Which brands burnt in the volcano?

What an interesting couple of weeks for brands. I've spoken a few times on this blog about service recovery and its ability to galvanise consumers' views of a brand, good or bad. In the worst ever grounding of flights in Britain's history, directly affecting travellers and indirectly affecting those companies reliant on air freight to ship their products, companies had the opportunity to shine in consumers' eyes. Some indeed have, others are still covered in ash.

Those who found their demand for their service shoot up as a result took very different approaches.

The rental car organisations appeared to all let dynamic pricing take its course and charge limitless amounts to rent a car as supply decreased.

Eurostar, on the other hand, announced that it would only charge the £89 for a one-way trip from Paris to London. As tempting as maximising revenues may have been, I think this was the right move in the longer term. Consumers will not be travelling with a sour taste in their mouth over the extortionate fare and could alight with a positive "thank you for saving me" feeling after a horrendous journey.

Those who were caught directly in the chaos came out mixed.

British Airways came away a bit mixed. Customers reported some very good experiences, where passengers were continually briefed on a daily basis through fax and text and staff looked to do what they could to ease discomfort. However, Willie Walsh spent his entire time in the media trying to land the fact that the laws required changing and that it was unfair for airlines to pick up the tab for compensating passengers. Perhaps justified, but pick your moment Willie. Talk about what you're doing to help passengers, then come back after the chaos to discuss changes to the law. It didn't come across well.

First Choice/Thomson ran adverts afterwards to make the point that they had booked over 100,000 and arranged hundreds of flights to bring guests home. Sounds good.

Easyjet offered £10 off the next flight as a sorry for the disruption, pushing an acquisition message for the next time you fly with them. A bit naff. I had flights cancelled with them, and their website was helpfully always updated 24 hours a day, but when I had a query that could not be answered by FAQs, I looked to speak to someone. Customer Services numbers were hidden from the site. When I eventually found one, offices were shut outside "working hours". Not great.

Once planes were running again, the trains from airports ran 24 hours to get people home. A small thing, but you can imagine how inconvenient finally getting back home only to find the next train was at 5am tomorrow morning.

Lonely Planet had a great idea. For a couple of days only, the Lonely Planet City Guide apps were free to download onto your iPod/iPhone, helping out those stranded in cities in which they hadn't planned to be (I'd imagine the Madrid app did well). They could have increased their charge by 50p and remained within consumers' price sensitivity with short term gain but chose to help out and invest in loyalty.

My view on the matter: those who invested to re-coup the rewards later, through fixed prices or accommodating travellers out of their pocket, will reap the rewards in the long term.

United Breaks Guitars - don't service recover at your peril

I'm sure that most of you have come across the story about Dave Carroll, Canadian singer/songwriter who, together with his brother, forms the group Sons of Maxwell. In 2008, the group were flying with United Airlines from Halifax to Omaha via Chicago. While disembarking in Chicago, a woman behind them noted that the ground crew baggage handlers were "throwing guitars out there". The bass player looked out the window to see his bass being thrown out, which had been preceded by Carroll's Taylor guitar. The next morning, Dave opened his guitar case at his hotel to find that the guitar had been smashed.

There begins the story of a horrendous customer experience (please take the link to read the full horrors of his tale). To summarise here, when Dave went to complain, he was first passed from agent to agent, not one taking responsibility. It then moved from airline to airline, since United use the services of Air Canada in Chicago. After nine months of complete runaround by the airline with Dave having dutifully followed every process required of him without any admission of culpability or help in solving the matter by the airline, (including them losing the claim on multiple occasions), Dave gave up with the normal route.

He said: "At that moment it occurred to me that I had been fighting a losing battle all this time and that fighting over this at all was a waste of time. The system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims and United is very good at it but I realized then that as a songwriter and traveling musician I wasn’t without options".

So he wrote a trilogy of songs about the experience and created videos of them (with all involved giving their time and effort freely), available for free download on You Tube with the goal of getting 1 million hits . It was an instant viral success. Here is the first video (check out Dave's website for all the others):



The video had 150,000 hits within the first week of being posted and to date has been seen by 8 million users and potential customers. It was an instant viral success, was shown on CNN, CBS and other stations, a PR coup for Dave Carroll, Taylor Guitars, who sent him replacements and offered help on You Tube for all those travelling with guitars, and a PR disaster for United. Eventually, the airline offered to pay for a new Taylor guitar (around $3,500), and said that the saga would be used internally as a learning experience to help improve customer experiences.

The reason I particularly like this story is not so much for the initial incident. In any large organisation serving thousands of customers daily, mistakes are made. And consumers know that. Yet brands are sometimes made (and broken) on their service recovery. Reading the full experience, United were given a full year's worth of dialogue to get it right, yet failed. As a result, 8 million more individuals found out and shared in the horror.

Moral: create a model and a culture where your employees feel like doing the right thing by customers is what is expected of them, where they feel genuine accountability for making things right, and you won't go far wrong in the long term.

Incidently, Dave now gives lectures on customer experiences. It seems his disaster gave him a great sideline business.

Prêt à Manger recipe keeps working

Prêt à Manger, the chain of healthy sandwich options, announced yesterday that it is looking to open a record number of outlets this year. Founded in London in 1986 by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham, two university friends working in the City who were constantly irked by the lack of good, healthy sandwiches on offer despite the obvious demand, the chain has continued to grow. It has remained private, after a non-controlling share was sold to McDonalds, who then sold it onto its current owners, Bridgepoint Capital, a private equity company.

This growth statement is quite something, given that Prêt's inception and obvious success brought a whole series of companies into the market looking to emulate and help fill the gap in the market. So what have been the key to its success? I'll have a stab:

Remaining private - has allowed the company to be undistracted by shareholders looking for quick, and constant returns. No doubt cashflow and exit strategies plays a pivotal role in board conversations. Yet, it has avoided having to trade off investment for customer need with a concern over share price.

Julian then cites three values on top of this that have remained core to the company throughout its life:

Its passion for food - Fresh and interesting are core to its purpose. Says Metcalfe "It would be easier to get tubs of guacamole instead of cutting fresh avocados in each kitchen in each shop but we stick to quality and taste".

Its staff - what a surprise. Another top notch services company citing its staff as its USP. And it's true. As a frequent consumer when in London, I have always received top notch service, despite it lasting maybe no more than a minute, and potentially quite transactional. They commit to ensuring there are opportunities, and always an energetic culture within the outlets.

Not corporate just proud - says Andrew Rolfe, Chairman of Prêt à Manger, "We make and have made mistakes but we remain proud of what we do and we try not to get distracted by a corporate approach".

One final thing I have noticed: virtually all of the staff serving are not from the UK. Apparently over 60% are foreign. I wonder whether Metcalfe and the executives felt that creating such a can-do and positive customer-centric culture has always needed a majority of non-Brits in which to make that possible.

It's great to see such a great demonstration of the basic tenet: listen to and look after your customers, and they'll look after you.

Mexican Customer Service and using employees right

I recently spent a couple of weeks in Mexico, predominantly in Mexico City. This urban sprawl of 8,000 sq. km and 21 million inhabitants is immense in every respect. An extremely low daily minimum wage of around £3 has translated into an ability to afford a high level of employees, which in turn has meant a high level of customer service.

I saw this translated into action in a couple of different instances, one great another not so:
The first was in a regular trip to a Pemex petrol station. Pemex is the state-owned monopoly supplier of petrol to the Mexican consumer. Obviously, being a monopoly comes with its own rules about what service you wish to give. Normally, it vies on the side of "less is better, because what choice do you have". Yet here, two gas station attendants, smartly dressed in overalls and shirt and tie underneath, filled the car, cleaned all the windows and very quickly checked the oil. The forecourt was immaculate, service was with a smile, and we were politely waved away at the end. Evidently, there was a tip involved, which all parties knew only too well. Yet, it served a purpose of taking an activity that I could have done myself and felt nothing for the brand in question to one where I would like to go out of my way against to visit if there were a competitive marketplace. Horses for courses, but I'd happily pay a little extra for a little extra service.

The second was at Telmex. A leading telecommunications company, Telmex also has a big retail outlet footprint. For a European it was incredible to see how many outlets there were within a small area, which must have led to cannibalisation between stores, but I imagine still important in terms of market share.
My experience was to look to buy a local pay as you go SIM card for a mobile for my stay there. The process took me to four different customer service attendants:

- one on the initial welcome desk to take my query and direct me to a desk
- one to talk to me and give me a card
- one in a separate booth (and queue) to take payment
- another to put the SIM card and ensure all was working.

I counted over 25 customer facing employees in the average sized branch. Here, a large amount of staff had translated into inefficient, non-customer centric processes, elongating my visit without a value add. Frustation began to set in towards the end of a 45 minute activity and didn't leave me with a good brand experience.

I appreciate that culturally I was in a country where what consumers value may be very different from a Londoner. Someone constantly pushed for time may seek efficiency at all costs whereas a Mexican may prefer to take time but ensure it's done right.

But in summary, it reminded me that having a labour cost that permits a large amount of customer interaction can be great for transforming a dull, commoditised process into a USP. Yet many hands don't always make light work. Organisations should look to ensure that customers are always advantaged through whatever processes it translates into.

The Crusade

In analysing what customer obssessed organisations have in common, it seems that there are a few underlying themes that reoccur:

There is always a crusade - there is something stronger than a vision, a crusade, around which the entire organisation is driven. This could be about anything from creating customers for life to wanting to change what an industry stands for, but it's theren and organisations are almost cult-like in looking to achieve it.

The People Agenda is not downplayed - getting the right people and treating them fairly rings out clearly.

The Spirit to Serve plays out, but through people focus, not necessarily customer focus.

Leadership style must support to allow the points above to play out.

Relentless communication - go further than you think you need and it will be appreciated and leveraged.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Why is the Ritz Carlton the exception?

You can't have a blog called "That Little Extra" without talking about Ritz Carlton. It is constantly cited as an organisation that truly puts customers at its centre, delighting them through a plethora of unexpected ways. There are enough examples of truly great experiences to ensure the cynics that the myths and stories shared at conferences are indeed everyday occurrences.

So what is it that drives such a model of excellence? What engages the employees in such a way? It is purely this engaged employee workforce or does the entire business circle around the customer? From what I can glean, it is the following:

The staff are not paid over the odds - it is not financial benefit for which employees do magical things for customers. While there is an exchange system whereby staff can work all over the world, the monthly take home is not the reason for it. However, staff do talk about working at the cream of the crop in the hospitality industry.

Values are lived, not forgotten - there are different ways to embed a set of values into organisational culture. Some are simply "the ways things are", and staff would find it difficult to articulate them. Others are far more overt. Ritz Carlton has a set of 12 service values. Each employee and manager has a laminated card with these services values (an example of one: "I build strong relationships and create Ritz Carlton guests for life").  Each day, in a 15 minute line up, once housekeeping issues are addressed, time is taken to reinforce these values, through storytelling.

Share Stories - I must admit to never having stayed in a Ritz Carlton, but I have heard countless stories of customer delight. One story sticks of a simple task - a doorman who opened the door to a seemingly new guest, who realised that she had approached the wrong hotel and was actually staying across the road. Nonetheless, the doorman took her luggage and, in the rain, accompanied and protected her to the correct hotel then bid her farewell by name (where do you think she'll stay next time? Guest for life?)

Beware the enemies of great service - not sharing the big picture with the team, a bad attitude, not celebrating and blame are all highlighted as barriers to delivering high customer service.

Recovery is everything - not everything goes right 100% of the time. We're all human. How you recover from a glitch or mistake is the moment of truth for customer advocacy. One guest told of a story of when his surname was mispronounced on first arrival, and from then on never again.

Systemise - while much is driven by people, some things have to be systemised. The last example is driven by sophisticated software where staff can record how names are pronounced, to be shared across a hotel and chain.

Ruthlessly interview - I have heard that all employees are interviewed by the General Manager, for which there is one key purpose: to check attitude. Many firms say "skills can be taught, attitude can't", yet then go on to hire through evaluating skill. It appears Ritz Carlton takes attitude very seriously in its recruitment process.

Empower and mean it - employees are given up to a certain amount ($2,000 I believe) to take control of a situation and remedy for any recovery required. It doesn't take 3 chains of command and a day to sort things out.

There are probably more things to share but you get the point. If you are serious about delighting customers, then the accompanying philosophy must be embedded across a company's entire operating model and transcend any conflicting metrics in order to do so. Hats off to you, Ritz Carlton for being the exception to the rule and truly embracing this. I'll look to see if I can try out one of your hotels myself at some point...

iPhone apps to keep my life ticking over...

There are some great iPhone apps I have seen this year that have tapped into consumer need to date badly fulfilled. My iPhone 3GS now has 108 apps on it. Within a very short time, I've come to consider my iPhone as a gateway to my world and my can't-do-without piece of kit. Over and above basic communication, here are the "need states" I find myself using it for most, with some specific apps to complement it:

To capture my life: As with most PDAs, being able to quickly capture a moment, be it unexpected, sad, funny, etc. especially with my kids, is priceless. I find I use other cameras much less. As a result, I have four camera apps to improve the basic built-in camera, one for zooming, another to add a flash, etc. My favourite add on is Sepia Camera, which turns your pic to a professional, sepia colour, and Animoto, turning a montage of your pics into great music vids.

To keep the kids quiet in restaurants: both my 2 year old and 4 year old are now adapt touch screen iPhone users. Even the younger one can deftly swipe to find his favourite app, turn it on and keep himself amused. Success in ensuring lunchtimes on the odd trip to a Strada or Pizza Express now go without meltdowns has now meant me having to also buy my wife an iPhone! In all seriousness, there are some fantastic educational apps for kids. I have two pages of kids' apps, but the favourites seem to be:

For the 4 year old:
CuteMath: for our 4 year old, an interactive set of maths games for basic addition and subtraction.
Suzy Dress Up: more for girls, an interactive app to allow Suzy to be dressed up in hundreds of combinations of clothes. My daughter loves this one.

For the 2 year old:
Old MacDonald: widely-acclaimed app based on the song, with interactive scenes.
iTot Cards: flashcards showing pics of shapes, animals, food, etc. In English, Spanish and French.

To organise my world: As well as Calendar, etc. I use three others:
PassKeeper: there are just too many user names and passwords these days. This is a nice easy app to store them all in one place rather than search through your contacts
Things: a great task manager.
Shop Shop: quite a nice interface for shopping lists. My daughter loves to strike things off as we go around the supermarket (when we haven't used the Ocado app!)

To keep in touch with news:
My day tends to begin with me walking down to the station while listening to Radio 4, via Radio Box, a nice app covering thousands of radio stations. Once on the train, it's then a newspaper app, either:
The Telegraph, Sky News, BBC Reader, or to check other areas of interest, El Mundo, Catalan News, and to keep my now basic level of Japanese, Aratanisu, which pulls various Japanese newspapers together.
Also like a different perspective on the world, through Engadget, keeping up to date with technology news, and TED, showing conference clips of some of the world's most fascinating people.


To communicate:
The usual of Linkedin and Facebook apps, Skype and Twitterific. Also have Whatsapp, which allows free smartphone to smartphone texting.