Customer Service Leadership
I was in Baltimore, Maryland last month working with a client, when he asked me why he couldn't get at least 90 percent performance from his people. I asked him why he would allow only 90 percent to be good enough to take care of his customers, his most valuable asset. The look on his face was like I had just told him he had cancer. He asked me to explain my "rude" remark.
If 99.9 percent was good enough, 12 newborns would be given to the wrong parents daily. At least 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes would be shipped each year. On average, two planes loaded with passengers would attempt an unsafe landing at Chicago's O'Hare airport every day. Over 300 entries in the Webster's Dictionary would be misspelled, and 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly during the year. That is what 99.9 percent looks like. Think of how many customers would leave your business with the wrong information about your standards of excellence if 90 percent is all you want. Not the best way to become a multi-billion dollar business.
There are businesses and people who perform at 100 percent every day. For example, last year my wife had heart surgery at the Stanford Medical Center. (You can read about the Ulimate Customer Srvice here ) Our experience at the Stanford Medical Center was positive and successful thanks to the staff and medical personnel - their skill, medical care, and personal attention far exceeded our expectations. I also just recently had the privilege of playing golf at the famous Pebble Beach. This is not an easy place to get on to play; in fact, you must stay in their lodge and make your reservations far in advance. The cost is $495 per person to play one of the top courses in the world. By the way, I was the guest of my good friend Kevin Rude who is great example of customer service leadership for Brothers Power Sports was celebrating his 50th
birthday. The service in the lodge and on the entire property was extraordinary. But, more than that, it seemed to be normal behavior for them. They always addressed me as "Mr. Jackson" and each time they said my name, it was as though they were honored to have the privilege. Everyone working - from the gift shops to the club house, from the grounds-keepers on the pristine courses to the waitresses in the café - conducted themselves at the 100 percent standard.
As I was playing golf, I was thinking about my Baltimore client. What was he missing? What did Stanford Medical Center and Pebble Beach have that he didn't? While walking around the most beautiful 18 holes of golf in the world that I have ever played, I was finally able to sum it up in one word: Confidence. Pebble Beach is known to be the best and each staff member there takes pride in his or her ability and to handle their responsibilities at the highest (100 percent) level. They are confident they are the best in the world at what they do. They are confident that their teammates will uphold the 100 percent standard 100 percent of the time - not 99.9 percent of the time. They are confident that when you leave Pebble Beach, you will remark with enthusiasm and confidence that your expectations were exceeded that day; and you most certainly will come back to experience their confidence in customer service again. Confidence comes from expecting and being the best.
Back to my Baltimore client's question: How to get 100 percent out of your team?
There are three keys to cultivating and maintaining confidence in your team:
1. As a leader, you must hire the best people available and you must treat them as though they are the best in the world. When leaders treat their people the way they want their customers treated, you get confidence and confidence spreads. If you have people who are not best in class, then you have three choices. First, you can do nothing. If you choose this option read no further, just shut up and accept that you are mediocre. Oh, and pray you are not on one of those planes landing unsafely at O'Hare. Second is to communicate your expectation to your people and then train, train and train some more until your expectation becomes the norm. The third option is to terminate and find a better replacement and, in this economy, that should be easy. No excuses.
2. Treat each customer as if he or she were a Head of State. If the Queen of England or the President of the United States walked into you business, wouldn't you roll out the red carpet? If you argue that you can't be expected to do that every time, then I guess you will not be in the same winner's league as Pebble Beach.
3. Model an excellent example that deserves to be imitated. As the leader, you model the way to find the positives in your business, market, products, locations and even the weather. Leaders who believe that now is the best time to succeed will ultimately be called the exception to the rule. Pebble Beach was sold out on a cold and rainy Monday in December with the wind blowing 20-30 miles an hour. You, as a leader, expect and demonstrate a 100-percent success rate no matter what the conditions.
Now I ask you, how is your confidence? Are you waiting for the government to fix things? Are you looking for the magic dust that makes everything a 100 percent success? Or, will you be confident when go to sleep tonight, that this day you gave 100 percent in all that you did. Confidence is knowing that your team is the best, your product is the best, and on this day that the Lord has given you, you gave it 100 percent.
Many who read this article ponder what they might do differently to give 100 percent and ultimately justify all the reasons why it can't happen. Then there are those who will read this and know they are a leader of, or a part of, an elite group who are confident and live their life at 100 percent. The biggest tragedy is to have missed your goal by one tenth of one percent because you only gave 99.9 percent of yourself. Which are you? Tell me please.
Discover the secrets to leadership confidence with Jim Jackson's Leadership program.