When it comes to service, is conformity contagious?

There are probably a lot of reasons why a company can become known for exceptionally good or bad service. One possibility I’d like to consider is conformity. This post poses more questions than it answers, so I welcome your comments.

Conformity is a strange mixture of social pressures. We may go along with the group out of respect for social norms or because that many people can't possibly be wrong. In service, conformity can exist among employees and among customers’ perceptions.

Employee Conformity
Walk into any In-n-Out during a busy rush and you’ll see a whirlwind of employees serving customers, preparing orders, and cleaning up. If you look carefully, you’ll see employees taking subtle cues from each other. They interact with each other in a positive manner. Each person hustles to do their job quickly and correctly because another employee is depending on them to keep things moving. A lazy or rude employee at In-n-Out would stick out like a sore thumb.

Poor customer service can also be contagious among employees. They loiter and talk while customers go unnoticed. They complain to each other about customers, co-workers, and corporate. Soon it becomes uncool to go out of your way to serve a customer.

Customer Conformity
Nordstrom may be one of the all-time customer service legends, but I have yet to have a good experience shopping there. I’ve even gone back many times against my better judgment because I keep thinking it’s me. Maybe I’m unlucky, maybe I was having a bad day the last time, maybe I’m just not Nordstrom’s material.

The strangest part is people tend to get a little weird when I tell them I’m personally not a fan of Nordstrom. “What do you mean, you don’t think Nordstrom has good service?!” I often start feeling the pull of social pressure and silently ask myself whether I need to give them one more try.

This experience makes me wonder if customers conform in their opinions of businesses. For example, does the Cheesecake Factory offer amazing food at ridiculously low prices, or could there be another reason why people routinely wait more than an hour to eat there? (Or both? Mmmmm. Cheesecake Factory...) On the other hand, you may have an outstanding customer service experience at the DMV, but prepare to be mocked if you choose to share your story with friends.

What do you think?
For now, it's all food for thought but I hope this subject may become a chapter in my book, The Unnatural Act of Customer Service. I welcome your comments, especially if you have links to information on the subject or personal stories to share.

The secret sauce behind a strong service culture (Part 3)

This is the third post in a series where I share the three main ingredients that make up the secret sauce behind a strong service culture. The first ingredient was clarity (read that post here). The second ingredient was consistency (read that one here). The third ingredient is commitment.

You need more than a banner
I howled with laughter when I saw the 1999 movie Office Space because I had lived through so many of the scenes. One situation I'll never forget happened when I was a training supervisor for a large catalog company. The Vice President of Customer Service called a meeting with all the managers and supervisors to unveil his new "one call resolution" initiative. He explained we could serve our customers much better if we resolved their complaint or problem on the very first call. Here was the entire initiative:

Step 1: Hang up a "One call resolution" banner.

Step 2: Hold a meeting to point out the new banner.

Yup! That really was it.

This banner didn't fix any of our real problems. For example, if a customer returned an item for a refund or exchange, it would sit in a truck trailer on a back lot for four weeks before the trailer was unloaded. This caused customers to repeatedly call and ask, "Did you receive my return?" Reducing that backlog of returns would have reduced a lot more phone calls than a stupid banner!

True Commitment
One of my current clients provides a great example of true commitment to service. Here are just a few things they do to preserve their culture:

1. Job applicants are screened for their ability to embody the organization's service values
2. New hires receive extensive customer service training
3. Executives and managers consistently discuss service with their employees
4. Customer service is a component of everyone's performance review
5. The company's strategic plan includes a customer service goal

The amazing thing is everyone is really expected to live these service values. I recently attended meeting where a frontline employee challenged a vice president on an operational procedure. The vice president accepted the challenge and engaged in a conversation with the employee and everyone else in the meeting about what would work best for the customer. They ultimately came up with some great ideas that everyone was excited about.

I left that meeting feeling sure this company had a real commitment to their service culture.

The secret sauce behind a strong service culture (Part 2)

This is the second of a three part series where I'll share the three main ingredients that make up the secret sauce behind a strong service culture. The first ingredient was clarity (read that post here). The second ingredient is consistency.

Consistency impacts a service culture in two ways.  First, organizations have to consistently deliver outstanding experiences. Second, organizations have to deliver service that is consistent with what their customers should expect of them.

Consistently Outstanding
I recently had hardwood floors installed in my home.  (Geneva Flooring did the job – they are terrific.)  The project caused me to make quite a few trips to my local hardware store, San Carlos TrueValue, to get various supplies throughout the project.  Every time I went to the store, I was greeted with, “What can I help you find today?”  All of the associates I encountered were friendly, helpful, and didn’t make me feel bad about my lack of home improvement knowledge.  Best of all, their recommendations were spot on and I got in and out quickly with as little damage to my wallet as possible.

Getting it right every time requires individuals to be consistent, but it also requires every employee to step up to the same level. For example, Gallup did a study on a major telecommunications provide and found they enjoyed an 88% overall satisfaction rating among customers who called their call centers. They dug a little deeper and found that the bottom 10% of the company's reps had a customer satisfaction rating of only 43%. The 88% overall score clearly didn't matter too much to the unfortunate customers who happened to get one of the 'bottom 10%' on the phone!

Consistent with Expectations
Let me risk a short, but instructive tangent.  Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler’s toughness and dedication was widely criticized during the 2011 NFC Championship when he came out of the game and was seen standing on the sideline in full uniform.  It turned out that Cutler had suffered a sprained MCL and was truly unable to play, but his behavior was inconsistent with what the fans expected.  If you look like you can play, you should be playing.

Compare that to Green Bay Packers defensive back Charles Woodson who was injured during the 2011 Super Bowl.  He has been widely hailed as an inspiration to his team rather than facing the same criticism as Cutler.  Why?  Because Woodson reappeared on the sideline in street clothes and his arm in a sling.  He looked injured so fans didn't expect him to re-enter the game.

Bringing this back to the business world, employees' behaviors need to align with what companies tell their customers to expect. A company that advertises amazing service better have employees who are able to do just that, or they'll risk alienated customers.

The secret sauce behind a strong service culture (part 1)

Do you ever wonder why some organizations 'get it' when it comes to customer service and others don't? The organizations that consistently deliver outstanding service all have one thing in common - a strong service culture. There are many aspects that make up an organization's culture, but there's a secret sauce that brings it all together. 

This is the first of a three part series where I'll share the three main ingredients that make up the secret sauce. The first ingredient is clarity.

Work with no clarity
Several years ago, I worked with a credit union that was trying to improve its service.  They had just rolled out a set of five core values to their employees and hired me to determine how well the employees understood and lived these values.  My report turned up both good and bad news.  The good news was 97% of employees could name all five core values.  The bad news?  Nobody could agree upon what these values actually meant, including the credit union’s executives.

A lack of clarity makes it hard for employees at all levels to know what to do. If we can't describe what outstanding service looks like to our customers, how can we train our employees to deliver it, bake it into our policies and procedures, or hold people accountable for their performance?

Getting to clarity
An excellent example of providing clarity is the online retailer Zappos. They have become famous not only for their customer service, but their willingness to let the world peak inside their corporate culture. Check out the video below where Zappos describe their culture. (Email subscribers: check it out on their webpage.)