Take Their Breath Away E-Book

Chip R. Bell

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 394

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Praise for Take Their Breath Away "Are you bored? We're so spoiled that when something is merely good enough, we just walk away. Chip and John explain that the surefire method for growth and customer loyalty is simple: don't be boring." --Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and Tribes "Take Their Breath Away shows how legendary customer service delivery can win and keep devoted customers for life. I LUV this fantastic book." --Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines Company "No one knows more about creating profit through service than Chip and John. If you want to know the best way to do it, read Take Their Breath Away. The examples in this book will certainly start your creative juices flowing and help your organization take your customers' breath away. --Howard Beharformer, former president, Starbucks Coffee International.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Also by Chip R. Bell

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

THE FINANCIAL PAYOFF OF IMAGINATIVE SERVICE IN A TIGHT ECONOMY

HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK

PART ONE - Twelve Take-Their-Breath-Away Strategies

A HALF-DOZEN IMAGINATIVE SERVICE HORS d’OEUVRES

WALK ON THE INVENTIVE SIDE

CHAPTER 1 - Animation

THE SPIRIT OF ANIMATION

ATTITUDE

COMFORT

PERSONAL

RESPECT

SPARKLY

CHAPTER 2 - Reinvention

THE REQUIREMENT FOR CREATIVITY

JUICERS

SERVICE DONE SLOWER

SERVICE DONE REMOTELY

SERVICE DONE WITH A HELPER

SERVICE DONE BACKWARD

UNCONVENTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

WACKY

CHAPTER 3 - Decoration

DECORATION BASICS

THEME

THE SCOOP ON THEME

PUTTING THEME INTO ACTION

SENSE

SIMPLE SENSE

COMFORT

FUNCTION

CHAPTER 4 - Camouflage

BEHIND THE MAGIC

INVISIBILITY

PROCESS # 1: SHOPPING CARTS SHOULD APPEAR TO ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE.

PROCESS # 2: PRODUCE IS ALWAYS IN STOCK.

PROCESS #3: IMPERFECTIONS ARE NEVER NOTICED.

PROCESS #4: PARKING IS A BREEZE.

PROCESS #5: WAIT TIME IN CHECKOUT LINE.

TRANSFERENCE

CLAIRVOYANCE

MYSTERY

CHAPTER 5 - Concierge

THE HEART OF CONCIERGE SERVICE

DETAILS

EXTRAS

MENTOR

KNOW ME

THANKS

CHAPTER 6 - Partnership

PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERSHIP

INCLUSION

GENEROSITY

TRUST

WIDE AWAKE

BONE HONESTY

CHAPTER 7 - Cult-Like

THE PRINCIPLES OF CULT-LIKE

NETWORK

IDENTITY

DARING

SECRET

CHARACTER

CHAPTER 8 - Luxury

UNDERSTANDING THE LUXURY-SEEKING CUSTOMER

THE PROTOCOLS OF LUXURY SERVICE

LUXURY SERVICE IS AUTHENTIC AND SYMMETRICAL

LUXURY SERVICE IS MAGICAL AND SUBTLE

LUXURY SERVICE EDUCATES TO INVITE EXPERIMENTATION

LUXURY SERVICE ELEVATES AND ENRICHES

LUXURY SERVICE IS A UNIQUE SENSORY EXPERIENCE

LUXURY SERVICE IS THE PINNACLE OF COMFORT

ELEGANCE WITH ALL THE ARROGANCE REMOVED

CHAPTER 9 - Air

THE MANAGEMENT OF SERVICE AIR

AIR-PLAIN

AIR APPARENT

AIR SHOW

CHAPTER 10 - Air Defense

PROTECTING SERVICE AIR

ASSESSING AIR DEFENSE

MANAGING AIR DEFENSE

ANXIETY MONITOR

FEAR SCREEN

CUSTOMER SOUNDING BOARD

COMPLAINT FORENSICS

CHAPTER 11 - Scout’s Honor

UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER TRUST GAP

TAKING THE ANGST OUT OF CUSTOMER HOPES

CARING ACTIONS

COMPETENCE

CORE PROTECTION

CONSTRAINT-FREE EXECUTION

CONSISTENCY

PUTTING THE “US” BACK IN TRUST

CHAPTER 12 - Firefighter

HOW CUSTOMERS VIEW SERVICE RECOVERY

SERVICE RECOVERY PRINCIPLES

TACTICS OF A FIREFIGHTER STRATEGY

PARTNERING

CONNECTIVITY

PROBLEM-SOLVING PROWESS

RECOVERY LEGENDS

RECOVERY TRAINING

RESPONSIBLE FREEDOM

METRICS AND MAPPING

PART TWO - The Take-Their-Breath-Away Execution Plan

CHAPTER 13 - Insight Understanding Your Customer

CAPTURING INTELLIGENCE IN THE FIELD

SCOUT REPORTS

ESTABLISHING BOARDS OF CUSTOMERS

TOWN HALLS SQUARED

DEAR COMPANY

CUSTOMER INPUT CONTEST

BIG DEAL MEETINGS WITH A CUSTOMER AGENDA

CUSTOMER ADVISORY TEAMS

CUSTOMER WEATHERPERSON

MULTICHANNEL RESPONSE SYSTEMS

CHAPTER 14 - Oversight Assessing Your Launch Pad

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

FORGOTTEN VOICES

AIR FILTER

IMPORTANT VOICES

BEYOND SETTING TARGET DATES

CHAPTER 15 - Spotlight Choosing a Take-Their-Breath-Away Strategy

CHOOSING A SERVICE LEVEL

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF THE TAKE-THEIR-BREATH-AWAY STRATEGIES

FROM SERVICE STRATEGY TO SERVICE VISION

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER: A CASE EXAMPLE

CHAPTER 16 - Foresight Unearthing Potential Customer Stressors

Treasure Fault #1: Competing Priorities

Treasure Fault #2: Processes That Don’t Play Well ... Together

Treasure Fault #3: No Sustainability Plan

Treasure Fault #4: “We’ve Always Done It That Way”

Treasure Fault #5: Uncommitted People, Especially Leaders

Treasure Fault #6: Out-of-Sync Performance Management

Treasure Fault #7: Inadequate Competence

CHAPTER 17 - Green Light Launch Lessons for Leaders

TRUMPET

EXHIBIT

ENERGIZE

HARMONIZE

SPONSOR

RAINBOWS EVERY DAY

Notes

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index

Praise for Take Their Breath Away

“Are you bored? We’re so spoiled that when something is merely good enough, we just walk away. Chip and John explain that the surefire method for growth and customer loyalty is simple: don’t be boring.”

—Seth Godin, author, The Purple Cow and Tribes

“Take Their Breath Away shows how legendary customer service delivery can win and keep devoted customers for life. I LUV this fantastic book.”

—Colleen Barrett, president emeritus, Southwest Airlines Company

“No one knows more about creating profit through service than Chip and John. If you want to know the best way to do it, read ‘Take Their Breath Away.’ The examples in this book will certainly start your creative juices flowing and help your organization take your customers’ breath away.

—Howard Behar, president, Starbucks Coffee International, retired

“Take Their Breath Away is a fun and inspiring book that provides a creative approach for achieving ‘out of the box’ customer devotion.”

—Mike Vance, former director of Idea Development for Walt Disney Productions and dean of Disney University

“Customer loyalty is at the heart of business success in the best of economic times and has even greater importance in the face of economic uncertainty. John and Chip have written the quintessential practical guide to securing profitability by serving your way to customer evangelism.”

—Joseph Michelli, author, The New Gold Standard

Also by Chip R. Bell

Customer Loyalty Guaranteed: Create, Lead, and Sustain, Remarkable Customer Service (with John R. Patterson)

Magnetic Service: Secrets for Creating Passionately Devoted Customers (with Bilijack R. Bell)

Service Magic: The Art of Amazing Your Customers (with Ron Zemke)

Knock Your Socks Off Service Recovery (with Ron Zemke)

Customer Love: Attracting and Keeping Customers for Life Beep Beep!: Competing in the Age of the Road Runner (with Oren Harari)

Dance Lessons: Six Steps to Great Partnerships in Business and Life (with Heather Shea)

Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning Customers as Partners: Building Relationships that Last Managing Knock Your Socks off Service (with Ron Zemke)

Service Wisdom: Creating and Maintaining the Customer Service Edge (with Ron Zemke)

The Trainer’s Professional Development Handbook (with Ray Bard, Leslie Stephen, and Linda Webster)

Understanding Training: Perspectives and Practices (with Fredric Margolis)

Instructing for Results: Managing the Learning Process

(with Fredric Margolis)

Clients and Consultants (with Leonard Nadler)

Influencing: Marketing the Ideas That Matter

The Client-Consultant Handbook (with Leonard Nadler)

Also by John R. Patterson

Customer Loyalty Guaranteed: Create, Lead, and Sustain,

Remarkable Customer Service (with Chip R. Bell)

Copyright © 2009 by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson. All rights reserved.

Take Their Breath Away™ is a service mark or registered service mark of Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson, © 2009.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Bell, Chip R.

Take their breath away : how imaginative service creates devoted customers/ by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-48532-3

1. Customer services—United States. 2. Consumer satisfaction—United

States. 3. Customer loyalty—United States. 4. Service industries—Customer services-United States. I. Patterson, John R. II. Title.

HF5415.5.B.8’12—dc22

2008054902

To Lisa, Bilijack, Kaylee, Annabeth, and Cassie BellTo Jay, Molly, Carrie, Chad, and Sarah Patterson“You take our breath away!”

INTRODUCTION

A Call For Imaginative Service

Customers are bored! Service providers, chastised by the less-than-exciting results of their surveys, have put all their eggs in the improvement basket. Like the well-trodden story of attempts to free the 18-wheeler truck stuck in the overpass, too many units and organizations have sought the help of a jackhammer or a welding torch; too few have simply let the air out of the truck tires.

Getting better has meant improving efficiency—making the service experience faster, simpler, or more accurate. Service designers have typically asked, “How can we satisfy our customers?” rather than “How can we take their breath away?” “How can we make what we have better?” has taken precedence over “What if we made it completely different?” Enhancement has been about taking the next step rather than taking a completely new direction. We improve rather than invent.

The result? We hold up companies like Nordstrom, Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, and the Container Store as exemplars. Not to say that they all don’t deserve credit for elevating the standards from the mediocre levels of the ’80s. But, take a closer look. These service greats focus on the customer (like remembering your preferences), design service processes around customer convenience, pay attention to service details, deliver consistency, and ensure you receive warm and friendly service. Most small-town merchants would probably say, “So what! Is that not what service means in the first place? When did such stock-in-trade start getting held up as something special?”

While we are sipping our pricey lattes, returning a shirt to the super gracious clerk, or getting turndown service with a personal note on the pillow, something else has been happening. We are getting way over-stimulated. Television has become both high definition and multimedia. The nightly news shows the weather report, ball scores, stock market numbers, and a crawling headline simultaneously on the TV screen. Internet servers have become a haven for colorful ads with video streaming at you while you try to concentrate on reading your e-mails. Even the Little League ballpark is cloistered among giant billboards. Hitting a home run makes a bragging sponsor as noteworthy as a budding sports star. That steady stream of sensory arousal has made a simple hotel check-in, taking Spot to the vet, or grocery shopping seem humdrum and plain vanilla.

One could argue for a slower pace and a simpler lifestyle. Instead why not enrich the clutter and harmonize the noise by offering ways to make customers laugh, reflect, swoon, or swell with pride? We have titled this book Take Their Breath Away because that is exactly the customer reaction to which customer service needs to aspire. Customers long to take from a service experience the emotional reaction they have to a golden sunset, perfect rainbow, magic trick, or poignant story. They want to be lifted beyond service that is pretty good to service that is remarkable.

This refreshingly novel brand of service leaves customers more than cheaply entertained—it leaves them richly stirred. Customers instinctively appreciate such an expression as coming from a solid intent to make a difference, not just a superficial desire to make an impression. Customers who experience such hybrid service want to return for more. They know it is rare and special; it is, in a word, imaginative.

This book does not attempt to “spamize” service but rather seeks to inspire and “nobilize” service. The path we have chosen is not the linear next step,but rather the quantum leap to a service expression that is fresh and novel. Get ready for a wild ride. The pages to follow will help you challenge conventional wisdom and upset the status quo. Want a quick taste?

As many chain hotels are struggling in the throes of “me too” competition and travel cutbacks, Hotel Monaco is thriving. Why? Because they deliver to the business traveler a funky, enchanting experience with goldfish in the room, leopard-skin bathrobes, foreign coins on the pillow instead of mints, and a psychic quietly reading palms in the lobby during the afternoon wine tasting. Not your cup of tea? Perhaps not. But for the market to whom the experience is targeted, it has been a winning recipe.

As Hotel Monaco and other imaginative service greats know so well, the desire to provide take-their-breath-away service spreads through memorable stories. Imagine the excitement that went through Walt Disney World theme park hotels when word spread that a housekeeper had cleverly moved Disney souvenir toys around in a guest’s room to make the youngsters staying there convinced the toys had come alive while they were away at the park. This book is aimed at spreading that same type of thinking. The manicurist who not only opened the car door for her patrons, but also started their ignition no doubt left her customers with a story to tell. This is a story-building manual.

Stories have a viral effect. They unfold and spread very differently than the daily news. They broadcast more like rumors than reports. The value of such virus-like transmission is the way they swirl into the heart and thus lasso customers into their fold. The tale told by a friend is a far more powerful instrument for inviting customer devotion than the best ad or cleverest sales pitch.

The venue for take-their-breath-away service is not limited to those organizations whose names we can all drop. It is also the mailroom that dressed employees in costumes once a week, or the information technology department that built their service experience around the Road Runner cartoon character. It is the accounting firm that had partners wear Superman T-shirts under their business suits and to “think Superman” when meeting with clients. The tapestry of imaginative service spans the space from the wacky to the weird, from the silly to the sublime. The thread linking them all is an unmistakable quest for an experience that customers value, remember, and remark favorably about.

The need is clear—it is time for units and organizations to reignite the flame of customer experience. It is a conclusion heard from click-and-brick retailers, financial organizations, healthcare companies, restaurant companies, air carriers, and even non-profits coast to coast and, indeed, around the globe. Customer service is long overdue a wake-up call.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Customer service has been on a roller-coaster ride for the last 20 years. In the mid-1980s, the buzzword was “customer satisfaction.” Winners worked hard to understand and meet customer needs. Satisfaction was the brass ring of choice, and the corporate drumbeat began its roll. Banners, bands, and banter told employees to start focusing on satisfying the customer. After all, the customer was always right.

In the 1990s, the customer service bar got raised. As quality initiatives began to impact product quality, simply satisfying the customer was viewed as nothing more than the price of admission in the game to win the customer. The real winners focused on customer loyalty and retention. The first wave of change, punctuated by Disney and Nordstrom stories along with words like “wowing,” “outrageous,” and “raving fans,” characterized a new emphasis on loyalty and retention. It came replete with graphs and numbers that keyed off of the lifetime worth of a customer. The motto became “Keep the customer for life and your bottom line will be the envy of the industry.” Names like Carl Sewell, Frederick Reichheld, Ron Zemke, Leonard Berry, and Earl Sasser were the important prophets in the customer loyalty emphasis.

Toward the end of the 1990s, customer loyalty got a new wrinkle: customized service. The development of data-mining technology enabled organizations to gain and retain large amounts of information about the customer—not just demographics and financial information, but buying preferences and behavior. This enabled organizations to focus on customized (or as one popular business evangelist put it, “customerized”) service. One became the key number, as in one-to-one (à la Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Joe Pine and James Gilmore) and one size fits one (à la Gary Heil, et al.). Amazon.com and Ritz-Carlton became the exemplars. Organizations acquired the tools and software to capture more information about the customer than you’d find in a crackerjack salesperson’s little black book. The thesis was this: Make customers perceive they are your only customer and you’ll win their loyalty.

Many customers benefited greatly from all three initiatives—satisfaction, loyalty, and customization. Each has raised service quality. While customers still get lousy service more often than they would like, most would agree that service quality is not any better overall than it was 20 years ago. This is partly because customer expectations for service have gone up, often to the chagrin of service superstars that now have new customers walk in and think, “Okay, I’ve heard about you people—now blow my mind.”

Take-their-breath-away service is about bringing a new spirit to the service world. It is intended as a practical blueprint and a courage builder for business pioneers who are unwilling to be lulled into complacence by the same old, same old. This book is designed to be your periscope for envisioning the future and a guidebook to ready you for the trip from here to there. It is a workingbook—one aimed at being more edgy than conventional, more vivacious than staid, more sensible than scholarly—and a book much more about practice than philosophy.

THE FINANCIAL PAYOFF OF IMAGINATIVE SERVICE IN A TIGHT ECONOMY

Delight your customer! Exceed your clients’ expectations! Provide value-added service! These phrases have been the mantras of customer-service gurus for a long time. Such a focus on delivering more has no doubt raised the quality of service for many organizations. But, what’s an organization to do when the budget-cutting ax is loosed and tight profit margins get even tighter? How does an organization avoid sending a very mixed message by telling the front line to wow their customers in the morning and announcing staff cutbacks and expense reductions in the afternoon? How do you add value when there are no more resources to fund the addition? In a phrase: imaginative service! The notion that exceptional customer service must cost more is pure myth.

Imaginative service is different from exceeding customer expectations. Ask customers what actions would be value added and they will focus on taking the expected experience to a higher level: “They gave me more than I anticipated.” It’s the upgrade, the extra helping, the complimentary dessert, the baker’s dozen. But, imaginative service is not about addition, it’s about creation. When service people are asked to give more, they think to themselves, “I am already doing the best I can.” But, if they are asked to pleasantly surprise more customers, they feel less like worker bees and more like fireflies. If employees are asked to create a big customer smile instead of just working harder or faster, they suddenly feel a part of an adventure.

Ask employees to give better customer service and they will think of chores, tasks, and duty. But, make a request for imaginative service and you will find employees thinking about Ms. Jones or Mr. Smith—a shift from “all those customers” to “this customer.” When employees get to create, not just perform, they feel prized and respected. When they are a part of an organization pursuing devoted customers, not just satisfied customers, employees extract enthusiasm and excellence from a growing reservoir of pride. Just ask a Southwest, Disney, Zappos.com, or Lexus dealership employee what they think about their job and you will get a smiling “it’s awesome,” not a shrugging “it’s alright.”

Imaginative service is sourced in joy and fun. It comes from the same part of the soul that plans a prank, organizes a party, or does a favor for a friend. When that part is used regularly, it raises self-esteem, increases resilience, and improves morale. Take a look at Fortune magazine’s annual “100 Best Companies in America to Work For”—Nordstrom, Marriott, eBay, Zappos.com, Container Store, Wegman’s Markets, FedEx, and the like—and you will find they serve their customers a large plateful of imaginative service. They also boast the lowest turnover (a cost saver), the best recruits (an investment), the highest productivity (another positive hit to the balance sheet), and the greatest profits. Companies in the top 20 percent of the highly revered American Customer Satisfaction Index outperformed the Dow Jones industrial average by 93 percent, the S&P 500 by 201 percent, and the NASDAQ by 355 percent. These companies yielded an average return of 40 percent.1

HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK

This book is divided into two sections. Part One outlines 12 strategies for creating take-their-breath-away service. Each is fundamentally different, with its own unique set of principles and tactics. The explanation of each strategy will contain several tactics plus a host of examples aimed at making the strategy more understandable and implementation more practical.

Part Two focuses on how to select and implement one of the 12 strategies. Knowing about a strategy is not adequate; it must be put into practice to yield the rewards it embodies. This section is aimed at providing a blueprint for implementation. The sequence used in implementing this blueprint is important; a comprehensive approach to implementing the blueprint is vital. Pick and choose pieces of the blueprint at your own peril.

Half-baked in the world of imaginative service comes out raw, not rare.

We believe all service providers—those serving external customers and those serving internal colleagues—have the capacity to deliver take-their-breath-away service. And, we believe inventive service can be a consistent offering, rather than just an inadvertent or intermittent incident. This book is dedicated to that belief. Scan the book in a hurry or read it word for word. Read it in any direction; start anywhere. What matters most is that you do something with what you learn. Make a vow to start with your very next customer. Ignore the “we’ve always done it that way” past, elevate your intention to a higher plane, and simply make it happen.

“Take their breath away” is about a quest for being remarkable. “Remarkable takes originality, passion, guts, and daring,” wrote Seth Godin in his best-selling book The Purple Cow. “Not just because going through life with passion and guts beats the alternative (which it does), but because it’s the only way to be successful. Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. Your one chance for success is to be remarkable.”2

Take-their-breath-away service requires an obvious display of passion—a focused zeal that touches as it contributes. We all know that passion is contagious. People smile at you and what do you do? You smile back. A stranger waves and you acknowledge their greeting. Passion is a way of retaliating against a challenging, difficult, and often indifferent world. The late comedian George Carlin wrote, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away.” So go take your customers’ breath away.

Two requests before you do. First, please don’t save this book. This is not a reference work. You are not going back to pull it off the shelf to check a formula, a quote, or a reference. So, give the thing away. Pick out the soul you think most needs it and pass the book on. No fanfare, no cute or caustic note, just simply say, “I liked this book and I thought you might as well.”

Second, let us know what you think. You can find additional tools and support materials as well as our contact information on our Web site, www.taketheirbreathaway.com. It was our goal to create a quick read, a “single flight” tome that people could use immediately to start something with their customers. We hope that we have succeeded and that it will make a difference to you and your customer. The last page contains all the information you need to correspond with us. And we do need your feedback.

—Chip R. Bell, Lake Oconee, Georgia, and John R. Patterson, Atlanta, Georgia

PART ONE

Twelve Take-Their-Breath-Away Strategies

What is it that makes people pay four bucks for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, hundreds of dollars to watch the Green Bay Packers play in subzero weather, or $20,000 to be placed on a waiting list for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle? The answer lies way beyond customer loyalty. These brands generate a devotion in their customers. How? By giving them an experience that isn’t limited to coffee, football, or motorcycles. To be sure, your unit or organization may not be selling a fragrant cup of steaming java, the legend of Vince Lombardi, or the freedom of the open road. But it is certainly possible to develop unique, customer-endearing practices that create a powerful experience and lead to a devoted customer base.

Customers who are devoted to your unit or organization act substantially different than the customers who are simply loyal. Devoted customers not only forgive you when you err, they help you correct what caused the mistake. They don’t just recommend you; they assertively insist their friends do business with you. They vehemently defend you when others are critical. Even if the reason for the criticism is accurate, they quickly dismiss it as an aberration or an exception.

Figure I.1 The Link

But there is even more to devotion. Some devoted customers of Harley-Davidson tattoo the company logo on their bodies. Devoted guests of Ritz-Carlton Hotels wear their logo-ed clothes and have Ritz-Carlton cobalt blue accessories in their home. Those connections become a part of the customer’s identity and life expression.

The title of this book Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers provides the structure for achieving the all-important goal of customer devotion (Figure I.1). In Part One, we will explore 12 strategies that help you deliver the kind of imaginative service that causes customers to be moved, motivated, and deputized as advocates. In each case, the idea is to create such an experience that it allures or draws the customer back time and time again.

Focusing on the delivery of imaginative service leads customers to having an experience that takes their breath away. The more frequently they get this effect, the more likely they will become devoted customers. And the unit or organization that took their breath away now reaps the rewards of customers who are more than simply loyal.

A HALF-DOZEN IMAGINATIVE SERVICE HORS d’OEUVRES

A preview of coming attractions can help whet your appetite for imaginative service. They are carved out of a menu of a dozen distinct strategies.

1. A family took a vacation on a Disney Cruise Line trip that began with a few days at Walt Disney World theme park. The morning they were to shift from their hotel to the cruise ship, they were instructed to leave all their luggage in their hotel room for pick-up and delivery. Imagine their delight when they arrived on board ship to discover that their luggage was already in their room with the same room number as the hotel—and the same hotel key opened the door!

2. A patient moved out of state and received a bill from Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that exceeded the amount it should have been. When the woman called the billing department, they confirmed they had overcharged her. Remembering the woman complaining about having to call long distance to correct their mistake, the billing department included a complimentary phone card along with her refund check.

3. Several hospitals around the country are celebrating the arrival of newborns with a quiet lullaby. First Tune, a program developed by Mark Maxwell, a classical guitarist from Athens, Georgia, allows parents in the labor and delivery unit of a hospital to press a doorbell-like button that plays a 20-second lullaby over the hospital’s public address system. The tune boosts the morale of patients, staff, and visitors as they share in the good news. Debra McKell, of Brandon Regional Medical Center in Brandon, Florida, says, “We are expecting to hear more than 3,000 lullabies at Brandon Regional Medical Center this year.”

4. Clinique.com’s tools help customers figure out their look and direct them to colors and product lines suited to their features. Once a Clinique.com customer fills out her color profile, it’s permanently stored at the site. Whenever she clicks on a product category, the page automatically suggests shades and product lines that compliment her coloring and skin type.

5. At Grace Presbyterian Village in Dallas, a reinvented environment plays an important role in the treatment of Alzheimer’s patients. Goodwin Dixon, Grace’s CEO and president, took stock of the facility’s physical look and feel: “We keep forcing residents to be in our reality, but they are more comfortable in their own, living in the past.” Grace did a renovation that restyled the facility in a way that emphasized the comforting memories of Grace’s residents. From posters of ’49 Fords to baking classes held in a 1950s-style kitchen to an old-time front porch with rocking chairs to a sound system playing music of the era, everything about Grace now is purposely constructed to evoke memories of an earlier era when residents had a more positive self-image.1

6. Consider a common service experience: Taking a shuttle bus from the off-airport car rental lot to the terminal. A quintessentially unremarkable event? Not in Atlanta, at least not when Archie Bostick is driving the Hertz bus. After you turn in your car and go outside to catch the bus, the first thing you notice is Archie standing next to the doors with a big, welcoming grin on his face, and he’s having a great time reinvigorating this service transaction. Instead of a tip jar (baited with a handful of bucks to encourage reluctant tippers), Archie paper-clips dollar bills across the front of his shirt. Nothing subtle about that ploy—it’s an attention-getter that announces this is going to be a unique experience. Once on the bus, Archie delivers a stand-up comedy routine instead of issuing the standard warning about the consequences of forgetting to turn in the keys to your rental car. He uses any excuse to break into song. (“The next time you’re in Atlanta, maybe there’ll be rain, and you’ll be ‘Singin’ in the rain. I’m sin-gin’ in the rain. . . .’”) As Archie pulls up to the terminal, he announces, “Now that we’re at your final destination, I may never see you again. I want us all to say together, ‘I love Hertz!’” He invariably convinces a crowd of strangers to holler, “I love Hertz!” before they get off his bus. As customers exit applauding, they realize they have just witnessed a service innovator at work.

Archie Bostick

WALK ON THE INVENTIVE SIDE

The group of sales reps from a large after-market parts distributor gathered in a ballroom for the start of their annual sales rally. Excited to get their brand-new, four-inch-thick parts and price book, they largely ignored the CEO as he highlighted the company’s previous year’s wins and losses.

Then the meeting took an unexpected turn. The CEO introduced the opening keynote speaker, a business consultant who had entertained the audience the year before. But instead of opening with the expected clever joke, he walked into their midst and completely changed their view of their future with three questions.

If all your customers could at any time remotely look into your warehouse, find the solution or part they needed, and get it shipped overnight, what would they need you for?

If all your products were engineered to be “smart” and the part itself could alert the distribution center when it needed to be changed, replenished, or deleted, what would your customers need you for?

If all price shopping was driven by real-time, global comparisons via the Internet, and customers could request customized products and services, which in turn drove your production cycles, what would they need you for?

This is the type of mind-shifting perspective we have planned for you in the pages that follow. Our purpose is to completely challenge the manner in which you conceive of the service you provide. And the timing is crucial. “As globalization gives everyone the same information, resources, technology, and markets,” wrote The World Is Flat best-selling author Tom Friedman, “asociety’s particular ability to put those pieces together in the fastest and most innovative manner increasingly separates winners from losers in the global economy.”2 Improvement will only take you so far; innovation is required to differentiate.

The skeptic might object: “I still have customers who expect quality products delivered on time. I still have shareholders who expect certain returns. I still have regulatory agencies that expect financial controls. I still have employees who expect to be paid.” Of course you do! Everyone does! But meeting those challenging demands is simply the price of admission in today’s business game. If that’s all you do, you may survive but you certainly won’t thrive.

Take-their-breath-away service can come from an array of random acts of service. However, sustainable reputations are best harnessed with a deliberately chosen strategy. A strategy is a spotlight or focal point that contains a set of tactics that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. An effective strategy reflects a keen understanding of the target audience for whom it is intended.

Consider the strategy used by a successful luxury hotel. Those that have stood the test of time did not do so by taking a page from the “How to run a good hotel” manual and simply ratchet up the service quality. Luxury has its own set of principles, fundamentally different from economy or moderate strategies. Luxury is a way of serving that consistently honors time-tested dos and don’ts. Understanding the luxury strategy enables its user to see actions, practices, and approaches that fit as well as those that do not.

The same holds true forall 12 take-their-breath-away strategies revealed in Part One: animation, reinvention, decoration, camouflage, concierge, partnership, cult-like, luxury, air, air defense, scout’s honor, and firefighter. Each has its distinct philosophy and tactics and its unique principles and practices—all aimed at creating its characteristic connection with the customer. Yet all have the exact same goal in mind: devoted customers. And as the stories and examples prove, all are within the reach of the unit or organization that truly wants to take its customers’ breath away.

CHAPTER 1

Animation

“My company created my role for one reason: to make you very happy, sir. And, the best part is that they picked me to do it!”

—Charlie, a doorman at Marriott Quorum, Dallas, Texas

We knew we had a treat in the offing when the answer to our “Where’s-the-best-lunch-in-town” question got escalated to “White’s is the best in the state!” We were almost out of earshot when the local on the street corner added, “Ask for Katie.”

The target of the local’s affinity was White’s Restaurant in Salem, Oregon. The restaurant had the look of a 1935 diner. The inside was neat and spotless; the atmosphere warm and upbeat. The hostess on the other side of the “Please wait to be seated” sign gave us a bright Steinway smile as we crossed the threshold.

“We heard Katie was the best in the house,” we announced. “We’d like her table.”

“Well, well, well . . . it’s your lucky day!” the hostess teased. “There’s is normally a two-hour wait to get Katie but we just had a cancellation,” she said with a wink and a grin. “I think I can squeeze you in.” The needle on our fun meter was already racing to the top.

White’s Restaurant1

“We are so glad to have you!” said our waitress. Her words came straight from the frying pan of a zealous spirit. “I’m Katie, and I’ll check back with you in a minute. You know it’s Thursday. Don’s vegetable soup is already getting rave reviews.” We were beginning to feel like locals.

When we noticed the breakfast menu listed “Don’s Big Mess” as a headliner and the burger choices included a “Whoopee! Burger,” we began to think we’d walked into a comedy club. Our spirits registered another uptick.

People throughout the restaurant were engaged in warm conversation, noisily greeting people they knew as they came through the front door. An hour later, we were back outside with satisfied stomachs and very happy hearts. The meal was awesome, but it was the animated service that told us we were witnessing the spirit of “take their breath away.”

Animation is our moniker for the clear and present energy that reflects an unmistakable joy of serving. The label reminds us of what a great cartoonist does in turning stills into moving pictures—like the late Chuck Jones, who created such famous cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, and Pepe Le Pew. When we interviewed him a few years back, the then-88-year-old genius sat in his studio in Irvine, California, and reflected on his 60-plus years as a world-renowned animator. “The secret to making a character come alive,” he mused, “is not how you draw that particular character. Animation happens when everything in the frame moves with the character.”

The power of an animated service person is how that person helps everything around them move with them. Katie was an animator. But, then, so was everything about the restaurant in which she worked.

THE SPIRIT OF ANIMATION

We all know customers are attracted to people with spirit. And, today’s customers are frustrated with indifferent service; we’re not talking bad service, just plain old boring, comatose service. Too often customers witness service people sleepwalking through the workday. They long to interact with—even relate to—employees who act like there is still a light on inside.

The Bumblebee

Bumblebees are very useful pollinators, spreading the heart of the flower to other flowers, which enables them to reproduce. There is a popular urban myth that aeronautical engineers have claimed it was impossible for bumblebees to fly. This fueled the notion that it is the sheer determination of the bumblebee that enables it to fly anyway.

Think about organizations known for delivering over-the-top service: Apple, Ritz-Carlton, Southwest Airlines, Zappo.com, Chick-fil-A, Trader Joe’s, USAA, JetBlue, Amazon.com, and Lexus, to name a few. What do they have in common? While their products and offerings may make their prospects’ and customers’ heads turn, it is the experience they create that makes their customers’ hearts soar. They have cracked the code on managing the emotional connection with customers.

That connection has become even more critical in the digital age. Today, customer-generated media, especially via the use of the Internet, has dramatically increased customers’ ability to tell stories about their experiences with those who serve them. This once-nerdy path has morphed into an information freeway, dramatically escalating your customers’ power and capacity to influence other customers. Are customers always right in their blogs and “to whoever will listen” missives? Of course not. The customer is not always right. But the customer is always the customer. Pete Blackshaw, EVP of strategic services at Nielsen Online, has offered compelling research showing that customers will now tell up to 3,000 others (and rising) about their bad service experiences!2 While the dark side of that Internet gossip game can quickly demolish your reputation, the positive side can catapult your standing right into the stratosphere.

We begin our journey through the 12 take-their-breath-away strategies with animation for one reason: Animation is a shade of engagement that every service encounter should be painted with. Since the connection with the customer is an emotional one, the attitude you exhibit as a service provider is the most crucial key to success in attracting and retaining devoted customers.

The focus in this chapter will be on ways to take animation to such a level that customers become a part of the frame and eventually sign up for your cheerleading squad. We will examine fivetactics—attitude, comfort, personal, respect, and sparkly—all important to pumping up the liveliness and the outlook needed to take your customers’ breath away.

ATTITUDE

What’s behind the sparkly Katie we witnessed at White’s? What fuels her non-stop spirit of greatness? Katie selected the attitude she knew would likely unveil a customer smile and help boomerang that same spirit back. Her attitude is what philosopher /psychologist Rollo May had in mind when he wrote, “There is an energy field between all humans. When we reach out in passion it is met with an answering passion. . . .”3

Consider the characters kids the world over enjoy seeing at Disney theme parks. How can Mickey be Mickey, no matter what the circumstances? There is no “Mickey shot” to inoculate the character against crying babies, surly guests, or a costume without air conditioning. Mickey (like all the characters) selects the Mickey attitude to exhibit on stage, without regard to whether it is Monday morning or the day after late-night TV. It is the cast member in the Mickey costume who selects the Mickey attitude.

Spirit of Greatness Pledge

I promise to be in charge of my attitude each and every day, to let no one affect that attitude at any time, and to be a contagious spirit of greatness—24/7, 365 days a year!

Eighty-five percent of success in life, according to a well-known and often-cited Harvard study, is due solely to attitude. An attitude that shows the spirit of greatness provides the energy and magnetism needed to deliver an animated experience for customers and draw devotion from them. While customers like dealing with employees who are committed, they absolutely love being served by someone whose spirit to serve is unmistakable in its passion, pride, and commitment. Occasional animation is not sufficient. It is both the consistency and sincerity of attitude that brings customers back and causes them to tell all of their friends to “ask for Katie.”

Leeches suck the blood from their target; spirit leeches suck the energy and passion from theirs. Some spirit leeches are negative—they remove optimism and hope. Mention an opportunity; they can tell you why it’s a mistake. Some are transparent, preying on personal accountability. They play the blame game. Some are almost invisible, specializing in putting wet blankets on joy. Spirit leeches are removed the same way real leeches are—with fire. Not with a real match, of course, but with the warmth and energy of positive spirit. You do not inherit spirit, acquire spirit, or borrow spirit. You choose spirit much like you choose to introduce yourself to a stranger. Those who opt for an upbeat, positive spirit are happier, healthier, and more productive.

Take it from Vickie Henry, CEO of Feedback Plus, Inc., a Dallas-based mystery shopping firm with more than 30 years experience and more than a million anecdotes in their files from work with well-known retailers, restaurants, banks, and municipalities. Vickie was preparing for a keynote speech in London, England, and decided to do a few random mystery shops. As she walked into Sam’s Club, Paul Hastings greeted her singing: “Welcome to Sam’s! We’re so glad you’re here!” He pushed a cart her direction. She told Paul she was only there for a few items and really did not need a cart, at which Paul sang, “You can’t have fun without a cart!” Vickie was blown away! “Paul made me feel very special,” she told us. “And, Paul was having a great time! The one fact that is obvious from our years of mystery shopping: Customers love to be served by associates who love to serve them.”

The most important thing to know about attitude is that it is something one selects. No normal person comes into the world with a particular attitude. It is chosen (or not). While we could blame our parents, our background, or our circumstances, the truth is we choose whether we want to soar through life as the passenger of our attitude or as its pilot. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Unless you are sick or hurt, your attitude is what you want it to be. Psychologist and concentration camp inmate Viktor Frankl observed that the major reason those who survived did was the fact that they never saw themselves as victims. “Every thing can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,” wrote Frankl in his classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning.4

The second important thing to know is that an animated attitude can be contagious. When we are around happy, upbeat people, it is much easier for us to join in the spirit—especially if the invitation to join is coming from someone who clearly prefers we enroll. An unbridled spirit has a magnetic power on customers. It draws out their higher self. Being in the presence of a Katie causes customers to feel good about themselves. It’s difficult to misbehave or stay cranky in their company. Few among us want to drag storm clouds into the perpetually sunny skies of such vivacious life forms.

University of Rhode Island students enjoy going to the nearby CVS/pharmacy in the Kingston Emporium to buy a snack and to see The Excellence Lady. The attraction is CVS head cashier Helen “Nonni” Plummer, who bids farewell to every customer with the phrase, “Have an excellent!” Should someone inquire, “Excellent what?” she quickly adds, “Whatever you want it to be.” Her infectious spirit has spread to a Facebook.com group titled “You Have An Excellent” that has hundreds of members.

In his book Authentic Management, author Stan Herman captures the essence of this type of animated service. “No one grants you freedom,” he writes. “You are free if you are free. I do not know how to tell you how to be free. But I do know some signs of freedom. One is in doing what you want to do even though someone tells you not to. Another is in doing what you want to do even though someone tells you to.”5

It is the attitude of those who serve customers that provides customers with a peephole into the values and qualities most revered by the unit or organization. Remember what Chuck Jones said: “Animation happens when everything in the frame moves with the character”? One of the reasons we have such fond memories of White’s is the way Katie was a character in the theatrical performance of “White’s.”Katie no doubt helped others get in the spirit of greatness; others like the wise-cracking hostess played their roles alongside her. And, owner Don Uselman—and inventor of the Whoopee! Burger and Don’s Big Mess—was the cheerleader for them all.

COMFORT