Customer Service Recovery Can Show How Good You Are

Recently I had the pleasure of having lunch with Julia Carcamo (VP of Brand Marketing) and Jim White (VP of Guest Satisfaction) of Isle of Capri Casinos.  We had a great discussion about customer service.  They shared a true story about a problem that happened at one of their casinos, and there’s a lesson to be learned about how the team managed the guest experience.

The Lady Luck Casino, operated by Isle of Capri Casinos, is located in Caruthersville, MO.  They hired Vicki Lawrence to present her concert, and it was a sold out event.  The Lady Luck had just switched over to a new valet parking system, and this particular evening was going to test the new system.  Unfortunately it didn’t pass the test.  About 20 guests were told their car was lost.   The valet personnel could not locate the car.

If this happened to you, what would you do? (Before you read any further, take a moment to think about your answer.)

The Lady Luck team did several things to take care of the guests.  They had to get creative.  This would take more than saying, “I’m sorry.”  What they did was apologize profusely, drove the guest home and promised the guests that their cars would be in their driveways by the time they got up to go to church the next morning.  (And, they did!)

This is a lesson in the basics of customer service recovery.  In this case the basics were to:

1. Apologize.

2. Take action with an acceptable temporary solution.

3. Make a promise to the customer to resolve the problem.

4. And, finally, keep the promise.

The valet team needed time to find the cars.  They didn’t want the guest to wait.  They deployed the personnel to drive the guests home, which was a temporary solution.  That temporary solution allowed them time to find the cars, without the pressure of the guests staring at them, wondering how much longer they would have to wait.  (That part is important.)   And, once they found the cars, they returned them to the owner’s home, as promised.

When I shared that story with a couple of colleagues they were impressed.  They felt the Lady Luck team went above and beyond to resolve a guest problem.  However, they simply did what they felt was necessary to make sure the guest was taken care of and their problem resolved.  Someone made the decision that it was okay to drive the guests home.  That is the “above and beyond” part of the story.

How far “above and beyond” would you go to resolve a customer service problem?  How much time, manpower and dollars would you expend to solve a customer service debacle?

Remember, the goal is more than just resolving a customer service problem.  Anyone can do that.  It is to also restore the confidence.

Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal      bestselling business    author  who works with companies who want to      develop loyal    relationships with  their customers and employees.

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10 TIPS TO BE YOUR BEST

Here are 10 tips from Training Camp.

1. THE BEST KNOW WHAT THEY WANT

I think a lot of people spend their life being average or good at something, but they don't strive to be great. The best of the best not only know what they want, but they want it more.

2. THE BEST WANT IT MORE

We cannot measure desire in terms of merely thought and wishes. The best not only do the things that others won't do and invest the time others won't invest, but they do so with passion and intent to get better. The best are never satisfied with where they are.

3. THE BEST ARE ALWAYS STRIVING TO BE BETTER

If you are striving to get better, then you are always growing. And if you are always growing, then you are not comfortable. To be the best, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable, and embrace it as a part of your growth process. The best see where there is room for improvement and their humility and passion drives them to improve. The average ones however, don't see it or don't want to see it. The fact is past success does not determine future success. Future success is the result of how you work and prepare and practice and how you strive to improve every day. It's a commitment that the best of the best make every week, every day, every hour, and every moment. Force yourself to be uncomfortable.

4. THE BEST DO ORDINARY THINGS BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE

Work hard on the right things. It means you must identify the very "little things" that are fundamental to your success, and then you must focus on them, practice them, and strive to execute them to perfection.

5. THE BEST ZOOM-FOCUS

There is no secret recipe. If you incrementally improve each day, each week, each month, by the end of the year you'll see remarkable results and growth. When you zoom-focus on the process, the outcome takes care of itself. Master the fundamentals.

6. THE BEST ARE MENTALLY STRONGER

Being mentally strong means you stay positive through adversity. It means you are resilient when facing pressure, challenges and change. Weed and feed: Each day you need to weed out negativity and feed it positivity. You need to weed out the self-doubt and negative talk and feed it positive thoughts, memories and visuals.

7. THE BEST OVERCOME THEIR FEARS

Those that succeed, those that reach the pinnacle of greatness, are able to face this battle (overcoming fear) and win.

8. THE BEST SEIZE THE MOMENT

When the best are in the midst of their performance they are not thinking ‘What if I win?’ or ‘What if I lose?’ They are not interested in what the moment produces, but they are only concerned with what they produce in the moment. Rather than hiding from pressure, they rise to the occasion. As a result, the best define the moment rather than letting the moment define them.

9. THE BEST LEAVE A LEGACY

You leave a legacy by living and working with a bigger purpose, you leave a legacy by making your life about more than just you. You leave a legacy by moving from success to significance.

10. THE BEST MAKE EVERYONE AROUND THEM BETTER

The point is to strive to be your best and inspire others to be their best, because it's in the striving where you find greatness, not in the outcome.

- Jon Gordon


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Watching and Listening to Customers Can Help You Deliver Exceptional Customer Service

Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 11:01:29 AM

My definition for delivering “amazing” customer service is to consistently be above average. At a minimum this is just a little above average. That’s what the best companies do. They are consistently above average. Note that word “consistently.” That’s the key. It needs to be all-of-the time to be amazing. The customer has to count on it – know it is going to happen. It becomes the expectation.

Exceptional customer service means you go above and beyond what is expected. You create those “WOW” and “POW” (surprise) moments for your customer.

I recently had the pleasure of staying at the Marriott in Plano, TX. This is a nice hotel that sits at the end of the Legacy Town Center. I was there for a conference and a woman named Alexandria Vanreenen was our sales representative. Alex, as she prefers to be called, was engaging and helpful. As our convention was her “customer,” she seemed to be there from first thing in the morning until our last function in the evening.

This hotel loves to give their guests some of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever eaten. And, they taste even better when you microwave them for 18 seconds. Alex noticed I was taking the cookies and microwaving them for my friends. We started talking and I told her the secret was 18 seconds for an individual cookie, or 22 seconds for two or three cookies.

At the final night banquet, just as we were eating dessert, Alex and the chef came out from the kitchen with a plate of cookies. In the middle was a little sign that read: 18 Second Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Now, I’m pretty sure the chef pulled them right out of the oven and brought them over. They were even more delicious, and my friends at the table were completely impressed with Alex, the chef, and of course the hotel. One person commented, “This hotel has the nicest people.” Another said, “The customer service here is very impressive.”

What Alex did wasn’t hard. It was just a little extra effort that made a big impact. She could do this because she engaged and interacted with her customers/guests. More importantly she listened and observed here customers’ comments. And, most important, she acted on what she heard and observed.

Her payoff is simple. She delivered a “WOW” customer service experience to ten guests, who may tell others. And, that’s what any business wants; to do a great job that is appreciated so much by the customers that they tell others. That’s what I’m doing. She had no idea she was doing this for a customer service expert that will include this story in his speech – or write about it in a blog/newsletter that is read by tens of thousands of people.

So, engage with your customers. Pay attention to what they are saying. Take advantage of what you are seeing and hearing and then use what you’ve learned to surprise your customers with amazing and exceptional customer service.

Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

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WIN OR LOSE

Only one team wins the Super Bowl.

For each player on the NY Giants going to Disney World after the game there is a player on the New England Patriots going home disappointed without the joy of victory.

It's a lot like life.

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

Sometimes we win the account, the game, the job promotion, the award and sometimes we lose the very thing we want most.

Winning matters. Losing matters. But in life what matters most is what we do with our wins and losses.

When we win do we become complacent or stay humble and hungry?

People often say that success breeds success but often it breeds complacency. After a win people think they can just show up and achieve the same result, forgetting the effort, determination and mindset it took to achieve the win.

To continue winning it's essential to turn the euphoria of winning into a fire of burning desire that fuels your continuous improvement, passion, and quest for excellence.

Even more important than what we do after our wins is how we respond to our losses.

Do we give up or come back stronger?

Do we allow the loss to act like a cancer that eats away at us for the rest of our life or do we turn it into a learning opportunity that leads to our healthy growth?

I certainly know what it feels like to lose. I've lost many arguments with my wife. : ) The Energy Bus was rejected by the first 30 publishers. As a sales person years ago I lost as many accounts as I won. I lost too many games as a Lacrosse player at Cornell and now I watch my children lose tennis matches and lacrosse games.

Everyone loses but the key is to make the loss stand for something and in my family LOSS now stands for:

LOSS (Learning Opportunity, Stay Strong)

When we lose we ask what we can learn from this loss and how we can improve because of it. Then we stay strong and work harder to come back and try to win.

This leads to more wins in the future...and also eventually more loses...and more learning opportunities and opportunities to stay strong and develop our character.

Through this process of winning and losing we learn the greatest lesson of all:

No matter how hard we work and how much we improve there will be times when we experience the worst of defeats instead of the greatest of victories. But ultimately life is about more than winning or losing. It’s about the lessons we learn, the character and strength we build and the people we become along the way.

Whether we win the Super Bowl or not, when we realize this we will surely be a winner in the game of life!

What are your thoughts about winning and losing?

- Jon Gordon


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High Tech, High Touch

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