Margaritas or lemonade? Great customer service is about small details

My family and I recently returned from a vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and traveling outside the United States gives me reason to worry something might go wrong. Whether it is security delays, customs, the threat of terrorism, or just the inconvenience of traveling, it seems like vacationing is more difficult than ever before. Small details sometimes ruin what could have been a great vacation.

My wife handles all my travel and our family vacation arrangements. In this case, she used the Internet to plan our entire vacation, causing me great apprehension.

As our plane circled the airport in Los Cabo, all I could see was one small landing strip among the cactus, sand, and desert. My brain kicked into gear and began to analyze all the mistakes, bad service, or disasters awaiting us.

To my surprise, transportation was standing by for us at the airport. The 45-minute trip to the resort was uneventful. The air-conditioning

in the van worked perfectly, and the driver was courteous and helpful. I was beside myself.

The arched gateway of La Hacienda Del Mar Beach Resort greeted our arrival, and the doorman took our baggage, asking one profound question: "Would you like margaritas or lemonade?" After traveling on a plane for eight hours and 45 minutes, small details become magical.

If you own or manage a customer service business, the recipe for exceptional service boils down to the small details. Some of those details may be as simple as friendly employees, clean rest rooms, or something to add value to the customer experience. When designing your customer service plan, consider what small details you can provide to make your place of business stand out in the hearts and minds of your customers. Consider the following:

I rarely visit art museums and galleries, but I was attracted to a small one near my hotel in San Francisco. This place was a treasure trove of paintings from both living and deceased artists. There were actual originals by many of the masters, including my personal favorite--Normal Rockwell. One of my best-loved works was right there in front of my eyes. It was his picture with the Boy Scout. I was overwhelmed with this place, and so impressed I gave my business card to one of the people working there. As a result, I now get emails from this gallery every time they have a showing. Most businesses lose 15-20 percent of their customers each year because they do not keep in touch. This gallery's e-mail marketing strategy provides an easy and inexpensive way to keep itself memorable. I only wish I had the money to purchase one of those pieces of art!

The Lost Sock, a self-service laundry in Richmond, Va., has added a new dimension to the soapy floors and broken washers normally found in most Laundromats. Every Thursday night they have an "open mike" event. About 100 guests come to wash their laundry, have a few beers, and watch their friends perform.

A unique store in Stone Mountain, Ga., specializes only in hot sauces and spices. They include a $2 bill with a little red pepper-shaped sticker applied to the back of the bill with the customer's change. The sticker has their store name and phone number. Since most people don't give out $2 bills, customers usually carry them in their wallets for a long time and show them to their friends, and the bill and its accompanying sticker become a marketing campaign for the business.

Owners of the Jordan Furniture stores in Massachusetts claim their company sells more furniture per square foot than any other furniture store in the country. Everything from zany television commercials, purple painted parking lots, and the Multi-media Motion Odyssey Movie ride--commonly known as MOM--helped build a thriving and successful business. Loading dock employees occasionally dress in tuxedos. When shoppers drive around the back to pick up their furniture, the employees surprise them by washing their car windows and tires and providing free hot dogs.

One hardware store dramatically increased its sales and improved its level of customer service by allowing employees to design their own customer service strategy. The storeowners wanted to design a more customer focused and bottom-up, employee-driven store, where everyone could take ownership. The end result was a task force consisting of supervisors, managers, and frontline employees who designed a pocket card with the "20 Commandments of Customer Service." Now each manager and employee carries this card with them at all times. The store is enjoying improved employee attitudes, reduced turnover, and a rising level of customer service in the store.

Early in the 90s, the Ritz-Carlton hotels increased sales by $75 million using 500,000 fewer man-hours by eliminating small defects and recurring problems affecting their guests. They created a form called the Internal Defect Form (IDF). Any employee noticing a deficiency or defect during the workday completes an IDF. All forms are forwarded to the hotel Quality Office for consolidation. The Quality Office then tracks the forms and sends them to the appropriate department. Department managers and Quality Coaches take action to fix the defect.

The important thing to remember is that small, seemingly insignificant details have a major impact on good service. Average organizations ignore or overlook minor customer inconveniences, and excellent organizations focus on the details.

Gregory P. Smith shows businesses how to build productive and profitable work environments that attract, keep, and motivate a workforce. He is the author of Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Work force from High-Turnover to High-Retention (Dearborn Trade Publishing). He speaks at conferences, conducts management training, and is the president of the management consulting firm Chart Your Course International (www.chartcourse.com) in Atlanta, Ga. Contact him at 770/860-9464.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Quality Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group