Service excellence as a recipe for business and personal success
ED IS A BUSINESSMAN WHO practically lives in a suitcase. Last week, he booked a flight to Caticlan with a budget airline. As he resides in northern suburbia, he woke up at 4:00 o’clock in the morning of his flight. After waiting 45 minutes at a long queue, he was told that his flight was canceled and was advised to refund his ticket. The counter girl also told him that it would have saved him some trouble if he checked his email, as the airline had emailed him at midnight the flight cancellation due to unavailability of the equipment (plane). Obviously, Ed was fast asleep at the time the email was sent, but the counter girl sounded as if it was Ed’s fault to be at the airport at 5:30 AM.
Ed clarified that he did not want a refund, but a flight for an urgent business meeting. The next flight leaves at 10:25 that same day. After waiting another 30 minutes at the queue, he was accosted by a customer service assistant and told that he was rebooked on the next flight. Ed would have wanted to wait in a more comfortable waiting room or area, and not feel miserable being passed by other customers checking in. Ed made a mistake in thinking that budget airlines will compete with big players via low fares and better service.
Service excellence
In 1995, Tom Peters wrote “The Pursuit of WOW!” and “Service with a Soul.” He featured an amazing airline he aptly called “Air Travel’s Greatest Show on Earth.” In an industry where you often find boring and rigid people and service, Southwest Airlines distinguished itself because of its “on-time service, low fares, baggage handling, no assigned seats, and no heartburn from typical airline food.”
Peters wrote, “What I discovered is an organization that dares to unleash the imagination and energy of its people. They make work fun — employees have the freedom to act like NUTS. There is a spirit of entrepreneurship — much more than a decentralized organization chart — an attitude that extends to every corner of the company.”
After so much legal hassle and battle with the airlines’ Goliaths, Southwest finally took off on June 18, 1971, with six roundtrips between Dallas and San Antonio, and 12 between Dallas and Houston. The legendary airline reinvented air travel, and perhaps Service Excellence, almost 42 years ago with its “low fares and zany, irreverent style. It keeps air fares rock bottom by keeping costs low. It satisfies customers by keeping people and baggage to their destinations on time, and gives them some fun along the way. It practices the Golden Rule at work and in the communities it serves, and has the best productivity and safety records in the industry.”
Tom Peters saw three special things in the airline started by Chairman Herb Kelleher, CEO Lamar Muse, Rollin King, and Colleen Barrett. The top honchos at Southwest are “crazy enough to follow an unorthodox vision, courageous enough to allow people to have fun and be real people who love and care at work, and smart enough to recognize that their most valuable assets are their people and the culture they create. Southwest never forgets that it is in the people business — the company just happens to operate an airline.”
Nuts
Much has been written and said about Southwest Airlines. One of the best stories I’ve read about Southwest was written by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, entitled “NUTS!” To Warren Bennis, NUTS! “… is a blueprint for all organizations that want to succeed — not just airlines.”
Southwest is so obsessed with having fun but keeps earning the industry’s highest awards for customer service and on-time performance. Don’t the Southwest people take their job seriously? Chairman Kelleher is a consistent media focus, but he has completely shrugged off the “Lone Ranger” mindset about leadership. Kelleher once engaged Kurt Herwald, chairman of Stevens Aviation, in an arm wrestling match instead of going to court to settle a dispute over an advertising slogan.
Here’s more. Southwest does not serve in-flight meals — only nuts. In fact it serves more than 60 million bags of peanuts every year. It believes that customers come second only — after employees. It loathes “terminal professionalism” and advertises jobs warning that professionals need not apply. Instead, it runs job ads that say, “Work at a place where wearing pants is optional,” together with a photo of managers in boxer shorts.
“Professionalism” and “businesslike” are terms that don’t settle well with Herb Kelleher. He says, “We want people who can do things well with laughter and grace.” In reality, Southwest is “bursting with professionalism, but it is a unique brand, practiced with flair.” By and large, the professionals that customers encounter at Southwest are uninhibited people with a lot of empathy. They understand that the business of business is to serve people and make life more fun, and in the process help make money for the company.
A story is told that a highly decorated military pilot applied for a job — he was an all-time best applicant. On his way to the interview, he was rude to the customer service agent at the ticket counter and arrogant with the receptionist at the head office. Although highly qualified on the technical side, the pilot applicant was automatically disqualified. At Southwest, “we’ll train you on whatever it is you have to do, but the one thing we cannot change in people is inherent attitudes. By hiring the right attitude, the company is able to foster the so-called Southwest Spirit — an intangible quality in people that causes them to want to do whatever it takes and to want to go that extra mile whenever they need to. In spite of such high expectations, people who go to work for Southwest Airlines tend to stay with the company for a long time.”
Tips
In the Philippines, there are more employees in the services than in any other sector. The Filipinos have a flair for service, hospitality, and great attitude. Yet, every day, you hear horror stories at the airport, the banks, fast food chains, and other service outfits where you expect extraordinary service.
What’s our take from the Southwest story? What can organizations and working people do to truly internalize service excellence? Here are some maverick tips.
Put employees first — and customers second. You can’t expect employees to deliver superior customer service, unless they are energized and engaged. Create that emotional connection between employees and their job, bosses and customers. You can’t expect a happy face in front of your customer when the employee has a grudge, a need not filled, fear, anxiety, or has his mind on his personal problem, and the boss doesn’t care. While happiness and productivity don’t necessarily go together, a satisfied employee has a better chance of making a satisfied customer.
Put enabling systems. Before you let go of employees to face (or mess with) your customers, make sure that the system is in place for them to decide how best to create satisfied customers. There must be proper training, compensation, evaluation, retooling, positive reinforcement for great customer experiences, and penalties for disgracing the organization in the eyes of the customer. Make sure that quality, innovation, decision-making, change, and feedback are part of all employees’ job descriptions.
Forget fancy plans. Simplify your vision, mission, goals, evaluation, and feedback systems so that employees don’t keep guessing what you expect and what they will get when they create more satisfied customers. Since customers pay for employees’ salaries and shareholders’ dividends, make employees more subservient to customers than to shareholders or the powers that be. Quarrel with a boss on work issues can be allowed, but quarrel with a customer must be a capital offense punishable with job loss. Customer satisfaction should be a major factor for determining an employee’s actual pay — not just the fancy concepts of know-how, problem solving, and accountability in the Job Evaluation system.
In the words of Herb Kelleher, “boundless energy, immense goodwill, and a burning desire to excel” are the Spirit of the Southwest. Without these, it could have been just another boring profit-oriented organization.
(Ernie serves in various capacities at the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP)and the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) and other professional and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). In 2011, he was given recognition as Diplomate in People Management (DPM) and voted “Best Newspaper Columnist of the Year” (for his Sunday Inquirer column) by PMAP in 2011 and 2012. He was PMAP President in 1999 and is Executive Director of PMAP HRM Foundation, Inc. in 2012. He is the President and CEO of EC Business Solutions and Career Center, a human resource consulting firm. His new books, “Life’s Big Lessons” and “Life’s Big Lies” are now available at book stores. He can be reached at ernie_cecilia@yahoo.com)