The Bar is So Low – The Realities of Memorable Service | Alex Cabañas | TEDxWilmingtonSalon

alright ladies and gentlemen
so please close your eyes now work with
me okay I'm looking around the room I
will know if your eyes are open just
close your eyes I'm not gonna ask you to
chant or meditate think about a great
recent customer service experience that
you had where were you
maybe what company was delivering that
service to you think about the setting
pay attention I really think about that
particular moment this is gonna be
relevant to the entire conversation hear
what was said was it something you were
eating was it the place most importantly
how were you made to feel in that moment
if you had to pick three words and you
had your own slides in your head that
went through with those three words be
that describe how you were made to feel
in that great service experience all
right open your eyes so how many people
in the room it took you a while to
remember that moment right please show
of hands so I get a sense right good
good amount of people in the room well
over half in the room it took it what
why and why is it that it took you a
while probably was helpful that I went
through all these belabored questions
making you wonder making you think
giving you time you know why is it so
hard to see these great service moments
now I've been fortunate in my role to
have spent a lot of time and a lot of
different places doing this exact same
exercise ordinarily I'd be asking the
audience but I can't do here right but
I've done this in front of 40 travel
writers in the business in the
hospitality and travel space I've done
this at Harvard Business School I've
done this for other fortune 500
companies done it at employee meetings
within my company and one-on-one dinner
parties just getting people stories
about great service so I'll give you the
answers of what I think you all would
answer if I said well why is it so hard
to see first of all our memories are
short so most people say well just took
me a while what did I do last week right
where was I what vacation was on last
maybe what restaurant I went to right if
I asked you all what you did last Friday
I'd probably take you a while just to
remember that you'd have to look at your
calendar I have a coach who says don't
even look at your calendar if you don't
know it wasn't that important right I'll
always get the response of
I can gladly and easily tell you a bad
service experience
now how sad and unfortunate is that
right but bad service experiences are
often more memorable and more visceral
easy for us to repeat I often get the
response well I haven't really had that
many equally and incredibly sad right
that it took you a while because you
haven't had that many great service
moments right so there's lots of excuses
as to why so I'm here to tell you folks
the bar is low it is an unfortunate
reality that we don't remember those
moments that they are harder to find
that they are fleeting that bad service
moments are easier to remember than
those great moments now is great
customer service a worthy goal no doubt
when people are in this room and anybody
no matter what business you're in you
want to deliver great service there's
volumes of books huge amounts of
research tons of TED conferences and Ted
speeches on great service so why is it
so difficult to remember why is it hard
to attain but it is a worthy goal it's
worth spending the time and effort so
I'm gonna spend a little bit of time
here just telling you why I believe the
bar is low now I promise not to depress
you because there's great news that the
bar is low and I'm gonna tell you why it
is low and then also well how do I raise
it for myself how do I raise it for my
own organization how do I compete in
that kind of an environment so first of
all bars low cuz the extra mile is a
lonely place now literally if you go off
and roar and google the words extra mile
you will get you know caution signs and
t-shirts and cat posters that say the
extra mile is a lonely place you know go
the extra mile there's no traffic there
why is that now all of us grew up in
schoolyard environments right the kid
that was a little bit more nicer to the
teacher right did whatever she wanted
was the teacher's pet right you're in a
team environment you're on a project and
there's one particular person who works
a little harder and does a little bit
more pretty common phrase don't make us
look so bad might come back into the
group here
right work at our level alright you have
somebody in an office environment who
just happens to hang out with the boss a
little too much right spend a little
more time saying you know what what can
I do for you what can I do for you today
what is that person called a brown-noser
right you know they're out there and
they're trying to make themselves known
and everybody else in the office is
saying yeah you know what hey don't
don't spend so much time over there
trying to make yourself no because we
tune in to wif o or wifm versus wif o
our radio station is innately programmed
in us of what's in it for me now you may
wonder as a CEO of a hospitality company
how could I possibly be an expert on
selfishness well I learned it from the
oldest profession in the planet it's not
the one you're thinking of parenting
right plenty of parents in the room
anybody here have kids these are my two
boys Matthew and Eli and their first
four-letter word was mine all right we
are innately selfish we are born to
focus on our own self-interest our own
self-preservation and then we think
about community after that now we are
stronger together but at the end of the
day we do focus on our own needs first
they sad unfortunate but a real fact and
anybody in who who is a parent who
doesn't believe me then you have given
birth to the second coming of Christ and
I would like to meet you after this
event right because you see it in your
children from the time that they start
before they can even talk and I teach
two-year-olds for a living every other
Sunday so I see it every single month
and it is amazing how prevalent that
self-- need is and comes first it's
really hard to serve people well if you
don't focus on wif o which is what's in
it for the other person because we train
on instruction not on inspiration our
industry in many industries are built
now I used to be a consultant so
everything can be put in a 2x2 matrix by
the way everything everything on the
planet can be put in two by two matrix
but most customer service cultures are
built on a high amount of instruction do
this don't do that say this don't say
that we're that don't wear that tattoo
this don't tattoo
at wash here wash there please wash
everyday right I mean literally shave
this don't shave that Forbes Triple A in
the hospitality industry tons of
instruction tons of manuals we even
train our people to focus on what is
policy right has anybody ever heard that
excuse well that's not that's not our
policy sir or man that's not our policy
versus what is right and what ultimately
solves the problem versus focusing on
inspiration you know simon Sinek would
say well the why versus the what same
thing inspiring people to believe and
why they should provide that level of
service why they should step into those
situations why they should solve the
problem now at the end of the day there
is great news about this concept of the
bar being so low right there's a good
reason behind it right it's easy to find
it's easy to compete at the end of the
day it's easy to jump over the bar
because it's low you don't see a lot of
great service in your industry well how
do I compete so let me give you a couple
examples of this it's great that the bar
is low because you no longer make the
customer wait major cable company in my
market has a great commercial running
right now about showing up when you want
them to versus the four hour window that
you normally have for a cable company
Wow you're gonna show up when I want you
to really now can you imagine the
competing cable company boardroom oh my
god what are we gonna do our our drivers
are gonna go nuts our installers are
gonna go crazy right how could we do
this to them we're actually gonna meet
the customer when they want us to be
there are you insane do you know how
many problems the only Union issues
we're gonna have with that but the
reality is they're just showing up when
we want them to but for decades we've
been okay with a four-hour window in the
midst of instant gratification instant
communication just now one company said
do it we're not gonna tell anybody we're
gonna do it I want to go out there we're
going to do that and it took courage to
do that because proactive service is
near extinction so I just bought a house
I'm literally moving in on Friday and my
mortgage team was phenomenal they never
had me guessing they were a step ahead
every time they constantly were telling
me where I was in the process
I never literally literally never had to
ask them a question and find out what I
needed to do next they were constantly
ahead of me Audrey and Philip fantastic
now raise your hands if when you closed
your eyes you thought about your loan
servicer my guess is yeah nobody in the
room thought about their mortgage
closing about a great experience but the
reality is all that Philip and Audrey
did was proactively engage what they
were experts in and what I clearly had
no time to manage and they just did it
for me and it was all easy and I got it
all done because my pleasure beats no
problem any be in the room bidden to
chick-fil-a largely in the south right
Atlanta based company you know you read
this statement on the slide and they're
not just about serving chicken in a
fast-food environment and every single
individual serving and every single
chick-fil-a I've ever been to uses the
words of my pleasure which just makes
you feel a little warm up more than
fuzzy than no problem or even your
welcome my pleasure gives you a sense
they actually care it's their pleasure
to serve they're tuned into wif oh they
get it they want to be there I mean for
God's sakes cuz clean bathrooms are a
differentiator now probably a lot fewer
hands anybody in this room been to
buckey's yeah there's a few in here
these are massive mega beef jerky
religion
and the every soda you can imagine gas
stations literally 60,000 square feet
probably 120 terminals massive gas
stations on the roadsides mostly in
Texas their differentiator is a clean
bathroom and literally literally for
hundreds of miles in advance of arriving
at a Bucky's you will see billboards
telling you to wait so you can pee in
cleanliness and peace literally it is
worth advertising because the bar is so
low in roadside gas stations in the
bathroom it is worth advertising for
hundreds of miles that you actually take
care of your bathroom said but true
because at the end of the day the odds
are ever in your favor in my industry
and with my team and with every employee
and everyone to orientation I talked
about imagine the journey of our guests
I run hotels okay so you're standing
behind the front desk or you're a
bellman at the front or you're picking
somebody up at the airport just imagine
their journey take yourself through it
what have they been through they've been
through taxi cabs TSA public
transportation airlines delays weather
packing their bags usually not a great
thing right how low is the bar by the
time they arrive at that front desk you
don't have to do much please don't say
checking in please say anything but that
and you will blow them away you will
make them feel welcome they don't feel
real good after everything else they've
gone through so the odds are in our
favor we have the opportunity to blow
them away because the bar is low and
every other step of travel prior to that
all right so have I depressed you enough
all right how do I raise the bar how do
I fix this how do I think about it for
my own business from my own industry
well a couple of recommendations first
of all just be a great consumer of great
service be participating how many of you
when you closed your eyes earlier
thought about what you did in that
scenario
think about it now what did you do how
did you respond did you engage now you
probably tipped
gratuities always one of those things
that's fine certainly not suggesting you
don't do that but what did you say did
you engage the person did you use their
name you know we all have nametags in
the hotel business to use the name be
somebody that deposits into the
emotional bank account of every single
service professional how well they did
for you today Audrey and Phillip got
multiple emails from me and by the way
their bosses got emails from me now I
can tell you as a CEO of a company we
serve thousands of guests every single
year millions of hotel rooms 9,000 guest
rooms across the country and I can tell
you I get maybe somewhere between 12 to
15 emails from guests that somehow find
out benchmark who we are find my name on
the website find my email and the
unfortunate reality is most of those are
not great service moments so when we
have those bad moments we will run
through walls I mean we will search we
will find we will face book we will
LinkedIn we will find someone we will
find the biggest name tag in the room to
complain about the problem that we had
but when we have great service and those
moments you all remembered what do we do
we usually don't do much at all
and I can tell you maybe one out of
those 12 to 15 is somebody saying I had
a great experience by the way every
single one of them gets responded to
because again that's a low bar just the
fact that I respond is the fact that
nobody responds when you go to the top
of the organization but the fact that I
respond alone helps but the person who
takes time to reward us and tell me that
we did a great job I will go through the
roof for them I will make them my I will
be their personal concierge now I will
fix the problems and do everything on
that on the bad side but I trust me we
have to be a participant in this and we
have to be great consumers of great
service be on that road that extra mile
Road where there's a ton of people at
the beginning of the extra mile saying
no don't go it's not worth it don't do
it don't do it right you'll get hurt be
on that road with sign saying go keep
going it's worth it make it happen do it
keep running run fast don't listen to
those people back there be the extra
achiever beyond that extra mile be at
the end of the extra mile having a
freakin party because it is so much more
meaningful to be there and create a
culture around storytelling you have to
tell these stories you know today most
of our memories that we create are a
Facebook post you know a LinkedIn note a
tweet a snapchat and it disappears and
it's gone that's where a society is
today but cultures were built on stories
our grandparents stories and immigrant
stories were built on storytelling
sitting around the neighborhood sitting
around the campfire sitting around the
dinner table telling stories that's how
memories are made that's how cultures
are built be a storyteller it took you a
while to remember at the beginning of
this exercise because you probably
hadn't told the story once before if you
told the story once before comes up in
an instant do you build in your
organization a culture around
storytelling and I'm sure you all have
great customer service philosophies but
if you tell the story it opens the eyes
and ears to your employees to see what
the emotional impact looks like to the
guest to the person you're serving and
it helps them feel like it's real it
makes it attainable it turns a you know
a big poster board of service
philosophies into a belief system that
you can really easily get behind so good
news is at the end of the day the bar is
low and if you look around long enough
it's really easy to find in your
industry the reality is probably most of
the people you compete with suck at
service that is the unfortunate reality
but it's great because if you find it
and I can give you a tons of examples
lawyers that charge too much doctors who
don't show up on time oh and them by the
way when you don't show up on time they
cancel your appointment yes thank you
very much
right car mechanics who do too much to
the car right the flight agent who's a
little bit surly in the flight attendant
who just isn't happy that day and gosh
darn politicians the bar is so
incredibly low and subterranean in many
many places but service is worthy it's
worthy going after but you've got to
change the radio station got to be
focused on wif oh you've got to tell
stories you've got to make it purposeful
you got to engage your team have them
believe in what they're accomplishing
and understanding why they do what they
do why they wake up every day and why it
fills their emotional bank account to
make it worthwhile so just in case by
the way if I haven't convinced you about
this whole idea of the bar is low tune
into mine EdTech next TED talk which is
the bar is low and the unfortunate
reality of being a boss thank you very
much