Great Customer Service

I really am a low key person when it comes to service.  All I expect is someone to do their job without making the customer feel like he/she's a burden.  They are getting paid, after all.  So when someone goes above and beyond my expectations I remember it.  I genuinely appreciate it.  As quick as I am to write a letter about bad behavior, I'm even quicker to do so for something extraordinary.

I had a meeting yesterday with an individual who did just that over three years ago.  He was fresh out of college and doing group sales packages for a minor league baseball team.  I called wanting to put together an employee night at the ballpark.  It was the usual interactions, all by phone and email.  So when game night came along, I wasn't expecting to see him at the door of the suite waiting specifically to introduce himself personally and make sure everything was satisfactory.  I saved the business card he gave me that night to call him directly for future events.

Fast forward 2 months.  Out of no where, I get an email from the guy letting me know he'd seen a magazine ad that featured my dad, his wife, and her new 7 series BMW and wanting to congratulate the company on the publicity.  First, thoughtful of him to remember that many details about a customer he'd worked with one time.  I asked him which magazine and if he knew where I could get a copy to get the ad framed for my dad.  He said he'd send me the copy he had.  Really didn't expect that and I was incredibly impressed.  Turns out, he didn't just mail it.  He took the time to drive it over to the office personally--I'd been out when he stopped by, but wow, that's amazing service.

I sent him a thank you email immediately, and I connected with him on LinkedIn not long after that.  This guy clearly had some excellent sales and customer service qualities.  Where ever he ends up, he's a great person to stay in touch with.

As luck would have it, a few months later my company was looking to hire a sales person.  I sent him an email right away.  He was flattered I thought of him, but he'd recently changed jobs and was really excited about the new one.  I understood and we talked briefly to see if there was a way we could use his services.  Unfortunately, the field he went into wasn't compatible with mine.  He understood, didn't press, and we agreed to keep in touch in case either of us ran across something.

Last week he sent me an email about a job fair.  I get emails like this ALL THE TIME.  "Advertise with us!  Reach over 500 prospective employees!  Blah, blah, blah."  I work in a strange industry and recruiting people isn't as simple as participating in a job fair.  Most people we recruit have never been in our industry, never realized it was an industry, and when they tell their networks where they moved they get asked why.  It's a great industry, very robust, and lots of money to be made by good people--it just doesn't scream glamor and excitement.  And it takes a very unique skill set to be successful.  Mass appeal need not apply.

Anyway, I responded back to this guy specifically because of everything he's done building up to this point.  And I'm discussing it with our HR people today to see if it's worthwhile for them.  And I'm going to get back with him quickly with a real answer.  He's done so many things for me without me ever asking, I owe him at least that much.  And THAT'S what great customer service is all about.  If you treat everyone like they really matter, and aren't just a means to an end, it will pay off.  I still want to recruit the guy for sales for our company.  With the right tools and support, he could make a major impact on our bottom line and be a stellar representative on the company's behalf.

I think it's sad how difficult it's become to find people like this.  But I do have a handful of these stories and I remember the people.  I stay in touch with them, and as a general rule I don't like many people.  I'd like to think I've helped a few people in a similar way over the years and they remember me for it.  I know of two people and one company that remembered me for work I'd done for them in the past.  That's really what it's all about.  It's almost too simple yet so hard to find in practice.

Bad Customer Service

I shop on the Internet.  A lot.  I don't know how I survived before it.  Shopping is not a social event for me--I want to get stuff quickly, quietly, and without complication.  I don't particularly like wandering around from store to store aimlessly looking without purpose to try things on in a space where 10 other women are doing the same thing while having private conversations with their "girlfriends" in the stall next to them.  I don't want to hear about your husband's foot fetish porn addiction.  Whatever happened to keeping certain things private?

The one downside to this otherwise glorious method of avoiding human interaction is returns. Unless I want to pay to have it shipped back (thank you Zappos for being the exception), I must still visit the brick and mortar store to handle most returns.

 There are two traits that I absolutely cannot stand in another person--stupid and lazy.  And lazy has permeated the local store that I happen to frequent most.

It started out innocently enough, I walk up to the counter with my bag of rejects and ask to return them.  The girl immediately informs me that I can make returns anywhere in the store.  I politely say thanks, even though I already knew this but I come to the customer service department because its what I prefer.  I walk through the store on my way to the "customer service" department--I rarely see someone on the floor who's not already helping someone else.

I get this routine from 2-3 girls at the counter of the next couple of months.  Finally, I push back a little.  Immediately trying to send this return to the floor, I tell her that she's told me this three times now and that I prefer coming to this counter.  I thought maybe if I pointed it out to her politely, she'd figure out that part of customer service is handling this stuff?  I'm not entirely sure, but if someone did that to me I would step back and remember that is part of my job and be a little bit embarrassed I'd represented the company I worked for so poorly.  This was not the case for these girls.

The past two visits, I've been told by girls who were on the phone (one might have actually been helping someone, the other was very obviously having a bitch-fest with a coworker in another department) that if I wanted to return something I'd need to see a sales associate.  The first time, I was a little shocked and just stood there and stared at her for a moment before leaving.  The second time, you would have had to been a complete moron to not notice I was perturbed--this was the bitch fest.  Ironically, the same floor sales associate handled the returns for me on the floor both times.  She was incredibly polite, very helpful, and even stopped the restocking she was doing once to help me out.  So the second time, I asked her what the deal was with their customer service department employees turning people away with returns?

I know it was a little unfair, but she handled it brilliantly.  She apologized, didn't throw them under the bus, and even tried to offer an excuse for them to make sure the company's reputation wasn't tarnished.  If she was having a bad day, I would never know it.  If she ever wants out of retail, I would hire her on that basis alone.

So, why am I writing what was is basically a long-winded whine session?  Well, this particular company is world renowned for its eagerness to help and please a customer.  In most cases they live up to that reputation.  And I have some returns that I've been putting off because I really don't want to deal with the chance of getting one of these lazy girls.  If I have to deal with one of them, my politeness has run out and I know I'm going to say something tacky and crass.  I'll ask specifically for her name, write it down in front of her so she knows I won't forget, and then I'll write a letter to the store manager letting him/her know how poorly this person represents their brand.

I've hit that point where social decorum no longer matters to me and I'm going to be the bitch that gets them in trouble.  I strongly dislike people who work in a job with "customer service" in the description and decide it's at best an afterthought.  I realize it's probably not their dream career, and that's fine.  I know it's not the only thing they do all day.  I'm not expecting them to jump over the moon and kiss my ass, just that they not make me feel like I'm inconveniencing them by walking up.  I'm merely asking that these ladies not be employees who put more effort into getting out of work than it would take to do their job decently.

What's the saying--for every good experience you have, you tell three people and for every bad you tell ten?  Tomorrow, to balance things out I think I'll discuss the people who've gone above and beyond when they didn't have to, and how it's impacted my business relationship with them.  I can't be a bitch all the time, right?  (Please don't answer that.)

The Ugly Truth of Business

I’m jaded.  I’m not going to lie to you.  I’ve worked for some pretty terrible companies, and I’ve been a part of some organizations that when I took a hard look at their business philosophy and leadership, I was genuinely shocked they managed (puns!) to stay in business for more than two or three years.  But there are still some amazing companies out there… at least that’s the rumor.  I read about several of them in Forbes, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal.  They make me yearn for a company I can believe in, support completely, and be inspired regularly to be the very best version of my professional self.  I’m sure each has their fair share of people who walked away thinking it was completely screwed up and they were doomed for failure, but I digress. Culture and fit is a topic for another day.

Back to being a sourpuss who wants to (look for the irony) get away from business by starting up one of my own.  My plan is a pizza place.  It’ll be brilliant—a giant middle finger Mecca for all those, like me, who are exhausted by trying to make a difference in the corporate world through silly things like morals and logic.  The name would be simple—Christi’s Pizza Parlor.  But the slogan would be, “Where we say F You to Corporate Rules.”  I know, it’s a tacky gimmick, but if a burger place can thrive on feeding 300 pound obese people for free and naming their food after life changing surgeries, I think I’m well within my rights of marketing freedom.  We’d hire teenagers to work there—because what teenager doesn’t love the idea of being a part of a lame rebellion?  Time clocks and scheduled work shifts?  Who needs them.  Inventory control?  Pfft, we’ll just order stuff when it looks like we need it.  Pricing strategies?  So over rated.  Health codes?  I mean it’s not like we haven’t all toyed with the 5 second rule at some point in our lives.  Market research and advertising?  I won’t have time for that because I’ll be too busy watching my kindred spirits flock to the place only to find out that there’s no guarantee they’ll get their pizza in a timely manner or even as they ordered it.  Who knows if the place will even be open during the lunch rush because my ever reliable teenage workforce might just decide they don’t feel like working that day?  It just adds to the fun!  Remember, I’m very dedicated to this slogan piece of my pseudo business.

I should be wildly successful.  I mean, I’m playing to all the things that drive people crazy about their jobs (including myself) and I’ve got a hilarious angle to make the place fun and inviting (although I may need to come up with a PG version of the slogan for families), and most importantly I have no real business plan.  How is that not a recipe for me to make millions?  I’ll have multiple venture capitalists trying to get me to franchise the thing out in a matter of months, right?

As much as we lament day in and day out about corporate policies, various procedures that we have to follow to get things done, and we curse the bosses who won’t bend on what we feel is the silliest of policies… it all still exists for a good reason.  Yes, the execution may be horribly flawed but the basic principles still hold true when they’re not twisted and contorted into something that becomes a farce of the original idea.

1.      You have to make more than you spend to stay in business (unless you’re a gigantic bank apparently)

2.     You need to pay your bills (hopefully promptly)

3.     You need to hire good people, treat them fairly, and help them grow professionally

4.     You need to evaluate your own ideas, processes, policies, and even vendors to make sure they’re still the best choice for the business AT THAT POINT IN TIME (more on that in a moment)

5.     You have to have a little fun with it and not take things so seriously all the time

Here’s the kicker—what seems like an almost idiot proof idea, the execution always seems to find that new level of idiot we weren’t prepared for.  Or I could take a slightly less sarcastic approach to retorting my own arguments: there’s simply confusion and interpretation that leads to the failed execution of these ideas.  Any time two or more people interact, what one person says is not going to be heard by the other(s) exactly as intended the first time.

So how do we get past that?  Is it even possible?  That's where the hard work and using common sense comes into play. Voltaire has been quoted as saying, "Common sense is not so common."  This couldn't be truer in business. There's a delicate balance between executing common sense ideas like keeping an accurate inventory to avoid waste or running out of something and dwelling on 20 different inventory reports that may not even be that reliable to begin with.

While my pizza parlor is the very extreme case, the rebellion has merit. Give people certain necessary boundaries but give them the freedom to work in a manner they enjoy. Make sure the essentials are tracked accurately and in a timely manner but let go of the things that beat people down and truly provide little useful information.  Use common sense--and if you lack it (it's okay to admit it), hire someone who can keep you in check.  And most importantly, have a little fun.  We spend a quarter of our time at work every week--and that doesn't include any commuting time, extra hours, or the time people mull over work issues at home or in their minds. While every case has the exception most people just want to do something they enjoy, challenge them, and makes them feel like they're making a genuine contribution to the world. Stop ruining it for us by making common sense so ridiculous it no longer makes sense.