In Tough Economic Times, Good Service Might As Well Be Gold.

JessSanders — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:33:01 -0500

Especially now, when people have limited disposable income, we have to be choosy with how we spend our money. Anyone can sell a product or service, but a business' level of service is what will make or break their customer's experience - and the likelihood of a repeat visit.

I loved your examples of how Lily made a difference in her customers' travels, even when she didn't have to. You can't teach empathy and engagement like she demonstrated - the airline she worked for doesn't know the asset they let walk out the door!

PS - Your reference to Keys Cafe in Minneapolis was a pleasant surprise! Living in the area, Keys is my absolute favorite breakfast spot in the Cities :) Must be the exceptional service ;)

Great Service Deserves Shout Outs

Elana Centor — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:21:16 -0500

It was ironic that the Keyes experience occurred while Lily was sharing so many of her airline experiences. Like you, Keyes is one of my absolutely favorite places --- the customer service is only surpassed by the food.

I do disagree with one point -- I think management can encourage people to show their inner empathy-- while it may not come as natural to many people as it does to Lily--- she's wired to try to solve other people's problems --and it didn't matter if the airlines rewarded her financially for her efforts --- I do think if employers financially rewarded showing empathetic behavior you'd see people showing up for work very differently.

Think all of those empathetic folks at Nordstroms. it's part of their culture and people love them for it.

Lily didn't always solve people's problems but she always went down trying.

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness

Lily

Maria Niles — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:23:10 -0500

What a wonderful story about Lily. There is so little by which you can choose an airline these days - they are all equally unpleasant to fly - Having a staff of Lily's would cause me to give an airline my loyalty. Especially after having a none too fun experience recently with having my luggage not lost - simply just not put on the plane. Weeks later, my feet are still in pain and paying the price for having to hit the ground and going to work and not having time to buy a new pair of appropriate shoes.

But I digress - yep, good customer service can pay for itself many times over. It astonishes me how many companies don't take advantage of that resource.

Joan Rivers, An Evil Eye Bracelet and Walking The Talk of Exceptional Customer Service

Elana Centor — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:50:15 -0500

When Lily* retired as a ticket agent from a major U.S. airlines after 19 years of service, the airlines lost one of it's most important assets. When it came to passenger service, Lily received more "rose" letters from appreciative passengers than any other airlines employee in the entire north east corridor.

Throughout the years she dealt with lots of celebrities including Ivana Trump and Joan Rivers . On one of those occassions she found herself with a very unhappy Joan Rivers. Ms. Rivers was flying Qantas first class to Australia and had just been told by Lily that she would have to pay $100 for the third bag she wanted to check.

Joan Rivers started ranting. Now, the policy was explicit -- the fee for a third piece of luggage --first class or no first class was $100.

If you were in Lily's situation and facing a very unhappy Joan Rivers, what would you have done?

Smile nicely, reach out your hand and ask Ms. Rivers for her American Express card.
Decide she's a celebrity with a big mouth and waive the charge.
Offer to call Qantas and see if they would be willing to waive the charge.

If you picked 3, you think like Lily. As Ms. Rivers listened to the one-sided phone conversation, Lily pleaded her case. After the initial response was a big fat no, Lily double checked saying, " Are you sure the $100 fee is worth having Ms. Rivers roast you in her comedy routine?"

Lily hung up the phone, smiled, and informed Ms. Rivers she would have to pay the $100. Instead of ranting, Ms. Rivers handed over her credit card and thanked Lily profusely.

She then insisted that Lily accept an evil eye bracelet from her costume jewelry collection.

This created an ethical dilemma for Lily because the airlines forbid ticket agents from accepting gifts from customers.

But Lily took the bracelet for a couple of reasons. First, it in no way influenced the outcome of the situation--Ms. Rivers paid the $100.

Second,Lily knew it had no real value -- it's costume jewelry(currently selling on eBay for $12.99).

Third, it was a gift from Joan Rivers.

But what makes Lily special is not that she went the extra mile for Joan Rivers, Lily went the extra mile for all customers.

When a customer approached her and asked her to give him a gate pass because he had left his Bose headphones in the seat back pocket, Lily had to inform him that the plane was already locked up and ready to leave.

He asked her what were the chances of the headsets being recovered.

Lily informed him that the chances of it being turned in were slim to none because either the cleaning crew r a passenger might help themselves to the left behinds.

But Lily didn't stop there. She found out what gate the plane was scheduled to land, and then she called the gate agent. She explained the situation and asked the agent to please check the seat pocket where the passenger had been sitting and then she gave the gate agent the passenger's email.

Several weeks later the passenger returned and said, " Lily I could kiss you. They returned my Bose headset." He handed her his business card and asked her to go to dinner and send him the bill.

About a month later the passenger returned and asked why Lily had not sent him a dinner bill. Lily explained she was just doing her job and wouldn't be sending him a bill.

Lily-- who is my cousin-- was sharing these stories while we were waiting for our breakfast at Keys Cafe in Minneapolis. We had opted to sit outside despite the 50 degree weather. When we sat down the sun was shining and there was a twenty minute wait if we wanted inside seating.

However after 3o minutes we had not been served. Our server came over and apologized for the slow service. After 45 minutes and no food, the sun was no longer hitting our table and we asked if there was anyway we could be seated inside because it was beginning to feel very nippy.

The waitress came out and said we could not be seated inside.

At 70 minutes into the brunch our food was finally delivered and the waitress informed us that because of the long wait the manager was treating us to breakfast.

Now we would have been charmed if they took 20% off our bill but being treated to breakfast---it was three meals-- was an exceptional customer service moment that deserves a shout out.

And Lily deserves a shout out because if companies could figure out how to"bottle" what Lily does there would be lots more customer loyalty.

The truth is Lily didn't want to retire from the airlines because she loved her job. But when it came to downsizing the airlines didn't distinguish between Lily---who provided extraordinary customer service and other employees who just showed up.

Does that make any sense? Lily retired because the airlines offered her incentives to leave. Given the current strained relations between passengers and airlines you would think the airlines would want ambassadors like Lily out on the floor welcoming passengers and modeling what superior customer service is all about.

It speaks volumes about the airline's culture that they didn't value the service that an exceptional ticket agent provided. Lily was the airlines face to thousands of customers. They loved her and in turn they felt good about the airlines.

Companies spend millions of dollars each year trying to teach people how to provide exceptional customer service and yet when they have someone modeling that extraordinary customer service all the recognition they give is a shout out in an employee meeting.

Is great customer service a teachable skill?

Of course. But it requires support from management. Management has to want the Lilys of the world to call gate agents to retrieve a Bose headset or double check on waiving a luggage fee.

Management has to do more than say thank you to these exceptional, wonderful employees. Management has to provide financial rewards for doing a job well

Of course the irony is that Lily didn't need the financial rewards to provide extraordinary customer service. But having the financial rewards might inspire others to practice what comes naturally to Lily.

For more on exceptional customer service experiences check out:

Valerie Maltoni, Conversation Agent

A Deaf Mom Shares Her World- Karen Putz Talks to The Celebrity Experience Author

Andi Barness: How To Ensure Great Customer Service

* Lily is a pseudonym.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

BlogHer - Joan Rivers, An Evil Eye Bracelet and Walking The Talk of Exceptional Customer Service - Comments

In Tough Economic Times, Good Service Might As Well Be Gold.

Great Service Deserves Shout Outs

Lily

Joan Rivers, An Evil Eye Bracelet and Walking The Talk of Exceptional Customer Service