Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2012 | Page 80
CustomersCount
BY JACK MACKEY
Above and Beyond
Creating a culture of surprise and delight
T
he Multi-Unit Franchising Conference was held in Las Vegas this
past April. Would it surprise you
to know that 70 percent of all
revenue generated by Las Vegas casinos
is non-gaming revenue? It’s true. You can
walk around the Strip and see that Las
Vegas offers many experiences other than
gambling, and that, after years of having the
reputation of being “sin city,” Las Vegas is
becoming a family town. When someone
pointed this out to me, I started to notice
all the inter-generational activity. For those
who attended, did you notice how many
older men were with their 30-something
daughters? It was great to see how the family is getting back together in Las Vegas.
I couldn’t resist telling you that story,
and I have a point to make. I continue to
admire how Southwest Airlines is the only
air carrier that uses humor to surprise and
delight customers. By making fun of the
boring safety announcements, they also
get more customers to listen to those announcements than any other airline.
As a frequent flyer, I thought I had heard
everything, but on my flight to Las Vegas
I heard some new things. “Please turn off
all cell phones. If you get caught with it
turned on, you will lose your bathroom
privileges on this two-hour flight. Also,
the FAA forbids tampering with the smoke
detectors, or with the recently installed
security cameras inside the restrooms.”
Or, “In the event of a water landing on
the way to Las Vegas, pull out the plastic
yellow vest, inflate it, then just kick, paddle,
kick, paddle, kick, paddle… all the way to
shore. Your flight attendants will be right
behind you with peanuts, pretzels, and
free drinks.”
Right after they made these announcements, there was a slight delay on the tarmac.
So the flight attendant in the back of plane
asked the passengers to please turn around
and look in the last row and say hello to
Alex, a 4-year-old who was celebrating his
birthday. As Alex waved, the flight attendant said “Folks, please let’s have everyone
turn on their flight attendant call button
and we’ll light this plane up like birthday
candles on Alex’s cake. Then we can sing
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Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue III, 2012
Happy Birthday to Alex and help him blow
out the candles.” That is exactly what we
did, 130 strangers making the best of a
slight delay and making a memory I am
sure Alex’s mom will never forget.
You can’t script that last part. Only
employees who have high service aptitude
and who feel empowered to create special
connections with customers can create
those kinds of extraordinary customer experiences that people will talk about—just
as I am doing now.
That spontaneous birthday sing-along
on Southwest during an otherwise aggravating delay, is an example of what customer
service expert John DiJulius calls “above
and beyond” service, moments that create
unforgettable customer experiences. In
his best-selling book, What’s The Secret?
(to Creating a World Class Customer Experience), DiJulius lays out a very actionable
plan that any franchisee can adopt to create
a culture of high service aptitude.
To use these ideas, you (as the franchisee) have to really believe in the business model that says creating raving fans
of your current customers is essential to
earning their loyalty. If you don’t have
real passion around earning custo mer
loyalty by delivering special customer
experiences, then no “technique” that I
describe will help you.
In fact, the trouble with giving examples
of great service is that people often miss
the “concept” and go straight to the technique. There is probably no other airline
that can copy the Southwest techniques
and get the same results. Why? Because
humor is and always has been part of the
DNA of Southwest. It is authentic. It is
who they are.
Marcus Buckingham tells the story of a
very successful store manager at a Best Buy
in South Florida who completely turned
that location’s customer satisfaction and
sales around. How? What was the technique? Before I tell you the technique, let
me tell you that this manager bore a striking resemblance to a young Fidel Castro.
In South Florida, this is significant.
So when our young Castro lookalike
took over as store manager, he put up post-
ers in the employee break room and the
back of the house announcing “La Revolucion!” He had his assistant managers dress
in Army fatigues to support the theme.
He got all of them military-like whistles
and instructed them to “blow the whistle”
whenever they caught employees doing
something right. The whole atmosphere
of the store changed with this approach to
recognition of employees and the theme
of customer service “revolution.”
I don’t think you can use that technique,
because it isn’t who you are. But you can
use the concepts of having fun at work and
catching people doing something right
and rewarding the behaviors you want so
you can get more of those great customer
service behaviors.
So let me share three service concepts
and challenge you to apply them to your
business in a way that is authentic and is,
in fact, who you are. In other words, the
exact techniques are up to you.
First, you must be brilliant at the basics.
Whether you are cutting hair, cleaning
homes, or serving meals, you must show
your customers that you deliver on what
you promise every time. That means you
have achieved operational excellence in
the area in which you compete. Keeping
your service promise is how you win the
trust of customers.
Second, you must create emotional
connections with customers. That means
your employees have to behave in ways that
make customers smile or laugh or feel like
VIPs. Being brilliant at the basics wins you
trust, but creating emotional connections
with customers makes them love you. In
this deliberate effort, intent counts more
than technique!
Third, you must create a service excellence culture that is so contagious that
every new employee instantly feels it and
understands what behaviors are expected—
and which are unacceptable. Your company
must have a set of service behaviors that
you always do, and another set of behaviors that you never do. Culture is simply,
“How we do things around here.”
Do you have the vision and leadership
to execute these three concepts?
SMG Vice President Jack
Mackey helps multi-unit operators improve customer loyalty and drive growth. Contact
him at 816-448-4556 or
[email protected].