Hero or Zero, You Choose
My PDA battery fried and died which is something I’ve never had happen before. It wouldn’t take a charge. I was on the road and panicky as that is my main voice and data access.
I was flying to Bellevue, Washington. Maritza in my office found a store operated by my phone provider near the Hilton hotel downtown and, per my request asked: “If we buy the battery from you, can someone drop it off for my boss so it is there when he arrives at the hotel?”
Big request, I know, but a chance to be a hero.
The store rep’s answer: “Nope.”
So Martiza calls the hotel. Concierge says, “You pay for the battery and we’ll go pick it up for Mark.” It was waiting for me when I arrived, thanks not to my cell phone company but the hotel. Hilton became the hero.
What often appear to be unusual requests or inconveniences for a service provider are actually opportunities to become a hero. Choose well, and you’re a hero. Choose poorly, and you might still end up in a story, newsletter or blog, but you’ll show up as a zero.
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Comment by Ken Davis — June 20, 2007 @ 9:22 am
Great story, and the point may be more profound than even intended. It goes beyond the level of financial transactions; it’s about common decency. What concerns me most is not the chance to be the hero, which is in itself a great opportunity. It’s the noncaring attitude of the retail store person, about a person in need. This gets personal. Someone has a pressing need and if it were you, you’d want someone to help. This is not a huge request. This retail person didn’t care about another person in transit, in need. The big picture: What does that say about people caring about other people in general? Are Americans becoming so uncaring about another–don’t interrupt my day, don’t invade my space? Was this such a big request or did the retail vendor not even consider or care about doing something helpful? I don’t think the possibility of helping someone was even a reality to him or her. Scary thought. Andrea
Comment by Andrea Gold — June 20, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Wow. Sets a standard of lousy reponse. By the way, your client we discussed is getting loads better on NOT doing these sorts of dumb things. I can only presume thatyou are having a positive impact!
Comment by Russ Kyncl — June 22, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
I often wonder if companies truly appreciate the extraordinary impact that exceptional service has on the retention of customers. We’re constantly bombarded by ads, direct mail and other solicitations to change our auto insurance, as an example, yet we never even look. Why? Because the experience we’ve had with our long time provider (State Farm) has been so overwhelmingly positive that even when they raise our rates we feel that it’s more than justified based on the value they’ve provided over the course of our relationship. Let me guess, of the two companies mentioned in Mark’s post, which he recommends friends and colleagues do business with…
Comment by Tom Gray — January 13, 2008 @ 9:47 am