How customer experience promise audits can save customers

Updated: October 9, 2024

Boarded up windows were the first thing I saw when I arrived at the hotel.

I tried opening the lobby door. It wouldn’t budge. Confusion and concern set in. Is this the right hotel? Am I too weak from travel to open the door? Are they even open?

An employee saw me pulling on the door and let me in.

The hotel was open, but undergoing renovations. Ditto the hotel’s restaurant. The door was locked for security reasons because the hotel had recently experienced some vandalism.

None of this was disclosed on the website, where glossy photos painted the picture of a vibrant hotel. I would have stayed somewhere else if I had known ahead of time.

I hoped things would get better. They didn’t.

Three more promises were broken inside of the first 30 minutes on property. Each one negatively impacted my customer experience, and sowed distrust with the hotel:

1. Mobile check-in didn't work.

2. In-room wifi didn't work.

3. I didn't get an expected room upgrade.

That third promise comes with being a "Gold" member of the hotel chain's loyalty program. Gold members get various perks in exchange for staying 25-49 nights per year. An upgraded room, when available, is one of those perks.

Would you stay at this hotel again?

Bigger question: do customers ever have a similar experience with your business? The type of experience where promise after promise is broken, and they question whether to ever do business with you again.

You can avoid this scenario with a promise audit.

What is a customer experience promise audit?

Companies make a lot of promises to customers. A promise audit evaluates whether those promises are kept and identifies ones that are broken.

1. Identify promises made to customers.

2. Determine whether each promise is being kept.

3. Fix broken promises.

You can audit all the promises made along a customer's journey or focus on one specific area. For example, the hotel chain might audit how often Gold guests get the elite benefits they are promised in exchange for their loyalty.

The top three benefits are highlighted on the chain’s website:

Room upgrades are called out as a top benefit.

I go out of my way to stay with this hotel chain in part to get a nicer room. A promise audit would reveal that Gold members like me haven't been getting those upgrades.

Why should you do a promise audit?

A promise audit can help you identify opportunities to make the customer experience more consistent, avoid unpleasant surprises, and prevent chronic service failures.

This helps reduce customer churn, improve your product or service, and improve operational efficiency.

I'm searching for a new hotel chain despite achieving lifetime elite status with my current one. My guest experience is inconsistent because I don't regularly receive all the loyalty benefits I'm promised.

Many travelers have reported similar frustrations with the chain in online forums. It's costing the chain a lot:

• Loyal customers are switching to other brands.

• Service costs are going up (the labor cost of handling complaints).

• Goodwill costs are going up (extra points, comped meals, etc.)

• Word-of-mouth advertising has turned negative.

• Guests are reducing their overall spend with the chain.

Promise audits aren’t just about saving customers. They can also help you increase revenue.

I've seen the impact in my own business. My wife, Sally, and I once owned a vacation rental cabin called The Overlook in the Southern California mountain village of Idyllwild.

Revenue increased 145% in the five years we owned in. Part of our growth came from offering a consistently great guest experience. Promise audits helped us stay consistent:

• Monthly: maintenance inspections.

• Quarterly: review guests' journey (i.e. stay at the cabin).

How do you conduct a customer experience promise audit?

Most promise audits are quickly conducted by following a few steps.

1. Identify the scope of the audit

2. Identify where promises are made

3. Identify how often promises are kept

Step 1: Identify the scope of the audit.

Decide what particular set of promises you want to focus on. It could be a specific marketing campaign, an aspect of your operation, or the entire customer journey.

The hotel chain could audit the benefits that are promised to loyalty program members.

Step 2: Identify where these promises are made to customers.

Promises are communicated to customers in many ways. This includes advertising, from employees, and digitally. Try to identify all the places where promises are made and make sure they're consistent.

The hotel chain communicates it's loyalty benefits in a few places:

• Website

• App

• Hotel associates

• Mail (welcome and renewal letters mailed to members)

• Email

• Brochures

Part of the audit includes making sure these benefits are consistently described.

Step 3: Identify how often the promises are kept.

Gather data to determine how frequently promises are kept, and which promises are broken. There are a few ways to gather this data:

• Review reports if the data is already collected.

• Test the various systems in question to see if they're working.

• View customer complaint data to identify broken promises.

• Follow the customer journey by being your own customer.

The hotel chain tracks extensive data about its guests. It could easily access data to determine whether its guests are getting their benefits.

My last 10 stays with the hotel chain provide a snapshot of what the audit might reveal. Here’s a breakdown of the eight benefits I’m promised as a Gold member:

Promises Kept 100%:

1. Member rates

2. 25% bonus points

3. Welcome gift of points

4. Late checkout

Not applicable:

1. Ultimate reservation guarantee

Broken promises:

1. Complimentary in-room enhanced internet: 90% (10% not kept)

2. Mobile check-in: 0% (100% not kept)

3. Enhanced room upgrade: 0% (100% not kept)

In-room wifi works most of the team. Mobile check-in and room upgrades are a huge red flag.

Mobile check-in allows you to bypass the front desk and check-in via the hotel’s app. You can then use your phone to access your room. That feature never worked in the past 10 stays.

Enhanced room upgrades are clearly promised "based on availability." While it would be unfair to expect an upgrade on every visit, I haven't gotten upgraded on any of my last ten visits. I used to receive regular upgrades, so something has changed.

Promise audits can also uncover unexpected problems.

For instance, the hotel chain's loyalty members earn points that can be redeemed for free stays. Unfortunately, those points aren't redeemable at many hotels. I've only been able to use points to book the hotel I wanted 40% of the time over the past two years.

Broken promises cause customers to distrust a brand.

I once stayed at this brand automatically. Now, I’m shopping other hotels when I make a reservation. I’m also talking to other travelers about their experience with other chains in case I want to switch loyalty programs.

Conclusion

Promises help you attract customers. Keeping promises is where you earn their repeat business and positive word-of-mouth advertising.

Use a promise audit to help you retain more business.

1. Identify the scope of the audit

2. Identify where promises are made

3. Identify how often promises are kept

I’ve created a step-by-step system to win and retain customers by keeping your promises. It’s called The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Get it here: The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Why monitoring systems are essential to great customer experience

Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

Daniel Pascoe has never owned a car.

That might seem inconceivable to many people, but a car isn't necessary if you live in a city that has reliable public transportation—like Portland, Oregon. Portland's transportation system is run by TriMet, which provides bus, light rail, and commuter rail service.

Pascoe uses the bus to get to work and visit other parts of town. He occasionally uses TriMet's MAX light rail.

A MAX light rail train arriving at the Portland International Airport.

"The MAX is really convenient when you're going to the airport," he explained. "It takes you right into the terminal."

It’s an easy walk into the terminal from the MAX light rail stop at Portland International Airport.

Customers like Pascoe are trying to solve a transportation problem. They need to get from one place to another, and TriMet makes two fundamental promises to help them. The first is the published routes, which assure passengers they can get from their starting point to their destination. The second is the schedule, which promises to get passengers there by a certain time.

For Pascoe, TriMet's ability to consistently keep those promises makes him a fan of the service. He knows he can depend on TriMet to get him to work, or wherever else he wants to go, on time. "Reliability is a positive that TriMet is known for."

Monitoring for Broken Promises

One of the most important aspects of a Guaranteed Customer Experience is a system to ensure promises are being kept.

TriMet has something called the Operations Command Center to monitor its transportation network and provide real-time information and updates to operators, passengers, and other critical stakeholders. Video screens line the walls. Some show live camera feeds from various points along bus routes and rail lines, while others are continuously updated with important data. Employees are in contact with bus and train operators, repair crews, and other relevant personnel.

The command center is staffed 24 hours per day, seven days a week, with as many as 30 employees at any given time. The center is divided into three teams, with each team monitoring their section of Portland's geographical region. Employees keep an eye on buses, light rail lines, and trains to ensure they're running on time and to detect problems as quickly as they happen.

A Portland Streetcar moves past Powell’s Books in downtown Portland.

Jon Bell is TriMet's senior manager of customer experience. He explained that the command center employees are charged with helping TriMet keep its brand promise: We connect people with their community.

"We're not buses and trains," said Bell. "We're connecting people to life. We are truly the thread of the community, connecting people to jobs, school, family, and friends."

Bell understands that thousands of passengers rely on TriMet to be on time. "The moment you break that promise, that is a moment of truth." People won't trust TriMet if it's not reliable.

Employees in the Operations Command Center spring into action when an issue is detected and there's a danger that a bus or train might be delayed. They share alerts about accidents, construction, traffic congestion, and other problems. Command center employees work with bus and train operations to coordinate a solution to keep passengers moving while providing updated information on the status.

Passengers have a wide range of options for staying updated on transit schedules. The TriMet website features trip-planning tools, real-time arrival information for each route and station, and service alerts.

TriMet’s online trip planning tool.

Passengers can sign up to get alerts via email or text. Route stops have a unique ID that passengers use to get arrival information via text.

Text alert from bus stop #782. There is a #20 bus 6 minutes away and another one 21 minutes away.

Busier stops also have electronic display boards listing the expected arrival time of incoming buses or trains.

A display board at a TriMet bus stop shows the expected arrival times for buses.

Critical updates are provided on social media, and passengers can call TriMet to get arrival times or assistance planning a trip. There are also third-party apps, like Moovit, that share updated information.

Customer-focused organizations like TriMet create robust systems to monitor customer experience and sound alarms when promises might be broken. While many of these systems might appear insanely complicated, they're based on two simple questions:

1. What promises are we making?

2. How do we know we're keeping our promises?

Responding to Broken Promises

Monitoring for broken promises allows you to identify problems and fix them quickly.

I experienced TriMet's responsiveness while riding the MAX light rail to the airport. The train had just pulled into a station when the operator announced a delay. Passengers exchanged worried looks as they wondered if they’d still be able to catch their flight. One family of four was already cutting it close to their flight’s departure time, and they grew increasingly agitated with each passing minute.

A few minutes later, the operator announced that the train would not continue due to a problem on the track, and buses would be provided to shuttle passengers to another station where they could rejoin the light rail. People became even more nervous about their flights, unsure of when the shuttle buses would arrive or how much longer it would take to get to the airport.

The buses arrived quickly despite everyone's fears. We were efficiently transported to another station where a train was waiting to take us the rest of the way to the airport. The total delay was only about 30 minutes, and even the panicked family made it in time to catch their flight.

TriMet wins fans by keeping its promises to get passengers to a particular place by a certain time. This is an incredibly difficult challenge with multiple bus routes and rail lines spanning a wide geographical region. What really helps TriMet stand out is its ability to constantly monitor the customer experience and make adjustments before small problems become broken promises.

Conclusion

You can design your own experience monitoring system by answering two questions:

1. What promises are we making?

2. How do we know we're keeping our promises?

You can find a worksheet to guide you through the rest of the process here.

Learn more about how TriMet and other customer-focused organizations keep their promises from The Guaranteed Customer Experience.

How to improve customer service training with the 70-20-10 rule

What is the right amount of time to spend on training?

That's the question a customer service leader recently asked me. He had contacted me with some questions about lesson plans for a training class he was running with his team.

The team had gathered to take my Customer Service Foundations course on LinkedIn Learning. It was taking the team 4.5 hours to watch the videos and complete the exercises as a group. The manager wondered if this was too much, or too little time.

My answer surprised him because I suggested he spend less time on training, not more.

Instead, I suggested he leverage a little-known concept called the 70-20-10 rule. It could easily cut the time spent on training by nearly 50 percent while generating better results.

Here's what it is and how you can use it.

What is the 70-20-10 rule?

The concept was first developed based on research from the Center for Creative Leadership that showed leaders developed their skills from a variety of sources:

• 70 percent of their skills came from challenging assignments.

• 20 percent were learned from a boss or mentor.

• 10 percent came from formal training.

Two big caveats here:

• The word "rule" implies it's hard and fast science, but it’s not. It's more of a guide.

• While originally derived from leadership training, it's a good model to follow for other training topics.

I've had tremendous success applying this concept to customer service training by acknowledging that we learn a lot more from our experiences and our boss than we do from a formal class.

The amount of time you spend training is a lot less relevant than whether you align all three parts of the 70-20-10 model so they send the same message.

"70 percent" = learning from daily work

Most of what we learn comes from experience. While the 70 percent in 70-20-10 is not a hard rule, it’s a good reminder that our experiences play an important role in the learning process.

Your smartphone is an example.

You figured out how to use it without ever attending a class. Perhaps you asked a friend for a quick tip or watched a YouTube video, but you directed all of your own learning.

That’s the power of experience.

One of my recommendations to the customer service leader was to break the formal class into small chunks so employees could spend more time practicing their skills.

For example, Customer Service Foundations contains a 3 minute and 17 second video that explains a technique to easily start conversations with customers. I suggested the manager follow this plan:

1. Have employees watch the video on their own.

2. Ask employees to practice the technique on the job for one day.

3. Gather the group for a team discussion about their experience.

That plan would dramatically re-allocate how training time was spent:

• Formal training: 3 minutes, 17 seconds to watch the training video

• Experience: One day of on-the-job practice and experimentation

• Boss or mentor: 10 minutes for a team discussion

"20 percent" = learning from a boss or mentor

A lot of what we learn comes from a boss, mentor, or some other influential person. They impart information, challenge us to grow, and in the case of a boss, hold us accountable.

A credit union sent all new tellers to the corporate office for the same formal training program. After attending the program, an audit revealed tellers in some branches were following the training while tellers in other branches had developed shortcuts that made their jobs easier, but resulted in poor customer service and less accuracy.

What caused the difference?

The tellers who excelled after training had managers who set clear expectations, gave regular feedback, and reinforced what was learned in the formal class. The tellers who struggled had managers who were more hands-off or actively coached the tellers to disregard what they learned in training.

One way to fix this is with a workshop planning tool.

It's a simple way to get training participants, their managers, and the trainer all on the same page before training ever happens. Here's a short video that explains how it works:

"10 percent" = formal training

Formal training includes classes, eLearning, and other highly structured learning events. It also includes training videos, such as the ones I've made with LinkedIn Learning.

This is often where new skills or concepts are introduced for the first time. For many organizations, formal training is a great way to ensure employees learn a consistent way of doing things.

That was the case at the credit union.

Every teller attended the same class, taught by the same trainer. The curriculum was standardized, so each subsequent class received the same information, completed the same activities, and had to demonstrate the same skills to pass.

Yet the performance of tellers attending the training was widely variable.

That's the lesson I shared with the customer service leader who contacted me. Formal training is important, but it's more important to align coaching and on-the-job experience with what people learning in training.

Conclusion

The best training aligns all three elements of the 70-20-10 rule.

1. Formal training: introduce a new concept

2. Manager/mentor: reinforce the concept

3. Experience: practice the concept

Here’s the overall plan I recommended to the manager:

1. Have employees watch the training videos on their own, assigning one ~five minute video at a time. (Total time = 1 hour, 22 minutes.)

2. Ask employees to practice the skills highlighted in each video on the job.

3. Gather the team to discuss their experiences (total time = 1 hour).

This would shave two hours from the original training plan. You can find a more detailed explanation of how to best use training videos here.

LinkedIn Learning subscribers can learn more about the 70-20-10 rule from this short video.

Incorporating the 70-20-10 rule into learning design from Instructional Design: Adult Learners by Jeff Toister

7 ways leaders can model great customer service

I recently worked with two clients in the same industry.

There were a lot of similarities between the organizations. The business models were similar, they were roughly the same size, and their products were essentially the same.

Both even professed to be fans of the principles outlined in The Service Culture Handbook.

Yet one company was growing while the other struggled.

The difference was leadership. The CEO of the growing company consistently modeled the service culture he was trying to create. The other did not.

You have to walk the talk if you want your employees to be customer-focused. Here are seven ways to do it.

#1 Clarify your vision

Give employees a customer service vision to follow. This is a shared definition of outstanding customer service that gets everyone on the same page.

A vision gives employees clarity. They know the direction the company is headed in and understand how they contribute. The customer-focused CEO used this step-by-step guide to engage the entire organization to quickly create a compelling vision.

The other leader talked a lot about vision, but did nothing to craft a concrete statement that could be shared by everyone.

#2 Share illustrative stories

Help employees understand the right types of customer-focused behaviors by sharing illustrative stories. These should serve as real examples that help clarify the vision and give it further meaning.

The model CEO consistently shared illustrative stories about individuals in the company providing great service, and encouraged his leadership team to do the same. This helped employees better grasp what they were supposed to do.

The other CEO also shared stories on occasion, but these were usually stories about admired companies from the latest book he was reading. They did nothing to give employees more clarity about their own roles.

#3 Make aligned decisions

Use the customer service vision as a guide for strategic decisions. This reinforces the service culture and gives employees a consistent example to follow.

The customer-focused CEO constantly referred to the vision when making decisions or discussing important issues with his team. The vision served as a compass that constantly pointed the company in the right direction.

The other CEO tended to fire from the hip. Without a vision to guide him, his decisions were often unpredictable and inconsistent. Employees were often confused as a result.

#4 Empower the team

Give employees the tools, resources, and authority needed to do their job. Trust that most people inherently want to do great work and will work hard to produce results if they are enabled.

The CEO of the growing company recognized the importance of empowerment. He carefully selected employees for key assignments, gave them the necessary resources, and let them decide the best way to get it done.

The other CEO tended to hoard information and power. He was reluctant to trust other employees because he felt it took too much time and effort to make sure they were doing things the way he wanted them done.

#5 Hold people accountable

Follow-up with employees to make sure they are on the right path. Recognize great performance when it happens and coach people to get them back on track when needed.

The customer-focused CEO was big on accountability. He regularly checked in with his team and was readily available if someone needed help. Employees didn't hesitate to go to the CEO for help because they knew he was supportive.

The other CEO had more of a fire-and-forget style. He'd fire off an email asking an employee to do something and then forget he sent it. People didn’t take new initiatives seriously because they knew the initiative wouldn’t last long.

#6 Be responsive

Respond to people with the same urgency you expect employees to demonstrate with customers.

The model CEO responded to emails the same day. He quickly returned phone calls and texts, too. Employees knew they didn't have to wait long if they needed something.

The other CEO took days to respond to anything.

#7 Keep commitments

Do what you say you are going to do.

The customer-focused CEO kept his commitments to employees and customers, and was always on time for meetings. If he said he was going to do something, you could count on it getting done.

The other CEO had a reputation for being someone you couldn't count on. He was late all the time. Late to meetings and late on projects. Many things he promised to do never got done.

Conclusion

Take a moment to do an honest assessment.

• How many of the actions above do you regularly model?

• What can you do better as a leader?

• How else can you model your service culture?

I’ll share one bonus way you can model great service: serve customers. Don’t be afraid to join the frontlines and show your team how it’s done.

When I managed a contact center, I regularly took calls at a workstation on the contact center floor. I wanted my team to see and hear me soothe an angry customer or put a nervous caller at ease. It also gave me empathy for my agents because I had put myself in their position.

Your employees are watching you and learning from your actions. Model a customer-focused culture and you'll likely see employees do the same.

The data doesn't lie: Texans like In-N-Out better than Whataburger

Which fast food burger chain is better: Whataburger or In-N-Out?

The debate rages. Texans loudly proclaim their allegiance to Whataburger. Californians quickly tell you that In-N-Out is the best. Other states might feel caught in the middle.

So just for fun, I devised an objective test.

Let's forget polls run by food magazines that are more about state pride than real quality. I compared Whataburger and In-N-Out head-to-head in by using Yelp reviews for comparable locations in Texas.

That's right, I gave Whataburger a huge home field advantage.

Home field advantage didn't matter. In-N-Out won by a landslide. It was absolute, total domination. Frankly, I was surprised that it wasn’t even close.

Before you send me an angry email, keep in mind this wasn't my subjective opinion. People in Texas consistently rate In-N-Out much higher than Whataburger on Yelp.

About the Whataburger vs. In-N-Out test

In-N-Out Burger is a relative newcomer to Texas. The fast food hamburger chain was founded in Southern California in 1948 by Harry Snyder. It wasn't until 2011 that In-N-Out opened it's first Texas location.

Today, there are 40 In-N-Out locations in Texas.

Whataburger, by contrast, has Texas roots. Harmon Dobson opened the first location in Corpus Cristi, Texas in 1950. There are 697 Whataburger locations in Texas today.

To make the test fair, I mapped out each In-N-Out location in Texas, identified the closest Whataburger, and then compared the Yelp reviews for the two locations.

This was fairly easy to do. In some cases, there’s a Whataburger in the same parking lot as an In-N-Out. In most other cases, the nearest Whataburger is just down the street.

Consumers craving a fast food burger in these markets could easily choose between the two chains. The Yelp reviews tell us which they like better.

How In-N-Out beat Whataburger in a landslide

The test used data from Yelp reviews to evaluate three key categories:

1. Overall rating

2. Enthusiasm (total number of reviews)

3. Consistency

In-N-Out won all three tests handily.

Overall Rating

I compared the Yelp reviews for each of the 40 In-N-Out locations in Texas to the nearest Whataburger. All 40 In-N-Out locations had a higher Yelp rating than it's closest Whataburger competitor.

Yep. In-N-Out pulled off a clean sweep of Whataburger in Texas.

There was a wide gap in average rating between the two chains when you compare In-N-Out with nearby Whataburger locations:

Enthusiasm

I used the total number of reviews for each location as a proxy for customer enthusiasm. The higher the number of reviews (regardless of rating), the more enthusiastic the customer the base.

It's not a perfect metric. For instance, it doesn't control for the length of time a location has been open. Since Whataburger has a 61 year head start on In-N-Out (1950 vs. 2011), Whataburger would seem to have the advantage here.

It didn't matter. A whopping 37 out of 40 In-N-Out locations had more Yelp reviews than the nearest Whataburger.

In-N-Out averaged more than twice as many Yelp reviews per location:

Consistency

This last measure is about the entire chain, rather than just one location. The hallmark of a great business is you can rely upon a consistently good experience no matter where you go.

This is where In-N-Out really crushed it.

Every In-N-Out in Texas enjoys either a 3.5 or 4.0 average Yelp rating. Meanwhile, the nearest Whataburger locations ranged from 1.5 to 3.0.

Why are Whataburger's reviews worse than In-N-Out?

A lot goes into a Yelp review. Food taste and quality are important factors, but those aren’t the only things that customers care about.

Negative reviews for both chains tend to focus on three issues:

1. Wait time

2. Order accuracy

3. Friendliness

Wait time is particularly interesting.

Both Whataburger and In-N-Out prepare your meal to order, so the wait will always be longer than if you go to a chain that sells pre-made burgers stored under a heat lamp.

Strangely, the average wait at an In-N-Out is typically much longer because In-N-Out is usually a lot more crowded. (At least according to my anecdotal observations and personal experience as a fan of both chains.)

So why does Whataburger get dinged more than In-N-Out?

Because wait time is just as much about perception as it is actual elapsed time. Given the right set of circumstances, wait time can feel dramatically longer.

Negative Whataburger reviews that mentioned wait time often called out that the restaurant didn't seem very crowded. This caused customers to wonder why they were waiting so long.

In-N-Out customers, on the other hand, can see the long line of customers in front of them. They expect to wait because the chain is so popular.

Part of Whataburger's challenge is consistency. Wait time, accuracy, and even friendliness seem to be highly variable at locations with low Yelp ratings.

One explanation might be that Whataburger is no longer a family-owned company like In-N-Out. It’s not even a Texas company anymore. In 2019, the company was purchased by BDT Capital Partners, a company based in Chicago.

Meanwhile, In-N-Out is built on consistency. I profiled the company in my book, Getting Service Right, and found it has stayed focused on its core mission of offering quality, cleanliness, and courtesy throughout its entire history. It's still family run, doesn't franchise, and exclusive sells burgers, fries, and drinks.

What is the difference between a mission, vision, and values?

Updated: June 20, 2023

Employees are often confused about mission, vision, and value statements. Here are just a few of the questions I'm frequently asked:

• What's the difference?

• What are they for?

• Do we even need them all?

These questions came up a lot while I was doing research for The Service Culture Handbook. They’ve also come up while training thousands of employees on mission, vision, and values.

Here's an explanation of the three concepts along how other statements fit in.

What are a company’s mission, vision, and values?

An organization's mission, vision, and values help communicate something about the culture to employees. They should help guide each employees’ daily work and decision-making.

You can understand the difference by thinking what, why, and how.

• Mission: What the company does.

• Vision: Why the company does it.

• Values: How the companies does it.

Here’s a video explainer:

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement broadly describes what the organization does. They can range from specific to broad. Some are only truly understood by employees.

Clio, a company that makes legal practice management software, has a fairly descriptive mission statement:

Osprey, a company that makes backpacks and other equipment to help people enjoy the outdoors, has a more abstract mission:

Despite taking different approaches, both mission statements succinctly tell employees what the organization does. These short, simple statements make it easier for employees to use the mission to guide their daily work.

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement describes why an organization exists. It often refers to a larger goal the company is relentlessly pursuing.

TriMet operates the public transportation system in Portland, Oregon. It's vision statement reads:

Compared to mission statements and values, fewer organizations have a vision statement. That’s because the mission statement often speaks to the company's reason for existing.

For instance, the JetBlue Airways mission statement is "Inspire Humanity." The company describes this mission as the reason the airline was founded:

What is a purpose statement?

A purpose statement combines elements of a mission and vision into one single statement that broadly describe what the company does and why.

Purpose statements give employees one fewer statement to memorize. That can simplify things a bit and make the purpose easier to follow.

Target’s purpose statement abstractly describes what it does (sells goods for everyday life) and how it tries to do it (helping families discover joy).

Value Statements

An organization’s values describe how its employees do business. They serve as guidelines for the types of behaviors that should be promoted and encouraged.

Rackspace, a company that provides cloud-based computer networks, shares explanations for each of its five core values to provide more context:

• Excellence. We are an accountable, disciplined, high-performing company with proven results.

• Customer-driven. We are proactive, collaborative and committed to success for our customers.

• Expertise. Rackers are passionate learners who are embedded in our customers’ businesses to provide unbiased solutions.

• Agility. We adopt new technologies and evolve services to meet customers where they are in their journey.

• Compassion. We’re one team doing the right thing for our customers, communities and each other.

Some companies, like Squarespace, put their values in priority order:

1. Be the customer.

2. Design is not a luxury.

3. Build the ideal.

4. Learn fast, act fast.

5. Protect creativity.

6. Simplify.

Where do other statements fit in?

Companies often have a myriad of other statements on top of their mission, vision, and values. These include mottos, slogans, and brand promises.

An informal LinkedIn poll revealed that nearly half of organizations have four or more statements that are used to guide employee behavior. Having too many statements for employees to remember can get confusing.

Whenever possible, it helps to simplify.

Regular readers know I often refer to a company's customer service vision statement, which is a shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page.

In customer-focused organizations, the mission does double duty as the customer service vision, eliminating the need for a separate statement.

For example, JetBlue's Inspire Humanity mission tells employees what the company does (albeit very abstractly) and how they should treat customers.

Many companies have a separate brand promise or marketing slogan. That's okay, as long as the external statements are still aligned with the company's mission, vision, or values.

The Armstrong Garden Centers brand promise is "Gardening without Guesswork." This is a succinct and very natural external version of the company's mission statement:

We strive to take the guesswork out of gardening by providing horticultural expertise, exceptional service, and the best quality plants and products. We are passionate gardeners cultivating a welcoming environment for all to learn and be inspired.

Conclusion

Fewer statements are better than more statements. Simplify whenever possible. You want to provide clarity, not confusion.

Do you need help writing a mission, vision, or values? Here are some resources to help:

1. Write your mission: My free step-by-step guide

2. Build a service culture: The Service Culture Handbook

How a simple marketing strategy helps Buc-ee's dominate the competition

Note: The following is an excerpt from The Guaranteed Customer Experience. You can download Chapter One to read the rest of the story about Buc-ee’s.

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Imagine driving cross-country on a road trip.

You need gas, and you need to use the restroom. Choosing a place to stop is a big decision. Gas stations can be miles apart. The station you see on the horizon probably has gas, but there's no guarantee they’ll have a clean restroom. Do you need to stop now, or do you have enough fuel to keep going until the next one?

You size up each gas station’s convenience store you pass as your level of urgency increases. Some are rejected at first glance for being too scary. You slow to scrutinize others. Will the restroom be open or out-of-order? Will there be a line? Will it be clean?!

Your car's gas gauge is hovering near "E," while your own tank is dangerously close to "F." Decision time. Where will you stop?

You're not alone in this experience. A study from the travel app GasBuddy found that 40 percent of Americans worry about finding a clean restroom on a road trip.

Buc-ee's, a chain of gas station convenience stores located primarily in Texas, has developed a devoted customer base by solving this problem.

Driving through Texas, you're likely to encounter any number of humorous billboards advertising the nearest Buc-ee's location:

Image courtesy of Lou Congelio, Acme Fish.

I once counted 19 billboards on a stretch of highway. The messages often repeat the same promise that Buc-ee’s has clean restrooms.

Image courtesy of Lou Congelio, Acme Fish.

The billboards speak clearly to customers on the go who desperately have to go. They demonstrate an understanding of this common road trip problem and promise that Buc-ee's will solve it.

Many travelers will drive past other gas stations to get to a Buc-ee's, because Buc-ee's provides an assurance that other brands don’t.

This billboard is a welcome sight to a traveler with an urgent need.

Your heart might skip a beat when you pull into a Buc-ee's for the first time. This place is huge!

There’s a steady stream of cars in the parking lot, but you’ll still find plenty of parking and gas pumps. Semi-trailer trucks are not allowed, which creates a bit more space than the typical travel stop.

The restrooms are clearly visible from the front entrance, but you might still worry. Will there be a long line? Or worse, will it be a mess?

Buc-ee's does not disappoint. 8.3 million ratings of fuel and convenience retailers on the GasBuddy travel app rated the restrooms at Buc-ee's as the best in America. The restrooms at each location are unbelievably plentiful and clean, and each is well-stocked with paper and soap. Many are downright enormous.

Clean restrooms attract customers, but that's not all Buc-ee's has to offer.

It has all the items you'd expect to see in a convenience store—such as soda, candy, and chips—though on a much larger scale.

Most convenience stores are lucky to have one Icee machine that barely works some of the time. There are four Icee machines at the Buc-ee’s in Luling, Texas. Each is in perfect working condition.

There are also things you wouldn’t expect to find in a typical convenience store. Larger Buc-ee's locations have a barbecue counter where employees make hot sandwiches to order.

There's also an enormous display of house-made beef jerky and candy past the counter. Keep walking, and you'll come to a large section selling Texas-themed gifts and Buc-ee's apparel.

I once stopped at the Buc-ee's in Luling, Texas, to get a dog leash. My wife and I were on a road trip, and I had accidentally left our dog's leash at my mother-in-law's house in Houston. "Let's stop at Buc-ee's," I said. "I bet they have dog leashes." Sure enough, they did.

The size of the store and the sheer number of customers can intimidate first-time visitors, but Buc-ee's is surprisingly convenient. There are multiple cash register lines open with friendly cashiers ready and waiting to serve you.

Buc-ee's draws large crowds. Its locations average nearly four times as many customers as a typical convenience store.

Imagine attracting four times more customers to your business than your competition. What would cause so many customers to give you a try and, once they did, keep coming back? The secret is customer experience.

Buc-ee's wins customers from competing brands by consistently providing restrooms that are far superior to anyone else's. It averages a four-star rating on Yelp across all locations, with a whopping 46 percent of those reviews mentioning the restrooms.

Cody Esser, who writes the Impulsive Traveler Guy blog, traveled to 33 Buc-ee's locations over the course of three days in 2018. He reported that not a single restroom at any of those locations was dirty. I polled family and friends in Texas, asking what they love about Buc-ee's. Nearly everyone mentioned the clean restrooms.

Of course, the Buc-ee's experience is more than just clean restrooms. It keeps customers coming back with stores that are bigger and have a broader selection of items than a typical gas station convenience store.

Outside the Buc-ee’s in Luling, Texas.

My friend Robin summarized the Buc-ee's experience nicely: "I love that you can get bakery items, fresh-made candy, wonderful hot sandwiches, that they have a gift shop, and also have clean bathrooms! They have everything a traveler could ever want."

Conclusion

The challenge for any business is to figure out exactly what problem it can consistently solve better than the competition. It has to be something that customers value so customers choose you over other options.

You can download Chapter One from The Guaranteed Customer Experience to read the rest of the story and learn how to identify the problem your customer is trying to solve.

Lessons from the Overlook: The importance of leverage

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a periodic update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

Finding a plumber for The Overlook is a struggle.

We've had a slight leak under the kitchen sink for two months. There's just one reliable plumber in town, and he's busy.

Electricians are equally scarce. It took six weeks for the one recommended electrician to fix a light. Another three months for him to complete the repair when the light still wasn't working.

Finding a reliable, competent handyperson is next to impossible. We’ve gone through several who aren’t reliable, aren’t competent, or both. It recently took three months to get a gate fixed.

These experiences prove customers don't always have the clout they think they'd do. The Overlook is in a remote mountain town where having just one option for a variety of services means you can't easily take your business somewhere else.

The uncomfortable reality is great customer service often requires leverage.

All this snow melted before we could get the light above the barn doors fixed.

What is customer service leverage?

Leverage is power. In customer service, it's the power to set the terms of the relationship, such as when a service will be performed, how much it will cost, and whether you have to be nice.

In May 2021, grocers and restaurants struggled to get food because their suppliers faced labor shortages, scarce supplies, and soaring transportation costs. The largest customers, such as Walmart and Sysco, used their leverage to get more deliveries on-time.

Culturally, people assume the customer always has the power (at least in the United States). We live by the terribly misguided and historically inaccurate phrase, "The customer is always right."

The assumption behind this belief system is a customer can take their business to an eager competitor at any time if they aren't treated right. Tell that to the two HVAC repair companies near The Overlook. One of them is owned by a jerk who actively cheats customers, which keeps the other company too busy to respond quickly.

There's another issue with the idea that customers always have leverage: customers often interact with an employee, not the business owner.

An angry customer who threatens to never come back might be a gift to the offending employee. The employee rids themselves of a person they find annoying and unpleasant when an angry customer storms off. Meanwhile, the employee's pay won't be different and they won't suffer a change in job security (at least not in the short term).

How can leverage affect customer service?

Two broad trends are likely to happen when customers lack leverage. The first is a short-term impact, while the other is more long-term.

In the short-term, service suffers.

Customers have to pay more for less. Cable companies had an iron grip on our televisions for years, causing customers to pay steadily increasing fees.

Customers begrudgingly accept poor service. Many travelers have vowed never to fly a certain airline, until they realize that airline offers the only low-cost, direct flights to their destination.

There's also a downstream affect. Many cabins that compete with The Overlook have difficulty keeping up with their maintenance because qualified plumbers, electricians, and handypeople are so scarce. This creates a poor experience for their guests.

In the long-term, the market can change.

Customers alter their habits. People watch far less live television than they did just a few years ago, making streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Prime a viable alternative to traditional cable.

Competitors eventually enter the market. Southwest Airlines was created to challenge legacy carriers by offering low fares for convenient flights.

Customers might leave the market altogether. We've noticed an uptick in vacation rental cabins for sale in Idyllwild, in part because owners have struggled to keep up.

How can customers overcome a lack of leverage?

We've employed two strategies at The Overlook to overcome our lack of leverage. The first is to build relationships. You can get a lot more done when you're nice.

Normally, we'd get pretty upset if a plumber didn't show up. In this case, we continue to be polite and friendly, knowing the plumber will take care of the leak eventually. Because we're patient now, we also know from past experience that he'll come out right away if we had an emergency.

The other tactic we use is to be easy to do business with. We try to make make having us as a customer advantageous for service providers.

For example, we've started using a contractor to do small jobs, like fix our gate. He normally does much larger projects, such as home remodels, but he's willing to work with us because we're flexible.

Contractors often have small gaps in their workday while waiting for supplies to arrive at the job site or some other delay. A small job at The Overlook allows the contractor to keep his crew busy for a few hours on a day when he'd normally have to send people home early.

So having us as a customer creates an advantage for the contractor.

The lesson is you sometimes have to find your own leverage in a customer service relationship. For us, we’ve often had to put pride aside and re-focus on what matters most: ensuring our guests have a great experience.

Conclusion

Think about situations where suppliers and service providers have leverage over you or your business. What can you do to get a better result?

• Will you pay more?

• Are you willing to accept less?

• Can you change your habits?

• Can you build a better relationship?

• What incentives can you give them?

Yes, it's frustrating when we don't get great service. Yet it's sometimes the reality. What we do next is up to us.

For more unexpected customer service lessons, check out my book, Getting Service Right: Overcoming the hidden obstacles to outstanding customer service.

Five reasons why we struggle to achieve our goals

I talk to a lot of people who are trying to improve customer service.

It's a diverse group, including CEOs, executives, middle managers, team leads, and frontline employees. Their challenges are individual, but they all struggle.

Many have received conflicting advice. It's hard to know where to start.

Fortunately, I've done the research for you. Peter Gollwitzer, a professor in the Psychology Department at New York University, gave me a treasure trove of studies on achieving goals.

I've combined them with my own experience talking to thousands of customer service professionals.

Here are the top five reasons why we don't achieve our goals (and what you can do about it.)

Reason #1: Your goals are too vague

An analysis of 422 scientific studies involving 82,107 participants found that having a clear goal accounted for 28 percent of success.

Let's do a demonstration. Grab your phone and open up the maps app. Ask the app to give you directions to a generic restaurant.

Not a specific place. A generic restaurant.

Obviously, that doesn't work. The app even makes helpful suggestions in an attempt to get you to make a decision.

We face the same problem when it comes to achieving goals—it's impossible to get started without a specific destination.

The fix is simple: set concrete goals.

Imagine shipping delays are your biggest source of customer complaints. Your on-time rate is 85 percent, which means 15 out of 100 orders are late. Process 1,000 orders per day and you're getting 150 daily complaints.

A goal to "reduce complaints" is too squishy.

Order delivery is the real problem in this scenario. A more specific goal, such as "reduce late deliveries by 50 percent in 30 days" would make it much easier to get started and track your progress.

Need help crafting specific goals? Trying using this guide.

Reason #2: Not starting

It’s exhilarating to set a challenging goal. That’s as far as many people get. Many never get started making progress toward achieving it.

Sometimes, we tell ourselves we're too busy.

One executive created a set of ambitious goals at an executive retreat. She promptly set her goals aside the moment she returned to the office. "We have a lot going on right now," she told me. "We're just trying to catch up."

Other times, we just forget.

A customer service rep attended a workshop on serving angry customers. That was a Thursday. He didn't encounter an upset customer until the following Monday, when his old behaviors instinctively kicked in and the lessons learned in training were lost.

The solution is to create a specific plan to get started.

One study on goal completion discovered that just 22 percent of participants completed a difficult goal when they did not have a plan. That number rose to 62 percent when participants created an action plan.

Reason #3: You get derailed

It's hard to block out distractions when you're trying to achieve a goal. Old habits are hard to break. Conflicts arise between new goals and existing routines.

A CEO delegated a service culture initiative to his leadership team. They got started with a lot of fanfare, but the CEO never checked in on them.

Instead, he kept piling on new projects and assignments. The team prioritized the new work and the service culture initiative was soon set aside.

It's not just a lack of checking in that derails our project. Customer service professionals are overly tired and distracted.

The solution is to identify your own blindspots and solve for them ahead of time.

For example, I do my best writing in the morning, but I know checking email and social media will distract me. So I start the day by writing and don't check messages until mid-morning.

Reason #4: You don't recognize a bad plan

Some plans are destined to fail. And when that realization sets in, many of us instinctively stick with the plan.

One executive lamented about how much time his team had spent on a failed initiative. He was determined to press on, even though it wasn't working.

He struggled to get over the time and effort already spent.

A customer service manager invested in new technology for her team. The technology made things worse, not better. The manager stuck with it anyway because she felt she had to justify the expense.

Don't be afraid to reset when you see your plan isn't working. That's why I recommend doing regular business reviews.

Reason #5: You get overextended

We're overwhelmed with initiatives, projects, and to-do items. More gets added constantly. Interruptions never end.

Take a look at your own to-do list. Ask yourself these questions:

• What will actually get done today?

• How many items get bumped or ignored?

• How many items will get added to the list?

For many of us, this simple analysis makes it clear why we fail. We're trying to do too much.

One executive created a host of committees to improve customer service. There was a culture committee, a customer obsession committee, an operational excellence committee, and an employee engagement committee.

Nobody knew exactly where one committee started and the other ended. They didn't have clear goals, but they did have endless meetings.

Nothing got done.

Focusing on one thing at a time is the counterintuitive solution to getting more done. One client of mine, Clio, won an award for best contact center culture by relentlessly focusing on one step at a time. Leaders would not move on to the next initiative until the last initiative was completed.

Conclusion

We can achieve more goals. Set your next customer service initiative up for success by addressing these questions:

1. What is the goal?

2. What is my plan to achieve it?

3. How can I make the goal easier to achieve?

4. When will I review my plan?

5. Why is this goal a priority?

Why strict procedures are the key to a great customer experience

I've spent a lot of time at the post office lately and it's fascinating.

My latest book came out in March, which means I've sent a lot of books to people I interviewed or who endorsed the book. The books require a special type of discounted postage called media mail, so I have to go to the counter to buy it from a postal clerk.

There are three clerks who regularly work in my local post office. All three have a different way of processing a media mail postage request, yet all the books arrive safely to their destination.

Why does this matter?

One of the clerks processes the transaction much faster than the other two. This makes the line go faster. (There's always a line.)

Put another way, two of the clerks take too long. They add unnecessary steps to the procedure. Taking an extra minute per transaction makes the line grow. More people have to wait for more time as a result.

Each visit to the post office is a reminder of a customer experience lesson that's often overlooked. Strict procedures are essential to great experiences.

Here's why.

Great experiences are consistent

Customers trust brands, products, and services that they can count on. We tend to take consistency for granted, because it's a little boring, but we'd surely notice if it wasn't there.

Picture a contact center where luck of the draw determined which agent you got on the phone. One agent could solve your problem in just five minutes, while another agent would require 30 minutes to get to the bottom of the same issue.

Imagine going to a Starbucks where each barista made your latte "their way." Some would taste good, others wouldn't. No two would be the same.

What if warehouse workers each had their own method for packing fragile items? Some shipments would survive the journey, others wouldn't. Extra padding adds extra weight, which means some workers would unnecessarily increase shipping costs without preventing any more damage.

All of these scenarios create waste, unhappy customers, and inconsistent experiences.

Customer-focused companies are incredibly consistent. Their products unfailingly work. Their services are dependable.

Think about that the next time you order something from Amazon. The company can deliver a dizzying array of items to your doorstep with lightening speed because every employee is taught to follow a strict set of procedures.

Can employees ever improvise?

Absolutely! There are many situations where an employee should add their own flair, make an adjustment, or deviate from a procedure entirely.

The secret is knowing when to improvise.

Hotel housekeepers neatly fold towels as part of the room cleaning procedure. Some add their own flair by folding some of the towels into fun animals.

A procedure can sometimes be improved. That's what the fast postal clerk did. She identified an unnecessary step and eliminated it, saving several seconds per transaction.

There are a few cases when the normal procedure doesn’t apply.

A medical device manufacturer needed to get a specific item to a hospital for a patient having surgery the next day. The normal ordering procedure wouldn’t get the device to the hospital in time, so a customer service rep decided to improvise. She called a nearby competing hospital, located the correct device, and arranged to have it delivered just in time for the patient’s life-saving surgery.

Many customer-focused companies even have procedures for handling special requests or unusual situations. There's a strict latte recipe at Starbucks, but the barista will customize a drink to your liking. You can even make changes to a standard item when ordering via the Starbucks app.

(Side note: some customers have gone way too far with their customization requests. It’s become an issue.)

People mistakenly equate empowerment with giving employees the authority to do whatever they want. That's not really the definition.

The real definition of empowerment is enabling employees to deliver outstanding service to their customers. This includes:

• Resources necessary to get the job done.

• Procedures that represent best practices.

• Authority to do what’s right or deviate from procedures when needed.

How do you get employees to follow procedures?

Just having strict procedures isn't enough. All employees need to follow them to ensure consistency.

The first step is to make sure there is a documented procedure. You can use this guide to write procedures your employees will love.

Next, identify potential obstacles.

• Are employees aware of the procedure?

• Can they access the procedure quickly and easily?

• Do they have the necessary tools and resources?

A hotel received a number of complaints about room cleanliness. A quick investigation revealed that employees weren't following the standard cleaning procedure because they lacked the needed cleaning supplies.

Finally, monitor procedures to make sure they are being followed.

Major League Baseball recently investigated allegations that its baseballs are "juiced," meaning they fly farther than normal. It turned out to be true. The baseballs are hand-sewn, and the balls had abnormal variations in seam height, causing some baseballs to fly farther than others.

That meant a fan's chance of seeing a home run had just as much to do with who made the ball as who was pitching and who was batting.

It turned out the problem had been happening for several years. The investigation, while enlightening, should have happened far sooner.

Take Action

Procedures aren't a one-way street. Customer-focused leaders spend a lot of time talking about procedures with their team.

• Why is this procedure important?

• What are the consequences of not consistently following the procedure?

• What obstacles prevent procedures from being followed?

• When does it make sense to not follow the procedure?

• How can we do things even better?

You can learn more about creating a consistent customer experience from my book, The Guaranteed Customer Experience. Download the first chapter to learn about a gas station convenience store that dominates the competition because it does one simple thing consistently.