Service with More Than a Smile
By many estimates, consumer frustration is at an all-time high, especially in industries such as air travel,
where poor performance and cost-cutting have all
but erased the concept of brand loyalty, as well as
in any industry reliant on telephone order taking or
support. Increased hold times, decreased human
interaction, and call centers outsourced overseas
frustrate and alienate customers.
But not every company has failed in the pursuit
of customer service, and in many cases those that
have become famous for their attention to it—the
Zappos, Enterprise Rent-A-Cars and Loews Hotels—
have built a new kind of brand loyalty, what business
writer and consultant Kirk Kazanjian calls “
customers for life,” not through advertising but through
great customer service.
Kazanjian has written a dozen books on business
topics and frequently consults on customer service
and retention. His latest book, Exceeding Customer
Service, is a case study of Enterprise Rent-A-Car,
which went from a single rental outlet to become
the industry’s most profitable company.
“More and more, companies are
talking about delivering good customer service,
but surveys show people are more frustrated than
ever before. I really think most companies claim to
care about customer service but don’t. At Enterprise
they have created a true culture of living and breathing customer service, and that comes from the top
down. If you are not willing to do this you will never
have great customer service and you are better off
not claiming to do so.”
David Lidsky, the senior editor at Fast Company
who oversaw the business magazine’s 2006 Customer First Awards and identified “Companies
That Love Their Customers,” agrees. “There is a
customer service crisis. Every company pays lip
service to the idea, and I think most mean well, but
a couple of key things are just not happening, which
leads to poor service and dissatisfied customers.”
In these experts’ views, the key problems and the
solutions are usually intertwined.
Company Culture
PROBLEM: “The people at the top say customer
service is important but don’t create the proper
incentives so that the employees, who have to actually deliver it, believe it is important,” says Lidsky.
SOLUTION: “A lot of companies don’t train
their employees in this,” says Kazanjian. “It’s not
brain surgery, but if you have not been properly
trained in how to turn around an angry customer,
the normal reaction is to get angry yourself. Other
simple things include training employees to address
customers by name. At Enterprise, employees
are trained and retrained, and also empowered
to solve problems, and they have a structure that
rewards employees financially for good customer
