Customer Service = Free To Move

This article is written from above all else, pride. I'm beyond proud of our team and their creativity, effort, and recognition of the importance of great customer service, the cornerstone to all business in my mind, be it B2B, B2C, enterprise software, or military contracts; they all thrive on customer service. The story goes a little like this - A busy traveler walks by our BWI location. She's very intrigued with the airport gym concept, but doesn't have enough time on this trip to workout. However, she notices that we carry #lululemon, and falls in love with two specific shirts. All of the ROAM team members are not only representatives of ROAM Fitness, but all of the products we carry as well. This includes #BrooksRunning, #HydroFlask, #Aloha, #PickyBars, #Malin+Goetz, #BlenderBottle, and #Technogym. ROAM staff are trained to also be educators of these products and brands, and on this day, the value of that training showed itself.

Now back to the customer, whose name is Adrienne- After learning more about the product from our team member, Marcus, she was all set to purchase but didn't have time. Instead of trying to close the sale right there, Marcus informed Adrienne that she should be able to get it from another lululemon retailer (knowing that we would never see a dime from that sale, and it wasn't even our brand that he was promoting), but that if she had any other questions, she was more than welcome to call him back. Adrienne soon boarded her flight home, spending the time in the air searching the web for more info on the shirts; turns out, they stopped carrying that color and the only way for her to get that product was actually through us!

Upon landing, Adrienne held Marcus to his word and called him right up, looking to purchase over the phone. Now our POS system isn't designed for remote transactions, and we've never even considered it a possibility due to our location and what airport concession customers want. With a smile on his face and determination in his eyes, Marcus eagerly informed Adrienne that he first needed to figure out how to make that happen as we've never done it before, but that he would call her back within 30 minutes. The entrepreneur he is, Marcus wouldn't let a technological issue or deviation from the norm get in his way; he called the helpline on the #Ingencio credit card reader to find a solution, and was met with the same sort of great customer service on their end as well. "Oh, that's easy and I'd be happy to walk you through the steps, Marcus," replied Ingencio customer support. A couple of procedures jotted down on scratch paper later, Marcus was back on the phone with Adrienne, informing her of the good news.

A quick back and forth over the phone, credit card info exchanged, the transaction had been completed. On his way home from work, Marcus now had an extra stop to make; a shipping store. Without making a stink about paying for the shipping costs out of his own pocket and spending part of his evening doing work instead of at home with family (of course we reimbursed him for it, but I've worked with many others in the past who would have drawn the line there), Marcus made sure to properly fold the two shirts in a neatly packaged bag, included info on the products and ROAM, and sent them on their way as if she bought them in-person. Two days later and we received the best email a company can hope for.

"Dear Marcus, I received my lululemon tops today and the wonderful treats you included. Thank you for the fantastic customer service- I wish everyone was like you! Best wishes for your continued success. Adrienne M."

If that note doesn't make you smile and feel unbelievably proud, I don't know what will!!!

ROAM is a new company, trying to do a new take on the airport travel experience. What we're doing isn't rocket science; we're putting gyms into airports, plain and simple. But it requires changing human behaviors and that 1) takes a long time, 2) is never easy, and 3) can cost a lot of money. At times, it feels as if we're constantly pushing a gigantic boulder up a hill, only to have the haters out there in the world throwing rocks at us from above. What gets me through the bad days though are these emails from our customers.

I find the airport concession and travel industries to be extremely fascinating. For the last two to three decades, their approach has been flipped upside down from originally being about quality, but now focusing on quantity. Shaving off profit margins and increasing volume has its advantages, but the initial bump or leveling off of revenue can give a false sense of security. That trajectory is not an indicator of what you're doing right, but rather of how much momentum you had built up going into it. That momentum was build by brand advocates, loyal customers, word of mouth promotion, and exceptional customer service. Most people know what needs to be done in order to deliver that type of experience, but it takes empowerment, encouragement, and free reign to make it happen.

That's exactly why the number one quality we look for in all of our new hires is that they're entrepreneurs. Anyone can be trained to do a job, but then that's all that they'll ever do. The moment it's not their job, the customer will become disappointed, the brand will suffer, and eventually sales will decline. Give a man (or woman) a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.....but find a person who can teach herself how to fish, and she'll feed the entire village. Thanks for teaching yourself how to fish, Marcus! I can't wait to see what you'll teach yourself how to do next!