In our last post we wrote about how one individual bit of “careless” behaviour can destroy the hard won reputation of a premium value business. My personal experience (which was eventually resolved, more later) fuelled that blog but there have been countless high profile examples, such as Dixons/Curry’s lamentable customer service reputation which, to date, has cost millions to recover (the jury is still out in some branches), Npower’s “mistakes” with its customers billings, Baring’s Bank (!), Santander’s probate department and other big stories. But there is so much more, in everyday life for all of us.
Please think aback over the last month. Can you remember what has left you frustrated, and possibly fuming – the meal order not taken until you called for service, the ordered goods not ready for collection, the “special and exclusive offer” that turned out to be for you only if you were a size 3 supermodel, the Royal Mail "Delivery Collection" card put through the door while you were at home? There are so many opportunities for disappointments – and so many businesses that let their customers have them.
It doesn’t have to be like this, and in the truly excellent operations it almost never is.
However, although Excellence can look wonderful, the shiny shell of perfection can be an illusion. The reality is that this shell can be much more like a totally fragmented and then re-assembled egg shell, made up of thousands of tiny thoughts and actions that have to be kept together. One missing flake can cause it all to crumble. If an organisation relies on Quality systems, procedures, training and supervision to act as the glue, to hold the shell together, then it will always be vulnerable to the moment of inattention, the turning of a blind eye (You gotta be a team player), the avoidance of conflict (It’ll have to be all right, why make a fuss?), the cutting of corners (We’ll fill in the paperwork later) and all the other tiny bits of careless that can make any one of the flakes go missing. And then, when the customer has a problem, it can require very hasty footwork to try to make sure that they do not see through the missing flake to discover that, despite the glossy exterior, all there is really is an empty void.
Three weeks ago, a Product Warning advertisement asked if I had a Bosch Dishwasher made between 1998 and 2006, to check the serial and batch numbers, and then log into a web site. The web site informed me our machine needed an engineer visit and asked me to select a date from the displayed interactive calendar; I booked the soonest which was within 1 week and received an email confirming the engineer appointment. The day before I received a text message to confirm the booking and again the next morning before the engineer arrived. The smartly uniformed Bosch engineer replaced the main computer control unit in our machine, tested it thoroughly and re-installed it, all within one hour. Every step of his process had been thoroughly planned and prepared with check lists, van stock etc. His workmanship was meticulous and precise at every step. He cheerfully and openly explained that this was due to a problem that had, in only two cases, caused a domestic fire. Bosch had found that the cause was down to UK domestic supply voltage variations that exceeded their original design specification and that, as a precaution, they were replacing all units they could trace for the whole 8 or 9 year production run. Our machine is 10 years old. Now that is Living Quality, a demonstration by an engineer who believed totally in his Company, his Products and his Service. Here was Bosch’s Service Hero.
Oh yes, and here is the killer line for all you folk that worry about customers’ recognition of excellent service value, a few days later I received the Bosch Invoice that stated what had been replaced at no charge and, in very small print (that is the really clever bit, think about it), stated “The invoice amount of £176.68 plus VAT is covered internally out of goodwill”.
So, everybody, next time you are thinking about any form of household electrical product, my case is clear, go Buy a Bosch. They don’t weasel around warranty terms (Mini), or trying to dodge bad news stories (Renault), they stand by their products, their customers and their standards beyond reasonable expectations.
In my last post I quoted something I had written twenty years ago – the second half of that client briefing went like this -
WHO ARE THE BEST SALESMEN IN THE WORLD?
WHO ARE THE CHEAPEST SALESMEN IN THE WORLD?
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST SALES FORCE YOU CAN HIRE?
Your Customers
Your Customers
Your Customers
How can you Hire your Customers to Work For You?
1 Keep your Promises
* Deliver exactly what you said you would, or a little bit more
* Do it When you said you would, or sooner
* Do it at The Price you promised, or cheaper
* Deliver at exactly The Place they want
2 Communicate with them
* Be Seen to Listen to what they say
* Ask them what they would prefer, and keep on asking
* Answer Every Question openly and fully
* Ensure that all your agreements are totally clear
* Be unfailingly courteous in everything you do
3 Build Partnerships
* If you have a problem that might affect them, tell them first
* Share your (relevant) problems with them
* Ask for their advice, enlist their assistance
* Ask about their successes, tell them about yours
* Encourage them to talk to each other
* Offer to help them with their problems, where you can succeed
4 Give Them Pleasant Surprises
* Increase your Product Quality, but not the Price
* If you can give them a better Price, do it before they ask
* If you can deliver faster, offer it before they ask
* Provide some, or all, minor services Free of Charge
* If you think they can use your Product better, offer to help
* If they have any complaint, over react generously with a solution
If you Keep your Promises, Communicate, and Build Partnerships......
.......You will be seen as just another Good Supplier
This is only the Absolute Minimum necessary not to be seen as a Bad Supplier
To be seen as Different,
to earn Loyalty,
to create Ownership of You and Your Product/s,
......to Recruit your Customer to be Your Salesman
Give Your Customers Pleasant Surprises
So, there it is. Look how easy it has been for Bosch to hire me to sell for them.
And last time I told you how a service failure by a car dealer escalated into a big issue for me, and for them. They reacted well, eventually, gave me a very pleasant surprise and left everything sorted, this time. However, although they have for so long been the top brand for Quality, too many flakes fell off their egg shell of perfection, and the view inside looked too empty for comfort. I wonder, is all as well as it should be in the world of Toyota?
We regularly remind all that the true differentiator of business performance lies in the attitudes, values, behaviours and beliefs of the people in the business. It is these that fill the precarious egg shell of Excellence and bind it all together. If they are not managed well, then the shell will be empty and fragile and the business vulnerable. As the Bosch engineer demonstrated, any one of your people can become your Customer Heroes – worth more than any sales force on earth.
The Cost of Behaviour is brought to you by Steve Goodman, Tony Ericson, Terry Murphy and Barbara Craven, the founding partners of Achievement Coaching International where we help businesses to learn different thinking to enable different actions that deliver the different resultsthat Make the Big Differences that Transform Results.
This series looks at the corrosive and far reaching effects for business profitability, and even survival, of failures in behaviour. It challenges all those that believe in “don’t rock the boat”.
You might also be interested in our "Excellence Quartet" of blogs promoting the cause of Excellence as the key to prosperity. We publish regular articles using a recent business/financial topic to highlight different perspectives and conclusions to those obtained by conventional thinking and techniques. You can read the other four blogs at our web site link page.
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