Surprise and Delight

Years ago I read the book “Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service” by Ron Zemke. It was one of those reads that changed me forever and gave me epiphanies I will never forget.

The paradigm of serving others radically shifted as a result. Up to that point, my idea of customer service was to deliver what was expected, solve the problem, answer the questions, provide adequate information, and do so in a pleasant way.

Just a few minutes ago Kimmy shared her frustration with Land Rover Honolulu.  She had taken our 2014 LR-4 in for a factory recall, something to do with the fuel system leaking or catching on fire…in remote circumstances. Regardless, Land Rover notified us that it must be addressed.

We live on a little island 100 miles from Oahu, the island on which the dealership is located. I called the service department to ask for an appointment and to address an odd issue: who pays for the vehicle to be barged back and forth, 200 miles round trip at a cost of just under $1,000.

Chris the service advisor said they could not fit it in for another 2 months. Oh.  Ok.  What if it blows up in the meantime? :). He assured me it would not. He must know a lot about our particular vehicle. Fine, I said, we have waited 10 years, we can wait another two months. But when I asked how the shipping would be handled, you can imagine the response. “We don’t pay for that. It is the customer’s responsibility to bring the vehicle in." You can also imagine my response which I will not detail here. I asked for the appropriate contacts at Land Rover corporate and he sent them to me. I sent an email to three people related to PR, Customer Service and Recalls. All three responded within a day letting me know they would look into and get back with me. You might guess they never did. That would be normal for most companies. But they actually did the next day, declaring they would cover the cost to ship it.

Now that is not Knock Your Socks Off service. That is more like what is expected, but of course I was pleasantly surprised.

Fast forward to today, the day of the appointment. Chris, the same service advisor, first told Kimmy upon arrival these things:

“Oh, this is a very old vehicle. We don’t work on vehicles this old very often.  I don’t know if we even have a mechanic on duty that can work on this today.”

Kimmy is running 100 mph in Honolulu this week selling two multi-million dollar homes. She was not amused. She insisted that they had two months to plan and this was the day she set aside to bring it in. Miraculously, they found someone to fix the exploding gas tank. Then Kimmy asked for a loaner.

“We don’t give out loaners for vehicles that are this old brought in for service."

You cannot make this stuff up. Kimmy is feeling like our 2014 is the victim of “elder abuse." Then they told her they were all out of loaners. Then someone with a conscience told her they did have loaners…just not one for her.

This is typical today in business. Owners and management seem to pride themselves in delivering the least or the cheapest, banking on the consumer tolerating it. Customer service seem to model, how low can we go, how many ways can we say “No", how many policies can we cite as the reason we cannot accommodate someone.

Last month I stayed one night at the Hyatt Place, San Carlos, California. I took a shower that evening…no hot water. I let the front desk know.  The next morning, no hot water. I let them know at check out and asked them how they wanted to compensate me since had I known, I would not have stayed there at all. The manager said, “We can give you 5% off your room and 1000 Hyatt points." My response was, “Really? Hyatt points? 5%? That’s all you can do?”  He said, “Yes, that is all we can do." Well, I am not an idiot and so I know that is not remotely true. That is all Mr. Low Ball chooses to do. I gave him one more chance. Nope. That’s it. Ok, no point in taking this poor guy apart. There is a better way.  You can read my Trip Advisor review as will thousands of other people. 5% would have cost them $10. Free would have cost them $200. Trip Advisor….Priceless.

So many of us have an issue with conflict. We can't stand it. We will allow ourselves to be a doormat on which everyone walks with their dirty feet, just to avoid someone not liking us or being mad at us for calling them out on their poor behavior. “What we tolerate, we teach people is acceptable."

How would "Knock Your Socks Off" have handled these issues?

"If the dealership policy won’t pay to have your vehicle shipped over here, I will advocate for you with the GM, then the owner, then corporate to get it done."

“Leave it to me, Mr. Brooke. We will take care of you.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Brooke. Thank you for bringing your vehicle in. We will take great care of it and we promise it will come back to you in pristine condition.  Here are the keys to this beautiful LR-4 we have for sale on the lot. Let me show you some of the new features of this model so you will feel comfortable driving it. It is full of fuel and that is on us." Not only KYSO service but smart marketing. 

“Mr. Brooke, we know how frustrating it can be after a long day to not have your room and our services be what you need and expect. Hot water is a basic need any hotel ought to provide. A Hyatt’s hot water ought to be spring-fed, pure as the driven snow, and just the right temperature for you. And to have that happen twice in your stay is inexcusable. We are comping your room, giving you a coupon for a free 3-night stay at any Hyatt worldwide and breakfast is on us. What else can we do to make amends?”

What I learned from this book was priceless. We all make mistakes. We all miss the mark. We all have issues out of our control. But Surprise and Delight is always in our control. Surprise and Delight turns lemons into lemonade. Every let down that risks a customer’s loyalty and viral negative word of mouth is an opportunity to win that customer for life. And an opportunity to turn what could be a nasty PR campaign into a lifelong ambassador…an influencer for your brand. How? Surprise them. Go way beyond the policy. In fact, change the policy to empower the customer-facing staff to do whatever they want to win the customer. What do 3 free nights cost? Nothing if I am never going back. What do empathy and accountability cost? Nothing.

What are they worth? Your future as a brand.

I want to call out Shawn Grogan at Clawson Powersports in Fresno, California.  He surprised and delighted me with his follow-up, communication, texting me vs calling me at my request, updating me when I didn’t even ask, checking and double checking to ensure the parts would fit my Polaris Ranger EV, and putting a hot rush on service to install them on my timeline. Mind-blowing service and I am telling the owner. Socks gone.

And Felicia at Sierra Tel in Oakhurst California for telling me exactly how she was going to get my question answered, when she would be in touch giving me her direct line and even her mobile number for after hours. Oh my goodness. My socks are gone. 

And Amanda at Prenuvo MRI in Redwood City, California for her amazing follow-up, emailing and texting instead of calling, providing a wonderfully comprehensive review of my report, and when I did need to talk to her, she answered right away, and handled my question in an instant.

I will always sing the praises of the sock knockers. And I will always call out the “let me see how lame and low I can goers."

We don’t have to see “how cheap” we can get people to do what we need. We could pay them more than they expect. We don’t have to celebrate a “what a good deal for me, not so good for them,” deal we got.  We could celebrate a lifelong, reliable, "knock your socks off" relationship with a business partner.

We could invest in promoting people that do awesome work by giving them 5-star, powerfully written reviews full of hyperbole and we could go out of our way to recommend them to others.  That is how we could play the game as someone who hires and pays others for services.

And as a service provider, we could knock our clients' and customers' socks off with our performance, giving them far more, a surprising level of service.

And we can take every adversity and turn it into a 10-fold opportunity.

If this article gave you more than you expected, you could knock my socks off with a review and recommendations. 😊