Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless by Jeffrey Gitomer
So I’m sitting in my seat as my Northwest Airlines flight from Boise to Minneapolis is boarding, reading Chapter 14 of Gitomer which talks all about removing negative language and signage from your business, when what do I hear? A female flight attendant coming up the aisle from the back repeating, like a broken record, "No more rollerbags, period. No more rollerbags, period. We’re full. No more rollerbags, period." A woman with a "rollerbag" full of camera equipment says "I really can’t check this; it’s camera equipment that’s extremely fragile." What does the flight attendant say? "Let me see what I can do to help?" Of course not, because it’s Northwest Airlines, and every last one of the 150 people on here are lucky to get to fly Northwest. More like "Well it’s not my problem; the overhead bins are full."
Thankfully, a guy in first class said “wait, I can put my bag up there under the seat in front of me.” He did, and the woman was able to place her bag in the overhead bin. She very sincerely thanked the kind stranger repeatedly, told him she was a photographer and her whole life was in that bag, and kept thanking him over and over.
How hard would it have been for the flight attendant to facilitate that, to say “let me see what I can do for you” and ask passengers politely if they would mind storing some bags or items in the empty space right in front of their feet to be “fair to everyone?”
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Sigh… Time to turn the PDA off until we get to 10,000 feet… Do electronic devices really emit different waves at 10,000 feet which make them interfere less with communications equipment than at ground level? Oh well… It’s their “policy” . . . GOD I hate that word after reading this book! More to come at 10,000
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Now that I’m at 10,000 feet and I know my typing this won’t cause the death and destruction of everyone on this plane, I can continue =) At least the AC blackout gave me time to finish the book!
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Anyway, what I love about this book, aside from being full of good advice, is that once again, it reiterates that our business is on the right track. We want our community, which is FILLED with those kind and helpful first-class strangers, to support one another in reaching their goals, whether it’s losing ten pounds or not risking destroying their “life” by having to check a fragile rollerbag full of it. The key difference between us and self-serving, spreadsheet-managed companies like Northwest Airlines is that we genuinely care about being the catalyst to make it happen.
I promised myself I wouldn’t turn this posting into an endless tirade about the airline industry, and for everyone who knows me, you know that’s a MAJOR commitment! However, I think there are a few relevant points left to make.
Number One - this particular problem wouldn’t be an issue if NWA didn’t charge $15 for every checked bag (managing by spreadsheet instead of by what’s best for the customer). Would we ever lower our shipping prices by 50% across-the-board but then tell our customers they had to pay $5 extra if they wanted the Bodybuilding.com box in which the products are shipped? I think not… Seems silly, right? Fundamentally, how different is it from what these airlines are doing?
Number Two - this particular problem wouldn’t be an issue if NWA spent the time developing and training it’s staff to remain positive and always put the customer first, even in the light of having done something to annoy it’s customers at the start of the transaction (i.e when bags are checked). So FedEx doesn’t ship to Spain, but a Spanish customer (until recently) was allowed to select FedEx as a shipping option for $9.99, even though FedEx to Spain is not actually available. Would we ever call that customer and say "I’m sorry, but it looks like your shipping will actually be $29.99 for International Express. Sorry!" No!! Instead, we develop our customer service staff to deal with these customers, and we actively work towards clarifying shipping guidelines to the customer vis-a-vis in-cart shipping restrictions (which, by the way, the Commerce team has just deployed).
Number Three - this particular problem WOULD be an even BIGGER issue, especially for this one, distraught woman (and to some extent, everyone within earshot), if it had been accompanied by a shunning, unsupportive community. If someone said to us "I’m morbidly obese, and my life literally depends on me losing 150 pounds," do you think we’d say "Sorry, the servers can’t handle any more users" (sound a little like "Sorry, the bins are full?") and HOPE someone from the community steps up? HELL no… We’d proactively work at fixing the problem.
The good news - we don’t work for a company like NWA or any of the other in the 98%+ of American companies which think it’s ok and sustainable to treat their customers like this (after all, there’s always "the price of fuel" to blame it on).
The better news - we are actively seeking out ways to make people like this photographer say "Bodybuilding.com connected me with this person, these articles, and these products which totally helped me reach my goals!" instead of "my experience was OK. Thank God there was this really nice person I just happened to randomly find (no thanks to NWA)…"
The best news - we couldn’t beg to have a better team in place to make it happen.
Right now, I sometimes feel as though we aren’t doing enough for our customers, meaning we’re not getting stuff out to them fast enough (in terms of development and deployment, not order fulfillment!). My comfort comes from seeing every day the dedication of EVERYONE in EVERY department working diligently to do more for the customer. In Marketing, programs are being evaluated and restructured so we can allocate spend where the CUSTOMER will be served the best. On the Sprint teams, everyone is working more productively than ever to get these tools out to the customer. In Finance, diligent efforts being placed into ensuring we have the capital and efficiency to make it happen. EVERY department is customer-focused, whether its employees realize it or not. We are living this book in our every day lives, and it truly is amazing to see.
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