Arrive Magazine - January/February, 2008

which are unquestionably accommodated, regardless of size, at every Loews. Hotel restaurants rarely attract much outside business for breakfast, but that changed when the Loews Regency in New York literally invented the setting for and the term “power breakfast” in the go-go 1980s.

PetSmart This big-box retailer does things a bit differently, starting with calling its shoppers “pet parents” to stress how serious its customers are about their needs. All job interviews are done on the store floor and include interaction with random shoppers to see how candidates relate, and hires at every level do an “internship” on the retail floor.

Burton Snowboards A 2006 Customer First winner, Burton is a favorite of Lidsky’s. “The people who work there love snowboarding and skating, and the company encourages them to get out and try its products. When you go into their stores, you talk to someone who was recently on the mountain. Their enthusiasm is contagious. If you just hire anyone, and they don’t have a passion for the product, it shows in a ho-hum attitude. This is no accident: It comes down to who and how you hire and build a culture.”

Travelocity The full-service online travel agency has an exceptionally easy-to-use and -navigate site, but it doesn’t stop there. It offers the best satisfaction guarantee in the industry, backed by an elite in-house team, and also has a focus on “proactive satisfaction.” If a customer calls in and reports a hotel deficiency, such as a pool under repair, they not only address his or her concern, they also call every single client booked into that hotel and let them know.

make Fast Company’s Customer First List, uses problem resolution as its chief differentiator in a highly commoditized competitive environment. Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Glueck says, “We have spent millions of dollars on technology and thousands of hours of training to be able to offer our Travelocity Guarantee and Customer Bill of Rights. We have a dedicated Customer Championship Team, but every single employee has been through the championship training and we’ve empowered our frontline agents to solve problems on the spot.

“Anyone who travels regularly has had glitches, and no one can stop storms or mechanical difficulties. These are technically not our problems, but people are sick and tired of being told ‘it’s not our problem,’ so we take care of it for our

customers and guarantee your booking will be right.

“After we introduced the Promise, we grew for a year at over 30 percent when our competitors were growing by less than half of that. The majority of our new customers, especially for hotel and packages, told us the guarantee was the main reason they booked with us, and we saw an immediate gain in sales and market share.”

Customer Expectations

PROBLEM: In a competitive landscape, simply meeting customer expectations is not enough to build loyalty—after all, this is what customers expect. Kazanjian says, “Research shows that the completely satisfied customer is three times more likely to do business with you again than the satisfied customer, yet that is what most companies strive for.”

SOLU TION: Underpromise and overdeliver. Professor Hall has extensively studied the success of Southwest Airlines and concludes, “Their ‘trick,’ so to speak, is that they set low expectations and then exceed them. They come right out and tell you they are a no-frills, low-cost airline, and just by doing that they set themselves up to exceed expectations, because operationally they have the best on-time record and least lost baggage.”

Likewise, Zappos, which prides itself on shipping every order within hours from its 24/7 fulfillment centers, will estimate a delivery time of four days for standard orders, yet the shoes often arrive the next day, thrilling customers who would not be impressed if promised one- to two-day delivery.

The companies that do the very best job often become what Lidsky calls “badge brands,” where, “as a consumer, I derive part of my identity from being a customer of an Apple or Starbucks.” Badge brands are relatively impervious to commodification and price sensitivity, and as long as they keep doing things right, they have customers for life. For a manager, Lidsky believes the first step down this road is simple: “Most executives never interact with their customers or feel their pain. If executives got out of the office and made the call themselves, or actually tried the product or service, I think in a lot of cases they would be shocked.”

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