Bumping the Lamp: Magic of Quality Service

Here’s an Idea!

If you remember the movie - Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you may recall a scene where Bob Hoskins bumped a real lamp and the light and shadow moved and appeared natural against the animated character, Roger. That attention to detail is a very important aspect of the Disney Philosophy and is taught through the Disney Institute. It is also an important part of every successful company’s/person’s philosophy. Exceed Expectations at every chance. Lead by example. That lesson was drilled into me by the Marine Corps. This is at the heart of Service Excellence. You need not be in a position of authority (although, I admit it helps a great deal). I am not in a position of authority over others so I must to lead by example. You can too. No one ever got fired for exceeding expectations, and if they did, they were happier for it.

Back to the topic though. I want to introduce the Quality Service Cycle as taught by the Disney Institute. I stress this is just an introduction

It is composed of four elements:

Service Theme

Service Standards

Delivery Systems

Integration

The Service Theme is the Mission and Vision Statement of the organization. The Service Standards are the rules, regulations and desired behaviors of all employees. The Delivery Systems are the internal processes and Integration ties it all together.

Creating this Quality Service Cycle will help you

1. Create a brand

2. Align all of the organization around it with the common goal

3. And eventually internalize it and make it a part of the culture.

Some of the pieces are actually covered in two other articles I wrote on this blog titled Internalize Your Brand and New Year’s Resolution

This concept is at the very core of everything. Think about it, Leaders pass on, Products become obsolete. The one constant is the ideology that drives the company and culture of that company to endure, adapt and keep pace through the ever changing market place. It is the ideology that becomes the source of motivation and inspiration!

If you want to learn more, enroll in the Disney Institute.

I am a huge believer in Service Excellence. It is in every industry. We all serve someone and even our co-workers and other departments are our customers.

We can make the promise of Quality Service, but as they say Charity starts at home. When you deliver the promise internally, it will be delivered externally.

How to Capitalize on Brand Evangelism

Here’s an Idea! Create a product and deliver service worth talking about and Save BIG on Marketing Costs

The person who made this video can be considered a Brand Evangelist. The Brand Evangelist is what every company is desirous of. With so many videos and blogs and user generated content out there, marketers need to embrace it and nurture it and cultivate it. People are going to talk about your Brand, Your Product, Your Service, So it had better be good.

But how do you actually create a Brand Evangelist?

A company like Swingline Staplers is - let’s be honest - not very exciting. It’s a stapler! Some could say it is a commodity like the staples that fill them, or even paper clips. Yet, here we are witnessing a Swingline Stapler Brand Evangelist who is Passionate about Swingline Staplers.

Well first, you have to create a product or offer a service worth talking about. You must exceed the expectations of the consumer. Swingline does this by differentiating itself from its competitors with the lifetime warranty and no jam promise. Next they had product placement of their RIO RED Swingline Stapler in the movie “Office Space”. They have introduced a CHROME Stapler to their lineup which personally I am attracted to for the simple fact that adding chrome to anything in my personal “Guy” opinion bumps up the cool factor.

While Swingline could do more such as adding a blog to their site, or offering Bling Kits for your stapler; they do hold an annual Sweepstakes for Office Administrators which honors the top Office Administrator of the Year.

This endears customers to the product and gets people thinking about Swingline when they are in the market for a stapler.

Can you think of any other ways to create and foster Brand Evangelism for your Brand?

Optimizing the Profitable Link Between Employees and Customer Loyalty Behavior

Here’s an Idea!

DATE: April 24, 2008

TIME: 10amPT/ 11amMT/ 12pmCT/ 1pmET

PRESENTERS
Michael Lowenstein, PhD, CMC, Vice President and Senior Consultant, Harris Interactive Loyalty
Marla Chupack, Moderator, American Marketing Association

COST: Complimentary

Click Here to Register NOW

Marketing Managers know it costs significantly less to retain and service existing customers than to prospect for—and acquire—new ones, but maximizing the customer benefit and value isn’t feasible if an organization relies solely on the efforts of the marketing department.

How can your organization build and optimize customer loyalty behavior? It’s a careful balance between your product and service value proposition, the messages you send, and actual customer experiences that creates positive perception and action.

In this free and informative Aquent/AMA webcast, Michael Lowenstein, Vice President and Senior Consultant at Harris Interactive, will present critical insights about the relationship among profitability, employee behavior, and customer loyalty, which will prove that true customer commitment is attainable only when the entire organization understands and performs its roles in providing superior customer experiences.

You will learn how to:

• Effectively measure and understand customers’ perceptions
• Pinpoint which employee attitudes and actions affect customer behavior
• Leverage employee positivism and customer focus
• Identify and eliminate employee sabotage
• Develop a customer-centric culture

The first 100 registrants of this webcast will have the opportunity to register for the 15th Annual Harris Interactive Loyalty Conference at a 10% discount.  Harris Interactive Loyalty Conference……The Silverado Resort, Napa, CA……April 27-29.  www.harrisinteractive.com/loyaltyseminar

Who should attend this webcast?
Senior Executives and Managers of:

• Customer Service/Customer Experience
• Customer Relationship Management
• Retail Operations
• Training and Development
• Sales
• Marketing

Register today and join us for this informative webcast!

Service Excellence and Loyal Customers

Here’s an Idea!

I am sick of seeing these great promotions for new customers. I see them at my gym, I see them with my mobile carrier, I see them from my cable company- whose name suits them. I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. No Respect I tell ya! I went in to pay my cable bill last week and they said take a number… I took it and it was zero! bada boom!
Seriously, where are the loyalty programs?

This article, courtesy of Chief Marketer offers some good examples of Service Excellence and building value in the Brand. I would also add Mobile to the list.

Provide an easier way for the most loyal customers to receive and use coupons within an existing loyalty program by allowing the specified customers to use their mobile devise sms (text messaging) to text to send the coupon direct to their loyalty card, or even make a purchase via texting a code for the product and have it sent direct to their specified address.

How much is a loyal customer worth? Most multichannel sellers have a small group of extremely loyal customers who buy year in and year out, or come back annually to make substantial purchases. Yet they are often treated no differently than the balance of the house list.

What do you do to make your very, very best customers feel appreciated? Considering how much they purchase, and how you spend almost nothing to bring them back again, probably not enough.

These folks are often rewarded by more catalogs in their mailbox and/or more promotional e-mails. This is good for you, but how can you make them feel like it’s good for them, too? What can you do to keep them from feeling like they’re being hit on one more time?

E-mail: Show your best customers you really appreciate them. If you send them a special sale e-mail “for our best customers only,” then really mean it. Tell them that they’re in the top 1%, the cream of your crop, and give them a really terrific bargain. Just assume that if you don’t tell them this, they will believe they are getting the same sale as everyone else. And that doesn’t make them feel very special, does it?

Web: Offer best-customer access to great content on your site. Create a “registered gold members only” section that will have some appropriate added-value information, advice, guidelines, recipes…something to thank them instead of just asking them for more money. They will thank you with more purchases.

Award them a Gold Customer status: Make sure they have their Gold Customer number, which they can use to get special offers such as free shipping on anything (when everyone else has to pay for shipping) or some small, special gift. Implement this program across all of your channels so that even if you have a retail outlet, your retailers bring up their number when they shop, and they get special treatment. “Oh, I see, Mrs. Worthington-Levy, that you’re one of our Gold Customers. We want to thank you so much for your continued business!” This extra courtesy costs you nothing but a moment of time, and it means more than you may realize.

Send them an unsolicited gift: As a Talbot’s customer, a few years ago I received a gift that cost them little, but it meant a lot—a quality ‘croc’ patterned leather key fob. I still have that key fob with a little golden Talbot’s tag on it, and each time it makes me feel good about shopping there. Granted, I have been a great customer averaging a couple of suits each year, plus other basics—so they’ve gotten a lot from me. But most would never even think of rewarding me so unconditionally without attaching a ‘must visit request’ or turn in a coupon, etc. They just said a good, old-fashioned, “Thank You.” And as a customer, it felt great to be appreciated.

At a time when you’re probably feeling inundated with paper price hikes, postage increases, and so many other decisions that will cost money, you are perhaps thinking that this is a concept you want to set aside for a better day.

But when you have a top-tier customer like that, now is a better day to tell them you really appreciate their patronage. And, just as I’ve told you about Talbot’s key fob gift to me, they’ll tell dozens of others who will begin thinking of you as someone they want to shop with, too.

Carol Worthington-Levy is creative partner at San Rafael, CA-based catalog consultancy Lenser.

Delivering the Ultimate Experience!

Here’s an Idea!

Delivering the Ultimate Experience: The Power of Connecting With Customers Through Your Front-line Employees
A Case Study Presentation by Maritz and Disney Institute

DATE: April 1, 2008

TIME: 11amPT/ 12pmMT/ 1pmCT/ 2pmET

PRESENTERS
Brian Carlin, President, Maritz Learning
Scott Milligan, Business Program Consultant, Disney Institute
Marla Chupack, Moderator, American Marketing Association

COST: Complimentary

Click Here to Register NOW

*This webcast is broadcasting live only at the special time listed. An On Demand recording and copies of the slide deck will not be available. So, please be sure to mark this on your calendar. You won’t want to miss it!

Improving the customer experience through your people is challenging. Achieving alignment throughout your organization is critical. Changing employee behavior can seem impossible. So what can you do? Don’t fall into the traps that so many organizations do – simply mandating improvement and providing a one-size fits all solution. Instead, learn from Disney and Maritz about other organizations that are making a difference.

Benefits of Attending:
In this webcast Maritz and Disney Institute join forces to present best practices and share a case study to demonstrate how to enable organizations to Understand, Enable and Motivate their employees to deliver the best Customer Experience.

• Learn how the experts at worldwide Disney Resorts build customer loyalty by consistently exceeding guests’ expectations. With enviable repeat business statistics, all Disney locations deliver top-notch service all day, every day, and it’s not magic. Understand how Disney Institute helps organizations benchmark the business behind the magic that enables them to deliver superior customer experiences.
• Gain valuable insights as Maritz shares best practices to improve your customer experience, by understanding the high value customer issues for each location, enabling improvement by engaging employees closest to the customer to develop solutions, and motivating them to implement and sustain new behaviors to deliver the desired customer experience.
• Learn about a real example of a Customer Experience improvement initiative. Maritz and Disney Institute share how companies implement an integrated approach, first benchmarking Disney’s best practices and then connecting customer experience research, customer experience strategy, customer centric organizational learning and employee-enabled process improvement.

Who Should Attend?
Senior Executives and Managers of:

• Customer Service/Customer Experience
• Customer Relationship Management
• Retail Operations
• Training and Development
• Sales
• Marketing

Your Basic 8 Slide Strategic Plan

So ya have to write a strategic Plan and you don’t know the first thing to write. Well no worries. Here is a basic strategic plan that will help the members of the team zero in on what needs to be done and have you looking like a hero. It covers the SWOT analysis, where your company is, where your competition is and any changes to the playing field and of course where you want to go. I would love to take all of the credit for this but the truth is I have to give credit to Jack Welch. It is from his book “Winning”. I wrote it down in my own slides and have used it with a few clients with good success. Download here.
Enjoy!

New Year’s Resolution

Here’s an Idea! We are all very aware of the New Year’s Resolutions. We have all made and sometimes even kept our New Year’s Resolutions; whether it was to quite smoking, eat healthy, start exercising etc. But I wonder how many of us have actually made a New Year’s Resolution for our company or the department that we manage? Personally, I have never been with an organization that created or at least made public a New Year’s Resolution for a Division, Department or the entire Company. Surely I am not the first person to think of this… or am I? Nonetheless, I am sure there are several New Year’s Resolutions to choose from. You know your organization better than anyone else. I would like to share one idea though. Here we are going into 2008, and maybe you have been thinking your organization could use a little shaking up, or a fresh start, or simply a change. Have you looked at your internal processes and how they effect your efficiency or effectiveness and even your profitability? If so, just consider the following Internal Process Proposal:

Internal Processes Proposal

 

Before any processes or re-direction can be created, it would be a good idea to create a foundation for everything else to build upon for all future growth. Ideally, a strategic plan with long term and short term goals should be created with periodical milestones. Without a very clear and concise vision of where we want to be and a mission of what we do or how to reach our vision, how do we know when we are doing what is right or when we are off track?

 

Mission and Vision

 

A Vision statement of no more than 2 sentences that sets a goal in the present tense and is lofty enough to make us stretch while at the same time not impossible. The statement should be something that inspires and everyone can easily remember and know if they are following it in their daily tasks. An effective vision statement describes a clear picture of the organization that leaders want to build. It serves as a guideline for organizational changes, such that each change is designed to add up to that end-point. It explains to staff where we’re going, and why near-term changes (the steps along the way) are worthwhile. And it motivates change by saying, “The bar is raised. Maybe we were OK by past standards; but compared to this vision, we must change.”

An example would be “Company X exists to provide excellent business solutions which meets our clients’ goals and exceeds their expectations.”

 

The reason for a present tense statement is simple. Consider this statement: I will quit smoking. Now how strong is that statement compared with I quit smoking?

A Mission statement states how we reach the vision. Again keep it short. Since we are divided into three distinct areas of concentration, we could have a mission for each group. When missions are defined group by group, they focus staff on their respective customers (be they external or internal) and their products or services. They build customer focus, entrepreneurship, empowerment, a sense of identity with end results and pride in the value of one’s work. They also enhance teamwork by defining internal customer-supplier relationships. Once these statements are created, they need to be posted in the office as a constant reminder of our commitment to them.

An example would be “Company X is an industry leader by using streamlined business processes, current technology and maintaining top talent who are committed to our clients.”

Hierarchy

The structure should be aligned with the desired culture to generate involvement. That is achieved by employing the following strategies:

• Transfer power and decision making authority – empower the employees
• Provide employees opportunities for education
• Allocate appropriate resources to allow employees to do their jobs
• Maintain the environment that contributes to creativity, collaboration, the sharing of information between everyone, especially good news and big deals (like renaming the company)

Organizational Culture

An environment that cultivates creativity, collaboration and fun needs cultivation. This is a fine balance though, as it can undermine professionalism and productivity if not well managed. New job titles should reflect the duties and responsibilities of the role without confining the role. They should free the person to be more and reach higher. A small company can not afford to fall into the trap of “That’s not my job.” There should be career paths identified and successors lined up and trained/mentored to be able to step in as people leave positions. One position to assure these processes will stick and drive the desired change could be a VP of Operations.

Where do we start?

Performance Excellence – (taken from the Disney Institute)

Performance Excellence is defined by three areas:

• Vision – Share it and align everyone to it
• Involvement – Get everyone in the game, Buy-in
• Organization – Set Processes and Structures

Leadership Excellence + Employee Excellence + Client Excellence = Financial Results

The Leadership / Employee Accountability Matrix illustrates the relationship between the two dimensions of success: Business Results and Leadership and Employee Behavior.

Align leaders around the vision and prioritize behaviors and actions and those leaders will be able to create and maintain the desired culture through their modeled behavior. Essentially the message is that results don’t matter if no one wants to work with you, conversely if everyone loves you but you don’t deliver results; this is just as bad.

By focusing on the desired behaviors and actions it leads to client loyalty and enthusiasm which brings financial results.

Leadership Behaviors

Exhibits Desired Behavior, Poor Results

Exhibits Desired Behavior, Great Results

Another way to define this is Differentiation. Those who deliver consistent results reap the rewards and those who don’t… Bottom line, it serves as a strong motivator for most people. The culture if not by design, it will be by default. The desired culture should be operationalized. This is done by:

• Setting and presenting expectations up front
• Maintain consistency in processes
• Set up employees for success
• Back up our vision/mission with genuine action
• Maintaining the culture is the #1 priority
• Communicated constantly
• Supported by the environment
• Hire attitude over aptitude
• Celebrate successes in a big way

Service Standards - (taken from the Disney Institute)

Service Standards is the Promise to our clients and a purpose for our employees. A major aspect of the success culture which differentiates us from our competition is exceeding expectations, attention to detail; presenting a WOW factor that helps us stand out from our competition and gives clients a reason to choose us and stay with us.

• Identify the words or phrases
• Define what the standards look like
• Prioritize the standards
• Communicate them constantly

Once defined, next is to explore the delivery of quality service. Three areas where quality service is implemented:

• Employees – all levels
• Environment – involving the words, symbols, office space and décor
• Processes – internal and external

Internal Communication

Internal communication should be very easy. There is no reason why everyone is not aware of plans, projects, or events that affect the entire company. One thing that is very important at any stage is Candor. It saves time and money. This should not need any elaboration.

Now for a Project Flow Template

Project Flow - (taken from the book Extreme Project Management)

This is the overarching process that is wrapped around our internal processes

 

Vision – Who needs what and why? (The client interview)

• Identify and agree on the objective
• Identify the target audience
• Identify the benefits and risks of the project for the client
• Identify factors or scenarios that may effect the the project
• Identify Functional Requirements and features prioritized
• Identify outcomes
• Identify a WOW factor

Who attends – PM, AM, AE, Client

Speculate – What will it take to get it done?

• Identify the team
• Plan the deliverables
• Identify the timeline
• Identify requirements
• Perform research/analysis/user experience
• Identify milestones and how success is measured

Who attends – PM, AM, AE, Director of Software Dev., Creative Director

Design – Build the thing.

• Build wireframes
• Create comps with UI involved
• Review comps with the PM? and programmer (so the programmer can provide appropriate feedback)
• Provide 3 final designs to client for approval
• Send final ok’d design to programmer if needed
• Code the backend
• Test

Reevaluate – Test it. What worked, what didn’t. The Final Goal of project is the client’s desired result not the planned result.

Document Workflow

Now that our culture is on track to being operationalized; we can create the internal processes that support them and our future growth. Some important processes involve documenting our efforts and procedures. Examples include:

• Document workflow and review process standardized on PDF.
• Documenting programming code to remove guesswork when working on someone else’s code.
• Documenting processes and procedures so no one person can hold the company hostage.

Conclusion

The High Level Processes proposed in this document are not new. These processes have been tested and are used by other successful, well established organizations. The good news is you do not need to reinvent the wheel. Once these processes are set and eventually become part of the culture, you will have the infrastructure in place which not only supports the desired culture but also supports your continued growth.

A Contrast in Service

Here is a story of two tire stores. I will spare the name of the store with poor service, because this is not about calling them out. but know that this is a true story and yes, again why it is so important to make high standards of service a part of every employee’s daily life that it is second nature. Because it does drastically effect the marketing promise that the company puts out there.

My wife and I had to go to a tire store because she developed a flat tire. Of course these things rarely happen during normal business hours of tire or auto parts stores, however we found one close by that was still open. We told the gentleman behind the counter to also check the other tires as another one seemed to be getting low as well and yet another may need to be replaced and we wanted to take care of it while we were there. A simple and reasonable request right? Well the original problem tire was replaced and yes, you guessed it; becuase it was close to closing time the other tires were not checked.

A couple of days later, the low tire turned out to have a nail it, so I took the vehicle to the same store and they turned me away and would not fix it. This story is not about complaining about the store, honest. I understand their position, just stick with me on this.

This is where the other store comes in.  We took it to Discount Tire the following morning. Not only did they fix the damaged tire at no cost, they also pointed out another tire was showing the threads, so we replaced that one as well.

So here is my point: Service Matters. There is a practice within the Disney Organization called “Take Five”. It is where an employee takes five minutes out of his/her normal duties to do something special for a guest or go above and beyond the call of service. The Ritz Carlton has the same philosophy. Each employee at both organizations are empowered to make such decisions to deliver service excellence or for service recovery.

If the first store would have checked all of the tires, they could have sold another tire that night and charged the $10 for fixing tthe damaged tire. That was the first missed opportunity by not even meeting expectations. They missed the opportunity for a second time where they could have exceeded my expectations. Granted, Discount Tire merely met my expectations, however, who do you think I will return to the next time I need tire service? And, THAT is the importance of service and making it a part of the marketing. Marketing is too important to be left just to the marketing department.  Each and Every Employee is an Ambassador of your Brand and every consumer is the New Influencer and Citizen Marketer.

Kitchen Nightmare - Rod’s Steak House

This is why it is so very important to deliver a good product and good service and make every employee keenly aware that these things are an integral part of the success of the organization as well as it is a part of Marketing. If you advertise as “World Famous” and categorize your restaurant as “Fine Dining”, then you had better deliver on that promise. This is not what I found this weekend during a trip to Williams for a ride on the Winter Express. I will talk about the Winter Express in a separate article.

Now let me focus on Rod’s Steak House.  My family dined at Rod’s Steak House on December 18th 2007. There was only one server and he had a poor, unprofessional attitude. I should have realized an issue when there were only three tables filled during dinner hour. The rolls were stale, the coffee was cold, the soup was too salty. We ordered steaks and BBQ ribs. The ribs were dry, like they have been sitting under a heat lamp too long. My steak which was a top sirloin, was chewy, and the potatoes were overcooked. My three children had the chicken tenders - as that is their favorite. Yet they took a few bites and all said it was yucky and refused to eat any more even though they were hungry from the drive up from Surprise.

For the $20 a plate cost; I expected much higher standards than this. When I complained to the cashier, the waiter started cussing and then stormed off.

I have had better food and service from Denny’s - and I hate Denny’s.

Chef Ramsay, where are you?

Any traveler who visits Williams Arizona is best advised to eat at the McDonald’s or Jack in the Box in town then suffer at Rod’s.

Posted by me, Richard Saling