Comments

Is it possible to make such a mistake? How can you explaint it? Perhaps when they defined the corporate culture principles they agreed "The seven service basics" was a good idea and decided to make it public before the basics were agreed?

It´s such a mistake that I can´t figure out how they did it.

Posted by felix gerena at March 23, 2005 6:37 AM

I wonder if any of the staff themselves ever tried to find out?

Posted by PaulH at March 23, 2005 8:44 AM

I just wrote about this-- service may be dead in America... but its alive and well in Japan. Ive never encountered such phenomenal service! I have yet to wait in a line longer than two people (at a store), bus my own table, or encounter a surly employee.

The service here is so damn good, its unnerving. Im so used to being ignored or snarled at that I dont quite know how to respond. Its a nice dilemma.

Posted by AJ Hoge at March 23, 2005 8:44 AM

Service, can it be overated?? Some simple things (no brainers, really)seem so hard for many to comprehend, people in service areanas seem to take offense at questioning their reasoning. Reasoning, that was probably handed down from upper management, with no explanation as to why.

Example. My wife bought some hairspray (3-cans) from Wal-Mart last week. When she went to use the first can, it would not spray. The second, sprayed in your face, but not out of the hole. The third was the same as the second. When we went to Wal-Mart on Monday to exchange or return the product we were told that they had a whole bunch of defective cans, and most are sitting in the aisle with the caps off. Our questiong, "why would you sell them if they are bad"? Well, some may still work okay...was the response. Okay...well we would like to exchange ours for some that work. The lady at the counter shocks me when she says, "Okay, but we can only give you a 25 cent credit per can". A can that we paid $2.75 ea for. You can imagine my response! When the manager showed up, he was backing the clerks statement. I asked what was the justification of charging us 2.50 for a can of hairspray that does not work. The look in his eyes is one I will never forget. He had no clue! And, the reality of what was happening hit him. We recieved full credit, and when I was back on Tuesday, all the cans had been pulled off the shelf.

Now, why would anyone doe something so stupid...because upper management told them too, and they don't want to buck management.

Posted by Sean at March 23, 2005 9:05 AM

Love that story Sean, especially the manager's moment of lucidity!

I have a "service pet peeve" related to the topic of "Hello, my name is ----" and that's the standard routine in restaurants where the waiter or waitress introduces themselves, "Hi, I'm Tiffany, I will be your waitress." It's even been satirized in movies because it's just so silly.

But I could care less what the waitress' name is. I really just want good service and rarely find it.

I was a waitress and never found it necessary to actually interrupt a diner's conversation to recite the dessert menu or whatever. What's the story with interrupting your customers?!? Isn't that the most obvious and basic service you can render -- to simply let people eat in peace!?! When you're not adding to the dining experience, you're subtracting.

Posted by Halley at March 23, 2005 10:03 AM

WALGREEN'S HERE IN ALBUQUERQUE is extra professional - profits UP - I can understand dropping the "7" since it saves time and energy.

Posted by John at March 23, 2005 10:41 AM

As a former hotel manager, I found that Corporate Execs have wrapped themselves up snugly in a self-fulfilling catch-22.

They set the pay insultingly low for their front-line staff--usually the only people who have actual contact with the customer (but the Customer Comes First, of course). They then use the justification that front-line workers are "a dime a dozen" to avoid paying them what they're actually worth.

I went through the trouble to get my staff motivated and working hard, only to be told (after my staff took our numbers through the roof) that they simply couldn't justify a 15-cent pay increase to reward their effort, much less the 50 cents I'd requested for each of them.

When I couldn't pay them what I thought they were worth, all that incredible morale my employees built for themselves evaporated and the numbers dropped again. At that point I was hit from above with an "I told you so."

But when the shareholders complained that profits weren't growing fast enough, who was expected to "fix it?" The property managers of course.

Folks, pay your people decent money. Train them to do their job well. Trust them to take you to the top. You're more likely to let them down than they are to let you down.

Posted by Danny at March 23, 2005 10:47 AM

I wonder if Walgreens (or any other service company with service basics, for that matter) ever thought of not telling their customers about these service basics, but just DOING these service basics? Actions speak louder than words, you know; an old trite cliche that's all too true.

One service basic I can do without: I pay for my groceries with a debit card, the cashier sees what my name is, and calls me by my name (usually pronounced wrong). Maybe some people like being called by name by a complete stranger, but it unnerves me. Here's a great idea: eye contact, friendly demeanor, light conversation that doesn't slow down the checkout process. But then, that's just me . . .

Posted by Ron at March 23, 2005 11:03 AM

I don't shop at Walgreens, but from everything I've heard, I'm guessing that the decision to remove the "Seven Service Basics" had nothing to do with service. The cynic in me honestly believes this is a cost cutting measure on two fronts.

One it saves ink, paper and time. I'm guessing that by removing that single line they can get another 5 - 10 receipts out of each roll of register tape. This means that that many more customers can be served before the cashier has to figure out how to change the register tape, call the manager three times to find out where the new ones are kept and spend 10 minutes trying to thread it correctly. All of this saves time and money.

Two - to Steve's point, it is also cheaper to not make the promise, thus alleviating the need to train your employees, who have a high turn-over rate anyway, than to try and improve customer service. Sad, very sad.

Posted by Andrew Hayden at March 23, 2005 11:27 AM

A couple of observations. Service doesn't mean entitlement. We are talking about engagement and that means a relationship and this leads to empathy because empathy is the foundation to an optimized emotional brain.

Second, if the company has not taught its people its own identity, principles and beliefs prior to sending them "off" [i.e., having their own optimized emotional skill set], it won't matter how many notes you put on cash receipts... the emotional brain is the "moving forward brain" the relationship brain.

I think Service = relationship and that it takes three parties, you, the company and the emotional energy of the relationship. All of us need to participate. The future of marketing is going to be about co-reliant creativity communities, we should start to realize that it begins at the service level, all levels, and we are all involved.

Posted by Wendy at March 23, 2005 11:42 AM

Ron

Thank you - I hate people using my name in that fake read it off my card way! You are not alone in this

Posted by PaulH at March 23, 2005 11:49 AM

Yikes, don't get me started on customer service in retail today. What I don't understand is how a customer can walk into an establishment and wait at an empty counter for several minutes without even being acknowledged by the staff. A simple, "We'll be with you in a moment sir." Goes a long, long ways with me. I don't know how often clerks have been "too busy" to give me that simple courtesy.

Beyond that, whatever happened to counting the change back to the customer? When I used to be in the grocery business, it was emphasized that you not only count back the change, but you also sort all the bills in the same direction and flatten them out for the customers. You treated the change like it was as important as the products you sold. Maybe I'm just anal retentive about stuff like that.

Our grocery business was in a small, rural Oklahoma town. Principles like these were just part of business courtesy. Stuff you just did because it was the right thing to do. People came to the store for more than just a jar of peanut butter, it was a place to engage each other, a place to be a part of the community. We had some people from New York pass through and I carried out their groceries (haven't had anyone carry out my groceries in 8 years). As I finished packing their trunk, they looked at me and asked, "Is everyone here THIS friendly?" I just stared back wide-eyed and said, "Yeah, I guess they are." I miss that store. I miss that sense of community.

Posted by Dustin at March 23, 2005 12:06 PM

They're dropping "The Seven Service Basics" from the receipt, but I hope not from the type of service they offer. I wouldn't think that an employee in this type of organization would have to think tooo hard about what would be basic: a smile, a cordial greeting, a helpful attitude, a willingness to assist a customer, and a certain knack for hitting all the right buttons on a cash register (at checkout)!

A customer has come to expect some basic things like these. If a company prides itself on only offering these then they don't rise much above the bland. If Walgreen's wanted to really impress customers, they would create "Seven Mouth-Dropping Service Experiences (and train their employees to perform these in their own unique and original way). That would be worth posting somewhere.

Posted by Tim at March 23, 2005 1:19 PM

Anybody read yesterday's piece in Women's Wear Daily on the transformation going on at Saks Fifth Avenue? Ties in well with this discussion.
Retailers, and customers alike, would do well to remember the Ritz Carlton philosophy: "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." I've seen retailing from the perspectives of the retailer, the consultant, and the customer. Service is not dead in America, but I've come to feel that courtesy and respect are on life support, from BOTH sides of the retail transaction.

Posted by lem at March 23, 2005 3:56 PM

I wonder if this stuff happens because organisations start with aspiration and then try to make internal behaviours fit? I see this in branding projects all the time where organisations start with what they think the market wants, then discover that their message is not credible because there is no resonance with internal behaviours / values.

Would it not be better to be in touch with the soul of your business, to know the default responses of the group of people you have collected under the brand and then start making promises about what you are going to deliver. It would be much easier to deliver on promises. I guess it all boils down to what you really believe your people are capable of delivering?

Which way round do you think we should be doing this? Outside In or Inside Out?

Posted by Chris Nel at March 31, 2005 10:45 AM