This past week I encountered two extremes of “killer service” worth sharing.
The first instance was when a friend, who had asked me to give her a ride
because her car was being repaired and would not be available when she needed
it, called to say that her car was ready after all. The mechanic had worked on
it until 10:30 p.m. on Friday so that she was not inconvenienced over the holiday week-end.
The second example was a young family who were moving into their new house
over the week-end. The deal was scheduled to close on Friday and they were
assured that everything was in order. By late Friday afternoon, however, the
formalities were still not done. Earlier they were told that there had
been a mistake in the paperwork, but not to worry as all would
be sorted before the end of the day. As the day drew to a close they
anxiously phoned the mortgage company again and were told it would be another 5
minutes and someone would call them to confirm that everything was sorted. When the family didn’t hear anything after the promised 5 minutes
they called back, only to get an answering machine telling them that the
business was now closed for the long week-end!
So the poor family had to:-
- Remain in their temporary accommodation for
another three days, including unpacking and repacking some of their things. - Cancel the movers who were scheduled for early Saturday morning.
- Adjust their arrangements for the following week
– which also necessitated the father having to take a day’s vacation as his wife could not manage the move on her own with a
small baby to look after.
Unfortunately their litany of woe didn’t end
there. Tuesday lunch-time saw them sitting in an empty apartment, with all their
belonging loaded into the truck waiting outside and the movers having departed,
still waiting to learn when they could pick up the keys to their new home.
Apparently the mortgage company had now paid the money into the wrong bank
account and the seller – quite rightly – would not hand over the keys! It was
late that night before they were finally able to move.
So there you have it: two extremes of “killer” customer service. In the first
instance you have the kind of service that “kills” the competition. In the
second you have the kind of service that “kills” the business. But what creates
the different mindsets?
Employee ownership! In the first example, the mechanic
was also the owner of the business. In the second the employees were simply
disengaged drudges, whose word meant nothing and who were quite prepared to
walk out without giving any thought to the consequences of their incomplete
work.
If you are serious about your business and want to ensure that you provide a
superior customer experience that wows your customers and blows away the
competition you need to ensure you build the right level of employee
engagement. And you can never doubt that employee ownership is the best way to
build employee engagement.