It was 10:00 in the evening and another day on the job. All the guests were dancing and relishing the best of the cocktails. I was behind the bar with some fellow bartenders and was surrounded by hundreds of guests. In between all that action I could hear one lady screaming – she was trying to get our attention. My fellow bartender asked her, “How can I help you ma’am?” She asked for a cup of hot milk. My friend said “unfortunately we don’t serve that here” and moved on with his work. It got my attention and for some reason I asked her to wait. I spoke to the chef and arranged a hot cup of milk for her. Later my friend asked me why I did that even though we were short on staff. He said, “You can’t satisfy every guest. What difference does it make anyway?” I had a smile on my face and said, “I just made a difference to that lady.”
That day I learned that doing only what I am supposed to do might not guarantee a satisfied customer. Ever since that interaction, I don’t think twice before going the extra mile for customer satisfaction. I realized that going that extra mile is what sets great teams apart from good teams.
The difference between a good and a great team is that good teams are largely process-oriented. They will follow processes to the “T” to deliver the same experience every time, whereas great teams are more people-oriented and will go beyond the process to create a wow experience.
The problem is that a good team quickly accepts that they can’t keep all of the customers happy. Hence they quite often use phrases like “what difference does it make”? (“kya farak padta hai”?). Good teams feel that they are doing what they are supposed to do and doing it well. Unknowingly, this even affects their intuition to challenge the status quo because they are easily satisfied. On the other hand, a great team would never even accept 99.9% as a result. For them 100% customer satisfaction is the only possible outcome.
Below are two scenarios that highlight the different approaches of good and great teams.
Customer satisfaction is not rocket science. It is not about making the best of the product or providing the best customer service. It is just about acknowledging that customers are humans too, and they have feelings. If you pay attention to the small things and make customer satisfaction the ultimate goal, you can create your own magic.