A tornado in St. Louis highlights the human side of service

Last weekend, a tornado in St. Louis reminded me that the people who provide us with customer service every day deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and caring. Remembering to do that not only makes you a better person, it results in better service.

On Friday, a tornado ripped through Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The airport suffered millions of dollars in damaged and was closed indefinitely on Friday night as officials assessed the situation. My first thought was, “How are we going to get home?”

My wife, Sally, and I had flown into that airport just a few hours earlier for a weekend visit to St. Louis. Our plan was to catch a St. Louis Cardinals game on Saturday and then fly home Sunday afternoon.  Getting home anytime soon now seemed unlikely to happen. We spent Saturday morning watching the news and weighing our options for getting home to San Diego.

We finally left the hotel to get lunch and head to the game. Sally and I took a moment to remind ourselves that the people serving us that day may be facing far greater problems than our transportation worries. Many people in surrounding communities had their homes destroyed by tornadoes on Friday and as many as 30,000 people were still without power.

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Throughout the day, we made a point to ask the service employees we encountered if their homes and families were OK. Everyone we met was personally unaffected, but almost everyone had a family member, friend, or co-worker whose home was damaged by the tornado.

A curious thing happened when we asked people how they were doing. They genuinely appreciated our caring and many took a moment to share a brief story about their experience. Their service also demonstrated caring in return through their attentiveness, friendliness, and willingness to go the extra mile. We had made a human to human connection.

The amazing end to the story is the airport re-opened and we caught our Sunday afternoon flight home as planned. Herculean efforts by employees at Lambert Field to resume operations made it all happen and we are grateful to everyone who made our St. Louis trip a great one.

If you’d like to donate to the tornado relief efforts in St. Louis, please visit www.redcrossstl.org.

What the FAA can teach us about icebergs

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been in the news quite a lot lately. The story reminds us to look out for icebergs in our own organizations.

What are icebergs in business? Icebergs are huge problems where only the tip is visible. Hidden from view is a big, nasty problem that can sink your company.

Background
On March 23, an air traffic controller at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport fell asleep on the job. Two planes subsequently landed without any contact with the control tower. No accidents occurred, but the incident caused a national uproar.

Additional reports of employees sleeping on the job quickly surfaced and the uproar intensified. It became clear that there was a widespread problem with chronic fatigue among controllers working overnight shifts. Since late March, eight employees have been suspended and the head of the Air Traffic Organization has resigned.

This ain't new
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has been making tough statements in response to this problem.

"None of us in this business can ... tolerate any of this," Babbitt said. "It absolutely has to stop."

Unfortunately, Babbitt is either experiencing extreme denial or has been sleeping on duty himself. The FAA has been tolerating or ignoring the chronic fatigue issue for years. Here are just a few examples:

July, 2001. Two planes nearly collided on a runway in Denver due to an air traffic controller error. The controller had worked three shifts in the past two days.

September, 2001. A plane was cleared to land in Denver on a runway closed for construction. The controller had only slept two hours between shifts.

August, 2006. Another near-collision, this time on a runway in Chicago. The controller had gotten only four hours of sleep during a nine hour break between shifts.

April, 2007. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a letter to the FAA that expressed concern over air traffic controller fatigue and made reference to 80 fatigue-related incidents since 1989.

Icebergs become even more dangerous when managers are unwilling or unable to acknowledge their existence. The longer a problem is allowed to continue the more likely it is to end in disaster.

Searching for icebergs
High performance managers are constantly searching for icebergs in their organizations. Here are three things every manager should do at the first sign of a big, nasty problem.

Step 1: Don’t assume it is isolated. Smart managers should go looking for evidence of similar problems. The FAA treated the sleeping controller at Ronald Reagan Washington National as an isolated incident, but there was already a pattern in place. Over the past few weeks, intense national scrutiny has revealed many more troubling examples of chronic controller fatigue.

Step 2: Check to see if the system is broken. Icebergs are usually the result of systematic failures. Controllers sleeping on the job isn't solely due to a few lazy, unprofessional employees. The evidence clearly indicates the FAA has a widespread problem with air traffic controller scheduling and staffing levels.

Step 3: See the bigger picture. Smart managers understand the strategic implications of fixing the problem and others like it. Changing controller schedules and adding staff may help reduce chronic fatigue, but sleeping on the job isn't the only performance problem dogging air traffic controllers. A recent article in the Washington Post reported a 51% increase in recorded errors by air traffic controllers in 2010. The FAA should take a broader view of the situation and identify ways to improve controllers' overall performance.

Searching for examples of outrageous customers

Would you like to be in a book?

I'm searching for examples of outrageous customer behavior for my forthcoming book, The Unnatural Act of Customer Service. (Check out the whitepaper to get a preview.)

Are you a current or former customer service employee? If you worked as a frontline customer service employee, I want to hear from you.

Please post a comment to this blog to submit your story for consideration. Here's what I'd like to know:

1) First name

2) Your job (server, sales associate, etc.)

3) Type of company (restaurant, hotel, call center, etc.)

4) Short story about an outrageous customer's behavior

A few expectations:
If I publish your story it will be first name only to keep it anonymous. I won't be able to include everyone's stories in my book and some may need to be edited for length and clarity. I'll be sure to email you a draft with any edits before putting it in the book.

If your story does make it into the book I'll also send you a free copy.

Why customer service isn't always obvious

The video below contains a simple observation exercise. I encourage you to watch the short video before reading the rest of this post (it's less than 90 seconds long).

What did you notice?

Researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons found that only 50% of people notice the gorilla in the video the first time they watch it. Why? A strange phenomenon called inattentional blindness where our focus on one thing causes us to miss something that would otherwise be obvious.

The people who do see the gorilla usually lose count of the passes.

I recently saw an example of this first hand when dining at one of my favorite local restaurants with my wife and her parents. The restaurant was very crowded so the only open table was tucked into a corner in the back of the restaurant. Unfortunately, we hardly saw our server after she took our orders. Our water glasses sat empty, we finished our meals before we had a chance to order a few cocktails, and she took a long time to bring our check. From our perspective, it was obvious that she should have paid more attention to us.

So, what could have gotten in the way? I observed a few things that may have caused her to unintentionally neglect our table.

• Our table was tucked away behind a wall and out of sight from the rest of her section.

• A large group was seated in her section just after we arrived and it was quite a production to take their orders, bring them drinks, etc.

• Our server carried only one plate at a time in each hand, even when picking up dirty dishes, hinting at a lack of experience in restaurant service.

If you imagine we were out of sight on a busy evening with an inexperienced server who was trying to keep all her tables straight, you can understand why we might have been forgotten in the frenzy.

A great question to ask about your own employees is what might be distracting them from seeing obvious customer service opportunities?

Does tipping improve customer service?

The short answer is not really. The longer answer raises some interesting questions about customer service from tipped employees.

It is estimated that the impact of tipping on service quality is less than 2% in restaurants (Lynn, 2003). One of the main reasons is there are a lot of other factors that contribute to what customers tip.

Custom
In the United States, it’s customary to tip between 15% and 20% for restaurant service. This custom tends to bunch tips into this range.

Tips are based on the bill
Most people tip based on the total bill, which means you’ll tip more for the same meal if you order an expensive bottle of wine rather than iced tea, even if the service quality is the same.

Only exceptional service stands out
We only tend to notice truly outstanding or truly poor service. Unless our experience lands in one of those two categories, we’re likely to revert to our customary percentage.

These factors can also apply to other tipping situations such as shuttle drivers, valet parking attendants, and even your hair stylist. The tip is often determined by custom and/or the size of the bill unless you receive exceptionally outstanding or poor service.

Hidden dangers
Tipping can provide incentives for poor service if not carefully managed. Here are a few examples:

• Employees may reduce their service quality if they believe a customer will tip poorly.
• Employees may focus on behaviors that lead to tips at the expense of other tasks.
• Cooperation and teamwork may suffer if employees become too focused on earning their own tips.

So, get rid of tipping, right?
Not so fast! Instituting a no tipping policy is by no means a panacea for service quality. A San Diego restaurant called the Linkery received a lot of publicity for implementing a flat service charge in place of tips, but their current Yelp rating is 3 out of 5 stars. (Check out the Linkery’s explanation of their no tipping policy.)

Service is Service
The lesson I take away is that people who manage tipped employees should pay careful attention to customer service issues, just as they would if they managed employees who didn’t receive tips.

Laptop hostage crisis resolved, suspects still at large

On March 4 I sent my new Lenovo laptop computer back to the manufacturer for a warranty repair.

What followed was a grueling test of patience as Lenovo took my computer hostage for nearly a month. There was no ransom request. They never warned me not to go to the police or my computer would “get it”. They just stalled and stalled. I even developed a mild case of Stockholm Syndrome for the friendly, yet un-empowered customer service agents who took my 10+ phone calls.

My computer was finally returned unharmed and in good working condition on March 28, but I still would like to see the executives responsible brought to social media justice.

The backstory
I bought the Lenovo laptop in December to use as my primary work computer. In February, it developed a problem where the display would suddenly crash. I made several attempts to fix it but the problem only got worse so I finally called tech support.

The only option I was given to repair the computer under warranty was to ship it to Lenovo’s Memphis repair depot. Once there, Lenovo sent me an email stating that the part required to fix my computer was backordered. No expected repair date was given, so I called. And called. And called. I made at least 10 phone calls to get an update on the status of the repair or try to get an alternative option such as a replacement computer.

Every representative I spoke with was polite, friendly, and professional. It was also clear they had very little information to work with. I kept getting a version of the same answer, “We’re looking into it, but we don’t know when your part will be in.” And, “There are no other options.”

Unresolved problems
My primary problem has been resolved. My computer is now back in my hands and appears to be working fine.

However, Lenovo never addressed any of the other problems this situation created.

• The disappointment of having a new purchase fail to work properly.
• The loss of time and productivity due to my attempts to fix the problem.
• The loss of time and productivity from being without my computer from March 4 to March 28.
• The loss of time and productivity from making at least 10 calls to try to resolve the problem or at least get a status updated.
• The frustration of having to deal with this whole mess!

If Lenovo keeps any records on customer service, I’d wager they’d check this one off as “resolved”. I definitely beg to differ as I take Lenovo off my company's “approved vendor” list.

Another last to first customer service merger

My relaxing Sunday was disrupted by news that AT&T it is purchasing T-Mobile USA from Deutsch Telecom. Ugh.

I've been a loyal T-Mobile USA customer for a number of years after fleeing AT&T's terrible customer service. The worst part is AT&T has continued to stalk me like a psycho ex-girlfriend (see that post).

This is another example of a company whose service I despise purchasing a company I enjoy doing business with. T-Mobile currently holds the #1 spot for customer service ratings with both J.D. Power and The American Customer Satisfaction Index. AT&T, on the other hand, is tied for last in J.D. Power's rankings and holds last place by itself in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

The last example of one of a service nemisis taking over a decent company was United Airlines buying Continental Airlines last year. (See: United Airlines will get bigger, ruder, and less efficient.) When that was announced, I walked outside and looked up at the sky while shaking my fist and screaming, "Noooooooooo!" (To be fair, commercial airliners regularly fly over my house.)

So now what? Will T-Mobile's outstanding customer service somehow rub off on their new owner? Not likely. Something tells me my future involves a switch to Verizon.

Is it time to get rid of annual performance reviews?

Employee performance reviews are an annual tradition in many companies, but I don’t know anyone who looks forward to it. Employees are often surprised and frustrated by the contents of their evaluation. Managers spend countless hours writing reviews only to experience the added stress of dealing with demotivated employees. Human Resources professionals struggle to keep the whole process moving forward while getting bombarded with complaints from managers and employees alike.

Why do we keep doing annual reviews if nobody’s happy?

I recently posed this question to a group of my human resources colleagues. The universal sentiment was that annual performance reviews could be extremely valuable if done right. Otherwise, they become a huge drain on time, resources, and employee motivation.

It turns out that “done right” is a very big IF. A 2010 study by Sibson Consulting, Inc. and World at Work revealed that 58% of human resources executives give their performance review process a “C” grade or worse. I doubt many executives would keep a manufacturing plant, a product line, or a company division that performed at a “C” level or worse year after year. How do performance reviews manage to stick around?

The promise is clearly there. Performance reviews can help determine who gets a raise and how much. They can help companies pinpoint opportunities for individual, team, or organizational development. The evaluation process can be used to help employees set goals for the coming year. Reviews can even provide solid evidence for handling performance problems.

To quote sports personality Jim Rome, "Give me an A or give me an F." My suggestion to organizations is to make a clear and unambiguous decision. Either commit to strengthening the annual review process so it achieves organizational, managerial, and employee objectives or scrap it all together.

Note: Toister Performance Solutions offers training and consulting services to help clients make the most of their employee evaluation process. Please drop us a line if you'd like to go for an A.

The customer service disconnect

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

- Mark Twain

The first time I saw that quote was in an angry email from the President of the small catalog company I had started working for three weeks prior. They were starting to grow and had hired me to help them improve training and employee performance. The company President took exception to a report I wrote that predicted the average order size would go down since the new catalog targeted a wider customer base with a slew of high volume, low priced items.

This turned out to be a tipping point for the company. The average order size did go down, but there were soon other signs that the President (and majority owner) was disconnected from his customers. He remained doggedly loyal to old suppliers even as quality and delivery problems led to mounting customer complaints. The company launched a new line of products that consumed precious resources without coming anywhere near the success of the original catalog. The company started losing loyal customers, ran into cash flow problems, and went out of business for good a few years later.

Unfortunately, this head in the sand approach to customers isn’t uncommon. A 2006 Bain & Company study found that 80% of companies surveyed felt they delivered superior customer service but the customers of only 8% of those companies agreed. It makes you wonder what the management teams at the other companies were thinking.

This disconnect isn’t confined to senior management. I have run a small experiment many times with companies and have received very consistent results. I ask a room full of customer service reps to rate the customer service they personally deliver on a scale of 1 – 5 with 5 being best. Next, I ask the reps to look around the room and assign a rating to the entire team. On average, the reps rate themselves a 4 while rating the team a 3. The math doesn’t add up but it does show that most of the reps believed they were better than their peers even without any objective basis for reaching this conclusion.

Possible Explanations
There are a range of explanations for this disconnect. It might be the company culture, the individual's ego, or perhaps a natural tendancy to ignore blind spots. Please leave a comment if you have an idea about the underlying causes. Better yet, how do companies solve it?

When it comes to service, is conformity contagious?

There are probably a lot of reasons why a company can become known for exceptionally good or bad service. One possibility I’d like to consider is conformity. This post poses more questions than it answers, so I welcome your comments.

Conformity is a strange mixture of social pressures. We may go along with the group out of respect for social norms or because that many people can't possibly be wrong. In service, conformity can exist among employees and among customers’ perceptions.

Employee Conformity
Walk into any In-n-Out during a busy rush and you’ll see a whirlwind of employees serving customers, preparing orders, and cleaning up. If you look carefully, you’ll see employees taking subtle cues from each other. They interact with each other in a positive manner. Each person hustles to do their job quickly and correctly because another employee is depending on them to keep things moving. A lazy or rude employee at In-n-Out would stick out like a sore thumb.

Poor customer service can also be contagious among employees. They loiter and talk while customers go unnoticed. They complain to each other about customers, co-workers, and corporate. Soon it becomes uncool to go out of your way to serve a customer.

Customer Conformity
Nordstrom may be one of the all-time customer service legends, but I have yet to have a good experience shopping there. I’ve even gone back many times against my better judgment because I keep thinking it’s me. Maybe I’m unlucky, maybe I was having a bad day the last time, maybe I’m just not Nordstrom’s material.

The strangest part is people tend to get a little weird when I tell them I’m personally not a fan of Nordstrom. “What do you mean, you don’t think Nordstrom has good service?!” I often start feeling the pull of social pressure and silently ask myself whether I need to give them one more try.

This experience makes me wonder if customers conform in their opinions of businesses. For example, does the Cheesecake Factory offer amazing food at ridiculously low prices, or could there be another reason why people routinely wait more than an hour to eat there? (Or both? Mmmmm. Cheesecake Factory...) On the other hand, you may have an outstanding customer service experience at the DMV, but prepare to be mocked if you choose to share your story with friends.

What do you think?
For now, it's all food for thought but I hope this subject may become a chapter in my book, The Unnatural Act of Customer Service. I welcome your comments, especially if you have links to information on the subject or personal stories to share.