The Ritz-Carlton has understood this for a long time.  They know that any nice hotel room is pretty much the same.  It’s a bed and four walls.  What matters is what happens outside the room.  That’s the service.

They also know that service is easy when things are going well.  It’s not that hard to check you in and out, valet the car and deliver your luggage.  What makes the difference is how things are handled when things aren’t going well.

It doesn’t matter if you need a reservation to a restaurant, a special delivery or have an issue with a noisy neighbor.  What ever the problem is, The Ritz has realized they can distinguish themselves as one of the best hotel chains by fixing it and fixing it well.

The Ritz has a customer service policy that borders on amazing.  If a customer has a request, the employee they tell about it must see that it is closed.  They own that interaction beginning to end.  No one gets to say “that isn’t my job” or “here’s the person to call.” They do it.  They have to.

Any business can learn from this.  Your customers want their problem fixed, what ever it is.  They don’t care who does it for them.  When they get shuffled around they lose faith that the issue will be solve.  Empower people to make it right, and it will get better.

There’s the famous Nordstrom story about the woman who returned a tire there even though they don’t sell tires.  Charlie Trotter has told a story about ordering a steak from a nearby restaurant to serve to a customer who wanted one, even though he didn’t have one on hand.  Fix a problem and you can build a loyal customer.  How would you have liked to have your business mentioned as one of these service leaders?  It’s a viral marketing buzz that’s hard to beat.   Anyone care to share a comment on a great experience?

At the newspaper, our receptionist was not very friendly, even to employees.  However she was very efficient at screening individuals and visitors to make sure they are in the right place.  For a business like a newspaper that could have any number of people approach with less than pure intentions, she was the right choice.

However, if you are in the business of pleasing customers in your place of business a completely different approach is important.  I recently needed service on my car after a belt broke.  When we called to schedule an appointment with service the first person that we talked to was the dealerships receptionist.  She was unfriendly to the point of being rude, but at least she could connect us to the service department’s voice mail.

We left a message and had our car dropped off in the morning.  The service department did everything right.  We had our car repaired very quickly, for less than we had expected, and they told us we could pick up our car after the service department had closed.

We arrived around 7:30, straight from work with two kids in the car.  The sales people on the floor acted as if we were asking for a miracle to retrieve our car.  But at least they seemed sort of willing to help.  Then we saw our friend the receptionist.  She curtly reminded me that the service department closed at 6:00.  In the sort of tone that let me know that I was clearly an idiot.  She also told me that the two departments (sales and service) were different businesses.  Eventually the sales people found my keys and ran my credit card to have me pay.  I was certain they had done it several times before, but they made me feel like they had done me a favor.

Here’s my criticism of the dealership.  To me, the customer, there is only one dealership.  If I wanted I could very easily take my car to an independent repair shop.  Even if they run to a different P and L, to the customer service department and sales are the same.  It’s pretty likely that I’ve chosen to pay the higher price a the dealership because I believe that I will get better service.

Second.  If the receptionist is there to bridge the gap between the two sides of the dealership she should be empowered to do so.  It would have taken her just as much time and effort to express sympathy and concern as her consternation for my daring to show up after hours and expect my car.   Even though the service department had told me it wasn’t an issue and they did it all the time.

Third.  I know that sales people don’t make money helping people for service.  Not directly at least.  I was the only soul in the place and that was apparent to me.  They could help me or surf the Internet for the next 20 minutes.  Only one of those two has any chance of a future sale.  Their obvious lack of consideration for the long term ramifications of treating me like I was bothering them made me far less likely to be that purchaser.  If they did their homework they would have realized that I have owned three cars by this same manufacturer, and this one was about 7 years old.  It just had some sort of problem, so it’s pretty likely that I’m at least beginning to consider what my next car will be.  They missed a golden opportunity to leave me with a positive impression for a future sale.

The brand in this case is the sum of the experience.  I’ve been very happy with my car.  The service department performed quite well.  The receptionist and sales department’s condescending attitudes and general snobbishness left me with such a bad taste that its quite likely that I’ll stop with this brand at 3, as they are by far the nearest dealer.  Two in the pro column and two in the con isn’t likely to engender loyalty.

The brand in this case is Subaru.  The type of quirky brand that needs good word of mouth to succeed.  The tow truck driver had never driven one, and was impressed by how nice it was, to illustrate my point.  They have had it in the past with reliable cars that fill unique needs.  They lost it for me this week with a rude receptionist and shortsighted salespeople.