Know When to Break the First Rule: Creating a Culture of Can Do in a Can't Do Environment - Softcover

McConnell, Joe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 149690849X ISBN 13: 9781496908490

Publisher: Authorhouse, 2014

Synopsis

Know When To Break The First Rule will teach you ways in which you can elevate your organization and gain a competitive advantage within your industry. You will read first-hand accounts of how organizations, such as yours, have created amazing client loyalty without adding additional cost or impacting productivity. These easy to understand strategies are designed to assist you in exceeding client expectations through the building of air-tight customer experiences. Learn how to recognize, motivate and reward your organization's most valuable asset: employees who possess the Service Gene. You will also learn how to manage these high-performing, results oriented personalities. Learn about the three gifts that all customer-centric employees crave: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Know When To Break The First Rule will change the way you look at your business, yourself, your employees and your customers.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Know When To Break The First Rule

Creating a Culture of Can Do in a Can't Do Environment

By Joe McConnell

AuthorHouse LLC

Copyright © 2014 Joe McConnell
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0849-0

Contents

Introduction—Can Do versus Can't Do, 1, 
Chapter One —The Birth of a Service Vision, 7, 
Chapter Two —Creating a Nonnegotiable Service Vision, 20, 
Chapter Three—Establishing Nonnegotiable Hiring Standards, 33, 
Chapter Four —Re-Recruiting Your Best Employees through Ownership and Empowerment, 50, 
Chapter Five —Leadership: Holding Yourself to Nonnegotiable Standards, 62, 
Chapter Six —"Can You Believe This?" Utilizing Everyday Experiences to Enhance Your Brand, 68, 
Chapter Seven —Avoiding Self-Sabotage, 79, 
Chapter Eight —Putting Your Clients First, 86, 
Chapter Nine —Remaining True to Your Vision, 95, 
Final Chapter—The Beginning, 99, 

CHAPTER 1

The Birth of a Service Vision

I was fortunate enough to learn the value of a superior customer experience early in life. My first formal job was delivering newspapers after school. I quickly noticed that the guys making the most money all did the same thing when it rained: they purchased plastic bags for their newspapers. This was an additional cost that most of the delivery boys didn't wish to incur. I quickly learned that dry papers led to bigger tips. The bags cost a penny apiece and were sold in one-hundred-piece lots. A dollar was a lot of money (the newspaper itself only cost seven cents), and it took an additional half hour to fold and insert the papers into the bags before loading up the bicycle baskets and heading out, but the rewards of providing a superior service were substantial. I had taken over a route from someone who apparently never thought to keep his papers dry on rainy days, and by exceeding expectations, I found myself being well tipped. I also began receiving referrals. As I advanced to jobs where I had to punch a clock and work within established rules, I was amazed to see that most companies took their customers for granted.

At the age of seventeen, I was offered a job at Bloomingdale's where my rudimentary understanding of the power of service was validated. I quickly learned about Bloomingdale's generous return policy. My first introduction to the policy was early in my tenure, when a customer asked to return a swimsuit. This occurred in September, and the swimsuit was faded by months of sunshine and chlorinated pool water. When I approached my manager with the customer's absurd request, I was surprised when she instructed me to take it back and issue a full credit. When I protested and pointed out that the swimsuit had been used for the entire season, my manager repeated her instruction and suggested that I not keep the customer waiting.

Later that same day, my manager invited me to join her for coffee in the employees' cafeteria. Over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie, she explained the Bloomingdale's policy. In essence, Bloomingdale's was focused on the "customer's reality." That reality, she explained, is Bloomingdale's brand. Some customers take advantage of the liberal return policy, but by and large, most customers are honest and straightforward when it comes to returning merchandise. It wasn't worth risking Bloomingdale's brand by arguing over a $37.50 credit.

I immediately saw the value in this policy. Years earlier, when I had absorbed a cost in order to keep my customers' papers dry, I had been rewarded with bigger tips and additional customers. Without knowing it at the time, I had established my own brand, which was built on service and care. Bloomingdale's was enhancing its brand by absorbing the cost associated to returned merchandise. The store's customers had grown to expect superior service and Bloomingdale's remained committed to those standards long after the original purchase.

Those positive experiences helped establish the foundation of my own nonnegotiable standards. Equally important were the negative experiences, which, I quickly came to realize, outnumbered the positive experiences. By paying attention to your competitors' weaknesses, you can look for ways to exceed client expectations. This is the good news if you're looking to differentiate yourself within your marketplace. The field of play quickly shrinks when you become a customer-focused organization. Your competitors' weaknesses are the soft spots that you can exploit. Let's take a look at a few common customer service failures that represent much of what we experience every day.

I will take these real-life examples and dissect them so that you can see ways in which you can take both your own and your competitors' service voids and fill them with memorable customer experiences. Within your marketplace, your customer base is underwhelmed by similarity; they have grown accustomed to a bland experience, and it won't take much to differentiate your organization from the competition. However, you must be resolute in maintaining those differences.

The first two examples involve long-term client/vendor relationships. Many organizations tend to forget long-term clients in their effort to capture new clients. Although it costs, on average, five times as much to secure a new client than it does to keep an existing one, most organizations confuse customer loyalty with customer complacency. They assume that a client will remain a client strictly out of habit and convenience. While this, can be true at times, do you really want your clients to feel begrudged and resigned?

My first example involves a local dry-cleaning service. For twelve years, I have utilized a small dry cleaner in my neighborhood, and like most people, I've experienced a few disappointments, but I chose to ignore those occasional failures in favor of convenience—this shop is only two blocks from my home. On this particular day, I removed the plastic wrapper from my shirt and noticed that the color had been bleached out on both sleeves. I should point out that this was one of four golf shirts that I had bought the previous year, and I spent a higher than usual amount on these shirts because they fit me well and were well constructed. Usually, I would wash a golf shirt at home, but because I considered these shirts special (they were, by my standards, expensive), I decided I would do my best to extend their lives by having them professionally laundered. A few days later, I returned to the dry cleaner with my ruined shirt and spoke to the owner. Here's how the conversation went.

Me: "I'd like to show you something. Considering that you've laundered this shirt before, I have to assume that too much solution was used. What do you think happened?"

Owner (after inspecting the shirt for about thirty seconds): "The fabric is not good and the dye did not hold. I can't be held responsible for this."

Me: "But you've laundered this and three other identical shirts at least a half-dozen times. How is it that this flaw was only exposed now? What about the other shirts? They're made from the same fabric and they haven't been affected by this supposed defect."

Owner: "The dye did not hold. I did nothing wrong."

Me (slightly agitated): "Here's my ticket for clothing I'm picking up today. Let's take a look at the identical shirt, which you just laundered, and we can do a side-by-side comparison. Hopefully the shirt I'm picking up today didn't suffer the same fate."

Owner (after opening the newly laundered shirt and noticing no discoloring): "This is not the same shirt."

Me (beyond agitated): "Look at the labels! Both have identical labels; both have identical fabric blends, and when you put them side by side, you can clearly see that they are the same, identical shirt. The only differences are that one is blue and the other black, and now one is ready to wear and the other one is ruined. Please understand that I paid a lot of money for these shirts and I brought them to you in order to extend their lives. It's clear that there was some kind of mistake made which led to this shirt being damaged. What I'd like discuss is how—"

Owner (cutting me off midsentence): "Stop talking before I get angry. Nobody made a mistake, this fabric is no good."

Me (incredulous): "Before you get angry? I don't want to hear any more about the fabric. I brought this shirt to you for professional service and you failed. Are you going to make—" (and before I could finish asking, "Are you going to make good on this?")

Owner: "No!"

Me: "As you can see on the ticket, I am picking up quite a few items today. Am I to assume that you will be charging me for today's pickup?"

Owner: "Yes!"

And just like that, after twelve years, the relationship was over.

When we take a look at this exchange, it's quite clear where the dry cleaner failed: he immediately became defensive and continued, right to the end, to act defensively. And, as we all know, it's never a good idea to demand that your customer stop talking because it's making you angry. Aside from the obvious, what could the owner have done differently?

To begin, he should have immediately accepted responsibility in order to set the stage for an open dialogue. When a client walks in with a complaint, the first order of business is to ensure that the complaint is deemed valid (even when it isn't). Diffuse; do not deflect. Complaints are fantastic opportunities to strengthen client relationships by exceeding expectations. By creating an open dialogue, the owner could have explored several ways in which to further bond with an already loyal customer. The fact that he's providing a service also provides him with a low-cost opportunity to wow his customer. This could have occurred by offering "in-kind" service.

Let's take a look at a different version of this scenario: after examining the discolored shirt, the owner begins a dialogue.

Owner: "Well, it looks like we might have done something wrong. Have you brought this shirt in to us for cleaning before?"

Me: "Yes, I have. In fact, I have several of them, and they've all been cleaned here without incident. I'm picking one up from you today. Should we take a look and compare?"

Owner: "It's not necessary. If this hasn't happened before, then I have to assume that in this instance there was some kind of bad reaction between the fabric and our solution. When did you buy this shirt, and how much did it cost?"

Me: "I bought it, along with three others, last summer, and they each cost seventy-five dollars."

The owner now has at least two ways to wow me and keep me as a loyal customer. He can either suggest that the shirt has an expected lifespan of three years and divide the cost of the shirt by three and offer me a fifty-dollar credit, or he can take full responsibility for the entire seventy-five dollars. The fifty-dollar credit leaves me feeling good about doing business with this dry cleaner. The full seventy-five-dollar credit has me telling this story for weeks. Either way, he keeps a customer and it only costs him the price of the actual service, which is a fraction of the entire credit.

Here is what the owner could have said: "Mr. McConnell, you've been a long-standing, loyal customer. I know you've experienced a failure or two with us in the past, but it's clear that this shirt is beyond repair. I'm going to provide you with a full seventy-five-dollar credit, and we'll begin with today's bill of twenty dollars. I'll be sure to see that the remaining fifty-five dollars is applied to future service."

While I'm not in the dry-cleaning business, I'm comfortable in assuming the actual cost of this credit is probably about thirty-five dollars. Would you spend thirty-five dollars to keep a loyal customer? I'm sure you would, but there's something else to consider—something more valuable than an immediate customer experience. By offering an in-kind credit, you are ensuring, maybe even guaranteeing, that your previously disappointed customer will return, which will provide you with an opportunity to continue to wow that customer with your own renewed sense of purpose. How much would you pay to provide that level of experience? More importantly, your customer will have a great story to tell. Perhaps the in-kind credit should be considered part of the marketing budget. In this instance, the owner assumed that I would continue to do business with him; he confused my loyalty with complacency.

The next scenario will also focus on a long-term client/vendor experience, but in this example, the vendor made an extremely unfortunate assumption by confusing my loyalty with gullibility. This assumption can be fatal to your business and your reputation. The following example will highlight a series of service failures, some of which may be occurring within your own organization.

I have lived in my current residence for more than twenty-three years, and during that time, I've utilized the same home heating-oil company. I have to admit that during that time, I'd grown complacent and continued to use their service because it was "good enough." I remained loyal in spite of now paying over $300 for a maintenance plan, which they used to provide at no charge. I've contemplated changing companies, but hadn't acted on it up to this point. Two weeks ago, I answered a knock on my door and was greeted by a young salesman from a competing oil company. He offered me a locked-in price of $2.79 per gallon, along with a service plan that was one-third the price than I was currently paying. Since I wasn't sure if $2.79 was a competitive price, I asked him if he would give me a few days to compare. Being a good salesperson, he drew up a contract and advised me that I had three days to make my decision. I then called my current provider and asked to speak with a pricing advisor; I was told someone would call back. Someone did call back—a day later. Here's how the conversation went:

Pricing Advisor (PA): "Before we begin, Mr. McConnell, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being a loyal customer for more than twenty-three years. We appreciate your business and your loyalty. How can I assist you?"

Me: "Thank you for recognizing my loyalty. I'm sure you have preferred pricing for loyal clients, so tell me, what is your current `locked-in' price?"

PA: "We have a very favorable price today. It is $3.58 per gallon."

Me: "$3.58? That's not acceptable."

PA: "Well, if you look at current pricing, you'll see that $3.58 is a very good price."

Me: "I'm looking at the current pricing on a contract from your competitor, and they're offering me $2.79 along with a service contract that's $200 less than yours."

PA: "Let me guess ..." She then hissed the competitor's name through clenched teeth.

Me: "You really shouldn't disparage your competition; your tone is not acceptable. I'm asking you to provide me with a fair price. You thanked me for twenty-three years of loyalty and then insulted me with a price that is eighty cents per gallon more than your competitor. You should really be looking for ways to correct this situation, and you're not going to accomplish that by trying to diminish your competitor."

PA: "I can have you speak with a supervisor and they can explain our pricing policy to you."

Me: "No, I would prefer that you speak with your supervisors and explain the situation. It is up to you and your supervisors to keep me as a customer. Call me back by the end of the day and let me know what you can do."

I did receive a call later that day from the same pricing advisor. The price was now $2.99, and they could provide me with a lower-quality maintenance program for only $100. When I informed her that that still wasn't acceptable, she seemed flabbergasted and asked, "Well, what do you want?"

"What I want is to remain your customer. Talk to your supervisors and provide me with a solution that will keep me as a customer. Wow me. I'm not wowed with a price that remains twenty cents higher than your competitor's, and I don't want a lower-quality maintenance plan. I have one more day before I have to commit to your competitor's contract. Please get back to me with your best deal."

Well, I guess they couldn't come up with a better deal, because I never heard back from them. And just like with the dry cleaner, a long-term business relationship ended in a matter of moments. Unfortunately for them, these stories live on.

How does your company treat long-standing customers? Do you take them for granted, or do you reward them with pricing and service efficiencies? Always remember that your clients' perceptions are their realities, and their reality is your brand. The story they tell can either help to enhance or assist in destroying your brand.

Whenever I share this story, I am usually asked the same question: How could the pricing advisor recover from such a faux pas? After all, she began by thanking me for my patronage and then immediately insulted my loyalty by offering an obscenely high price. It's a fair question and I believe I have an answer. Once I told her that I had a contract that guaranteed me a much lower price, the pricing advisor could have quickly apologized and asked me to give her an opportunity to "make this right." Once I agreed (and most long-standing clients would), she should have then asked me to give her time to discuss the situation with her supervisors and then provided me with a specific time when she would call back. After that, it becomes incumbent upon that organization to make me feel special and appreciated; that can only be achieved by putting relationship ahead of profits.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Know When To Break The First Rule by Joe McConnell. Copyright © 2014 Joe McConnell. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse LLC.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 149690849X
• ISBN 13: 9781496908490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 114