At scores of banking conferences over the past decade, I've listened to speakers discuss the companies they are most impressed by. At different times, and for good reasons, companies like Disney, Starbucks, Lexus, Ritz Carlton, and (lately) Zappos.com have been cited as examples of superior customer service.
It's one thing to be initially impressed by the service of a company. But when a company that you already have high expectations of continues to meet and surpass expectations over time, you likely have a company worth emulating.
I was reminded recently on a trip to Las Vegas of one such company — Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. I've actually shared anecdotes about this company with banker groups in the past.
When some folks hear the name of a "luxury brand", there's a tendency to roll their eyes and think, "Well, sure. If you pay lots of money, you get better service." I usually only have to cite the airline industry to quickly debunk that hypothesis.
I had stayed at Four Seasons properties a half-dozen times or so before. But on this particular trip, I was accompanied for the first time by my family. It was their reactions during the week that reminded me of why the company is impressive.
I thought back to my first interaction with the chain years ago in Chicago. Prior to my stay, I anticipated being blown-away by the facilities. I knew that hotel charged as much as a 50% premium over other very nice hotels in that market.
As I checked into the hotel, I was somewhat underwhelmed. Everything about the lobby looked nice, but I wouldn't call it differentiating from the other hotels on that street.
The desk clerk was very friendly, but frankly, so are most desk clerks in decent hotels. And the rooms were nice, but not as updated as some far cheaper rooms just down the street.
It wasn't until I began interacting with more of the "moving parts" (employees) of the hotel that I realized what differentiated it from the pack. Everyone from the doorman to the maid staff to the guy vacuuming the hallway was amazingly engaging.
You couldn't walk by one of them without him or her smiling and greeting you and usually offering to be of assistance. This must be the kind of attention that celebrities get every day.
The "luxury" experience was not produced by facilities. It was produced by human interaction.
My family's most recent experiences in Las Vegas reinforced that fact to me. You'd be hard pressed to beat other hotels in that town with facilities. Nice facilities are simply the ante (to use a gambling term) required to keep you in the game.
Whenever I use a company as an example worth copying, I ask bankers to fight off the urge to focus on the areas of other industries that aren't applicable to them. Of course we're not hotels, or restaurants, or theme parks, but some philosophies, strategies, and best practices are universally beneficial.
On this trip, I made a few back-of-a-napkin notes about simple ideas worth borrowing from Four Seasons.
The first may surprise some. When I asked folks what impressed them most about the environment, most mentioned the striking flower arrangements first. Expensive marble floors and beautiful furnishings are everywhere, and yet the thing most commented upon were the flowers.
Nice flowers and plants give any area, whether new and state-of-the-art or somewhat older, an improved image. (Chick-fil-A restaurants figured that out themselves a few years back.)
Calling a customer by name continues to be a powerful impression-maker that too few businesses utilize. A person knocking on your door and shouting, "House keeping!" makes you feel like you are somewhere you shouldn't be. You're in the way.
Hearing, "Good Morning, Mrs. Martin, may I clean your room?" makes an entirely different impression. Midweek, my wife asked, "Do they have pictures of us somewhere? How do all of these people know our names?"
I told her they know and call you by name because, well... that's what they do. With minimal effort, most businesses could do that as well. But they don't, which is why we notice it all the more.
Another impressive policy readily on display was that it is obvious that the most important people in any room, hallway, or lobby are the folks not being paid to be there. Chats between coworkers instantly come to a stop whenever a customer approaches. There is no internal business more important than a customer's needs.
You don't see that at most businesses. When you do, it's noticeable and impressive.
Whether your facilities are new and state-of-the-art or somewhat older, remember that it's the moving parts of your organization that create the impressions that make the biggest impact on customers.
Dave Martin is an executive vice president and chief training consultant at NCBS, a SunTrust Banks Inc. subsidiary that offers consulting, training, design and construction services for retail banking programs. He can be reached at Dave.Martin@ncbs.com.
