After the turn of the century, I moved my family to a small rural Missouri community to be closer to aging parents so we could better help and serve them.
Shortly thereafter, my wife and I were asked to attend a small group study with other couples our age. Great idea until I heard the topic. We would discuss a chapter of Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages each week.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I kept repeating that to myself repeatedly like an old needle skipping on a warped, 33 RPM vinyl record.
You see, I’m not a touchy-feely person at all. Sports, business chatter, more sports, more business chatter, and some good Seinfeld. That’s my world. I’m good at superficiality.
But then a weird thing happened. It turns out The 5 Love Languages is a good book. No, it’s a great book. And the reason Mr. Superficiality liked it? It reads like an excellent customer service book every CEO should read.
What’s Your Love Language?
My love language is Acts of Service. Want the keys to my heart? Then serve me. I’m also at my best when serving (and going overboard when I can).
That’s why businesses with excellent customer service resonate. I give every business monopoly power that takes customer service seriously. Monopoly power? That means those businesses own my wallet.
If only every business knew the love language of its customers when they needed help or just needed to vent.
A Cool 72 Hours of Great Customer Service
During one 72-hour time period, I was blown away by incredible and over-the-top customer service. And I want the world to know.
Tiger Towing of Columbia, Missouri, comes to the rescue. I needed a quick lunch at HyVee after a great client. As I turned the key to my F-150 to leave the parking lot, I heard the sound we all dread, followed by two words of my own (the first word starts with, “Oh, …”). The battery just clicked.
Okay, no biggie. Since I was traveling to Georgia the following day, I could quickly ditch the bad attitude and do a Google search on anyone who could tow me to a shop. I contacted Tiger Towing because they were first in the search rankings, and I called them immediately.
“We’ll be there in 30 minutes.” Well, not great. But that meant I could make phone calls, get through e-mail, and do some reading during the wait.
Such gall, they lied. Well, not really. They were there in 14 minutes, not 30. I timed them. Don’t forget, I quantify. I’m good at quantifying. And it was just 14 minutes.
The guy was brilliant, quick, friendly, and advised me on the next steps for my lame battery.
I contacted their store to thank them. I think they were shocked because they were not used to those calls. Maybe they thought it was a prank call. It’s probably because too many people are still fuming over the clicking noise from their car batteries. They don’t know my love language.
O’Reilly Auto Parts has an employee that should be in a store manager’s Hall of Fame. My F-150 needed a new battery, according to the Tiger Towing guy.
So, on a cool, damp, gloomy day, the store manager named Dee not only ascertained what I needed but also changed the battery in the parking lot while I held an umbrella.
Dee was friendly, competent, and caring. I was more than a customer. Dee spoke to me as a friend. She never tried to over-sell me either. She epitomized exemplary customer service.
Did you pick up on the part that Dee is a girl? And no, she wasn’t offended when I asked her where she got her mechanical aptitude. Turns out her dad wanted her to have a skill to fall back on. Dad, you did well. Dee was awesome.
O’Reilly, I love the people vibe of your organization. Thank you for being flexible in your work policy, too. Dee reminded me of that policy more than once. She loves your organization.
The world needs to know Dee. CEOs could learn much from her. I also think she knows my love language.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, I love you. In less than 24 hours, I was seated in a small sports car at Enterprise. No, that wasn’t my rental. They just let me sit in it first because my associate saw the glitter in my eye after I whistled at it. My associate ultimately escorted me to my car, and we spoke for nearly 10 minutes. She was great. But it got much, much better.
The following day, I was running late. Not only did I get caught in Atlanta traffic on the way back to the airport, but I thought my GPS would cuss me out while she navigated me through the never-ending construction zones at Atlanta International Airport.
There was no way I could stop to re-fuel my car before I arrived. At that point, a $200 surcharge would have been chump change. I just wanted on my seat so I could get back to Missouri.
“Don’t worry about it; I’m just charging you for 2 gallons.” That’s what the Enterprise guy said.
Say what? No, you don’t understand, I’m late. I didn’t fill up. Please, take my credit card. I’m a CFO. You need my money. Follow your process. I broke the rule. Charge me, please! I’m a terrible customer.
“No, Mr. Gandy, we understand.”
Is that a new rule at Enterprise? Or did they call my wife to find out my love language?
Their customer service is excellent. And I will continue to give Enterprise monopoly power over my wallet.
Pro Athlete, Inc. is Re-writing the Book on Great Customer Service
I have worked with many great businesses over the years, but I don’t think I’ve encountered people who live and breathe customer service like Pro Athlete, Inc. does. Pro Athlete sells baseball bats online, and their primary site is JustBats.com.
I am also a happy customer, having bought gloves and bats from them over the years. I still have a saved transcript on my hard drive where one of their team members helped me decide on gloves for my two boys.
I was stressed because there were too many choices. The chat guy (do they have a name?) helped me narrow my options until I settled on two Roy Hobbs gloves. He never pushed me. He wasn’t in a hurry. He was intelligent. I felt like I was his only customer.
I’m not just a customer who gives JustBats.com or JustBallGloves.com monopoly power over my wallet; I’m one of their evangelists espousing their great websites and excellent service to every baseball player I know. They didn’t ask me to. I want to.
Five Questions for Pro Athlete’s, Austin Hall
Since Pro Athlete has such excellent customer service, I thought I’d ask, “Can I talk about you?” I was thrilled when they gave the thumbs up, or was that the safe sign instead?
Austin Hall is the former Customer Service Manager at Pro Athlete, and I wanted to gain some additional insights about their approach to excellent customer service:
G3CFO: Customer service does not seem like work in your business. Am I right?
Austin Hall, Pro Athlete: In as simple terms as possible, to put it, making the customer happy is what it’s all about.
If you’ve ever had that feeling in your body when you do something for someone else that makes them happy, you know what I am talking about. That’s what customer service is for our business.
You should get that feeling every time you get done talking to or helping a customer. The customer service departments that lose sight of that are the ones that we so often dread to interact with.
Every time a customer requests an interaction with you, it’s an opportunity to make someone else’s day a heck of a lot better. The world would be better off if customer service departments looked at it that way instead of as a burden.
As a customer service rep, you can improve someone else’s day multiple times.
The level of service you provide a customer will be the lasting impression you have on them. You may never speak with that customer again if given the opportunity, and you strike out. But knock it out of the park, and you have a fanatical fan for life.
G3CFO: What is your advice for any small business that is not taking a proactive approach to excellent customer service?
Austin Hall, Pro Athlete: Wake up, rethink what is truly important to you as a customer, and ensure you are offering that level of service to yours. It’s not hard at all.
It has nothing to do with scripts, wait times, availability, first-call resolution, service levels, or anything else. Although those are very important to help put the icing on the cake for your customer service team, success in this field boils down to one thing. It boils down to genuinely caring.
You can’t train someone to care about others; you must hire people who care. You can train them to say or type what you want, but a customer can see right through that if it isn’t genuine.
If any of your customer service reps don’t get that tremendous feeling in their body when they help someone, then you have the wrong people. When you find the reps that care, ensure you care for them. Happy employees make for happy customers.
G3CFO: NPS (Net Promoter Score) is essential in your business. Which came first, your relentless pursuit of the highest form of customer service or obtaining your NPS score to help you drive better performance in customer service?
Austin Hall, Pro Athlete: When we were introduced to NPS, we instantly fell in love with the concept because of the synergy we shared [with this methodology].
As previously stated, we have always been driven to provide the best customer service possible. Still, with the help of NPS, we can easily manage our efforts in a simplified and effective fashion.
The NPS score is significant in helping you manage your customer service at a high level. However, the score and how they manage the feedback sets accurate customer service-focused companies apart.
We strive to close the loop on every necessary piece of NPS feedback. Your customers are trying to tell you something, so why not listen and act on it? These tactics have helped us reach a 90 NPS score over the last year.
There is no metric that we have found in business that better showcases how you are doing overall as a company. NPS covers every facet of the company, allowing us to take our customer service efforts to a new level.
G3CFO: A business must be careful when adopting NPS, right? They need to be prepared to act once they receive a score, correct?
Austin Hall, Pro Athlete: The score is great, but acting on the feedback is the key to a successful NPS program. If you have detractors of your brand, you need to know why and work to close the loop so you can turn them into passives or promotors.
Companies who do NPS just to put a score in some line on a metrics dashboard are missing its purpose. Handle every feedback carefully because your customers are trying to tell you something that could improve your business.
G3CFO: What is your best practical advice for a business adopting NPS?
Austin Hall, Pro Athlete: If you are starting NPS, it’s easy to focus on the detractors only, but don’t forget about the promotors.
Let them know that you appreciate their positive feedback. Who doesn’t love to hear a thank you, especially someone who just gave you the ultimate compliment anyone in business could get?
Finally, you should always try to put a personal touch on your interactions with customers following their NPS feedback. They took the time to help you improve your business, so you should show them how much you appreciate it.
G3CFO: I understand that you share customer feedback throughout the entire company.
Austin Hall, Pro Athlete: Anytime we see negative feedback, we will share that feedback with the department managers and usually create a new project to improve any processes that negatively affect our customers.
We [also] follow up and close the loop on any NPS response that comes back with a rating of 8 or below.
A Few Key Final Takeaways on Great Customer Service
I enjoy observing and talking about businesses with excellent customer service regularly. If I were engaged to help build an exemplary customer service environment at a growing company, I’d brainwash the CEO with these critical yet basic tenets:
1. Customer service IS NOT a department. It’s a way of life. It starts with the heart. We use the mind to build structure and systems to support and serve the customer service mindset in treating others.
2. Customer service starts internally in how we treat our team members. In short, we can’t fake it. If we don’t like providing excellent internal customer service, how will we pull it off with those who write us checks?
3. There is no single how-to book on excellent customer service. Well, any book that teaches us how to be more sociable, kinder, and gentler would be a great book on customer service.
4. Great customer service starts with intentional and visionary leadership. It’s not accidental. It’s not flavor-of-the-month.
Unfortunately, creating this environment is an extension of the leader’s personality. If you don’t care passionately about excellent customer service, such efforts will be marginal.
5. As much as I value the NPS process and methodology, what you do with the results matters.
NPS Resources
We mentioned NPS (Net Promoter Score) during the interview with Austin. My favorite article I share with growth CEOs on this topic is found over at HBR, titled The One Number You Need to Grow.
Below are a few other references to dig behind the meaning of NPS:
Satmetrix Blog
The Ultimate Question 2.0 (book)
Net Promoter System(SM) (blog)
NPSBenchmarks
Postscript
On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you recommend this blog post to a friend or colleague?