Green Peg Blog

Are rules meant to be broken?

June 17th, 2008by KarenM

AmberlyGrounds I arrived at a beautiful castle-converted-to-Hotel in England a few years ago with a very messy, noisy head cold. They had a lovely restaurant on the premises, but I was not in the mood to eat among strangers. We were pleasantly surprised when the hotel was willing to honor our request and make an exception to their “we don’t offer room service” policy. They served dinner in our room, bringing with them as many of the fine details of their dining room as could be brought up the stairs. Although the food itself was not particularly memorable, everything else was: the graciousness of the staff, their desire to accommodate me, and their attention to the details of making it feel like a special meal. As a result, this stands out in my mind as one of the best travel experiences I’ve had, and one that I have repeatedly shared with people. If you’re planning a trip to the countryside in West Sussex, I heartily recommend staying at least one night in one of the manor house rooms at Amberley Castle. We stayed in the Chichester room, which does indeed have a very special bathroom.

AmberlyChairs When you visit the web site, notice the photo of the private dining room that is part of the home page slide show. Turning the chairs toward the camera conveys exactly the sort of welcoming hospitality that I experienced there.

On the other hand, I was recently staying at a hot springs resort in California, and ate a few meals in the only restaurant on the property. Based on a previous experience I knew I wanted fewer potatoes (they typically serve a mountain of them) and an extra piece of toast (their bread is on the small side). Asking for fewer potatoes and extra toast seemed like a fair trade to me, so I was taken aback when the person taking my order hardened his face, raised his voice, and informed me that they could give me fewer potatoes, but that an order of toast is 2 slices and costs $2.50 if I want more than 2 pieces. I’m sure there’s history behind that response that I’m unaware of, but it still seemed unnecessarily unpleasant to me, and my desire to return to the restaurant was diminished by the experience. I do like going to the resort and it is the only restaurant there, so it won’t keep me away entirely. And I’m sure they realize that they have a captive audience.

In the first scenario I had no expectation and so I was pleasantly surprised. In the second scenario I had an expectation that my request was reasonable, so the refusal felt unreasonable to me, and the tone felt unnecessarily harsh. It seems that Amberley Castle has the philosophy that they can afford to be generous, and the hot springs restaurant has the philosophy that they can afford to be rigid.

Posted in Service Stories, Great Service, Service Tips, Service Extras | 1 Comment »

Zap: $1500 for Quitting!

June 16th, 2008by Jim Schmidt

Question: How do you build an outstanding company?

Answer: Start with a commitment to establish a culture of delivering outstanding service to your customers. “OK, fine”, you say. What the heck does that mean and how do you actually do that? The two most important prerequisites are:

The top leadership (President/CEO) must be convinced that spending time and money to develop a customer service culture will yield a significant return on investment.
Develop on-boarding processes that facilitate hiring only those people that are predisposed to providing great customer service.

This morning on the CNBC program Squawk on the Street, I listened to the founder and CEO of Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh, as he outlined his strategy for creating a culture of great customer service in his 1,600 person on-line shoe company. Zappos puts all new employees coming into their Las Vegas headquarters (even if you are an attorney or an accountant) through 4 weeks of customer service training. About a week into the training program, an offer is made to each new employee: quit now and we will pay you a $1500 “quitting bonus” in addition to being paid for the time you have worked. Approximately 2%-3% of the employees going through the training program accept this offer. Let’s face it, to stay (and give up that instant $1500) you have to have some faith in the future of the company.

Here are a couple more hints about how serious they are about customer service. Their logo contains the phrase “Powered by Service” and their call center is called the “Customer Loyalty Team”. Time for some new shoes!

Note: Thank you to Chris Jones for initially putting this company and its culture on my radar.

Posted in Great Service, Service Tools, Service in the News, Service Tips, Service Best Practices, Accountability in Service | No Comments »

Reverse Engineering Extraordinary Service

May 9th, 2008by Jim Schmidt

CayoEspantoDining Would you like to know how to deliver five-star service to your customers? In the same way that a competitor can reverse engineer a product to understand how it works, we can perform a similar analysis on services. The obvious motivation for doing this is to improve the service that you provide to your own customers.

Recently my better half and I spent a week on Cayo Espanto, a tiny 4-acre island in the Western Caribbean, off the coast of Belize. As a few celebrities have already discovered, if you value privacy and individualized five-star service then this place is for you. I hope this case study will inspire you to “up your service game”, regardless of the industry you work in or the service that you provide.

Our Cayo Espanto Experiences	Service Translation
Prior to arrival, we were surveyed about our preferences.	Get some advanced knowledge about what your customers want before you provide them with a service.
Normally to get to Cayo Espanto, you will need to take a couple of plane flights and a boat ride but if you choose the helicopter option as we did, you can go direct from the international airport to the island. This replaces the last flight and boat trip and allows you to settle in your bungalow a few hours earlier. We were welcomed by our Cayo Espanto representative at the Belize airport and escorted to our helicopter for a short flight to the island. On the way to the island, our pilot showed us part of the 185 mile long Belize Barrier Reef and pointed out several rays and manatees.	Make getting somewhere easier Make getting somewhere faster Make getting somewhere more fun Make a great first impression Go the extra mile Exceed expectations Do something different Offer a premium service Up-sell to your customers
The minute we exited the helicopter at Cayo Espanto we were welcomed with a smile, a cold washcloth and a cold drink.	Make another great “first” impression Offer pleasant surprises and exceed expectations Anticipate what your customers will want at a particular moment and provide it Make your customers feel special
Every resident at Cayo Espanto has a Personal Houseman. Your Houseman (think butler) will ensure you have everything you want. They respond immediately if you call them on the provided walkie-talkie.	Assign someone to be personally accountable for keeping your customers satisfied Give your customers an orientation so they know what is offered
The chef came buy the bungalow every afternoon to describe the special and choices for dinner. The Houseman would set up a surprise location every night to dine. Locations included our deck, the end of a private dock, on the sand under the trees and a different, but unoccupied, bungalow.	Exceed expectations with pleasant surprises Adjust the service depending on the circumstances Give your customers a sample of other things that you offer
Other extras included usage of water sports equipment, excursions to see the Mayan ruins, massages, SCUBA and snorkeling, fly-fishing, etc. We chose to see the Mayan ruins at Lamanai, the snorkeling on the reef and the massages.	Facilitate additional value-add services for your customers. (This may require partnerships and contractors.)
Delivery of fresh (still warm) cookies and tea in the afternoon.	Delight your customers Make your customers feel special Provide a smaller service in-between the larger services
Our dive-master, German, took us for an exciting snorkeling expedition on the reef. On the way back to our bungalow he radioed back to the island. The instant we stepped off the boat and onto the dock of our bungalow, the island staff literally handed us each a cold Margarita.	Anticipate what your customers might want and get input from them. Then, fine tune their request and deliver the surprise.
The island was immaculate. There was not a single piece of litter on the island anywhere. In fact, they even raked the sand hourly to remove footprints.	Take pride in the service you provide to your customers. The simple things matter.
Each bed was equipped with a mosquito net that draped the entire bed. We didn’t see a single mosquito (we went in February) but they were prepared.	Prepare to deal with situations that are not ideal.
A skilled massage therapist was on staff to provide a fabulous massage either in-room or right on your own deck overlooking the water.	Know your customers Offer premium services
Each bungalow (here out in the middle of nowhere) provided iPod facilities, a laptop if you didn’t bring your own, wireless and just about movie you might want.	Provide the “built-in” services that your customers are already accustomed to and expect.
Terrycloth cushions were placed out on our deck for us every day.	We know you are going to do this, so we will do it for you and save you the trouble.
The staff always ended each service visit with “anything else for you”?	“Is there anything else I can do for you?” is a standard best practice question that applies in all industries. (Note: police officers usually skip this one after issuing you a speeding ticket.)
When we left, the staff stood on our deck and waved goodbye as our boat for the airport departed. They also presented us with a wonderful “to-go” lunch.	We appreciate your business Please come back

CayoEspantoGoodbye Now imagine a third column labeled: “Action Items for My Business” and you have gotten something out of this article. By the way, if you have the green you can rent the whole island and populate it with your friends. You are more than welcome to include my name on the invitation.

Posted in Great Service, Service in the News, Service Tips, Service Extras, Service Best Practices, Accountability in Service | Comments Off

Are rules meant to be broken?

Zap: $1500 for Quitting!

Reverse Engineering Extraordinary Service

Jim Schmidt

Jim Schmidt

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