyone can learn these entry-level jobs, and if a new hire doesn’t work out, there are three people waiting in line.” The solution to their shortsighted mentality eludes them. They probably would agree that the most valuable asset of any organization is the customer. So wouldn’t they want to trust their most valuable asset to the most competent, capable and skilled person available, not just the “next in line?” It leaves me dumbfounded.

JoAnn Wagner, President and CEO of the SOS Staffing Family of Companies, explains how ‘Hiring for Fit’ is vital to effective customer service and overall success. “Superior customer service begins with uniting the right talent with the right opportunity, which starts long before a candidate’s first day on the job. Interviewing, testing and screening of a candidate’s experience and background compared with a company’s culture are all factors that must be carefully weighed. Once a culture match has been made, a comprehensive orientation program is the final crucial piece.”

So, if caring for your customer is not reason enough for finding the right employee, isn’t increasing your competitive advantage? Both the Hay Group and Workforce Management magazine have calculated the cost of replacing an $8.50/hour employee at $10,000 to $12,000. Disney, the Four Seasons, and fellow world-class service providers experience 3-5 times lower turnover than their competition.

I also hear the argument, “Our HR department is too small or does not have time to find the ‘right’ people.” One solution to this problem is to form a strategic alliance with a staffing services firm. Susan Aherns, Regional Manager for Adams & Associates in Washington explains: “Companies who form a true partnership with a staffing firm will add arrows to their quiver that they would not have otherwise. The right firm can function as an integral part of a company’s HR department, saving it valuable time and money. In the end, businesses often save more by utilizing a staffing firm to find the best candidates.”

The Commonwealth Alliance Program (CAP) reports that businesses now attribute 25% of all revenues to strategic alliances. Karen Lustman, District Manager for Orange County direct hire firm Devon & Devon, elaborates: “Hiring in today’s competitive climate is much more than finding a body. Strong strategic alliances result in win-win solutions. When a hiring firm understands the company’s mission and culture, they send only best-fit candidates.”

If you have hired an individual who has passed the “culture fit” test with flying colors, it’s now your responsibility to immerse him or her into your culture. This must happen before they begin their operational or staff responsibilities.

Orientation. Orientation programs in most organizations would have to increase by a factor of ten to reach the level of pathetic. Most involve new hires in tedious activities ranging from completing forms to reviewing policies. Then, the “welcomed” newcomer gets thrown into the hustle of getting the job done. Even in companies with well-defined cultures, the success rate of these new hires is less than stellar.

If new hires end up being fired or resigning within the first six months on the job, they are almost always branded as failures. I’ll bet you’ve heard the feedback: “he never really bought into our level of service,” or “she never really understood our values.” An all too often believed myth is that values can be explained or even dictated.

Nothing could be further from the truth. One cannot mandate a new set of values to anyone; the only way for values to be effective is for individuals to embrace and internalize the values. Luckily, we can turn to a tremendously successful role model for this lesson in action. . . Isadore Sharp, CEO and founder of Four Seasons. “Issy” told me, “They (values) are only words on paper, the words have significance only if behaved; the behaviors are significant only if believed.” Legendary customer service does not come from a policy manual; it comes from the heart.

So, how do you get new hires to embrace a new set of values? Answer: Build a multi-day orientation process. Anything less than two days is not enough. People need time to understand how the new values contribute to the success of the organization and why their current set of values will not work. For decades I have been involved in leading organizations to structure cultural orientation programs so that individuals and teams can internalize the vision, the values and the culture of an organization.

I challenge you to spend your time establishing the right hiring process and the right orientation process, not in just getting the “right” people.

Become a Customer Service Legend

In a recent Gallop survey of North American corporations, 55 percent of upper management indicated that they had successful customer-focused programs in place and that they were totally committed to the process. Their employees did not agree; only 36 percent indicated that the process was successful; 54 percent voiced the opinion that top management was not customer-focused.

A customer-driven strategy is in motion when all coworkers in an organization are obsessively striving to solve customer problems and discover their wishes. You probably know people who insist that customers are the driving force of their companies, but there is no visible evidence to back up their words.

The customer is the driver of the learning organization. Too many organizations claim to be learning organizations because their Human Resources Departments (HRD) offer extensive training programs designed to develop the coworkers. In most cases, these training programs are developed without any consideration of the customer. Some HRD staff may believe they are meeting the needs of their internal customers. This may work in theory, but the linkage to the external customer is, at best, weak.

Secrets for Becoming a Customer Service Legend!
1. Redefine Your Product! Redefine your products from the customer’s point of view. If you are looking to purchase a video camera, you are not only buying the camera, you are buying someone’s expertise to help you make a decision.
2. Listen to Customer Complaints! For every one customer who complains, 26 remain silent. Only 9-37% of the customers who do not complain will give a company a second chance; 50-80% of those who do complain will give a company a second chance.
3. Respond Quickly to Customer Needs! It costs five times more to attract a new customer than to keep an old one. A study done by Bain Consulting concluded that a 5% increase in customer retention equals a 25-100% increase in profitability. Train workers to own customer complaints. 4. Cherish the Front-line Coworker! The person in the least respected position in any company is usually the one who has the greatest impact on customer service. In most retail establishments, this person is the sales clerk, the one person who has the future of the organization in his or her hands.
5. Provide Inspired In-touch Leadership! Give your employees the tools to succeed; let them know what is important; and enable them to do what is necessary to solve customer problems and discover their wishes.

Marketing efforts focused exclusively on attracting new customers are missing the mark. The cost of attracting a new customer is five times the cost of keeping existing customers. Recent studies indicate that a 1% increase in the customer retention base will increase profits by 4%.

If you are a manager, take a minute to dump out the contents of your "in" basket on top of your desk. We will bet that 99% of the material deals with strategy, budget, financial returns, capital expenditures and personnel policy matters. This naturally equates to how you spend your time. If you are truly committed to developing legendary service, your focus needs to be on continuously listening to your customers. Federal Express is a great benchmark in customer focus efforts. They have daily customer satisfaction indexes, and more importantly, their bonus programs are directly tied to the customer satisfaction index.

Unleashing Productivity

A Dilbert cartoon shows employee survey results as: "I work here so I can . . . postpone starvation (80%); sell cosmetics to coworkers (10%); steal enough yellow sticky pads to insulate my attic (9%); get cartoon ideas (1%)." This cartoon may seem amusing, but an organization’s advantage is stronger when coworkers’ needs regarding employment are met. Many employers feel that the only reason people show up for work is for the money. A University of Massachusetts survey indicated that roughly eight out of ten people said that they would continue to work even if they inherited enough money to live comfortably.

A recent Gallop Poll indicated that employees felt that the number one way to increase their performance was "to allow us (employees) to put our ideas into action"; the fourth most important was "to listen to our improvement ideas." Walt Disney once said, "The growth and development of the Walt Disney Company is directly related to the growth and development of its human resources . . . the cast. At Disney, we operate on a first-name basis. We go about our work in a business-like way, but we feel that work can be fun. We believe that everyone in our organization is important. We soft-pedal job titles, and we feel that one activity is as important as another."

The Key: The often overlooked resource is the frontline employee. . .unleash their true potential.

How do you make customer-focused measurements happen in your organization?

1. Insist that all employees in the organization communicate with their customers to understand their problems and wishes.
2. Identify the key processes that support the needs of the customer.
3. Map the processes. Identify process time, quality levels and process costs.
4. Modify the process. Eliminate wasted efforts, time and cost. Check each step in the process for value-added activities.
5. Ask that every department post their customer requirements, cycle times and quality levels for all their key outputs.
6. Start over at step one and repeat the process.