Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services Spring 2020 | Page 9

CUSTOMER SERVICE
Are Smiles
Really Free?
S
MILES COME AT SIGNIFICANT
COSTS
How many times have you heard,
“A smile is free. It costs absolutely
nothing to give but can mean
the world to the person who receives it?”
I agree with the second part, “can mean
the world to the person who receives it”,
but I do not agree with the first part, “a
smile costs absolutely nothing”. Maybe
from a personal standpoint, yes, it costs us
nothing to smile at one another, however,
not in a business sense. Think about the
friendliest businesses you deal with, where
it would be hard to find an employee who
isn’t smiling, i.e. Disney, The Ritz-Carlton,
Southwest Airlines, or Chick-fil-A. To get
all your employees to consistently smile
comes at a significant cost to both the
business and customers. The investment
for the business is that they must recruit
better, hire happier employees and train
more than everyone else. That investment
means the businesses will have to charge
more for their services and products. So, in
reality, the customers (gladly) pay more for
smiling faces. Don’t be mistaken; it is one
of the greatest investments you can ever
make. the restaurant chain invests more than
other companies in training its employees
and helping them advance their careers —
regardless of whether those careers are in
fast food.
CHICK-FIL-A #1 IN POLITENESS RETURN ON SMILES
According to a QSR Magazine’s annual
report, Chick-fil-A is the politest chain
in the restaurant business. Employees at
Chick-fil-A were the most likely of the
chains surveyed to say “please” and “thank
you,” and to smile at customers. “We
know our customers appreciate that we
can be nice while being fast and accurate,”
says Mark Moraitakis, Senior Director
of Hospitality and Service Design. “Eye
contact and smiling go a long way in the
drive-thru experience.” Does this obsession with the customer
experience and fanatical attention to
detail really pay off? The chain consistently
ranks first in restaurant customer service
surveys. In recent years, Chick-fil-A
generated more revenue per restaurant
than any other fast-food chain in the US.
The chain’s average sales per restaurant
reached nearly $4 million, compared to
the average KFC, which sold $1 million.
Customer service is the key to Chick-fil-A’s
success. Superior customer service drives
higher sales per unit, contributing to the
chain’s ability to generate higher annual
sales than KFC, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s
even though each has more than twice as
many US locations. +
It is certainly not the pay. According to
Glassdoor, Chick-fil-A doesn’t pay much
more than the industry average. Then why
is Chick-fil-A consistently the highest rated
chain in customer satisfaction? Because
John R. DiJulius is a best-selling author, consultant, keynote speaker and President
of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation.
He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices.
TheDiJuliusGroup.com
BY: JOHN DiJULIUS
PRESIDENT, THE DiJULIUS GROUP
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