SMALL THINGS OFTEN MAKE A BIG IMPACT
Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the everyday things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon - Booker T Washington
As a management consultant I travel frequently. I have a preferred airline which I use for all domestic travel. They get my business not just for the obvious reasons – convenient schedules, great pricing, customer friendly policies (no cancellation fees, no baggage fees, etc.) but also for many of the small things that they do - Flight attendants who break out into songs or practice their stand-up comedy skills; Pilots who help wheel-chair bound passengers in the boarding process; Gate agents who greet passengers effusively. All these small things, including a CEO who makes sure to have someone respond to passenger emails within a couple of hours, collectively reflect a corporate culture that engenders strong customer loyalty.
I am also lucky to be able to regularly fly out of three airports that have some of the best TSA agents (a group that would not rank high in popularity contests). At each of these airports most of these agents greet passengers warmly and sound sincere when they wish them safe travels. Given the frequency of my travel some of them even recognize me and offer up friendly remarks. I can’t tell you what a difference these small touches make to someone who has to pass through security multiple times each week.
The rental car agency that I use regularly has an operations crew that makes sure that I get surprise upgrades and that the car is running and comfortably cooled (or warmed depending on the season) minutes before my estimated arrival time. They stand in marked contrast to their local management team (inept and tone deaf to customers) and their company’s information systems (archaic) but their small gestures keep bringing me back to the same rental agency.
There is a way to ensure that you get superior customer service on the phone. I make it a point to remember the name of the customer service person speaking to me and to begin the conversation by asking them about how their day is going. Very few customers do that apparently. The payback can be good. Take a recent example. The lease on my car was about to expire and I wanted an extension. Now it is customary with this particular company to get only a 3 month extension; anything beyond that requires a commitment from me to lease another vehicle. Perhaps because I was calm, in spite of having been put on hold for a very long time, and I went through my usual polite routine I got a 6 month extension with no commitment required. While I got what I wanted the auto company has managed to secure my loyalty because I am more than likely to go with the same brand again.
The same organization can yield widely diverse customer services experiences, in spite of presumably having the same training programs. It seems to me that there are some people who are just naturally suited for this function. You can teach someone the skills and the drills but you can seldom change deeply embedded attitudes. An old commercial by a restaurant chain called Friendly’s summed up this point. The announcer in the commercial would say “We don’t teach our people to be friendly; we just hire friendly people”.
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