Creating an above-and-beyond culture

World-class service organizations create an
awareness of the most
common opportunities where
employees can deliver heroic
service for the customer, creating an above-and-beyond culture.

Are your employees empowered and inspired to exceed
customer expectations? Do
you have mechanisms in place
to collect and redistribute
above-and-beyond stories to
constantly remind your
employees of that vision?

The truth of the matter is that
everyone gets the same number
of above-and-beyond opportunities. The only difference is some
employees see the opportunity
and act on it, while others fail to
see it.

Here are five steps to creating
an above-and-beyond culture:

1. Empower employees
   with the confidence that they
   can aggressively go above
   and beyond without being
   second-guessed by management.
   

2. Train employees to consistently recognize opportunities
   that occur.
   

3. Inspire them to think
   outside the box for the
   customer.
   

4. Acquire and document
   all above-and-beyond stories in your organization.
   

5. Advertise and recognize
   those stories and employees throughout your entire
   organization.

The answer’s yes.
… What’s the
question?
I hate the word no. I
can’t believe how many
people in a vast number
of companies use it. It
should be stricken from
use in any company that is
focused on customer service.

While staying in a prominent
hotel in Las Vegas, I ordered
room service. When asked if I
wanted fries or coleslaw as my
side, I asked if I could have
fruit. The person’s response was
a quick and unfriendly, “No. Do
you want fries or coleslaw?” I
said, “What do you mean, no? I
see a fruit dish on your menu.”
She responded, “Well, I would
have to charge you.” I wasn’t
asking for it for free. How easy
would it be to say, “Certainly,
while you cannot substitute the
fruit for your side dish, I can
add it to your order.”

Cameron Mitchell Restaurants
not only removed the word “no”
from the vocabulary of its 2,000
associates, it also has a great
service brand promise: Yes is the
answer. … What’s the question?

Cameron Mitchell himself created a brilliant metaphor on
which the company’s service
philosophy is founded. It is
known as the “Milkshake.”
Legend has it that several years
ago, Mitchell and his family
were at a restaurant, and his
son asked if he could have a
milkshake. The server said no.
Mitchell knew the restaurant
had ice cream, milk and a
blender, so he couldn’t understand why someone wouldn’t
accommodate such a simple
thing. So the milkshake became
an icon to remind everyone at
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants
about finding a way to say yes.
Having three young boys myself,
I know we’ve been in a restaurant where one of my sons
didn’t like the kid’s menu and
asked if he could have a grilled
cheese. Again, nearly every time
the answer was no. Once, I
asked the waiter, “Do you mean to tell me that your restaurant
doesn’t have bread and cheese
that someone could throw on a
stove?” The waiter responded,
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t know how
to ring it up.” I responded, “I
don’t care if you charge me the
price of a steak. You don’t want
my kid upset because he can
empty this restaurant faster
than a fire.”

The milkshake has grown into
a life of its own at Cameron
Mitchell Restaurants. They start
every company meeting with a
“milkshake toast,” and they give
a Milkshake Award to the associates who best demonstrate
the spirit of their service brand
promise.

The point of this philosophy is
that too many employees and
companies say no way too quickly without thinking how easy it
would be to grant the customer’s
wish. Many times it is blamed
on company policy. Many times
it’s just laziness on the part of
the front-line employee.

Find your milkshake
metaphor
I help many companies come
up with their icon and metaphor,
similar to the milkshake, specific to their culture. The first thing
a company has to do is find its
best above-and-beyond stories
and then choose the most significant one that will serve as the
example. Once a company has
this story, the next thing it does
is create the symbol, logo or picture that represents the best
story. Eventually, words will be
unnecessary. When employees
see that picture, they will be
instantly reminded of the culture they work in and the legacy
they have to uphold.

JOHN R. DIJULIUS is the best-selling author of “What’s The Secret? To Providing a World-Class
Customer Experience.” (Wiley, May 2008). He is also president of The DiJulius Group, a firm specializing in giving companies a superior competitive advantage by helping them differentiate on
delivering an experience and making price irrelevant. Reach him at [email protected].