I just witnessed a remarkable exchange between a customer and a service provider.
My favorite local coffee spot during my stay here in London is Sacred Coffee on Torrington Place. The same guy (let’s call him Danny) works the booth every day, and he takes great pride in his work. Even if there is a line, and there often is, Danny takes great care to craft your cup of coffee as if you were sitting in his own kitchen. I can see the design he puts on the foam of my flat white even through the lid. He knows he is going to put a lid on the cup, but he makes the effort to leave a design in the foam anyway. I’ve told him before that he makes the best coffee in the area and after thanking me, acknowledged that he knew it. He is the best because he wants to be the best.
Today Danny was in a very down mood, and the customer behind me in line noticed it. She asked him what was wrong, and he told us he was late to work today and his crumby boss chewed his butt out. She told him “Don’t worry about it; I’m sure your boss has also been late to work a few times.” She continued her encouragement of him “Let it go, Danny. We need you smiling. This place is better when you are smiling. Come on, cheer up!”
Wow.
The exchange I witnessed between the encouraging customer and the exceptional service provider was a perfect example of the cycle of success spiral that I discussed in my post entitled “Service-Profit Chain: There Is Something Right With This Picture.” People – your service providing employees – create loyalty with your customers. Your people (not you, Mr. Manager) delight or disgust your customers, and when the impact is positive, your loyal customers create a powerful virtuous cycle that can enhance your service climate. But never forget (Mr. Manager ) that you create the service climate that delights or disgusts your employees, thereby affecting their ability to serve your customers.
Yes, Danny should have been to work on time. I’m sure his boss is oblivious to how much money he would lose in sales if it was no longer Danny working the booth. Sure, the coffee is great, but there are at least 8 coffee shops (including 2 Starbucks) within 4 minutes and I can get pretty good coffee cheaper just 2 minutes down the street. Customers line up at the Sacred Coffee booth for Danny as much as they do for the coffee. As good as Danny is, his manager’s behavior is a systemic factor that limits what the business is capable of achieving.
Are you aware of how your customers behave when they come in contact with your service providers? If you have to hesitate to answer this question, I guarantee you that YOU have not provided the service climate your employees need to impress the socks off your customers.
Stop scratching your head wondering why your top-line sales are evaporating. No amount of wishful thinking or exhortation is going leave your employees impressed with you and your business, which is exactly what is necessary if you want your employees to impress your customers. And if you don’t realize that you need to enable your employees to impress every customer with every transaction, you deserve the competitive parity that you have imposed upon yourself. Unfortunately, your customers and employees don’t deserve you.
When you return from your vacation in La La Land, get to work partnering with your employees to design the systems that enable them to delight your customers. Only then will your company reap the benefits from the virtuous cycles of success that you and your employees earned because you created them by design.
Related Posts:
Service System Recovery: A Follow-Up To The Tale Of Two Coffee Shops
Guest Post: Larry Center On Open Leadership
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Thanks for sharing this story, Bret. As you know, I have a passion for stories on superior customer. service. Let me throw a curve at you and your readers. I do a lot fo volunteer work with three music festivals in my community (Ottawa, Canada). In fact, the Cisco Bluesfest is in full swing here (ranked 7th largest in the world). What I have found so interesting after 15 years of music festival volunteer work, is the phenomenal devotion to serving patrons by volunteers. These are folks who typically have fulltime jobs and then crank out 30-40 hours of community service over two weeks. It’s a shame that this passion to customer service is not replicated within private and public sector organizations (yes, there are some exceptions).
So my question is: how do those in managerial leadership positions create the same kind of passion within their organizational walls as is found by those doing community service work, whether it’s festivals, blood donor clinics, working with youth, etc.?
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Great question Jim, and one I know you have the answer to already. Your volunteers pour themselves into the volunteer work because they love the purpose, think it is important, and find the work meaningful.
We know that too many organizations are led and managed by people that are not really passionate about the work they do and the people they do it with. They create systems that rob people of their pride of workmanship.
Even so, that does not relieve any individual of the responsibility to do good work and care about what you do, who you do it for, and who you do it with. You should never surrender your pride of workmanship and use management as an excuse. As much as the job might suck, it’s your responsibility to not only do it the best you can but to make an effort to work with management to try to make it better.
As Senge says, there is no one to blame.
Thanks, Jim!
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Jim Taggart Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 9:19 am
With respect to your favorite barista and his work situation, where does his own self-empowerment enter? Should he look for another company or set out to create his own? Was his manager’s behavior the first occurrence? Is the barista over sensitive?
The story is quite interesting because of how the dressing down he received from his manager was immediately manifested in his interaction with his customers, i.e, they knew something was different.
One thing is clear to me: the barista needs to sit down for a talk with his manager. The sooner the better.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 9:25 am
the cup of coffee he gave me today was just as good as every other cup he has given me. He was just noticeably blue today, and I don’t fault him for that. He knows he is very appreciated by his customers but I suspect he is chronically under appreciated by his boss. Thanks! Bret
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