At Long Last!

I was very pleased to hear that at long last our provincial government is going to make it illegal to use cell phones and other hand held devices while operating a motor vehicle. While certainly a step in the right direction, I'd like to suggest this new legislation goes nowhere near far enough.

Allow me to explain by way of three little stories:

Story One: Some time back, I attended an information session (read sales presentation) where the speaker, on no less than two occasions, interrupted their own pitch to answer an incoming call. Beyond being extremely annoying, what their actions said to me was this person had more regard for themselves and whoever was on the end of the line than for anyone in attendance, including myself. Whether they realized it or not, they paid dearly for taking those calls as everyone in the room was either a customer, or a potential one; and I was not first to walk out with no intention of ever coming back.

Story Two: In my previous life (when I actually worked for a living) I attended a lot of meetings. I'd like to tell you that all of those meeting were productive; but sadly, thanks to cell phones and the like, many were not. I remember at least a couple of occasions where the person who called the meeting in the first place, took a call on their cell part way through it, and then promptly left! I also recall, and again on more than one occasion, observing other participants busily texting while someone, often the boss, was speaking. But the ultimate disaster had to be when one poor soul answered a call while the person presenting was none other than the CEO. I've often wondered whatever happened to good old Robert. One thing is for sure - he paid a heavy price indeed.

Story Three: As many of you know, I teach the odd course at local colleges and universities. Much as I am embarrassed to admit it, I can't tell you how many times I've had a student jump up and leave the room to take a call. I've even had a few who have taken the call without leaving the room. Personally, I find this a bit disturbing, especially as most of the teaching I do is on either the topic of enhancing the customer experience, or on public speaking; two practices which don't take kindly to this kind of interruption. And since I mark not so much on what the student knows, but rather on the demonstration of what they have learned, here too the price was high.

So what do these little stories tell us?

Just as the use of handheld devices while driving has caused countless needless accidents, many of which resulted in grievous bodily harm, even death; the use of these same devices while in the classroom, or at a business meeting has caused grievous harm to numerous GPAs and careers, not to mention, killed many a sale.

So unless you're a cardiologist, paramedic or firefighter... or your wife is nine months pregnant, you should probably turn off whatever pesky bit of communication technology you carry long before you step foot in a classroom, boardroom or client's offices.

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A Great Question

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went back east to visit friends and family. On arriving at the airport in Montreal, we gathered our luggage and went off to collect our rental car. Based on previous experience I had no particular loyalties, so on this occasion I'd reserved a car with Enterprise based solely on the fact I had a coupon offering a free day.

On approaching the counter, we where promptly greeted by a very pleasant young man, who while going through the usual paper work, asked a number of questions about our plans for the week, offered some very helpful directions based on current knowledge of trouble spots (road repairs are never ending in Quebec) and engaged us in a little lighthearted banter about driving in and around Montreal.

On expressing our appreciation and commenting on his great service (something I try to make a habit of doing whenever I come across it) he brought out what he called the office's 'Stanley Cup' for service delivery. About two and a half feet tall, it was a bit garish for my liking, but he was clearly proud of it.

After congratulating him and his colleagues, we were shown to our car by an equally pleasant young lady who enthusiastically pointed out that it only had 11 kilometers on it (just over 6 miles for my American readers). She also asked if we had any questions and assured we didn't, wished us a pleasant journey.

As is so often the case with vacations, the days flew by and in what seemed like no time we found ourselves back at the airport returning the car. Before I had a chance to even put it in park, a smiling Enterprise attendant appeared as if by magic and unloading our bags onto a luggage cart. He'd already keyed in the licence number on of those little hand held devices and while waiting for the receipt to print, asked us how we had enjoyed our trip. After a little pleasant conversation, he inquired as per what we though of the Enterprise customer experience, then closed with what I thought was a truly brilliant question - "Is there anything we could have done better?"

Thinking back to the booking process, the greeting and the return, the best I could come up with was "Next time I rent from Enterprise, I'd prefer a car with a few less miles on it." He glanced down at his little device, which clearly shows the mileage in and out, smiled and wished us a pleasant trip home.

I'm not so naive as to not recognize this as a prompted question, or for that matter, the whole customer experience as being carefully engineered at corporate headquarters, but so what. The
delivery was sincere and the whole experience left me with the impression that these guys are good, as well as a great tip for all concerned with delivering a great customer experience.

If like Enterprise you are serious about delivering a great customer experience, when all is said and done the right question to ask would have to be:

Is there anything we could have done better?

To comment, or read the comments on this blog click on 'comments' beside the little envelope below. To read previous articles (this is #18), see the Blog Archive (lower right) and to become a Wavemaker Blogs follower, click on 'Follow' (just above Archive).

If you would like to be notified whenever a new Wavemaker blog topic is posted, just drop us an email at wmconsulting@live.com with "Blog Me" in the subject bar. We promise never to provide your contact details to anyone else and you can unsubscribe from this service at any time.

If you would like to know more about how Wavemaker Consulting can help your company improve the customer experience you provide, visit our Website, or email us at wmconsulting@live.com