Give customers a magical experience

Dennis Snow, customer service expert and keynote speaker at the 2013 OFA Short Course. MICHELLE SIMAKIS

Q: How can independent garden centers create better customer experiences?
A: First, define three things you want customers to say about their experience. For example, let’s say from a garden center perspective that the three things are: they made me feel valued; I learned something from them; and they were very efficient. It then becomes easy to say, well, what has to happen for customers to say those three things? If they want to learn something from us, then we better know something about our products.

At Disney, the three things are it was a magical experience, they paid attention to detail, and they made me and my children feel special. If guests say those three things, the likelihood is they are going to come back, and they are going to tell other people they had a great experience. So if you want guests to say they paid attention to every detail, then if you’re a cast member [employee], you better pick up trash off of the ground. If you see peeling paint, you call it into the maintenance department. Anything that’s wrong, you get it taken care of. So it becomes pretty easy at that point once you’ve identified those three things that have to happen for them to say those things.

Taking it to the next step, are we then hiring people who are wired to perform that way? Are we training and communicating to them relentlessly about those things, and are we holding them accountable? It all goes back to what we want customers to say. That really becomes your brand, because your brand is what customers say about you.

Q: How can people in the hiring process make sure that they do hire people who can provide good customer experiences, especially in a garden center where you have a lot of seasonal staff?
A: It’s the same thing with Disney World — they have a lot of seasonal staff. You have to identify who your superstars are — and every company has their superstars, the people who you say, if only I could just clone these folks. Get to know what makes those folks tick. Get to really understand how they look at their job, why they do things the way they do them. Sit down and talk with them, and there’s going to be certain themes that come out from your strongest performers. Use that information then to build your interview for potential new hires. Am I hearing the same types of themes that I heard from my strongest performers about how they look at their job? I also think that it’s important to model the culture that you want during the interview process. If you say we’re about respect for the individual, and I come to interview for the job, I need to feel that throughout the process.

Q: How do you encourage employees to take ownership over the customer experience?
A: It’s not about the task, it’s about the experience. The job that I was hired to do may be a custodial person or a ride operator or security, but as a cast member [or employee] you’re responsible for the overall experience. That’s what I think Disney has been very good at is getting people to understand that ownership of the guest experience.

It’s the same thing in a garden center– you want people to own the customer experience. They all have their tasks that they have to do, but if everybody has that sense of ownership, and it’s not necessarily that I’m going to be the one who handles this issue, but I’m going to make sure it gets handled because I’m part of the bigger operation. That’s the mentality you want employees to be in. I’m an expert in security, or I’m an expert at operating rides, but I also need to make sure that I’m watching out for the whole show.

Q: What is the ultimate goal businesses should have in mind when working with customers?
A: It’s generating loyalty. In terms of the focus on the customer experience, the financial reason, the business reason for it is that’s what gets people to come back, how you made them feel the first time. That’s how you get word of mouth and get people talking about you.

Q: Can you give an example of a company who delivers good customer service and why?
A: At Southwest Airlines, they’ve taken those safety spiels and made them fun. Some turn them into a rap, others just add some jokes into it, but they’ve made the safety presentations fun so you listen to them. It’s those little things that make a difference. Eye contact when I walk into the store to acknowledge my presence to someone coming over to me and saying ‘Can I help you with that product?’ All just little things that by themselves might not be that much, but I always say little wows add up.

And it starts with the leadership team. The leadership sets the tone for what happens in the store. So it comes down to defining the customer experience and making sure that those things are non-negotiable.

In the operation of a garden center, you’re hiring people, you’re training people, you’re coaching people, and if you can build all of those things around what you want the customer experience to be, everything starts to fall into place.