Amaze Every Customer Every Time Read online

  WHAT MAKES ACE GREAT?

  In putting together this book, I interviewed scores of Ace owners, executives, and employees, also known as associates. I began each conversation with the same question: What makes Ace great?

  Every single person gave me some variation on the same answer: “What makes us great is our people.”

  Now, I realize that that almost sounds like a cliché, that it’s the kind of thing you might expect to hear from a whole lot of companies. Any company that aspires to deliver superior customer service will begin the conversation by praising its people. What makes this response from Ace a little more credible, though, is how often and how emotionally Ace’s customers reach out to Ace to make exactly the same point.

  Over and over again, that’s what Ace’s customers say: “What makes you guys great is your people.” And they reach out to Ace and other people to say that without being prompted!

  That state of mind and emotion—the state that turns passive customers into active evangelists—is what I call amazement.

  AMAZEMENT: Customer amazement starts with customer interactions that are better than average. Of course, anyone and any company can be better than average once in a while. Amazing companies, however, are better than average all of the time. It’s the consistency and predictability that make these people and their companies amazing.

  In this book, I’ll be sharing many testimonials from amazed customers of Ace Hardware. Before I share the first of them with you, though, let me say ahead of time that I realize some of these stories are so enthusiastic that they sound like they must have been made up by the company. I promise you they are not. The only reason I have not included the last names of the individuals who shared these stories with Ace is that I did not have permission from the customers to do so. But all the testimonials are real—and all of them serve as a confirmation of Ace’s long-standing brand promise: “The Helpful Place.” Furthermore, that brand promise can be summed up in a single word: “Helpful.”

  We’re going to be coming back to that word over and over again.

  “Ace store owners take pride in the time and effort they put into making their stores the most helpful hardware stores on the planet.”

  —ACE HARDWARE

  So that’s the promise to the customer: to work at making Ace’s stores the most helpful stores on the planet. Hyperbole? Corporate slogan-speak? Fast talk? You be the judge. Here comes the first piece of evidence.

  My first example of how people are what make Ace great comes, not from Ace, but from a customer named John. I say “customer,” but the truth is I’m probably jumping the gun a little bit. John was not a paying customer on the day his little adventure played out, but he wrote a fan letter anyway to his local Ace store. He had to thank them for the help he had received in dealing with a little problem he had run into—or, to be more accurate, a problem that had run into him.

  John, you see, had been out riding his bike around town, and he had been hit by a car. He was injured, stunned, and still in shock when he wandered, a little dazed, into an Ace Hardware store located half a block from the scene of the accident. He asked whether the store sold bicycle wheels. (His bike’s wheel, he said, had been bent so badly that it looked a little like a taco and was impossible to turn.)

  Now, in case you’re wondering whether Ace stores routinely stock bicycle wheels, the answer is “No.” If you think that’s the answer John got from the lady at the register, though, you’re wrong. She said she would have to check with an associate. (Please file that little piece of information away: checking with an associate. It will become extremely important in a later chapter.)

  The associate she called, whose name was Mike, apologized and told John that the store did not stock bicycle wheels, but he still wanted to help. He then followed John out of the store and took a look at the bike.

  “Looking at the wheel,” John later wrote in a letter, “Mike didn’t seem fazed at all. ‘We can fix this mountain-bike style,’ he said. After we took the wheel off the bike, he proceeded to bend the damaged wheel against the curb and sidewalk, and then he used a rubber mallet to bang on the stubborn parts. Pretty soon, the wheel didn’t look like a taco anymore. It looked like a normal wheel.”

  As John nursed his bleeding shoulder, Mike used John’s spoke wrench to adjust the tension on the wheel so that it would spin properly. He pulled out some duct tape—no charge—and repaired the front fender too. In less than 15 minutes, the bike was … well … not fixed exactly, but at least in a condition that Mike could ride it home.

  “Just don’t hit a bump and blow the tire off,” Mike warned with a smile as John drove away carefully.

  Again—all this for someone who had not spent a dime in Mike’s store!

  Now, to the cynics who may be reading this—you know who you are—I need to acknowledge the reality that Ace “lost money” in the short term during this transaction. Yes. Duct tape costs money. Mike’s time cost money. And so on. But now that I’ve acknowledged that, let me ask this in turn: What hardware store is John going to visit the next time he needs to buy, say, a roll of duct tape? What store is he going to recommend the next time someone mentions a home improvement, maintenance, or repair project? How many times is he going to tell friends and family members about what happened to him at Ace?

  Here is what John wrote near the end of his (very long!) fan letter to Ace: “Mike, not only did you rescue a fallen cyclist and set him on his way … but you also restored his faith in the inherent goodness of human nature.”

  Wow! Now, I don’t know whether or not that kind of endorsement is evidence of Ace being the most helpful hardware stores on the planet, but I do know it’s evidence of being helpful. It shows that Ace is not just talking about being helpful but actually making it a reality for its customers. The difference between talking about it and actually doing it? People.

  People are the key to fulfilling the brand promise. That’s what Ace has figured out. And that’s why you want to be Ace.

  PEOPLE! POSITION! PASSION TO SERVE!

  There are at least three things that make Ace great.

  First, Ace’s people are the big differentiators in the marketplace. I know everybody says that, but if you spend time with Ace people, you’ll recognize it and feel it for yourself. It’s not just a slogan. It’s actually the way they do business. What makes Ace great is people. And that starts with the people who work at the stores. Ace tells its store owners: Yes, you’ve got to love what you do … but you’ve got to love the who, too.

  Second, Ace’s position makes the company great. That’s because it loves being the underdog, and loves playing David and Goliath. “If you’re not up on your Old Testament references, David wins that fight,” Ace’s CEO John Venhuizen reminded me, “so yes, we do love being in that David and Goliath position. In fact, I think what we have built our business around is the heartbeat of America: small local entrepreneurs duking it out with the big guys and winning, thanks to local customers. That’s what America is all about, that’s still what makes the country special. The little guy matters and can make a difference. Personally, I love coming to work with that chip on my shoulder. I love going up against some of the biggest, baddest, best-funded companies on the face of the earth.”

  Ace’s passion to serve is the third thing that makes it great. You want to know how Ace wins? They know that they are blessed to be in the business of serving others. That’s their business. That’s their place. That’s the space in the industry where they dominate. And with that passion comes a special dimension of meaning and fulfillment. “You know,” Venhuizen told me, “you can accomplish what looks, from a distance, like great things in this life, but if you try to make it all about you, then you do not have a fulfilled life. We know that the core of our business is that we serve others. In business, we keep score with money. We don’t apologize for that or pretend it’s not happening. But business isn’t about money, it’s about people. That’s why you keep score, why you want
a profitable store. We have a huge percentage of our owners who realize that being part of something bigger than themselves is really what makes life exciting.”

  Venhuizen went on to explain that the best Ace owners, the ones who build and support the great brand of helpfulness that drives the company, understand that a great, lucrative store is worth working for because it leads to four other things that are much bigger than the store.

  With a profitable store, owners get to better serve their own families: If the store is doing well, the owner doesn’t have to work 16-hour days, or spend too much time away from home. The first and maybe most important element of the community Ace serves is the family of the owner.

  With a profitable store, owners get to take great care of and serve their own people. The associates (what many other companies call “employees”) are the second tier of the community that Ace serves. When a store is not working well, when it’s struggling to make ends meet, owners can’t reward their people, provide health insurance, and so on. But when the store is working, they can better serve their associates, financially and in other ways. People sometimes forget that one of the really important ways a company serves the community is by meeting its payroll!

  With a profitable store, owners get to better serve their customers and the larger community. When you have a store that’s very profitable, you can better serve the larger community, including customers and future customers—like the gentleman on the bike. When you can give that kind of service to the community, some really special things start to happen in the marketplace.

  With a profitable store, owners get to better serve the least, the littlest, and the lonely. Once you are running a profitable store, you don’t have to make every single decision according to what makes the most sense for the bottom line. You can give something back financially. For a whole lot of Ace owners, what they do to help others in need is what they’re proudest of achieving. That’s moving from success to significance. That’s the highest point on the human development pyramid.

  But without a successful, profitable store, the owner would never get to serve these four critical parts of the community. That’s why Ace keeps score. That’s why they compete on amazement. And that’s why they win.

  From a distance, all this can sound a little “out there,” but internally it’s what sustains the company and makes it special from the inside out. Ace owners believe in this culture. And they live this culture. You can believe in, and live, a culture like that too.

  Now, how could you not want to be part of a company that operates like that? How could you not want your company to embody the idea that people really are what makes the difference?

  This book will show you how.

  It will show you how to create and sustain an amazement culture based on people—both employees and customers.

  It will show you how you can help to create and support this culture, and to deliver the kind of amazing service that wins evangelists, regardless of whether you:

  Own and operate a small business (including a one-person business)

  Are responsible for managing a larger business

  Are part of a larger business but do not have managerial responsibility

  Most important of all, you’ll learn how to live—not just talk about—a workplace culture rooted in the concept of Amazing Every Customer Every Time!

  YOUR AMAZEMENT TOOLBOX

  Amazement is the state of mind and emotion that turns passive customers into customer evangelists.

  Customer amazement starts with customer interactions that are better than average.

  Any company can be better than average once in a while. Amazing companies are better than average all of the time.

  The Ace Hardware mantra is just one word: “Helpful.” They take pride in being the most helpful hardware stores on the planet.

  The difference between just talking about customer service and delivering amazement lies in people.

  People are the key to fulfilling a company’s brand promise.

  John Venhuizen, Ace CEO, says, “We are blessed to be in the business of serving others.”

  A culture of helpful sustains Ace and makes it special from the inside out. Ace owners believe in this culture.

  A profitable business allows you the luxury of serving your family, employees, community, and people in need.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  OPERATIONALIZING HELPFUL

  * * *

  An amazing customer service culture begins by first amazing the employees.

  HOW DO YOU TURN a good idea for a culture into reality? By building an employee-centered workplace.

  How do you make an amazing culture happen where it hasn’t happened before? How do you operationalize that culture? How do you move beyond posters and slogans that people tune out (or, even worse, ridicule)? How do you create a day-by-day reality where people actually respond with the focused attention and concern that customers remember, appreciate, and can’t help talking about to family and friends? How do you change what actually happens to the customer?

  Ace has figured out the answer: By first changing what happens to the people who work in the store.

  Ace Hardware has figured out that in order to build a customer-centric business you must first build an employee-centric business. This is one of the great central principles embraced by enterprises that consistently deliver amazing customer service. They know that amazement starts at home.

  In part two of this book, I’ll be sharing lots of strategies and tools you can use at all levels of your organization to deliver an amazing customer experience. But what you have to understand before you start looking at any of those resources is that none of those tools are likely to work for your organization unless employees experience the amazement for themselves first.

  That’s how you truly instill a great service culture: by making sure the employees actually experience what you are asking them to deliver to the customer.

  Think about it. If your car’s front end is out of alignment, then the entire car is going to shake. It’s not so different in business. If the front line doesn’t experience the same value promise that is supposed to be delivered to the customer, then the entire company can suffer.

  * * *

  This employee-centered philosophy of Ace reminds me of exactly how Herb Kelleher, cofounder, Chairman Emeritus, and former CEO of Southwest Airlines, ran his very successful airline. Kelleher recognized that you have to put your employees first. If you do, they will treat the customers (in his case, the passengers) well. Then, the passengers will come back and fly on the airline again. And that, by the way, will also make the shareholders very happy.

  * * *

  Operationalizing a good service culture just means putting your employees first. Nothing more, nothing less. So if you want your customers to experience helpful, you have to make sure your company’s employees are operating in an environment where helpful is actually how people interact with one another!

  This is why one of the crucial phases that any company has to go through to create high levels of service is alignment.

  Alignment is the process by which everyone in the company experiences the vision firsthand. Everyone must be pointed in the same direction—toward the brand promise. It starts with the right people who have the right mindset.

  One of the ways Ace ensures alignment with its culture is through extensive training that “certifies” both the store and the associates. In a new training initiative centered solely on the customer experience, Ace wants every associate in every store to go through Helpful 101 certification on their way to becoming Certified Ace Helpful. This is not product training. This is focused exclusively on getting all associates into alignment, thereby fulfilling the helpful brand promise.

  Furthermore, just getting the Helpful 101 certification isn’t enough. Each store must requalify annually and be willing to be surveyed and mystery-shopped monthly. In other words, they must sustain helpful. If there is a decreas
e in their Helpful Index, Ace corporate will help the stores determine how and why the scores dropped, and help them to recover.

  Everybody gets the mission as something that directly affects them, personally, in a powerful, positive way. Everybody buys into the mission not because of a poster on the wall that nobody actually lives by but because, along with the training, they personally experience the very best expression of that mission, firsthand, on a day-to-day basis.

  In addition to training, another absolutely indispensable cultural tool for creating this level of alignment is something I call the company mantra.

  This mantra is a key phrase that is extremely short, yet so simple that when employees and customers hear it, they know exactly what the company is all about. They know what is driving the behavior, the decisions, and the problem solving, both within the company and in its interactions with external customers. (Note: Some amazing companies create separate mantras for internal and external customers, which is fine.)

  These are key phrases that make it crystal clear, for both the employees and their customers, what the company is trying to achieve, both internally and externally.

  One of my favorite examples of a mantra that drives internal and external experiences comes from Horst Schulze, former president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotels. At age 15, he wrote a term paper, the title of which Ritz-Carlton Hotels adopted as its motto (and now preaches to its employees and demonstrates to its guests): “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” I’ve mentioned this in previous books and articles because it’s such a great example. That one phrase instantly tells you everything you need to know about what standards drive interactions among employees inside that company—and interactions between employees and customers. If you’ve ever stayed at one of the hotels, you know that the Ritz-Carlton is usually in full alignment with this mantra.