Service Untitled

Brands Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index sets Dunkin’ Donuts as number one in customer loyalty for the coffee category. Second only to oil production, coffee is the largest commodity sold. The coffee category included ratings on consumer preferences, the consistency of meeting customer expectations for taste, quality, service, and brand value. This is the sixth year in a row the quick food coffee shop has been recognized with the award.

Dunkin’ Donuts has more than 7,000 restaurants in the United States and District of Columbia and another 10,000 restaurants in 33 countries. Their products are also sold in grocery stores and other specialty shops thus giving them a much broader shot at international brand recognition through a larger variety of different venues.

So what makes “Ameica Runs on Dunkin’” so popular? Most Dunkin’ Donuts are franchises, and their core values include honesty, transparency, humility, integrity, respect, fairness, and responsibility. Franchise applicants are required to have liquid assets of $250k and a net worth of $500k. Experts in the field provide extensive learning and training opportunities. Much of the organization’s success has been attributed to the dedication of the franchises and their ability to create an outstanding customer experience.

Perhaps the hardest part of meeting customer expectations however, lies with brand value and delivering the product to customers to make them happy. Actually the superior guest experience happens when customer expectations are exceeded. The company’s Dunkin’ Donuts Perk and Rewards program translates into free beverages as well as emails informing customers of the latest news, special offers and new store openings. Every year a participant receives a free medium beverage on their birthday. People remember – and couple the marketing with fast service, a smile from the person behind the counter, and 100 percent Arabica coffee beans, a recipe for success seems to have been achieved.

You may be a loyal fan of Starbucks where customers contemplate a more comfortable setting, a wider array of coffees, frappucinos and smoothies, having an employee inscribe your name on the cup and that small convenient table for sugar and spice – but “America Runs on Dunkin’ ” is less expensive and still makes the consumer feel as if they are appreciated.

In a company that serves more than one billion cups of hot coffee and iced tea annually, clever marketing has made people feel more engaged. The company’s green policy began in 2008 when the first green store opened in St. Petersburg, Florida, and on January 20, the second green store opened in St. Petersburg using eco-friendly LED lighting, recycled water for landscaping, coffee grounds for area farmer composting and even an electric car charging station.

The company supports veterans and donates coffee to the USO and provides grants for the welfare of the hungry.

When Nigel Travis, president and CEO of the organization was asked how he saw his company’s menu evolving in the next ten years he replied:

“I think we’ll be selling a lot of doughnuts. I think we’ll be stronger in our beverages, because that’s continued to grow steadily over time. We’ll continue to test things. We have more ideas than we can cope with.”

photo credit: craigemorsels

This is the third of a four part interview with Rob Siefker, the Director of the Customer Loyatly Team at Zappos. In this part of the interview, Rob talks more about the service metrics that Zappos tracks, how the company empowers its Customer Loyalty Team Members (and has avoided bureaucracy), how escalations to managers work at the company, how the Zappos compensates its employees, and the extensive continuing education programs employees have access to at Zappos and how they work.

You can read part one of the interview here and part two here. To read this part, click “read more.”

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There are four key ways that senior leaders can make sure they stay in the loop regarding customer issues:

1. Spend Time Talking to Employees
Senior leaders should use a structured process for interacting with employees so front-line issues can be discussed. This is important for both leaders and as well as employees in that it makes workers feel valued but also helps senior management better understand the things staff are dealing with.

I experienced a great model for this which in an organization which invited employees to eat lunch with the organization’s president on their milestone (5, 10, 15 year) anniversary dates. A monthly lunch with front-line employees was hosted by the senior executives and employees were encouraged to share ideas and work related challenges. The model worked extremely well, helped facilitate quick problem resolution and was an encouragement to the employees. It’s pretty amazing to see how quickly some problems can be resolved when an engaged senior executive gets involved.

2. Collect and Analyze Performance Data
Collecting and analyzing performance data is a fundamental management practice for any size organization. Every organization should identify measures of success and monitor them on a monthly basis. Senior leadership is responsible for interpreting the data and responding to data trends.

3. Manage by Walking Around
Walking around and mingling with employees is a great way to better understand operations. This tactic works well because employees interpret leadership presence as an indication that they care and walking around allows the manager to observe behaviors, customer response and potential issues that may not be reported by data.

4. Test the Service or Product
Senior leadership should always be familiar with products or services offered by the organization. Whether it is surfing the company website, sampling the food in the kitchen or watching the printing process in operation, the senior leader should experience what the customer experiences so they can help influence improvements.

The current economic environment demands that issues affecting products and services affecting the customer experience be identified and resolved quickly. Customers today don’t have the patience to wait around for needed improvements, so neglecting to break the Iceberg of Ignorance may very quickly affect the bottom line.

Do you know what your employees know about issues affecting the organization?

Patricia is the President and CEO of The Thriving Small Business, a business performance consulting company. Patricia helps small businesses develop and grow by helping them create infrastructures that support increased revenues, decreased costs and improved customer experience.

I was having lunch with a colleague and we were talking about some issues she was having at work. She was saying how difficult it was to get her senior leadership to understand issues the front-line employees deal with every day. She shared concerns for what she described as a big disconnect between employees who interact with the customers and upper management. It reminded me of some research I was exposed to years ago – The Iceberg of Ignorance.

The Iceberg of Ignorance is based on a study that was done by Sidney Yshido in 1989 which indicated that senior management often fail to understand business operations from the perspective of the customers and employees. The interesting finding of this study was that this can affect a company’s profits by as much as 40%.

The study revealed the following:

• Issues known to senior management were 4%.
• Issues known to managers were 9%.
• Issues known to supervisors were 74%.
• But front-line employees were aware of 100% of the issues that affect the product or service that was being delivered to a customer.

How can senior management be so clueless?
The art of recognizing and solving problems is essential for leaders. Senior levels of the organization should strive to be in tune with day-to-day issues confronting employees. Unfortunately, if there is not a structured process for gathering and analyzing performance data, executives can fail to see what is affecting employees and sadly their customers. Whether it is a broken purchasing process, faulty manufacturing equipment or an aging facility – senior leaders need to be aware so they can help resolve issues.

What is troubling about these findings, is that the very people with the ability to affect positive change for the organization, are the ones who are not aware of the issues that employees or customers are dealing with.

Four ways that senior leads can be aware of customer issues will be covered in another post this week.

Patricia is the President and CEO of The Thriving Small Business, a business performance consulting company. Patricia helps small businesses develop and grow by helping them create infrastructures that support increased revenues, decreased costs and improved customer experience.

photo credit: Jenny Varley

It seems an Apple rap video was posted on Vimeo and performed by Apple employees in New Hampshire. Obviously the video didn’t last long; it was pulled from the Internet, but besides being somewhat amateurish and mildly ludicrous, the theory of presenting the proper solutions to customers based on their needs still rang through as truth.

Back in July, the Apple Store in the Hong Kong IFC building presented parts of their five-day course in employee training. It is called “Core Training.” On the first day, new employees learn about the company, gain technical training, learn how Apple systems work and the importance of the Apple culture. Days two, three and four teach employees how to interact with customers, teaches about inventory and progresses to the “complete solution” which is finding out what the customer needs, asking them what they need it for, and then proceeds to presenting the product that will satisfy their needs. Day five summarizes the past four days of training and shows employees how to access Apple systems.

So the rap video seemed a bit immature as compared to what Steve Jobs would ever consider acceptable no less proper, but the message came across as far as calling customers “promoters” which simply means happy and satisfied customers are the ones who promote one’s business by recommending, returning and thereby acting as the best word of mouth advertising there is. The “rap stars” spelled out APPLE as the following:

• A – Approach (how to approach a customer when they walk into the store)
• P – Position, Permission, Probe (initial questions and follow-up to best help a customer find what they really want and need)
• P – Present (solution)
• L – Listen
• E – End

Perhaps the rap soundtrack could be seen as mildly offensive to some, but it presented an energized and interesting approach to teaching some very important principles of customer service. If one needs an acronym like AAA to remember “Acknowledge, Align, and Assure” to help recognize and handle acceptable standards and procedures that really work when an unhappy customer approaches or calls, and it happens to be chanted, rhyming lyrics that help employees to remember and do their jobs well – maybe it’s just not so bad.

photo credit: matsuyuki

Amazon.com’s newest customer service facility opened on Friday with a fanfare of speeches and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The new 70,000 square-foot center in Kinetic Park, West Virginia was described as a “perfect fit” by Vice President of Amazon customer service Tom Weiland. The new site will provide the company with more flexibility to train workers and take care of customers.

There are approximately 500 employees, and Amazon is planning through a job fair to immediately hire 200 more innovators and problem solvers. The company states they look for candidates that know what needs to be done and then acts upon those tasks. Products sold and supported at the Huntington facility will be Amazon’s retail Kindle, Amazon Instant Video, and Amazon Prime. Service representatives will be handling phones, emails, and chat contacts.

Customer service representatives are recognized as valuable partners in the company’s success also. Creature comforts such as a quiet reading areas, game room with television, pool tables and ping-pong tables are available for some downtime.

So what makes Amazon so successful? After all the company is rated as one of the favorite online businesses customers want to use. The answers are obvious – Amazon makes everything easy. The company offers low prices, vast selections, fast delivery, and convenient buying and returning. The focus is on the customer experience and having everything the customer wants.

Amazon’s innovative ideas have resulted in price guarantees, alerts to rising and dropping prices, and through this builds consumer confidence – enough to be labeled as one of the “most reputable” businesses. Their product reviews have surpassed most other sites, and more people continue to use Amazon as a research tool. Even the company’s technological advances such as the Kindle e-reader, the Android app store and movie streaming service has set them apart from their competition.

In my own experience, my son just purchased a Kindle for my birthday recently, and not more than two-weeks later, the Kindle Fire was announced. I had already thrown most of the packaging away, but wrapped up the original one, sent it back, no questions asked and I am eagerly awaiting the new one when it is released on November 15.

When once asked what founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos thought about on his own time, he responded he was obsessed with customers and felt driven to become the most customer-centric company on the planet.  It looks as if that might be happening.

photo credit: Chrysaora

Market Tools, a software and service provider for management and research conducted a survey of 331 companies with an annual revenue of more than $10 million annually. Of those organizations, 23 percent rely on social networks to support their customer service and to provide feedback. Topping the list with 48 percent was Facebook, 17 percent used Twitter, and another 17 percent relied on company blogs.

Almost every organization from animal shelters to zoos has to be aware of public opinion. With 500 million active Facebook users, logos and pictures and carefully thought out postings create and maintain serious platforms businesses depend on in the social media world. Facebook can spot out the latest trends, behaviors, and what the most influential customers are buying.

So how can a business use social media such as Facebook effectively? To begin, the efficient use of Facebook is not a hit or miss exercise. An organization will want to think carefully about who will handle this – from getting the company profile created, the gathering of data, posting, creating content, and even approval of content. Social media responsibilities can be a full-time job, and an intimate knowledge of the company and its brand and culture have to be serious contemplations when deciding who will be in charge of the day-to-day maintenance of either Facebook or Twitter – or both!

Remember where word of mouth has always influenced your friends, family, and co-workers, it’s not unusual for “friends” meeting up with new “friends” on Facebook and having hundreds and hundreds of consumers and potential new customers visiting your “page.” Fast and friendly personal responses can be very influential. If a business has a social conscience which reflects a particular responsibility, perhaps a local or national charity, social media can launch a company’s approval index substantially. Customers with complaints, for instance expect a fast response; if not there is likely to be more complaints thus creating a poor company perception. On the other side of the spectrum, however compliments from happy customers do a lot for a company. It’s almost as good as sitting at the local pub praising an organization personally.

But no successful Facebook campaign is random. It must be carefully orchestrated so an organization can present itself with a superior product, a welcoming personal message, well thought-out posts, timely responses, and a carefully educated and trained staff whose job it is to deliver great service and do it with pride.

photo credit: Rubber Dragon

Zappos is a company we’ve talked about a lot on Service Untitled (including an interview with the founder and CEO Tony Hsieh), so earlier this week when I was in Las Vegas for the first time, I made sure I got a tour of the Zappos.com Headquarters in nearby Henderson, Nevada.

The tour was really interesting. Unsurprisingly, the Zappos offices don’t resemble a typical office or call center. And the employees working in the Zappos office also don’t resemble the people you see in an average call center. The main difference? They seem very happy to be working at Zappos. I think you’d have a difficult time finding a call center with as many happy people as I saw walking around the Zappos headquarters. The place looks like a fun place to work and as followers of Zappos (and readers of Service Untitled) know, they clearly do things very differently than a lot of companies.

Some interesting tidbits from the tour:

• All employees go through Customer Loyalty Training and are taught how to use the company’s various systems. That way, when the holidays come around, every employee can pitch in during their down time or if they want, work some overtime, and help out. Cross training helps make it so Zappos doesn’t have to hire as many temporary service employees.
• Employees move cubicle locations every six months.
• Customer service employees are divided into teams by mediums (phone, live chat, and email) and then each team is further divided into groups of about 15 or so with a team lead. Team leads sit at the end of each row on a larger desk. Live chat has been the company’s fastest growing medium.
• There are no offices at the company and everyone, including the CEO, sit at a cubicle. I also didn’t see any executive conference rooms.
• Zappos gives tours to approximately 100 people per day, sometimes way more.
• Most employees are paid hourly, but all have access to the cafeteria that has free light meals and snacks and hot meals available for $3.00. The vending machine is $0.25 and proceeds are donated to charity. There are also unlimited free drinks available.

I’ve included a bunch of pictures after the jump. I’ve also included comments and further information with each picture. Click “read more” to see the gallery with photos and comments. To see a larger version of a photo with comments, just click on the photo. To see the full size version, click on it again.

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