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Try this exercise with your teams if you want them to really see what great customer service is. Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
It’s all well and good to pontificate about “the customer comes first” or “deliver outstanding service,” but often it’s hard for your team members to wrap their heads around what that really means. You can say these things until your jaw muscles are sore, and post all the customer service rules you want on their cubicle walls, but only a small percentage of the teaching will stick.
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I come from the school of learning by doing. When you see something firsthand or participate in the activity, retaining such information is exponentially higher. Training people this way gives them a situational context for reference. They can articulate and remember the concepts you’re teaching much better than if you talked their ears off in a classroom. If you want them to retain the information, let them live the lessons. It’s like telling a kid the stove is hot. They kind of understand the concept “hot,” but they don’t have context. Let them touch it, and they’ll never forget the definition of hot, let alone the event.
I was helping an organization move from mediocre service levels to focusing on outstanding, individualized service for more than 400,000 customers. We’d bring our managers in for training and talk at them all day. Some of the information stuck. A lot bounced off and fell on the floor.
Time for a field trip
I wanted them to truly understand what customer-focused means. I had a choice: I could either talk at them first thing in the morning in a classroom, or I could show them and have them live it. Obviously, I chose the latter. When I walked into the training session, I told them to get their coats because we were going on a field trip. Puzzled looks abounded.
We headed to a chain fast-food restaurant first. I told half of them to order the beverage of their choice (on me) and instructed the other half to watch and observe. I didn’t tell them what to look for, though. The half who made a purchase got their orders in good time and at a relatively low price. The cashier robotically took their orders and mechanically provided them with cups or drinks. I then instructed everyone to saddle back up, and we went down the street to Starbucks.
I gave the same instructions in Starbucks, but to the other half of the group that didn’t get a beverage at the first restaurant. Each individual ordered. The Starbucks barista asked the person’s name. They asked how their day was going. They smiled and made eye contact. They confirmed the order, told the customer where they could pick up their coffee, and thanked them with a genuine and sincere “Thanks. Have a great day.” (Incidentally, the thank you at the end of the transaction was always different. They weren’t reciting from a phrase book.)
I rounded everyone up and we went back to the classroom. I asked, “Why did we just do that?”
“Because you wanted to show us the difference between individually focused service vs. production-focused service (or lack thereof),” came the answer.
“How did you feel in the first location?”
“Like a number. Like I was somewhat inconveniencing the cashier,” said one.
“And at the second?”
“I felt like a person. I made a real connection with the cashier. They were really nice,” was the reply.
Another student piped up. “Yeah, but it took so much longer in Starbucks. We don’t have the time in our locations to provide that kind of service. We’ll never get our production done and hit our revenue targets.”
OK, folks, here’s the big insight. At the first location, it cost $13.57 for all the drinks. It took 9 minutes and 30 seconds for everyone to order and get their drink. At Starbucks, it cost $46.29. And here’s the kicker: It only took 8 minutes and 45 seconds to complete the same transactions.
Time really is money
The audience was somewhat stunned. They couldn’t reconcile the time delta. Folks, how long does it take to say, “Hello, what’s your name? Mike? Nice to meet you.” Three seconds. And those three seconds are worth almost 200% more in pricing power, not to mention the retention effects of that customer coming back again because they feel like a person rather than a number.
Spend the time. Treat your customers like you were treated in Starbucks. The numbers and results will follow. For more insights on how Starbucks does it, check out The Starbucks Experience, by Joseph A. Michelli (McGraw Hill, 2006).
Everyone who attended that event still talks about it a year later. Some of them went back to their locations and did the same thing with their teams. They remembered. They learned. They had context to discuss true customer service. The hands-on and experiential nature of the training—vs. only discussing abstract concepts in a classroom—has aided understanding and retention of those lessons dramatically.
Try this with your teams if you want them to really see what great customer service is. Provide them with a baseline (a fast-food restaurant) and give them a great experience (e.g., Starbucks, Whole Foods). It doesn’t cost very much, but you’ll get an incredibly high return on the investment. I love doing this training. I get to see the light bulbs turn on. People get it.
Plus, it’s a great excuse for me to get my quad shot venti caramel macchiato.
Published June 19, 2024, in The thoughtLEADERS Brief on LinkedIn.
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