Boston Pizza–Master of Customer Relationships

People don't buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons. - Zig Ziglar

With apologies to my many readers, this blog is going to be a rare (extremely rare) plug for a company.  Within this shameless plug, there is also a clear lesson for other companies if they choose to pay attention.

Many people who know me personally understand me to be a person focused on strategy, tactics and the high quality of both.  What matters to me equally so is the quality of execution, since brilliant ideas, great plans and lousy execution will likely produce a lousy result. 

Powerful dreams cannot overcome reality.

When it comes to brilliant execution, one of the things that fascinates me are the people who pay attention to the small details since within the small details are nuggets of gold waiting to be discovered.

And when it comes to noticing small details and as a person with a decent social media network (about 25 million third-degree connections on LinkedIn plus a plethora of connections on other social media networks), I am fascinated by who notices what I share on social media and how they respond.

Some examples

I was once in a famous international coffee chain location and tweeted that I was surprised that when I asked for a plain cup of coffee right out of the carafe, I was told they were too busy to make any.  There was no response from the corporate folks at all when I expressed surprise that the staff was simply too busy to make a cup of their signature blend.  I wasn’t looking for an apology although an acknowledgement that processes could have been improved might have been useful (especially given how much of their stuff I buy).  If you can send me a gold card with my name on it, you can acknowledge when things can be improved.

I was in their competitor’s establishment just before Christmas past and was told by my server that my Santa hat offended her religious beliefs.  I tweeted about how this intrigued me and blogged about it (Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson and Ignorance Run Rampant) but there wasn’t a peep from anyone.  I wasn’t looking for an apology here either but I noted it because I saw room for improvement.  I can’t tell if they cared or not.

I even had a VERY unsatisfactory experience with a major Canadian auto-repair chain and when I tweeted as such, I was told twice publicly that I would be taken care of.  I never heard from them again.  This customer service faux pas has cost them a few thousand dollars (to-date) in lost business from my colleagues as a result.  Oh well.  I asked for help and the implied message in return was “get lost”.  So I did but who is really losing here?

And then there is Boston Pizza

When Boston Pizza (@BostonPizza) was running their Rib Stain Camo campaign last year, I thought it was brilliant and tweeted as such.  Shortly afterward, I received a tweet back from Boston Pizza and Jim Treliving himself (@JTreliving - Chairman and Founder of BP) and I thought “Now that’s really cool – these guys actually pay attention to what is going on in social media”.  I never thought anything else of the exchange.

Shortly afterward, I was asked for my home address and was surprised a few days later to see a gift of thanks from Boston Pizza.  I was blown away.  It is the little things that count, as I noted earlier.

Just before Christmas, I received a handmade Boston Pizza Christmas Tree ornament from them which I was happy to share on social media.

And today, this arrived:

Do you know what these small acts of kindness do?

They bind a customer to a brand.  The customer feels the love and promotes it.  The company gets free promotion in exchange and everyone wins.  Commercials and slick advertising campaigns can bring someone in the door once in a while.  However, a personal connection brings someone in the door for a Lifetime.

People can say that it’s easy for a company the size of Boston Pizza to throw out a little love, knowing that this will multiply into much more business than the small amount spent sharing the love.

That may be so but if it were that easy, then why aren’t more companies doing it?

It is clearly not as easy as it seems and speaks highly of Boston Pizza that they focus on the small details

And as we all know, the devil (and maybe the angel) is in the details. :-)

The Bottom Line

Causally responding to a customer with a “thanks” or a “we’ll get back to you” is easy in social media.  In fact, bots exist to do that for many companies and so their social media strategy exists to stroke you, not to truly engage you.  Social media demonstrates repeatedly that words can be cheap and for some folks, it provides them with the opportunity to be the Twit in Twitter.

But when someone responds with gratitude for a kind word tweeted and then follows up with small acts of kindness, they are cementing a relationship.

Maybe a few other companies can learn from Boston Pizza’s example.

What do you think?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS

For companies that don’t understand strong customer service and the importance of relationships, I wonder if they have posters like this hung up (courtesy of Despair.com): :-)

Or this one:

Or maybe this one:

Problem Solving - Choose Your Solution Wisely

Last week I was meeting someone at a coffee shop in one of Canada’s primary coffee chains and sat down at the only table available.

Noticing it was covered in crumbs, I proceeded to sweep the table clean when I realized that in fact, the “crumbs” were small dead flies – about 30 or 40 of them.

Having had a few issues at this particular coffee shop before (which I had reported to staff but which weren’t acted upon) and knowing someone who worked in corporate for this chain, I decided to take action that I knew would produce a result instead of wasting my breath with the staff.

I took a picture of the dead flies and SMS’d it to my colleague in corporate.

The corporate folks acted swiftly and decisively (which I knew they would).

Returning to the same coffee shop for the first time in a week, I noticed that when some customers pulled out their smartphone, the staff was quick to tell them that picture-taking was not allowed even though the customers were not taking pictures.  As a result, I noticed a few awkward moments between customers and staff and a lot of poor assumptions being made.

It appears that the solution to the little dilemma I created last week when I reported the dead flies was to be more aggressive on cracking down on how violations are captured.

Perhaps if the business owner in question was as quick to manage the store more effectively and proactively, the need to finally send a photo wouldn’t have been necessary.

Meanwhile, I now see that the business owner is not only not proactive in effectively managing their business but they are paranoid as well.  Covering up future issues (and the reporting of them) appears to be a key priority.

It reminds me of how some people feel about breaking the law – that their actions are not illegal unless they are caught.

Stuff happens

In business, as in Life, it is important that we do the best we can to proactively meet or exceed the expectations of others.  On the occasions when we don’t achieve such an intention, it is critical that the action we take demonstrates to the other person that we really care about resolving the problem to everyone’s satisfaction.

Since problems are often inevitable, how we address them is often as important (if not more) than the existence of the problem itself and sends a clear message as to how much we really value the relationships that we create.

How do you resolve challenges that are often inevitable?

Do you go out of your way to acknowledge and fix the issue with the other person, showing others that you care about their perception of you and your relationship with them, or do you put your energy into other areas, including ignoring or burying the issue?

The choices you make become an important predictor regarding your future success – personal and professional. 

The actions you take based on the choices that resonate with you will speak much louder than any intention you may claim to have.  Failure to do “the right thing” may also create more issues, as it did for the customers in the coffee shop today who were accused of doing something that they were not.

How much value do you place on your relationships?

How do you know?

More importantly, how do they know?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum: In reflecting upon one customer who was challenged today, it occurred to me that this customer is a regular who usually sits at the table where I was sitting last week when I filed the report.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the staff thought it was this customer who filed the report which is why they zeroed in on him so quickly.  This is another example of what happens when one chooses to solve a problem in an ineffective or inappropriate manner or when someone jumps to inappropriate conclusions – potentially burning unrelated, previously undamaged relationships.