The Lost Art of Great Service

MAXONS' MINUTES
Howard White, Executive Vice President of Business Development

So I'm standing there in the store thinking, all I need is one simple part, but where is it? Surely I'll find one of those nice people in aprons to cheerfully assist me right? Not exactly. After nearly being run over by a fork-lift and wandering around looking for help, I realized that several workers acted as though the customers were invisible! They didn't take notice of anything around them. When I asked one guy if they carry the item I needed, he responded: "Not sure, I don't work in plumbing." Thanks dude, great help...

In reality, it would have been very simple for one of the workers to point me in the general vicinity of what I needed. Better still, it would have been good if they had asked me specifically what I needed and showed me where it was. Ideally, it would have been excellent if they brought me right over, showed me the parts, found me the best option, handed me the item and sent me on my way thus having saved me valuable time and money. Instead of a great experience for a simple transaction, I left feeling annoyed. Oh, and my part was sold out.

All too often, we experience bad service situations when it would have been so easy to do otherwise. I can recall a time when I was really WOWED by great service. A few years ago we needed to rent an SUV for a camping trip. When I got to the car rental office, the representative realized my license was expired so he couldn't legally rent me the truck. He then offered to drive me to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my license so I could rent immediately. Yes, that's right... the guy drove me to DMV and waited with me to get a new license. Plus, he bought me a soda while I waited on line. WOW! I never rented anywhere else since then. Now that company got it right and they have me as a customer for life.

In every industry, opportunities exist for people to create special moments that endear customers in this way. Usually, it doesn't even take much extra effort but kind, personal gestures like this can really go a long way. These days it's not just about saving people time and money. You had better do that and do it well just to survive in business. You also have to find ways to make your customers smarter, better informed, and most importantly, HAPPY. At the center of every great service experience is someone leaving happier than when they walked in.

At Maxons we strive to make dealing with disasters as easy as possible given the tough circumstances. In our business, we typically encounter people who have been traumatized by an unexpected disaster that creates huge physical, emotional and financial stresses for them. That's a lot to deal with all at once so we try to find ways to help make the situation easier for them however possible. Recently, one of our account managers bought a new toy for a child who had lost his in a fire. A project manager bought flowers for a stressed out office manager who was trying to figure out where to relocate their operations. Admittedly small gestures in the larger scheme of things but certainly meaningful to our customers. The simple fact is that in a service business, it's often the little things that mean so much!

Remember the soda bought for me at the DMV? I know I do...