- August 12, 2014
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Empowering Employees to Excel at Service
How much does your company care for its customers? Have you demonstrated that care lately?
Two companies, Frontier Airlines and Red Lobster, recently picked up the tab for customer meals. Both instances were noteworthy enough to make the mainstream news and go viral online, and examples of empowering employees.
Frontier Airlines’ Unscheduled Meal
The Frontier flight from Washington D.C. to Denver, already delayed by an hour, was forced to land in Cheyenne, Wyoming because of bad weather. After sitting on the tarmac for a couple hours, the passengers began to get agitated. And hungry. That’s when Captain Gerhard Brandner made an announcement over the intercom: “Ladies and gentleman, Frontier Airlines is known for being one of the cheapest airlines in the U.S., but your captain is not cheap. I just ordered pizza for the entire plane.”
Captain Brandner called Dominos, met them outside the security checkpoint, and delivered 50 pizzas to the plane. As recounted by the Captain, “I was getting hungry and we are kind of a big family here at Frontier; we take care of each other and I figured it was time to take care of my passengers.”
Red Lobster and The Widow
Meanwhile, at a Red Lobster in Columbia, Missouri, a recent widow who had spent 31 wedding anniversaries at Red Lobster had her tab picked up by the restaurant. According to a post on Reddit, her daughter took mother to Red Lobster on the anniversary to carry on the tradition after the passing of her father. In place of the check, the server left a note
“We are sorry to hear about your husband’s passing, but we appreciate your loyalty in spending 31 years of your anniversary with us. For your appreciation, your meal is on us! We look forward to spending your next anniversary with us! Sincerely, Red Lobster + your server, Taylor.”
As reported in Today.com, “The note went viral on the Internet within a matter of hours. In their first media interview, Red Lobster server Taylor Murrie-Robinson and her manager, Chad Ward, told TODAY.com that they didn’t think the gesture at their restaurant in Columbia, Missouri was out of the ordinary.”
Explained Murrie-Robinson, “Part of our entrance, as we’re walking them to the table, is we ask them if they’re celebrating anything today, and when I asked them that, her daughter let me know that they were there for her mom’s 31st wedding anniversary,” she added. “After that, she let me know that her husband had passed away, just recently, in March, but her daughter wanted to continue the tradition with her mother.”
Manager Chad Ward approached the customers as they were leaving: “I just let them know how important they are to us. I wanted to make sure they knew that we’d go over the top for them. Every guest that walks through our doors is very important to us.”
Writing in Forbes, Stan Phelps draws two lessons from the stories that every business marketer can adopt.
1) You can do well by doing good.
Acts of kindness resonate with customers and have the potential to create a huge ripple effect through social media and traditional news.
2) Empower employees to go the extra mile.
Most employees care about their customers but are limited in their ability to demonstrate it by strict company policies. Give your employees the authority to do what it takes to satisfy customers.
How Much Do You Care?
Forbes offers two additional examples of companies that provide limits on discretionary spending for each employee. In the case of the Ritz Carlton hotel, employees are authorized to spend up to $2,000 on a single guest to ensure satisfaction. On a smaller scale, Zane’s Cycles authorizes employees to spend $100 to service a customer.
Taken together, Frontier Airlines and Red Lobster show how seemingly random acts of corporate kindness aren’t really random at all. Doing whatever it takes to keep customers happy, above and beyond the transaction, is something that needs to be ingrained in your company culture so that it becomes a natural reaction by employees.
For insights on turning around negative customer experiences, check out “The Silver Lining in Customer Complaints”.
