well trained to handle unexpected flight delays with empathy and a smile rather than apathy and a snarl. All of us constantly reevaluate brand choice based on the gap between expectation and reality. If the airline meets our expectations, or comes close to meeting them, we will fly with them again. If they fail to meet our basic expectations, we will be a lot less likely to.
Organizations with strong service recognize that individual consumers have an established “zone of tolerance,” a term defined as “the range of customer perceptions of a service between desired and minimum acceptable standards.”6 In essence it is the range of service performance that a customer considers satisfactory. One solution organizations have adopted to address individual zones of tolerance occurs at the onset of the service experience. It is based on the one-on-one relationship between an individual company employee and the customer. One familiar image we have of this type of relationship is expressed in TV commercials advertising financial services consulting. Picture an investment advisor and her clients: as the clients confess their different dreams—such as to retire early, to send their children to college, or to start a business—the smiling advisor listens to each person individually and offers sage advice to all of them.
The goal of the commercial is to demonstrate the value of strong relationships in personal finance, and it does this by showing how each and every person is valued by the company, no matter how small or large her portfolio. Even if this isn’t true, the message of caring and empathy resonates and is the reason this individualized approach works and with appropriate training can be a successful customer service model.
Unfortunately, conveying this message is never as simple as we would like it to be. Most organizations struggle for a variety of reasons with delivering on the promise of exceptional service. One of the biggest is a lack of accountable, consistent leadership that, in turn, drives the focus on exceptional service.
In fact, consistency is probably the most important aspect of quality customer service delivery. Many companies spend an enormous amount of time and resources trying to ensure their brand identity remains consistent through advertising, slogans, and even mission statements, but give relatively little thought to the consumer’s direct interaction with that same brand, a significant disconnect between the importance of product and service. The value of ongoing training that emphasizes an appreciation and understanding of outstanding service cannot be underestimated. Even in the best cases, long-term employees can become jaded over time, forgetting or dismissing the brand promise for expediency.
Over the next nine chapters, you will be introduced to some exceptional leaders. They have all developed tools that have reshaped the organizational landscape of their companies. As you will see, this process often starts with hiring and training, but that merely scratches the surface. Whether consciously or not, they have embraced the true meaning of hospitality to help their organizations frame their core vision and values. The results provide insight on new ways to think about every aspect of the employee experience. In turn, these leaders have found that their organizations are rewarded tenfold with exceptionally loyal employees, customers, and, ultimately, more efficient and profitable business models. That’s a recipe for success!
1 https://www.niceincontact.com/call-center-resource-finder/2017-incontact-cx-transformation-benchmark-study-business-wave.
2 Chip Espinoza and Mick Ukleja, Managing the Millennials: Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce, (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2016), 7.
3 Crystal Kadakia, The Millennial Myth, (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2017), 3.
4 Espinoza and Ukleja, Managing the Millennials, 157.
5 Lee Caraher, Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making It Work at Work, (Brookline, MA: Bibliomotion, Inc., 2015), 47.
6 Zeithami, Valarie, Berry, Leonard, Parasuraman, A. “Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service Quality.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 52, Issue 2, 35-48. 4/1988.
Section 1
The Evangelists
Ari Weinzweig
(Zingerman’s Delicatessen)
Nick Sarillo
(Nick’s Pizza & Pub)
Paul Spiegelman
(BerylHealth)
Passionate about their vision and values and methodical about how they implement them, these three leaders practice what they preach. They strive to make work meaningful and society better, and they are certain that treating employees and customers well leads to financial success.
While they approach their roles as leaders with the same level of commitment and attention to detail, each has taken his own path in molding the infrastructure of his organization. Additionally, they actively send their message out into the wider community through well-designed training programs (Ari and Nick) and purposeful podcasting (Paul).
Chapter 1
Zingerman’s:Laser-Focused on Customer Service
“I think that if people don’t believe that customer service is a critical thing, then they’re going to do as little as possible, and then it’s going to be only done as a tactical tool, which is sort of like the person who eats a half dessert instead of a whole dessert, and that’s their tactical tool to get in shape. So it’s not bad, but it’s not going to create a meaningful life.” —Ari Weinzweig
I’ll Take a Side of Customer Service, Please
If you like good food and you live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, you already know all about Zingerman’s Delicatessen, which is as much of an institution as its neighbor, the University of Michigan. You’ve probably started at least one day with their roasted coffee along with a freshly baked cinnamon roll. Or maybe you’ve stopped by the deli for a #48, Binny’s Brooklyn Reuben, a side of Alterna Slaw, and a Magic Brownie. At night, you may have eaten at Zingerman’s Roadhouse restaurant, which offers the company’s unique spin on comfort food, or stopped by Zingerman’s Creamery to bring home a pint of gelato, fresh mozzarella, and Detroit Street Brick Cheese.
It all started back in the early ’80s, when Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig became friends. The two met at a restaurant after Ari graduated from the University of Michigan; Saginaw was the manager and Ari was the dishwasher. As their friendship evolved, they decided to band together and open a deli in an old brick building in a part of Ann Arbor called Kerrytown. In 1982, Zingerman’s was born.
Since then, Zingerman’s has come to comprise a diverse community of businesses that includes everything from the deli itself to a candy manufacturer and Korean restaurant. Much has already been written about Zingerman’s.
