Relationships, Cigarettes, and Answering Machines
I've been involved in technology marketing since 1994. And yes I've read all the "bibles" out there, wrote one for that matter, and worked for some of the most innovative relationship marketers on the planet. I've overseen sales, customer service, IT, and I've owned multiple businesses of my own. I surround myself with people smarter than I am and I listen to them. But the most important lesson I was ever taught in business came to me courtesy of a 65 year old, hard drinking, hard smoking guy who owned a Radio Shack franchise.
I've worked as long as I can remember, I've always enjoyed business in general and hard work isn't something I was ever afraid of. I was around 17 years old and worked evenings after school at his store, and full days on weekends. We were paid on commission. Luckily for me I was a computer geek even then and I could sell the shit out of the new Tandy computers (so much so that it put me into my own store a couple years later).
But we also sold all of that "other stuff". That stuff that didn't make me any money like .64 cent capacitors, and spools of wire. In those days all Radio Shacks had these little cards that you'd get punched every time you came into the store and once you'd visited a few times you got to take a free battery with you. You'd be amazed at how successful that program was in bringing customers back into the store, and as far as I know it ran for decades. The problem (as I naively saw it) was that it was predominantly older customers who wanted something for free, and rarely bought much of any consequence. As a commissioned employee you tend to notice these things, especially when it is those same customers that want to talk or complain to you for hours on end.
The other policy was that they would repair virtually anything they had ever sold, from any store, anywhere. This was also a supreme pain in the ass to me because it took a lot of time, it had to be packed up to be shipped off to Tandy if it couldn't be fixed in store, and I didn't get commission off of that either.
One day, I get this older gentleman who walks in with a answering machine that had broken and he wants it fixed. I start the process just like always, I get his information, I take down what the problem is, and it's only then that I notice that it's not actually an answering machine that has ever been sold at a Radio Shack. As I attempt to explain to the gentleman that the product didn't actually come from Radio Shack he begins to get a little irate with me. He's absolutely convinced that he bought it at our store. I suppose he thinks that I'm just trying to get out of having to repair it, I'm not sure. But the logic of "Sir, we sell one brand of product, that's all we've ever sold, we make our own products and don't sell anyone else's" didn't seem to be working. It's at this point that he asks for my manager. I gladly oblige so that I can extricate myself from the situation.
The owner comes out (with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth I might add), takes one look at the answering machine and asks what the problem is. The gentleman explains his point of view, and my boss says, "you know, we don't make this unit but I think it came from {some store close by}. But don't worry about it." And without another word my boss proceeds to walk over to our answering machines, picks one out, and hands it to the guy. He tells him "This model is better than the one you have here that is broken, it should suit your needs just fine, take it". The gentleman's mouth falls open a little as he was expecting to argue his way further and can't quite believe what is happening. No cash register, no receipt, no personal info, just hands him a new answering machine and says thanks for coming in with a genuine smile on his face.
I'm a little pissed at this point to be honest because my boss just made me look stupid. He didn't take my side of the argument. The obvious, logical, perfect sense side of the argument. So I confront him and ask "why the hell would you give a guy a $100 answering machine at no cost and then accept his broken one which wasn't even bought here? That makes no sense". He puts on that patient face of a father teaching a life lesson and says "Son, that machine cost me $50. If I send him up the street to return his then he'll buy something else from them. I'll take the time to return his broken one instead and possibly get my money back. Moreover, anytime that gentleman needs something in the future he will only go to one place to buy it. He now knows that anything he buys from me I will back it up, no matter the problem. That's priceless. Now get your ass back out there and sell something"
There's a lot of lessons to be learned in that story. But for me, the primary one was in learning to always view the customer as a long term relationship and protect it. Maybe there are a few others in there that will help you along the way as well.
Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
18 Comments
Great post, love the story, the learnings and much better than the urban legend Nordstroms story (old lady/tires/Nordstroms). I enjoy your posts here and on twitter, thanks for the continuous great content and brain-brewing tweets.
Mike
It started when we just finished a new location and were in the middle of a soft-opening. After screwing up one customers order literally 4 times, my manager walks with me to their car to apologize... again. As we get to the car he tells me to answer "Yes, of course" when prompted. 10 minutes after sticking to that script I find myself with a bucket and hose behind the restaurant, hand-washing the customer's car while they ate... smiling ear to ear.
Above and beyond was the motto of the day at that place. When I finished my manager delivered a line that I still remember: "Customer service is not just fixing the problem, it's fixing the perception you get from having a problem."
You've got me thinking of a ditty of my own: I worked for a guy recently, a fellow who's more of a character than I can put into words. So much of a character that it almost overshadows his considerable genius. Anyways, one day after telling me the Nordstroms allegory, he said to me,
"You can't pay for good customer service. Someone either decides to give it to you, or they don't."
On the surface, it's so easy to poke holes in that statement you can end up missing the absolute truth of it. I think that's why I've struggled with appreciate it's depth. Well, you (and JavaSTL) just provided me with the missing link. You can't decide to pay for good customer service, but if someone decides to give it to you, you will pay for it -- again and again.
I guess that's how you build a long term relationship, and why it goes so far fixing both problem & perception.
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Matt, a question for you... are you conscious of the self promotion sprinkled throughout this article? It works great, it's something I've noticed some people do and when you do it, it just comes off as part of your voice. When I think about doing it myself, it feels inauthentic. My own answer is to self promote by adding value, trying to engage people, and being as honest as I can figure out how. You seem to do those things too, but I'm wondering about the more blatant stuff.
e.g. "wrote one for that matter... I surround myself with people smarter than I am and I listen to them... hard work isn't something I was ever afraid of... so much so that it put me into my own store a couple years later... etc."
Other times it's just sheer ego bleeding through. If you'll notice I don't advertise on this site, or even provide a means of tracking me down, so I don't worry terribly about it when my ego wins over my humility. I should mention that all of this is written stream of consciousness as it's not a 'formal blog' as much as a place to dump my thoughts, so I suppose some of that would get caught if I edited more.
Thx for the thoughts.
it had that effect as well. :)
i myself, so early in my career, do not have the luxury of anonymity.
but i enjoy what you've produced using a relative amount of it. it's
funny how these day anonymity is possibly both easier and harder to
obtain than ever before.
underlying paradox. for example, you surround yourself with people you
want to learn from. so, on the one hand, your engagement with them
ends up being 'honest' in that you're not engaging just to strum up
business i.e. for self-serving reasons. on the other hand, you're
there for self-admitedly selfish reasons if, again admittedly,
unusual. we could even close this circle, with the argument that
you're not there to strum up business, by making the point that your
ways have led to your skill set and success which in turn have
strummed up business. of course, you're providing value in return, but
i think that's besides the point.
what I enjoy in this examination of integrity, or authenticity or
honesty or whatever you want to call it, is that one can be
contradictory because its not really contradictions that upset people,
it's deception.
thanks for sharing that article & those thoughts. i hope you won't
mind, but I'm learning a lot and plan to stick around. my own
contradictions, included.
There is paradox, and hypocrisy, in all of us. Anytime you see me make a black and white statement you can rest assured that there is some hypocrisy to be found if you look hard enough. I simply put mine on display more than others perhaps.
And for the record, my purposes in 90% of the things I do in life are self-serving. Make no mistake about that. Just not always in the way you might think.
It's a great note about relationships. Becoming that indispensable voice of Got Your Back is absolutely priceless - but, having also put my time in with the Shack, I can tell you; people don't respond the same way they used to. Not the customers, and certainly not the store managers.
And that's... Sad. Sort of. I take it to mean we just haven't found the replacement cue that fits current culture. Got Your Back is an excellent attitude. Question is, how do we transmit that sentiment appropriately now, without it being washed out?
Yet, I do get the sense that we are playing around the edges of finding the right "replacement cue". I think it's a new level of advocate creation and management that is that potential 'cue'. Take a company like Zappos for example. They've successfully created a brand whose value proposition is no longer about "products" (shoes), or about the lowest price point, but about 'having your back' as you put it. They can now leverage that brand in many directions (clothes, consumer electronics, you name it) because it's the service that now is the differentiator, it's the way you feel when dealing with them, it's the notion that "we're in this together". That sentiment can survive down markets and product fads where just having a great selection of shoes at great prices can't. And to be able to pull that off in an online only venue is pretty remarkable. Marketing didn't do that, advocates did.
There are models, there are successes, but the majority (that I'm seeing) are those that can successfully cross that boundary into generating an *emotional* response from the customer. When everything is as commoditized as it is, and everyone sells everything, you can't make product or price your primary differentiators.
Thoughts on that?
For me, the first barrier is the boss. I'd sit down with them and tell them exactly what you just said..that you want to be able to give that "above and beyond wow factor" with whatever it is you do. Have an understanding with the objective to build *their* trust, that every now and then you may bring them into a situation in which you need their authority to accomplish it (e.g. if it's a monetary impact) and you want them to understand beforehand that when that occurs this is the reason you're doing it. That you hope that they will have *your* back. Let them know that you'll try and make it something small to begin with if possible, and that *afterwards* you will sit down and explain your reasoning to them. Over time 2 things will happen, 1 is that when they begin to trust that your judgement is sound they'll give you more authority and freedom to use it, 2 is that they will begin looking at you differently if your judgement is sound and provide greater opportunities for you sooner than if you had simply done the status quo.
If neither of those two things happen then either your judgement isn't very good, or you need to work with someone else :)
There are business models predicated on "got your back" service - unfortunately, no one has yet been able to parse it for a Best Practices discussion. It can be done, from the ground up, but it's not modular enough to be "implemented" in an existing company.
But maybe that's ok, right?
I personally think the notion of "best practices" when it comes to cultural solutions is oxymoronic. Cultural solutions have to be built as evolutionary models on top of whatever the existing culture is in my opinion. You don't "put a culture in place", you "evolve the existing culture". Unless you plan on replacing the majority work force it's the only method I've ever had any success at. What you *can* do however is build best practices (or more properly, methodologies) on how to analyze and craft that evolutionary model that will become specific to that company. Don't know if that made sense or not?
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