Customer Service

I spent a lot of time looking at different companies and how they address the customer experience, whether it is perceived or their actual doctrine. I wanted to send a road map to my team to help them create their own idea of how to properly handle the customer experience.

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This is an email I sent to my team about customer service, something we all have to be passionate about, regardless of the industry. How do you create a positive customer experience?

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Good morning team, I hope everyone had a great weekend and you are all now ready to hit the ground running on this Monday morning.

I want to take a moment to talk about customer service. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not saying that we deliver poor customer service. I do think we have some opportunities for improvement, myself included. We are all in this together, and to offer stellar customer service, it is going to have to include everyone from the top down, from me down to the techs. As I said, we are all in this together, parts, service, and sales.

I have been looking at a couple of different businesses, trying to learn how they do customer service. I think we can take some of their principles and adapt them to what we do. Some of these businesses are in the same business as us, some aren't, but we all share one thing in common: we are in the people business.

Amazon: Everyone knows the "Everything Store." At Amazon, it's whatever it takes to minimize customer dissatisfaction and maximize the customer experience, often before the opportunity for customer dissatisfaction even happens. Jeff Bezos is obsessed with this idea. When a call or email comes in, whatever it takes to fix it. Amazon employees are encouraged to fix an issue in as little time as possible. That may even involve something for free. I heard a story a few years ago that a woman ordered an iPad as a Christmas gift. When the box arrived, she found there were 4 extra iPads inside. When she called to report the mistake, she was told to keep the extra items, "It's our mistake." Now, whether true or not, this story brings home a "whatever it takes" mentality.

Zappos: Zappos is maybe the furthest thing from our business, online shoe sales vs school busses. But, their customer service model is on point and we can take some pointers from them. On the flip side of Amazon, Zappos employees are encouraged to spend as much time as needed to resolve a customer complaint. This isn't to say that Zappos wants unhappy customers, but you get the idea. Zappos wants its employees to simply be there to resolve customer issues. Again, we are looking at a company with a "whatever it takes" mentality.

Sewell: Sewell is a group of luxury car dealerships in the Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas areas. Maybe a far cry from school buses, but they have some good ideas we can use. Driving to work almost every day, I hear a commercial for Sewell. They have customers in these radio spots typically saying 1 of 2 things. "A car buying experience like no other" or "Sewell will change the car buying experience." How do they do it? They remove the pain points.

Complimentary loaner vehicles

Pickup & delivery of customer vehicles

Mobile service

Complimentary car washes

Chic-Fil-A: Everyone knows and loves Chic-Fil-A. Their chicken is among the best out there, I just wish I could get it on Sundays. The thing that Chic-Fil-A does best is to make you feel welcome. It's 2 little words, "My Pleasure." It's not "no problem" or "you're welcome," but "my pleasure." It doesn't sound forced and doesn't sound fake. It's a genuine greeting.

Valvoline: I started getting my oil changed at Valvoline about a year ago when they opened up in my neighborhood. They're a little bit more expensive than some of the competitors, but the service is better, and the experience is better. Whether I sit in the car or wait in the lobby, I can see, but also hear what they are doing. I watch the techs move around and check each other's work and listen to them communicate. They are always shouting out to each other about what they are doing. The system creates and system of checks and balances and ensures quality as they go.

We live in the day of The Thank You Economy (more on that later). Customers are no longer just looking for service, but for an experience. How can we do that? What can we create?

As you read through this, I hope it sparked something inside of you. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on what we can do to improve. Please either reply to this email or come by my office to discuss this email, your ideas, or anything else for that matter. My door is always open.

- NJB - -