Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32NOVEMBER 2016 • FOGHORN 19 BUSINESSMATTERS About the Author Bob Shaw is a veteran industry executive, having led over 100 vessels responsible for over 10 million passengers a year. He can be reached at shawrw@gmail.com. Maintenance Management Program Cloud Based - Access from any Device with any browser Maintenance - Inventory - Documentation Intuitive User Interface Flagship Integration Turnkey Setup w w w . W h e e l H o u s e T e c h . c o m - 9 7 8 - 5 6 2 - 5 2 1 1 Foghorn_March_2015.indd 1 2/20/2015 3:43:42 PM order to deliver superior service? Treat the internal guest the same as you’d treat the customer. That is the essence of teamwork. Celebrate those amazing moments and wows. Indeed, they become the litmus test of an organization. If a leader or teammate can’t describe a recent wow, then superior customer service is not the organization’s focus. Start every meeting asking for wow stories. These heartfelt stories will bring a smile to faces and create a “can you top this” environment. When you are amazed by the creativity and hard work of your team, business truly becomes fun. Everyone is in the customer service business. We can’t hire captains who don’t like “cargo that talks,” nor delegate this service spirit to a few energetic people. Everyone has to have that spirit of hospitality or not be on the team. Do you have the right team? Rigorously measure yourself with customer surveys. Many of my businesses would send over 50,000 customer surveys out a year, first by a laborious snail mail drill, and now by email. We’d get a response rate of 40 percent, which was amazing. Then we’d score each question, category and overall survey and compare how we were doing to last week, last month, last year and our various operations. Eventually, surveys could be scored and pushed out to our team automati- cally via email with a numerical score, date and type of event, dollars spent by the guest, and the written verbatims. There is nothing like everyone reading in real time 24/7 how you are doing, both good and bad. My weekly survey summary report was the most important document I’d review. Use these scores to improve. I’ve had entire years where “would you recommend to a friend” would be 99 percent for a city, far above what I’d call the “perfect” score of 90 percent as I reasoned 10 percent of people have no friends. Believe that improvement in every situation is possible, as customers certainly aren’t shy to point out oppor- tunities. Keep raising the bar and give every part of your operation hope that tomorrow will be better than today. Use bonuses for superior service as measured by customer feedback. Typically, a leader’s bonus plan was 60 percent based on department goals (sales, cash flow, costs or even safety) while 40 percent was based on customer surveys. We felt like superior customer satisfaction was vital to the long-term health of the business and everyone’s job. Twenty years ago, my first disas- trous start-up became one of the top 25 grossing independent restaurants in America. Our focus on customer service in the midst of a hurricane paid off richly for a generation to come. Align your team around customer service, and you’ll have fun creating that virtuous cycle of success. n HSC CODE ANNEX 10 | ISO 9001:2008 Gemini Seat M A D E I N T H E USA • MADE I N T H E U S A • M A D E I N T H E U S • Freedman Seating Company 4545 W. Augusta Blvd. Chicago, IL 60651 (800) 443-4540 | www.freedmanseating.com