Читать книгу The Million Dollar Greeting - Dan Sachs - Страница 7

Introduction

A Brief (But Necessary) History of Customer Service

I started thinking about this book a couple of years ago. After examining my own experiences as an independent entrepreneur, teaching at DePaul University in Chicago, and years of consulting, I began to see clear patterns emerge between leadership behavior and organizations that provide great customer service. I recognized that some organizations seemed to expend a lot of energy and focus in order to offer exceptional customer service, while others did not. This isn’t a revolutionary observation, but I decided to dig a little deeper to find out what makes those “best in class” organizations tick. I dug so deep, in fact, that I wound up with this book, which showcases nine “best in class” companies and outlines the core principles their leaders have adopted to encourage and nurture great service.

I have spent most of my life working in the hospitality sector, and my career has taken me across the country. I began as a line cook and restaurant manager in New York City and eventually owned several restaurants in Chicago. I have known, worked with, or worked for some of the most respected leaders in the culinary industry. Perhaps more importantly, I grew up in an entrepreneurial home where taking care of your customer was emphasized from an early age. In many ways, I learned about customer service the “old school” way—by watching my father.

Of course, great customer service can be defined in many ways. From my perspective, it involves three key stakeholders: employees, customers, and shareholders. These are not unique components in any service company, but as our workforce begins to transition and more millennials assume positions of responsibility, organizational leadership is at an inflection point. The leaders profiled in this book realize this, and it’s no coincidence that they focus so strongly on employees when talking about their vision for excellence. For this new generation, the old top-down management structure no longer provides the workplace satisfaction that it might have in years past. As a result, new leaders are changing the workplace dynamic in an effort to capture the hearts and minds of their employees and, ultimately, their customers.

And, as you will see, the employees of these organizations are not only engaged but also stimulated by their work. This synergy between a new management structure and employee engagement leads to remarkable results: consistently profitable companies with reputations for exceptional customer service and a cohort of employees who rank their organizations in the top tier of places to work in North America. The leaders profiled in this book exhibit clear patterns of belief, behavior, and purpose. Some are “Evangelists”—true believers who have organized their companies down to the smallest detail in an effort to ensure that each aspect of operations offers employees and guests alike a consistent experience. Others are “Transformers”—leaders who recognize that the workplace is changing and that their organizations need to meet the future head-on, with eyes wide open. Last, but not least, there are “Pragmatists”—leaders who recognize and embrace changes in the employee population and the workplace culture in order to deliver quality to their customers. Regardless of their paths, these leaders share a consistent message, which is that certain core values must be present for outstanding customer service to be delivered. These values are accountability, authenticity, culture, community, and vision.

Creating an organization that champions customer service not just in words but in deeds is hard work—there’s no app for that. Yet, the leaders in this book have all developed systems to ensure that customers are not only treated well but, equally if not more importantly, employees are too—many even better than the customers.

Whether they consciously know it or not, many of the tools these leaders employ incorporate well-established tactics, some of which have existed for centuries as part of the hospitality sector of the service economy. Only as the workplace has slowly transformed in the past twenty to thirty years, have we started see these hospitality traits manifest themselves more commonly in other industries. Leaders in every industry who have embraced these tools have created organizations that differentiate themselves from the pack.

Of course, we all know there are no “perfect” leaders or companies. The strategies used by the leaders in this book will not apply to every company, and you may relate to some of the anecdotes more than others. Still, despite any shortcomings, this book illustrates how to move forward on a path that embraces a new generation of employees looking for meaning, authenticity, and a sense of community within the workplace. For these employees and their leaders, dedication to outstanding customer service may not be a religion, but it certainly could be a substitute for it.

It All Starts with Hospitality, Baby

No One Said It Was Going to Be Easy

Consider this: over 80 percent of the United States workforce is part of the service economy (United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment by Major Industry Sector, 2016, most current available data).

Yet, most businesses spend only marginal time and resources to help frontline employees understand and appreciate the value of excellent customer service. While an organization may have clearly defined customer service training plans, we’ve all experienced enough varying levels of “service” to know that excellence is not easily taught or achieved. Moreover, despite overwhelming evidence of the economic value of high-quality customer service, according to the 2017 NICE in Contact CX Transformation Benchmark Study, there is an 18 percent gap between company and customer perceptions of service quality.1 And given that happy customers are loyal customers, this raises an important question: Can a company afford the gap between customer perception and the quality of its service?

I believe the answer to that question is a fairly straightforward no. However, providing consistent service excellence is hard. Really hard, in fact. It’s not that companies don’t want to offer good service. But without a dedicated, consistent organizational approach, it’s not going to happen. We’ve all experienced poor service from organizations within the hospitality sector—the very industry where good service is the very product that is being purchased. So how much can we really expect from an accountant or a telecom company? Add to the mix the fact that the new, younger workforce is unlikely to intuitively understand how to execute hospitality excellence, and you have a recipe for disaster.

According to the 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer, more than seven out of ten respondents claim they spend more money with a company that delivers great service—and you, like me, may very well be one of these seven. Similarly, nine out of ten people claim that they would pay more to ensure superior service (Customer Experience Impact Report, Harris Interactive, 2010). The data shows that there is a direct link between an investment in hospitality training and profitability. So, what’s the problem?

To start, we need to understand the word hospitality and why its meaning extends far beyond your meal at a local restaurant or a hotel stay. There is an equation that describes the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction:

Hospitality = Empathy + Action

Now, substitute the word “hospitality” for “service quality” and you can start to see the point. I spoke with Susan Salgado, founder and CEO of Hospitality Quotient, a New York-based hospitality consulting firm, and she explains hospitality this way: “Hospitality is about being on the other person’s side. So, by our definition, in order to provide great service to any group of people, we need to put ourselves in their shoes and figure out what they want and deliver on that kind of experience.” Communicating with empathy, however, can be tricky, especially for younger generations who have grown up communicating via text, Snapchat, and Facebook. Many of them haven’t had as much personal human interaction as earlier generations, so it can be difficult for them to imagine walking in a customer’s shoes. “In terms of millennials and what they’re looking for—it’s a low-touch, high-tech kind of interaction,” says Salgado.

Moreover, even when people are trained how to empathize, they need to know how to take the information they glean and convert it into action. As Salgado explains, “What does your demographic want? What does your individual customer want? You need to tailor that experience to match that desire.” If we accept that these are the right questions to ask about hospitality, then we can start to evaluate the tools that achieve hospitality success—primarily through understanding how leaders create an environment that fosters empathy with employees and, ultimately, customers. Mastering this equation can lead to a multitude of successes, both emotional and financial.

Starting Fresh

Have you ever thought about how many times you encounter service in your daily routine? I have, and what I’ve come to realize is that I provide or experience a “service” (the idea of helping or doing work for somebody else) multiple times throughout the day, starting as soon as my alarm clock goes off. Because my interactions with others—family, friends, coworkers, and strangers alike—dominate my day, they also set the tone for my own behavior, which then influences my attitude toward others. This idea is nothing new, but it’s very easy to lose track of how significantly our own actions can affect the people around us and vice versa.

Usually, my morning begins by waking my kids up and getting them ready for school, along with letting out and feeding our black poodle, who is the most compliant of all of them. It feels like a pretty mundane routine, day in and day out, and I’m sure many of you experience the same type of feeling, like you’re on autopilot. But if I take a step back and think about it, my morning “routine” is actually the beginning of my own personal quality service delivery experience. And that delivery experience definitely varies, because if I’m honest with myself, I’m not a vessel of boundless energy and optimism every morning, though I wish I were.

Even if I manage to get the kids to school on time and myself to work without too much drama, we’ve still influenced each other. Having repeated this harried thirty-minute daily exercise thousands of times, I’ve learned a lot from it. Take the following situation, which happens more often than I would like it to.

It’s a Tuesday. I’m out of bed a few minutes late and because I didn’t plan for any extra time, I’m already behind my schedule of waking, feeding, and getting my kids ready for school. So, I rush them out of bed, let the dog out, find some food in the fridge, and start to get everyone moving. In the midst of preparing breakfast for the kids and the dog, there is little or no effort to interact. They’re still tired and I’m rushed, so we don’t greet each other with a smile or even speak. In fact, in the rush of the routine, I’m the only one who’s normally saying anything at all, and usually I’m only reminding them to hurry up so I can get them to school on time. If we’re lucky, we all get in the car in one piece and start rolling through stop signs on the way to school. If, God forbid, somebody forgets something (as is often the case), a dark cloud moves over the car, we turn around, and rarely speak for the rest of the trip.

You may argue that providing a meaningful experience for my kids early in the morning every single day is beyond a reasonable expectation. That’s a lot of breakfasts to enrich! However, I have come to appreciate that the morning “rush” to get out of the house is a useful window into the concept of customer service generally. When thinking clearly, I know I should be treating my kids the way I want to be treated when I am picking up my coffee at the local deli or working with my clients throughout the day. It’s easy to make excuses for not creating a memorable experience day in and day out, but in the end, creating a quality experience is what can make or break your day.

We’ve all read about, and can appreciate, the value of starting the day with a smile and a positive attitude. I’m not suggesting that life is a bowl of unicorns and strawberries, but smiling at the start of the day really does seem to take the edge off. Those days that I do slow down, I notice how much more positive my interaction with my kids is. All of us feel less stressed and more relaxed, which affects everyone—including the dog.

Of course, positivity is not always possible with three kids, misplaced homework, and a dog that wants a walk, but our daily interactions offer a window into empathy, a central theme of this book. Great organizations are able to systematically cultivate empathy, which translates into action, which creates memorable experiences for their guests. This holds true whether you are making breakfast, following up with test results for a patient, or selling a pair of shoes.

Here’s another common situation, and one that you are probably very familiar with.

It’s Saturday, and you’ve got a lot to do. The first thing on your list is to call your cable company because your internet is down. After being put on hold for fifteen minutes, a representative finally picks up the phone. You explain the problem, and he tries to help you. However, you can’t understand what he’s saying. You keep asking him to repeat what he wants you to do, and both of you are getting more and more frustrated. In exasperation you ask to speak to his manager. He says the manager is busy, but he’ll put you on hold to wait for her. The line is promptly disconnected, so you have to start the process all over again and before you know it, you’ve wasted three hours trying to get your internet working again before the nightmare ends. You vow to look for another cable service provider as soon as possible, despite feeling deep down that they’re all pretty much the same.

Whether it’s not receiving an apology from the barista who gave you a latte when you asked for an espresso, arguing with a clerk when you try to return an item that’s clearly broken through no fault of your own, or trying to deal with the cable company, you likely encounter bad service every day. It’s frustrating and demoralizing because it seems to be spreading to every type of business. And it’s easy to see examples everywhere, especially when they “go viral,” as have several eye-opening incidents with airlines over the past couple of years.

In many of these cases, customers distributed videos of poor employee behavior, resulting in negative brand identity for the companies. These issues are more likely to occur when an organization has not made a commitment to implementing systems that reward exceptional customer experiences. Therefore, the result we see as consumers is mostly disappointing, a “death by a thousand pricks” that has devolved into these negative patterns of behavior. I am not suggesting that just a song and a smile can change the workplace, but there are meaningful, purposeful tactics that can improve how employees and coworkers feel about work and ultimately improve the interactions between any organization and its customers, guests, clients, or patrons.

Take a step back and think about businesses and people who deliver outstanding customer service and how they make you feel when you interact with them. Probably pretty good, right? This isn’t exactly a revelation, and trying to understand the framework for developing and building great customer relationships is nothing new. There are a lot of smart people who have written about the value of managing and maintaining customer loyalty, and some of them do it so well that they offer classes (a couple of them are even mentioned in this book). However, this book is focused on attacking the challenge of quality service delivery from a different angle. Namely: as the economy and workforce evolve, and as employees and consumers increasingly interact over the internet and even choose to forgo personal interaction whenever possible, what is the value of delivering great service? And how can empathy translate and even expand in the digital age?

The Times They Are A-Changin’

As the workforce transitions and millennials begin to take a more prominent role in frontline and leadership positions throughout the service economy, the need for understanding and managing quality customer service is compounded. In the past, many organizations in the service sector relied on mentoring and even apprenticeship models to train the next generation. However, both employees’ and customers’ expectations are quickly making the “old ways” less relevant. Often, I hear clients bemoaning the lack of willingness among new employees for “putting in the time” or “doing the grunt work.” While that may or may not be true, organizations must take responsibility for updating their own hiring practices, customer service training, and general workplace culture.

It’s time to accept a new paradigm rather than try to force the workforce into the traditional “top-down” management style, which has largely run its course. As one of the leaders profiled in this book, Nick Sarillo, says, “I love that millennials expect more from me. It forces me to think about my actions and be accountable. It forces me to think about work from their perspective.”

Millennials: Challenges and Opportunities

There’s no doubt that millennials, the eighty-three million Americans born between the early 1980s and early 2000s (according to commentators, there are no formerly recognized dates for this demographic) have already reshaped parts of the workforce. And this goes well beyond Silicon Valley, where many of them rule the roost. To put their potential future influence in perspective, it helps to compare their cohort size to the baby boomers, who number “only” seventy-five million and have, until now, been the largest and most influential generation in history. (US Census Bureau)

Some people, including a few in this book, argue that “people are individuals” and you can’t generalize about generations. They are correct; we are all individuals. However, I also subscribe to the beliefs of researchers Chip Espinoza and Mick Ukleja. In their book Managing the Millennials: Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce, they cite generational theory, the idea that each generation is impacted by what is going on in the world around them. They argue that millennials are different from previous generations, in large part because of technology and social forces unique at this point in American history.

As millennials begin to rise into management roles and become managers of even younger millennials (as well as Generation Z, the cohort following them), the challenge of helping them understand and value customer service becomes even greater. The reason for this is easy to pinpoint: they, unlike every previous generation in human history, have grown up with the internet. Once upon a time, consumers didn’t have the option of sitting in pajamas at a kitchen table, placing an order on a computer and receiving it within one to two days. For those who grew up with the internet, the efficiency and ease of website navigation and product delivery is a very important metric of customer service. They have much less experience with physically walking into a store or place of business and talking to a salesperson before purchasing a product or service. That means they may not be personally familiar with the value and importance that consumers place on positive interpersonal interactions within the service economy. Because it’s not something they’ve been exposed to or experienced, many millennials just don’t realize that people are willing to pay more for a product if they receive outstanding customer service face-to-face.

“Technology isn’t a tool to just do more work or achieve work–life blending—it’s an integral part of the members of this group and working with it has become second nature,” Espinoza and Ukleja write: “Millennials are the most-educated and technologically savvy generation ever and arguably a highly sheltered and structured generation. One in three is not Caucasian. One in four comes from a single-parent home. Three in four have working mothers; and in two-parent homes, children get more time with parents than they did twenty-five years ago.”2

Compared to every previous generation, their ease with technology makes millennials more dependent on and adept at wielding it; this is one of their many key distinguishing features. It also greatly affects how they view authority and the way they accomplish tasks, which is probably why there is a section about how to work with, manage, and understand millennials in every library and bookstore. You may have heard (and even agree with) some of the common stereotypes; “entitled,” “disloyal,” “unfocused,” and “self-absorbed” were just a few of the words that used to roll around in my head even though two of my three children, who I adore, are millennials.

After reading a number of books—such as Managing the Millennials; Millennials & Management; and The Millennial Myth—I realized that I, as a member of Generation X, had fallen into an echo chamber and succumbed to embracing the negative stereotypes without any real cause. If someone I knew complained about a millennial employee, my brain flitted to all the negative stereotypes I had read on the Web or heard about in conversations. It’s exactly what Crystal Kadakia (a millennial herself) writes about in her book, The Millennial Myth: Transforming Misunderstanding into Workplace Breakthroughs:

Two different worlds collided: the world of the distinguished expert and the world of the digital influencer. As social media’s two-way information flow grew at an enormous rate post-2000, the distinctly negative perception won out, because, frankly, that is what made headlines. . . . In contrast, while every generation has dealt with complaints, gen X and boomers didn’t have such a variety of high-volume, fast-paced sources of vocal discontent to contend with when they were coming of age.3

Of course, it never occurred to me that technology was amplifying the negative views, and I hadn’t even considered what generations previous to mine would have thought of me and my peers had the internet been available.

What’s important for our purpose is to understand that the companies that offer outstanding service have aligned their management structure, vision, and other “best practices” with the values of the millennial generation. All the organizations in this book have strong visions and values, whether they were established at the very beginning, like they were at Zingerman’s, or developed organically, like they have at Zappos. It’s no coincidence that those businesses, as well as all the others covered in this book, appeal to members of the current generation—people who value meaning at work in the same way the baby boomers valued professional identity.

Espinoza and Ukleja argue that, contrary to popular opinion, unlocking the potential of millennials really isn’t that complicated. “You have to help millennials find a reason to care,” they advise. “They are the easiest of the workforce to motivate once you have helped them find meaning in what they do. You keep them motivated by letting them see how what they do matters. They thrive in an atmosphere of change—not because of change itself, but because they get to put their mark on the future.”4

This idea that “finding meaning” in work is important for this generation is also expressed by Lee Caraher in her book, Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making It Work at Work. In it, she has prescriptive advice for managers who want to get the best work out of their millennial employees:

[Managers] should be able to answer these questions:

1. This job exists to:

2. My job is to make sure that:

3. If I wasn’t here, this is what wouldn’t happen:

That last step, the individual’s immediate picture—why “I” make a difference—is critical. It may seem excessive, I know, but if people understand their purpose within the bigger vision, if they can tie their day-to-day work to making a difference, then work goes a bit more smoother and more efficiently, with better output and good morale all the way around.5

Whether common characteristics of the millennial generation are labeled “core competencies” or “intrinsic values,” they significantly affect the workplace. Managers who want to engage this generation must recognize that giving clear, unambiguous instruction and feedback is as essential as realizing that the old “command and control” hierarchy is not a good fit for people who grew up Googling answers on a computer instead of asking an authority figure. Understanding that there truly are differences in the way this generation works and interacts compared to previous ones also means acknowledging that different techniques to teach, nurture, and manage them are required compared to earlier generations, whether they are working in a hospital or a hotel.

Let’s face it: for all the benefits technology brings, hospitality as we have defined it is not in the mix. This means ongoing, purposeful customer service training is required. Whether they’re working in an independent pizza parlor or an organization of eighty thousand employees, millennials have to learn to appreciate the value of hospitality without relying on the older practices of mentoring and apprenticeship, a change that is only going to become more pronounced as they rise to leadership positions throughout the service economy. This is a problem because the new workforce has less exposure to the customer’s need to be recognized, appreciated, and respected, especially given the challenges posed by technology when it comes to personal interactions.

Most best-in-class organizations in this book understand that younger employees are less likely to have an inherent understanding of how to manage direct relationships over time. This means that in addition to accepting the value of efficient product delivery, businesses must teach their employees communication and relationship-building. (As the businesses profiled in this book have done, and done well.)

Of course, many service sector organizations have a training program of some kind, but new employees do not necessarily have the same tools at their disposal to establish a culture of exceptional service that previous generations had. At the same time that there’s been an increase in formal customer service training programs in most companies, there has also been a decrease in what I’d call “informal” customer service training. In the past, experienced employees passed their knowledge to the next generation of workers, so even after the week or two of training ended, there was still plenty of on-the-job instruction. Although many factors have contributed to the decrease in informal training, the consequences will continue to be felt for years due to this large demographic switch.

All of which is to say, the organizations that can harness the energy of millennials and master this challenge will increase customer loyalty and profits.

Accountability: Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Throughout the examples in this book, we will see the motivations and associated habits of great leaders. Each of them has a unique story, but they all share certain common traits. In the end, there are five characteristics that seem to weave in and out of each story: authenticity, accountability, culture, community, and vision. These values manifest themselves in hiring practices, training routines, performance reviews, corporate communication, and beyond.

Not all of these traits are easily mastered, however, as Susan Salgado, the hospitality consultant, explains, “Leadership is where the rubber hits the road, and where we see the most clients struggling with it is in accountability. They’ve got a vision of what they want the customer experience to look and feel like, but they are not good at holding people accountable to that.” It’s not surprising to hear that accountability is important, but, as you will read throughout the book, these leaders seem to hold themselves to a higher standard of accountability than others I have met. They recognize that vision alone is not an adequate substitute for consistent behaviors that support their vision.

One story that comes to mind from the book is from Richard Coraine, chief of staff at Union Square Hospitality Group, one of the country’s largest and most acclaimed restaurant groups. He likens accountability to cleaning a kitchen. You tell an employee to clean the kitchen, and the dedicated employee thinks he’s done an excellent job. Then, you run your finger under the counter and find it dirty and wonder why the employee thought the kitchen was clean when it obviously wasn’t. But, you, the manager, did not explain to the employee what you meant by a “clean” kitchen at the outset. As a result, you are disappointed, the employee is frustrated, and the kitchen is not clean. Who is to blame?

Great leadership requires a consistent embrace of behavior that begins and ends with accountability. Especially in an age where younger employees are less likely to trust authority and are looking for a collaborative work environment, it is imperative that leaders consistently deliver authenticity and accountability in the workplace. As you will read in example after example, when employees feel like there is meaning and accountability throughout the organization, they will deliver exceptional service to customers.

You Need the Right Tools

Some businesses in the hospitality sector, including hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops, have developed a methodical, data-driven structure to the steps of service in order to retain customers and increase profits. You as the customer don’t realize any of this; all you know is that these businesses deliver memorable experiences not just occasionally but all the time. They’re the places you come back to again and again because you know you’ll experience excellence, no matter where or what time of day you arrive. Many of these tools have existed since the first days of the modern restaurant 250 years ago, when the first restaurants were called Maisons de Santé or “Houses of Health” in Paris. However they developed, they continue to play a large role in satisfying you as a customer.

I believe that harnessing the tools of the hospitality sector and applying them purposefully to other aspects of the service economy, such as medical and financial institutions, online retailers, and telecoms, will not only help companies develop formal training practices but also lead to a return on investment (ROI) with increased profits.

This book will begin by exploring the origins of customer service. It will then review some of the key components and models of quality service delivery, and then it will discuss the best practices with industry leaders throughout the service economy. You will read about how great organizations hire the right employees for their culture, motivate and train their staff, and set up structures to ensure great service, whether they employ thousands of people worldwide or a few hundred in suburban Chicago. You’ll see how investments in training have paid off with increased loyalty, revenue growth, and, ultimately, increased profitability.

As Susan Salgado puts it, “It’s not like it costs money to do this. We’re talking about how we treat people, and it’s not necessarily about throwing free stuff at them. It’s not going to decrease your productivity. In fact, you can increase productivity significantly because you’ll have fewer customer complaints you’ll have to dig your way out of.” In the end, leading through hospitality is a commonsense formula for success and offers ways for making all of us smile just a bit more often.

Understanding the Basics

Isn’t it wonderful to find a product you love? When I think about it, the mattress I’m currently using is spectacular and well worth the premium I paid for a good night’s sleep. However, after about a year, I started noticing some inconsistencies in the structure of the product. Some parts felt worn and uneven and I wasn’t sleeping as soundly, so I called the store where I purchased the mattress to discuss the issue. Prior to the call, I found the receipt and noticed it had a ten-year warranty that said I was entitled to a full replacement if the mattress was defective, which it seemed to be. However, after speaking with a young and inexperienced salesperson, I could immediately tell that resolving my problem wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, it took multiple calls over several weeks before the company finally accepted responsibility for the product failure. Even though I got what I wanted (and was entitled to), by the end of the ordeal I wasn’t relieved or thankful. I was extremely irritated.

Here’s how this example should be illustrative for every company in the service economy, including yours. The hassle of taking time out of my day to repeatedly deal with the matter soured me on the company to such an extent that I will never purchase a similar mattress again even though it is by far the best one I’ve ever had. While this is a simple example, it highlights the reality that the “best in class” service providers have already figured out: wonderful products are nothing without exceptional service.

Hospitality Leading the Way

Unlike many other industries, the hospitality industry is built on the relationship between an organization—whether a restaurant, hotel, or even a casino—and its target customer. Moreover, hospitality businesses have had to focus on customer service for years to retain and broaden their customer base. As a result, these organizations have developed significant systems and points of service that not only differentiate them from each other but also from the rest of the service economy.

In many cases, exceptional customer service providers in the hospitality industry must navigate constant internal physical and interpersonal constraints while simultaneously managing the expectations of their customers. The only way hospitality companies have been able to meet high expectations is to create standardized, purposeful customer service training that continues every day for as long as the company is in business. This is one of the many philosophies you will encounter throughout this book. Great organizations do not stop after the initial training is over; success is an ongoing, iterative process that is expensive initially but pays off tenfold over the long haul by developing and then keeping loyal customers.

For example, at Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, a 150-venue restaurant group profiled in this book, there is a daily staff meeting before each meal service. Expectations for the day are outlined, VIP customers identified, new menu items discussed, and so on. This daily, ten-minute, customer service training session happens at every Lettuce Entertainment restaurant, in more or less the same way, every day, across the country.

Fortunately for the rest of us, the standards and practices highlighted in this book can benefit organizations beyond the hospitality sector. The companies profiled in this book, such as Lettuce Entertain You, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Hyatt, are industry leaders and have been for a long time, but their methods are universal. These companies have developed sophisticated tools to ensure that each of their customers feel valued and appreciated, but these tools can be adopted by any company that wants to improve their customer service.

Some might argue that as technology streamlines our relationship to products, hospitality is less relevant, but I think the reverse is true. In our impersonal world, our natural need for recognition and appreciation makes the need for empathy and action that much more critical. Loyal customers are profit-driving customers. Loyal customers spend more over time and require little, if any, incentives to return again and again for the same quality and the same service. That’s why my experience with the mattress is so illustrative. If the company had solved my problem after the first phone call, they would have earned a customer for life instead of losing one.

Through a series of conversations and case studies, we’ll discuss some time-proven best practices from hospitality organizations and other industries within the service sector. Some of these studies focus on the company’s internal customers—their employees—and demonstrate the value of training and building a culture around hospitality. Other studies review the relationship between consumers and providers to explain the intrinsic connection between long-term loyalty and profit. To help you realize these goals, the book outlines purposeful management strategies that emphasize the importance of leveraging hospitality training throughout the service economy, especially at a time when the dynamics of the workforce are changing quickly and radically.

The challenges of today will only intensify over the coming years as an increasing number of baby boomers and other more experienced employees leave the workforce. Most people (but not all, as you will see) agree that the generation currently entering the workforce arrives with different expectations, and employers can either try and fight the new reality or adapt and improve, especially when it comes to quality service delivery. But despite what you may have heard—or experienced—this is an exciting time. Changes in the workplace and customer expectations are evolving quickly, and the stories in this book reveal worthwhile ideas—some simple, some complex—about how to improve workplace culture and, ultimately, deliver meaning to employees and customers alike.

Products and Services

In order to clearly understand the concepts in this book, it’s important to distinguish between “products” and “services,” especially because the transition to a more service-based economy has created such dramatic shifts in the consumer landscape. The definition of “product” is pretty straightforward: it’s something that can be inventoried, patented, and even displayed: anything from a hotel room or a pair of shoes to an online accounting service or a sticker. All mass-produced products are designed to be consistent and are defined by price, promotions, placement, and other tangible factors.

“Services,” on the other hand, are less easily defined because they cannot be inventoried and are inconsistent and fleeting. The waiter bringing your coffee, the housekeeper cleaning your hotel room, and the airline representative rebooking your flight all offer services, which create both challenges and opportunities. Organizations with high-quality customer service recognize the difference between their products and their associated services. Those that excel and keep your loyalty despite unforeseen problems mitigate many of the challenges inherent in the products by acting with empathy during the service encounter.

A Brief History Lesson

Before we dig into the interviews and case studies, some background is in order. Our best chance of understanding the challenges service providers face today, as well as those they will face in the future, is to examine the not-so-distant past. The transition from pre- to post-industrial times necessitated a new approach to customer service, and it has been continually evolving ever since, even though some key lessons have been either hard-fought or ignored.

In the interest of brevity, let’s focus on a representative example of many of the changes that have occurred over the past century: Bell Labs. A key player in the products and services industry, the company formed in 1925, when four thousand scientists and researchers from Western Electric Company and the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) were pulled into a new company: Bell Telephone Laboratories. Like Apple or Google in Silicon Valley today, Bell Labs was considered the premier tech company in the country and was as influential in the psyche of the American consumer. Bell Labs was revolutionary for its day, servicing such entities as the telephone company and the US Government. Like Tesla, Amazon, and scores of other contemporary companies, Bell Labs spent money, time, and energy testing and developing new products, ranging from the transistor to the Unix operating system. That dedication to research and development paid off, and, beginning in 1937, the company was awarded eight Nobel Prizes over a seventy-seven-year period. However, creating the technology for the transistor (Nobel Prize awarded in 1956) is one thing; ensuring that the product will work when mass-produced is another. Luckily, by that time, a system had been developed to do just that.

The formal recognition that quality was an important factor in production began in the 1920s, when Walter Shewhart, an American physicist and statistician commonly known as the “father of statistical quality control,” identified the need to control the quality of industrial products. He invented an elaborate system that introduced tracking charts to monitor quality in mass production, and then named the concept “statistical process control.” The process was later adopted by Bell Labs as a way to ensure that their mass-produced telephone products and consumer goods were meeting company standards. In fact, Shewhart’s methods were considered so sound that they were later implemented in weapons production during World War II.

Unfortunately for American consumers and businesses, the lessons learned before the war about tracking service quality were largely forgotten after it. There was a general and unquestioned sense that America’s superior ingenuity and systems were simply better than their foreign competitors and did not require any systemized quality control. In contrast, the Japanese, during their post-World War II reconstruction, realized how important quality was to the success of a product, and they famously adopted the theories developed and pitched to them by two Westerners, W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran, in the 1950s.

Both Deming and Juran believed that the majority of product defects were caused by poor management, not inept line workers, whom Americans usually blamed. Additionally, the two men thought implementing superior quality control processes while a product was being made was a far better use of resources than hiring a team of inspectors to find and assess flaws afterward. This sounds like a no-brainer now, but it was a revolutionary idea for its time. Deming and Juran convinced Japanese business leaders that if workers were given the right tools and the responsibility for making sure things were done correctly, quality would improve and there would be no need to hire teams of inspectors after the product was made. As you probably know, their argument was a persuasive one. Beginning in the 1960s, their theories strongly influenced Japanese manufacturers from Toyota to Sony and helped the “Made in Japan” phrase signify consistent, reliable products, whether a consumer was buying a Toyota car or a Sony Walkman.

While the Japanese were reorganizing their manufacturing processes around Deming and Juran’s theories, few American entrepreneurs similarly recognized the importance of structuring a company around consistently delivering a quality product. In general, American manufacturing took a step backward and focused on a “top-down,” hierarchical management style, where managers outlined expectations and demanded results, with an emphasis on short-term financial gain.

In fact, even now—in a climate where there are extraordinary demands on profitability—many organizations still have this mentality baked into their culture. For many years, the American automotive industry was a good example of this shortsighted attitude. It’s no coincidence that the industry is now a shadow of what it once was. Ignoring quality during previous decades adversely affected sales, and this choice still affects the industry’s reputation today. Consistent progress is being made in the American auto industry, but the memories linger.

The Dawn of Customer Service in America

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, urbanization expanded in the United States at a remarkable rate, from one out of four Americans living in cities in the 1870s, to two out three Americans in the 1960s. As a result, the need for services rather than goods also increased exponentially, and American companies began to recognize the significance of the shift from a manufacturing-based economy to one that was (and remains) service-driven. This shift in the economic landscape led companies to rethink their organizational approach—not to mention that at that point, the Japanese manufacturing success story was a clearly defined marker for success. Finally, American companies also began to heed Deming and Juran’s advice and rethink their organizational structures, since it was becoming glaringly obvious that the relationship between managers and workers directly affected outcomes such as job productivity, job satisfaction, and employee retention. During the 1990s, companies realized it wasn’t enough to just mass produce consistent products. They also needed a more holistic approach, with the entire organization acting as one team to ensure consistent products and offering great customer service to complement them.

Even though it may be hard to believe, the concept of “quality customer service” has only existed for about forty years. As companies realized it wasn’t good enough to simply engineer a good product, the best organizations recognized that offering quality services, or the idea that the organization would meet or beat customer expectations and remain economically competitive, would distinguish themselves from their competitors. This opened up a whole new conceptualization of the relationship between businesses and their consumers and ultimately forced companies to rethink their internal and external relationships. Relationships between managers and line employees, managers and the company culture, and the company and the public were seen as equal parts of a triad.

This being the case, some creative business leaders from firms as large as Hyatt Hotels Corporation and as small as Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, understood that in order to excel they had to make sure that employees had the right tools and training to communicate with their customers in a different way. At an early stage, they figured out that the emotional connection between the customer and the brand was the key to differentiating themselves from the competition. Effectively, these companies reimagined customer service as a more emotional connection between provider and consumer.

Take Steve Hindy, who revolutionized the craft beer industry through his company, Brooklyn Brewery. Though he had no hospitality background, he inherently understood the importance of training his sales team and creating a culture around the brewery that has sustained his business from 1988 to today. Although he focused on building brand loyalty through a great product, he quickly realized that customer service could be a defining characteristic of a great company. Steve Hindy is not alone in this belief, as you will see.

Meeting Rising Expectations

As customer service delivery became more sophisticated and more American businesses sought to build loyalty by offering better service delivery, consumers developed higher expectations about the brands themselves, which, in turn, directly affected brand identity. The growing challenge for companies was to ensure that there was no gap between the consumer’s expectation and the company’s product and delivery (or, if a gap occurred, it was as small as possible). While that might sound intuitive today, it was still a work in progress less than thirty years ago. (And even today, as my earlier example about the nonresponsive mattress company made abundantly clear, it is still a work in progress.) If anything, a kind of arms race ensued as companies began to work harder and harder to exceed expectations, knowing a disconnect between their brands and their service delivery could be disastrous.

To demonstrate what this means, let’s think about airline travel. After scouring the internet and spending hundreds of dollars on an airline ticket, the average flyer knows the flight won’t necessarily be relaxing or pleasant, but she does expect it will take off and land at approximately the prescribed time. However, if there is an extended delay, she will become annoyed, and it becomes the responsibility of the airline to recognize and apologize for the inconvenience, even in cases when it’s beyond the airline’s control. If an airline does not have a service recovery protocol in place, the airline will lose customers and tarnish its image; the damage to the airline’s brand will be long-lasting and expensive. What to do? For just a small cost, the airline can mitigate the gap between expectations and reality by offering an incentive or compensation for the delay (free snack, or travel voucher with compensation determined by the length and severity of the delay). Equally important, the airline can make sure the employees are well trained to handle unexpected flight delays with empathy and a smile rather than apathy and a snarl. All of us constantly reevaluate brand choice based on the gap between expectation and reality. If the airline meets our expectations, or comes close to meeting them, we will fly with them again. If they fail to meet our basic expectations, we will be a lot less likely to.

Organizations with strong service recognize that individual consumers have an established “zone of tolerance,” a term defined as “the range of customer perceptions of a service between desired and minimum acceptable standards.”6 In essence it is the range of service performance that a customer considers satisfactory. One solution organizations have adopted to address individual zones of tolerance occurs at the onset of the service experience. It is based on the one-on-one relationship between an individual company employee and the customer. One familiar image we have of this type of relationship is expressed in TV commercials advertising financial services consulting. Picture an investment advisor and her clients: as the clients confess their different dreams—such as to retire early, to send their children to college, or to start a business—the smiling advisor listens to each person individually and offers sage advice to all of them.

The goal of the commercial is to demonstrate the value of strong relationships in personal finance, and it does this by showing how each and every person is valued by the company, no matter how small or large her portfolio. Even if this isn’t true, the message of caring and empathy resonates and is the reason this individualized approach works and with appropriate training can be a successful customer service model.

Unfortunately, conveying this message is never as simple as we would like it to be. Most organizations struggle for a variety of reasons with delivering on the promise of exceptional service. One of the biggest is a lack of accountable, consistent leadership that, in turn, drives the focus on exceptional service.

In fact, consistency is probably the most important aspect of quality customer service delivery. Many companies spend an enormous amount of time and resources trying to ensure their brand identity remains consistent through advertising, slogans, and even mission statements, but give relatively little thought to the consumer’s direct interaction with that same brand, a significant disconnect between the importance of product and service. The value of ongoing training that emphasizes an appreciation and understanding of outstanding service cannot be underestimated. Even in the best cases, long-term employees can become jaded over time, forgetting or dismissing the brand promise for expediency.

Over the next nine chapters, you will be introduced to some exceptional leaders. They have all developed tools that have reshaped the organizational landscape of their companies. As you will see, this process often starts with hiring and training, but that merely scratches the surface. Whether consciously or not, they have embraced the true meaning of hospitality to help their organizations frame their core vision and values. The results provide insight on new ways to think about every aspect of the employee experience. In turn, these leaders have found that their organizations are rewarded tenfold with exceptionally loyal employees, customers, and, ultimately, more efficient and profitable business models. That’s a recipe for success!

1 https://www.niceincontact.com/call-center-resource-finder/2017-incontact-­cx-­transformation-­benchmark-study-business-wave.

2 Chip Espinoza and Mick Ukleja, Managing the Millennials: Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce, (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2016), 7.

3 Crystal Kadakia, The Millennial Myth, (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2017), 3.

4 Espinoza and Ukleja, Managing the Millennials, 157.

5 Lee Caraher, Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making It Work at Work, (Brookline, MA: Bibliomotion, Inc., 2015), 47.

6 Zeithami, Valarie, Berry, Leonard, Parasuraman, A. “Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service Quality.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 52, Issue 2, 35-48. 4/1988.