The Celebrity Experience E-Book

Donna Cutting

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

Seitenzahl: 333

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

The Celebrity Experience combines the best practices of the business world with those of the celebrity world to create a practical and proactive guide for anyone who wants to bring their business's internal and external customer service to the level of star treatment. Based on the unique ways celebrities are treated, the book shares techniques you can use to treat your customers to a red-carpet experience, guaranteeing repeat business and stellar word of mouth.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Preface

Applause!

Chapter 1 - The Chicago Pizza Principle

The Trolley Story

Chapter 2 - Red Carpet Arrivals

University of WOW!

Flawless Service with Celebrity Flair

Chapter 3 - Give ’Em Their Chicken Soup

These Are for Travis and Cody

Chapter 4 - The Star of Your Show

From the Back Room to Hollywood Glamour

Chapter 5 - Star Power

My Day at the Races

Chapter 6 - Are You Anybody ?

Silent Partners No Longer

Chapter 7 - The Celebrity Next Door

Go Jobing!

Chapter 8 - Branding Ovations

Plumbers . . . On the Red Carpet

Chapter 9 - The Booger Principle

Have the Courage to Tell the Truth Because You Care!

Have the Courage

To Tell the Truth

Because You Care

Chapter 10 - Be an A-List Customer

The Last Flight of the Night

A Cast of Real Characters

Chapter 11 - That’s a Wrap!

Step One: Own Up

Step Two: Dream Big

Step Three: Decide on Tangible Results

Step Four: Strategize and Prioritize

Step Five: Take Action!

Step Six: Review and Edit

Step Seven: Celebrate

Resources

Bibliography

About the Author

Index

Praise forThe Celebrity Experience

“It’s said there’s not a lot of traffic on the extra mile. Well, The Celebrity Experience goes there with its real-world examples and specific suggestions. Cutting’s delightful style, blended with her focus on bottom-line results, makes this book a must for anyone who deals with the public.”

—Sam Horn, 15-time emcee of the Maui Writers Conference and author of POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd

“As Donna Cutting highlights in The Celebrity Experience, each of us wants to be treated with personalized, compassionate, and just plain special attention. At Country Meadows Retirement Communities, we are preparing to serve the seniors of the future. The celebrity experience is exactly what Baby Boomers will expect from their independent and assisted living providers.”

—G. Michael Leader, President and CEO, Country Meadows Retirement Communities

“The Celebrity Experience is rock solid. Not only does Donna Cutting share what any business can do to give red-carpet customer service, the examples and case studies she includes make this practical book interesting, easy to read, and, frankly, fun! Anyone who has a business or a professional practice should buy a copy immediately.”

—Susan RoAne, keynote speaker and author of How to Work a Room

“Can everyone please read this book? I want to be treated like a celebrity! Put the person back into personal service and gain clients who love to praise you and pay you. Donna Cutting has written an enlightening, powerful, and fun guide so you can make every client feel like a star!”

—Chellie Campbell, author of Zero to Zillionaire and The Wealthy Spirit

Copyright © 2008 by Donna Cutting. All rights reserved.

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

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Cutting, Donna, 1966-

The celebrity experience : insider secrets to delivering red carpet customer service / Donna Cutting.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-470-17401-2 (cloth : acid-free paper)

1. Customer services. 2. Customer relations. 3. Consumer satisfaction. 4. Success in business. I. Title.

HF5415.5.C88 2007

658.8’12—dc22

2007026310

To Philip and Patricia Bouchard—Dad and Mom

Thank you for nurturing my creative dreams.

To Jim Cutting—my best friend and husband

You are my favorite adventuring partner and my dream come true.

To Joan Brannick, PhD, Sandy Geroux, David Glickman, and Dave Timmons—my Mastermind Partners

It is my great joy to travel this journey of not-so-impossible dreams with you.

This author is donating a percentage of her royalties to the Second Wind Dreams organization.

Preface

IMAGINE A WORLD where red carpets were rolled out for you wherever you went, where people greeted you by name, with a smile and boundless enthusiasm. Imagine feeling loved, wanted, and expected everywhere you traveled.

Imagine a life where the people you did business with knew you inside and out and bent over backward to cater to your personal preferences.

Imagine what it would be like if the people around you were so creative and committed to your happiness that they would do almost anything to ensure that all your desires, whims, and wishes were fulfilled.

Imagine . . .

Does such a world exist?

You bet it does. It’s called Hollywood. And it’s reserved for an elite few.

For the rest of us, however, life plays out a little differently.

We live in a world where we can’t get a real person on the phone, we can’t find anyone to answer our question, and if we do find someone to help us, we’re often told, “That’s not my department.”

We live in a world where we are sometimes served by people who are so uninterested in us that they are carrying on complete conversations with a coworker while they are engaged (or should I say disengaged?) in our transaction.

We live in a world where we hear “No,” or “I don’t know,” more often than “Yes!”

We live in a world where business is done by computers, we are known by a number instead of a name, we’ve got to take a number to be waited on, and where we are often made to wait by the same people who won’t wait for us. (Try showing up late for your doctor’s appointment or your flight.)

If you’re like most people, you’ve dreamed of what it would be like to be treated as a celebrity . . . even if for just a little while. You’ve dreamed of being expected and warmly welcomed wherever you traveled, of having people cater to your every whim, of having planes held for you, and special tables waiting for you in your favorite restaurants.

Guess what? Your customers are wishing the same thing.

What if you could take the ball in your hands and run with it? What if you could give your customers the level of service that would make them feel like the most catered-to Hollywood star?

Impossible, you say? Not so, I say!

Honestly, it doesn’t take much to make people feel like they are getting the star treatment. Just a firm belief that anything is possible and a commitment to doing what it takes to know your customers inside and out and to delight them in ways that make them say, “Wow!” It takes a yes attitude on the part of everyone on your team, and it takes action!

Before I elaborate, let me tell you a little bit about where I got the idea for The Celebrity Experience.

For several years, I worked in the field of elder care with seniors who live in assisted-living communities. If you’ve ever had to help a parent move into a retirement care community then you know how difficult it can be for everyone. It would break my heart watching children and their parents wrestle with the decision.

The elders themselves are faced with a loss of control, having others make decisions for them, losing their homes, their cars, and everything that once represented their independence. They also face their own mortality, and a move to an assisted-living community feels like giving up.

The adult children are wracked with guilt, often dealing with parents who are fighting the decision, and filled with confusion about whether they are making the right choice.

Despite what you may hear on the news or on the television ads sponsored by law firms, most elder care professionals are sensitive to this transition and bend over backward to be helpful and make it easier. However, as with many industries, they are often short of staff and are overregulated, which sometimes means that people get shortchanged as a result of the process.

Cut to the conversation I had with my friend Andrea, a marketing director at a large assisted-living company. She was telling me about an idea that she and her boss had about how they would welcome prospective and new residents to their community.

At their community, prospective residents and their family members would be welcomed by a valet at the front drive. The valet would be expecting them, and would greet them by name and with a smile as he helped them out of their car.

Another designated greeter would walk the visitors down a red carpet and into the building. Inside they would see a banner that welcomed them personally to the community.

Then they would be escorted immediately to the marketing office. As they made their way down the hallway, they would receive warm smiles and greetings from several people—all of whom seemed to expect them and to be glad they were there.

Upon their arrival at the marketing office, they would be treated to their favorite drinks and snacks in a beautiful sitting area with a homelike atmosphere. Their host would sit right next to them and spend the next hour or so conversing with them about their likes and dislikes, their concerns and their questions. The host would listen for the questions that weren’t asked and answer those as well. And so on . . .

I listened to Andrea talk about this idea, sitting straight up in my chair, and got more and more excited.

Why, that sounds like star treatment!

“Sure,” Andrea said, “but we don’t know if we can really make it happen. We’re so busy around here; it might just be a pipe dream.”

I went home that night and couldn’t get Andrea’s pipe dream out of my head.

You see, if you’re like me, you haven’t just had moments of wanting to feel like a celebrity . . . you’ve had years. While other kids were playing kick ball and jump rope, I was putting on elaborate talent shows in my backyard for the neighbors, posing for my album cover, practicing my Oscar acceptance speech, and signing autographs for anyone who asked (usually my parents).

Having turned that passion into a career as a professional speaker on the topics of employee morale and customer service, the idea of celebrity service excited me.

Of course, only celebrities really know how it feels to receive the red carpet treatment. But who, I wondered, knows how to give it?

Then it hit me! The people who serve celebrities know, of course.

So, I set about doing my research. I spent a year and a half interviewing and visiting with people who own, manage, or work for companies that cater to the Tom Cruises and the Halle Berrys of the world. The question I asked was, “What can you teach people who work in companies that don’t serve the rich and famous, about giving their everyday customers celebrity-level service?”

As it turns out, plenty!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Of course, they can give that level of service. Look at the budgets they have. Why they’re serving millionaires and billionaires for goodness sake!”

True.

However, the basic principles of what they taught me are applicable whether you’ve got a budget for champagne or a budget for beer.

There are certain common denominators that all of the companies I researched shared. Their employees have certain tenets they live and work by, and I’m going to share them with you in this book.

Read this book and you will learn the following:

• The biggest difference between celebrities and your customers and how you can use The Chicago Pizza Principle to bridge the gap.

• How the first impressions you make on your customers can generate the same excitement as a Hollywood event in Red Carpet Arrivals.

• How getting to know your customers and Giving ’Em Their Chicken Soup will endear you to them for life.

• Ways to consistently amaze your customer, and then some, and make your customer The Star of Your Show.

• Five specific ideas for creating within your customers a sense of belonging to your business by giving them Star Power.

• How you will generate buzz and Branding Ovations when you consistently deliver the goods.

• Why, if you give genuine celebrity service, you avoid the Are You Anybody? syndrome.

• How putting your employee—or The Celebrity Next Door—first is the best path toward delivering red carpet customer service.

• When to apply The Booger Principle (you read it right) because sometimes what the customer really needs is the truth.

I will also take you where no other customer service book has taken you before. Read Be an A-List Customer to turn the tables on yourself. This chapter gives you the opportunity to consider whether or not you are a customer who rates The Celebrity Experience.

You will learn what I learned from hundreds of interviews with celebrity personal assistants, PR representatives, concierges, television executives, producers, image consultants, hair stylists, agents, red carpet escorts, craft service providers, and more. While all of these interviews add to the flavor of The Celebrity Experience, a few celebrity service professionals really stood out to me in terms of what they could teach us all about customer service. They are highlighted in this book.

You will meet:

Scott Graham, CEO of Xtreme Personal Assistant Concierge Services. Scott is a man with an unprecedented can-do attitude. You’ll read about the amazing lengths that Scott’s team will go to for their celebrity (and corporate) clients. Without the principle that Scott and his fabulous team taught me, there would be no such thing as The Celebrity Experience.

Jesse Itzler, co-founder of Marquis Jet. Partnered with Net-Jets, Marquis Jet provides celebrities and others with easy access to private plane travel. Jesse knows how to go the extra mile for his clients and his employees.

Rita Tateel, founder of The Celebrity Source. Rita hobnobs with the best of the best. How is she able to get so close to A-list celebrities? Because they trust her. From Rita you will learn about caring about your clients enough to tell them the truth.

Jack Canfield, author and celebrity speaker. While Jack does not work with celebrities per se, as a co-founder of the Chicken Soup for the Soul™ franchise, he is certainly a celebrity himself. He will give you some insight as to what it’s truly like to receive the star treatment.

Katrina Campins and Sofia Campins of The Campins Company. Katrina is the owner of this luxury real estate company based in Miami, as well as a star of the first season of The Apprentice. Sophia is the sales and marketing director extraordinaire. They taught me about the power of treating your customers special, building the buzz factor, and the importance of giving back.

Gene Perret, author and comedy writer. Gene wrote comedy for Bob Hope, Carol Burnett, and other comedians of the day. His recollections of Bob Hope in particular have much to teach us about treating our employees to the red carpet treatment.

Hollywood Producer Tisha Fein; Sheri Riley, CEO of Glue, Inc.; and Jo-Ann Geffen, president of JAG Entertainment and manager to David Cassidy. Each of these people, as well as others, provided insights into the world of celebrity and how it relates to good old-fashioned customer service. I know you will enjoy, and gain much from, their anecdotes and observations.

The trick for me was to then take what I learned from the red carpet experts and translate it into the world of everyday customer service. Luckily for me, I found a few professionals and companies out there who do not serve celebrities, but do give their customers red carpet customer service.

Meet the members of our Celebrity Experience Hall of Fame.

Tabitha Health Care Services. This not-for-profit organization, based in Nebraska, offers a continuum of care for elders from home care to assisted living and hospice. It is in our Hall of Fame for the incredible forward thinking of its leaders and staff members. Wait until you read the trolley story!

High Point University. Each time I tell someone about the incredible things going on at this university, I get a response like, “Oh, it must be a private school.” Believe me, it is not the money this institution spends that makes it a Celebrity Experience provider. It is the attitude displayed regarding service to the students, the students’ families, and guests.

Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center Celebrity Services Department. You’ll read much about the Gaylord in this book, but it was the Celebrity Services Department that truly floored me. It’s not about how they treat celebrities every day, but how they treat everyday people like stars.

Dave Timmons, speaker, author, CEO of Six String Leadership, Inc. Whether in his past career as a banker or on his current path, Dave goes out of his way to make his customers and colleagues shine in his presence. You’ll just love the Travis and Cody story.

Dan Maddux, executive director of The American Payroll Association. Talk about making everyday people feel like stars! Dan has made this his daily mission and, as a result, has grown his small association to a membership of 23,000. Learn what you can from this man of action!

NASCAR. There is no sports franchise that gives more power to the fans than NASCAR racing. You can learn a lot from this organization about the power of customer engagement.

Hub Plumbing & Mechanical, Inc. Not your ordinary plumbers, these technicians literally roll out the red carpet for their customers. CEO John Wood is a man with a brand—a brand that he and his team live up to every single day.

Professional Sports Wives. Gena Pitts is nobody’s sidekick. She’s a life force who has built an entire business around the idea that we all deserve to have The Celebrity Experience. You’ll read more about how she founded her publication and association for the wives of professional athletes.

Jobing.com. Providing localized web sites for HR recruiters and job hunters, the founders of Jobing.com decided from the start they didn’t want to be just any ordinary company. They put their money where their mouths are and roll out the red carpet for their employees so they will do the same for their customers.

You will also find dozens of examples from organizations of every kind. If you work in health care, senior care, education, association management, hospitality and restaurant management, car repair, supermarkets, banking and finance, insurance, airlines, retail, coffee shops, real estate, plumbing, roofing, trades, stand-up comedy, entertainment, hotels, PR and marketing, or car rentals there are examples in this book that apply to you. If you are a leader of a Fortune 500 company, a small business, or a sole proprietor, by reading this book you will learn how to give your customers The Celebrity Experience.

Throughout the book you will find “Celebrity Sightings”—examples of professionals in a variety of occupations who have wowed their customers with red carpet customer service. You’ll also get an inside look as to what it feels like to receive star treatment in the sections called “Celebrity Dish”—anecdotes by and about celebrities themselves.

Since my initial conversation with my friend Andrea, she has moved on to another job. However, the companies and examples in this book prove that her idea was not a pipe dream. There are indeed organizations that give their customers true red carpet customer service. This book will show you how your company (and Andrea’s) can become one of them.

On a Hollywood set you will find award-winning actors, fabulous scripts, flattering lighting, makeup artists, Foley (sound) artists, interesting props, and magnificent sets. However, a movie doesn’t become a movie until the director gathers all of the people together, settles in his chair and yells “action!” It is only when there is action that the true Hollywood magic begins to happen. The action sections of most chapters will give you concrete steps that you can take to begin rolling out the red carpet for your customers immediately. Occasionally, you’ll have to yell “cut” and “take two” . . . maybe even “take 22.” That’s okay. Because when it all comes together, your company will stand out as being one of only a few rare companies that truly give their customers honest-to-goodness red carpet customer service.

These days everyone is buzzing about Hollywood and its celebrities. Let’s get started creating bona fide buzz for you and your business by giving everyone who walks through your doors (and on your carpet) The Celebrity Experience!

Applause!

WHEN I WAS a little girl I used to look in the mirror, hold a microphone, and practice my Academy Award acceptance speech. Okay, it was just last week and it was a hairbrush. I rehearsed everything I would say and named everyone I would thank after rushing to the stage to accept my Oscar for Best Actress.

Today it is a pen, not a microphone or even a hairbrush, that I hold in my hand. I have not won an award for best anything, but the completion of this, my first book, has been an unexpected dream come true. I finally understand why the award winners desperately want more time to thank everyone who was involved in their journey toward that incredible moment. Like any good Hollywood film, this book is, in fact, an ensemble piece, and it is with humble and honest gratitude that I thank and applaud the following stars:

God, omnipotent higher power, through which all things are possible.

My husband Jim Cutting for being my loving, supportive, adventurous best friend, and for giving me the time I needed to complete this book and the freedom to be myself. You are my lifetime love.

My incredible Mastermind Group, Joan Brannick, PhD; Sandy Geroux; David Glickman; and Dave Timmons for inspiring me to be a “yes” person by your examples, for cheering me on from the moment the idea for The Celebrity Experience hit me, for your advice and ideas, and for countless hours of reading and rereading my manuscript. In many, many ways you are the co-authors of The Celebrity Experience.

Rachel Street, the best assistant anyone could ever ask for, who kept the business running while I wrote this book, who cheered me on, who spent many hours helping me make dead-lines, and who explored new territory in the effort to ensure this project was a huge success. You are a goddess of The Celebrity Experience . Michelle Merger, who recently joined our team and jumped right in to keep us going through the many wonderful changes in the business. You are a star performer.

Laurie Harting, my editor at Wiley, who was incredibly patient with this first-time author. With your brilliant insights you encouraged me to write a better book.

Lisa Hagan, my agent from Paraview Publishing. You are an author’s dream come true, and I am looking forward to a long professional relationship and friendship.

Chellie Campbell, for introducing me to Lisa Hagan, and to Denise O’Berry for introducing me to Laurie Harting.

Jessica Lanagan-Peck, Shannon Vargo, Christine Kim, Linda Witzling, and everyone at Wiley. You’ve been wonderful to work with. The staff at Cape Cod Compositors for guiding me through the final edit.

Denise McCabe, who tirelessly proofread each page several times, and without whom there would be far too many commas and exclamation points in this book.

Susan RoAne, Sam Horn, Diana Booher, Greg Godek, Barbara Glanz, and Terri Kabachnick—your examples were my inspiration and the time you each spent with me helped shape the direction of my proposal and this book.

Joanne McCall of McCall Public Relations, for your energy and enthusiasm for my project. I am excited about what we can achieve together.

Oh wait, don’t play the music just yet . . .

Karen Storee, Brooke Christian, and Carol Marion Smith for reading chapter after chapter and for your helpful insights. Brooke, thank you for helping to keep my name in front of prospective clients while I went into hiding.

Doug Van Dyke, Angela Bender, and David Glickman for your contributions to the title of this book.

Mom and Dad for your continuous encouragement and my sister, Juliette McCray, for helping me to edit the proposal and for your support.

Thank you to each and every person who I interviewed and visited with in researching The Celebrity Experience. Many of you are mentioned by name. Some of you are not. Regardless, your imprint is on this work, and I am forever grateful.

I am thankful to every Borders, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Panera Bread, Crispers, and coffeehouse where I spent countless hours writing and rewriting. And to Carolyn and Larry Yoss at Behind the Fence Bed & Breakfast, where I wrote the first four chapters of The Celebrity Experience.

Shelby Fessl, Traci Bild, Delatorro L. McNeal II, JoAnne Weiland, Scott Manthorne, Jack Canfield, Charlene Robbins, Karen Rose, and Jo-Ann Geffen for your various contributions.

Thanks also to my clients, audience members, and readers of my blog and newsletters. My energy and inspiration comes from you every day, and I am honored by the gift of working with you.

Finally, to the many theater, film, and television actors and directors who continually add joy to my life, inspire me, and make me think, feel, and laugh through their incredible work.

1

The Chicago Pizza Principle

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

—Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally

WHAT DO YOU DO when your customer asks for the seemingly impossible? Laugh? Politely decline the business? Not Scott Graham, CEO of Xtreme Personal Assistant and Concierge Services. When faced with an impossible task, Scott goes to his team and asks one question—“How?”

Want a private jet at your disposal in the next three hours? Want tickets to the Super Bowl? Need new clothes immediately because the airline lost your luggage? Xtreme Personal Assistant and Concierge Services (XPACS) is the go-to place for celebrities who are looking for someone to make the impossible possible. The following example demonstrates just how far the XPACS team will go to please its customers.

When a celebrity asked Scott to deliver a hot, fresh pepperoni pizza to his flat in London that evening, he didn’t blink. The catch? The pizza was to come from a specific restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. The customer was testing him, and Scott knew it. After all, the XPACS motto is, “Anything and everything as long as it’s moral, ethical and legal.” Right on the web site it says, “If you can imagine it, we can deliver it.” Scott and his team put their creativity to work.

If the answer was “Yes,” then the question was “How?” It didn’t take the XPACS team long to figure it out. They loaded up a private plane, complete with a concierge and a pizza oven. The prepared pizza was picked up in Chicago and baked as the plane was landing in London. A limo was waiting at the airport and the hot, fresh pepperoni pizza from Chicago was delivered to the customer in London, that evening and on time! If this was a test, XPACS passed. Says Scott, “The client was amazed! He told us, ‘You have a client for life.’ That’s the kind of thing that makes you say, ‘God, I love this job!’ ”

It was after hearing this story that I realized the fundamental difference between the rest of us and celebrities. For a celebrity:

Whatever the question, the answer is yes! It’s the job of everyone else to figure out how.

On the other hand, the rest of us are constantly faced with a barrage of “no’s.”

No, you can’t talk to a real person on the phone.

No, the person you’re talking to can’t answer that question for you and doesn’t know who else can either.

No, you can’t get that service here.

No, they can’t tell you where to get that service.

Wouldn’t you like to hear “yes” more often? I’ll bet your customers would, too.

True, your customers may not have the same net worth as Scott’s celebrity clients, and may not be able to afford such luxury. However, there is a lesson to be learned from high-octane service people like Scott Graham who cater to those who frequent the red carpet.

The Chicago Pizza Principle: Refrain from Saying No When the Answer Could BeYes!

What if you could find a way to say yes more frequently?

What if you trained yourself and your team to think creatively when a customer has an unusual request?

What if, instead of saying no, you asked yourself how?

If you did, you’d be on your way to delivering The Celebrity Experience to your customers.

Let me tell you a story that demonstrates exactly how The Chicago Pizza Principle was applied in one of our Celebrity Experience Hall of Fame organizations. It’s an incredible tale of how a team of employees at a health care organization worked tirelessly together to say yes to one of their residents when others might have just said no.

The Trolley Story

“I don’t think Pat would have let us say no,” laughs Joyce Ebmeier, the administrator for Tabitha Health Care Services, Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Pat, an elderly resident who lived at the skilled nursing community, had been confined to a wheelchair since she was in her 50s. Pat had taken a lot of different kinds of transportation in that wheelchair, and one day she told Joyce that she “didn’t like the Tabitha bus one bit.” It was an oversized van into which she had to be backed in and strapped down, and because of all the equipment, she couldn’t even see out the window. Also, Pat wanted to see more people who used wheelchairs getting out into the community, but the bus took only two wheelchairs at a time. Something had to be done.

At this point, most employees of a nonprofit senior living community would have smiled and said they were sorry; it just wasn’t in the budget.

Instead Joyce took the question to her staff and they started brainstorming the possibilities. Someone came up with the idea of a trolley, which Pat just loved.

The next step was to get both the president of Tabitha Health Care Services and the foundation members excited. Joyce knew that the foundation was raising money for a capital project, so most of the work would have to come from her staff.

They held a lunch for the president, the foundation members, and other VIPs of Tabitha Health Care Services. The resident, Pat, made a speech, and someone showed a PowerPoint presentation. To make a long story short, they got the green light to raise money for the trolley.

Joyce and her team, along with Pat, started with a variety of grassroots efforts. They held loose change days when the entire staff would pool its pennies and drop them in a fishbowl in the lobby. “Then the poor bus driver would have to take all that change to the bank,” chuckles Joyce.

Next, a volunteer who used to be a baker for Miller & Paine Department Store stepped up to the plate. He offered to come in once a week and bake the legendary Miller & Paine cinnamon rolls. They called them “Trolley Rolls,” and each week after he baked them, Pat would sit in the lobby and sell them hot and fresh to staff members and visitors, raising money for her dream.

Once they had raised about half of what was needed for the trolley, the president of Tabitha Health Care Services gave them permission to start a campaign for the rest. That’s when the media got involved. Local television stations, radio shows, and newspapers began running stories about the trolley fund. A church in the community made a donation, and another church matched those funds. Soon, all of Lincoln, Nebraska, was pulling for Pat and her dream.

Finally, they had the money to purchase a used trolley they found in Florida. Second Wind Dreams, a wonderful organization that helps make dreams come true for elders living in nursing homes and assisted-living communities, kicked in the money to help bring the trolley to Nebraska.

On the day of the arrival, Pat and the rest of the residents and staff of Tabitha Health Care Services Nursing and Rehabilitation Center sat outside waiting. As the trolley pulled in, they rang bells that were given to them by Second Wind Dreams. Pat, whose health was failing by this time, was well enough to make a speech. She was the first to ring the bell and the first to ride the trolley.

Now all wheelchair-bound residents of the Tabitha community would be able to comfortably ride around the town, to the bank, and out to lunch. Because the story was in the media, residents of Lincoln, Nebraska, still smile when they see that trolley on city streets. Of course, now the entire community is always buzzing about Tabitha Health Care!

All of these great outcomes happened because some employees had the creativity and the dedication to say yes to a customer’s request and then figure out how!

Saying yes is just part of the Tabitha culture. The people at Tabitha have a tradition of challenging the status quo and responding with innovation. They were:

• The first to offer Meals on Wheels in the state of Nebraska in 1967.

• The first hospice in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1979.

• The first to offer home health care in Nebraska and the sixth in the entire country. The first in Nebraska and the second in the country to open the uniquely designed Green House Project®, a deinstitutionalized environment for skilled long-term care. Many believe this model is the future of nursing homes.

Says President and CEO Keith Fickenscher, “The thing about Tabitha is that we are never satisfied. We are always looking for the next thing. Additionally, we’re teaching our 700 employees and 2,000 volunteers not to say no but instead to ask how?”

This brings us to a question. How do the innovative people who work for XPACS and Tabitha Health Care Services put The Chicago Pizza Principle to work? It starts with action!

Take One: Ask

Take Two: Choose Your Customers over Convenience

Take Three: Think Big

Take Four: Partner with Others

Take Five: Own the Problem

Take Six: Refuse to Be Satisfied

Take One: Ask

Usually the best answers come when you ask the best questions. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself and your team as you prepare to put The Chicago Pizza Principle to work by saying yes more often and then figuring out how.

Ask what if? What if you had unlimited time, money, and resources to spend on problem solving for your customers? Now at this point, you might be thinking, “What’s the point of asking that question? I don’t have unlimited time, money, and resources.” Maybe not. On the other hand, you don’t know what’s available to you until you ask. Even if the resources aren’t there, by asking this question you are opening your mind up to possibilities you hadn’t thought of yet. You may find yourself with answers to problems for which you thought there were no solutions.

Ask yourself, what if I could create the kind of experience for my customers that would make them feel that anything was possible? What would that look like? How would I communicate it to my customer? What if I could help my customers to feel that nothing they could ask for would be too much?

These are the questions that Maria Motsavage, president and CEO of Ideal Senior Living in Endicott, New York, asked her staff to think about when she returned from a vacation in Florida. While she was in Florida, Maria had a dining experience that changed the entire way she thinks about customer service. She was in a restaurant ordering a salad, the way she usually did—with no dressing, tomatoes, or onions and extra cheese and croutons. Typically, Maria’s request would get responses like, “Sorry, the salad is already made up in the kitchen” or “There’s an extra charge for the cheese.” Not from this waiter! Instead, her waiter said, “When you are a guest in my house, you can have whatever you want.”

Inspired by the waiter’s attitude, and having enjoyed her perfect salad, Maria went back to her staff at Ideal Senior Living pumped up about giving that level of service to their residents. The question she asked, “What if we could create the feeling that our residents could have whatever they wanted in their home?” sparked a series of new actions and behaviors on the part of the employees of Ideal Senior Living that they call their Red Carpet program. You’ll hear more about the program as you continue to read this book. For now, let me tell you about the results they’ve enjoyed as a company. In one year’s time their overall satisfaction ratings in the skilled nursing center went from 26 percent to 86 percent, and over a period of four or five years employee turnover has dropped from 52 percent to 24.8 percent. This, in an industry where high employee turnover is a given.

What if you asked yourself these questions? What kind of experience could you create for your customer? What kind of results could you see in your customer and employee satisfaction scores?

Ask how?