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Lighting the way Four tales of exceptional service from the best source—customers By DANA JAMES Contributing Editor

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marketing manager for Premier Inc., a health care purchasing conglomerate in Oak Brook, Ill., sent the lighter to Zippo, with a note describing the problems. He’d found the mailing information and instructions on the company’s Web site.

ervice. At any dinner party, ask the guests for their stories of customer service, the bad and the good. There will be more of the former than of the latter, but everybody will have a story, or four or five. While word of mouth by definition can’t be quantified, marketers know intuitively that it’s the most potent form of communication, to be harnessed in service to the corporation whenever possible, and addressed quickly when it runs counter to the firm’s marketing goals. Good word of mouth is one of consumer marketing’s most desirable, and most elusive, goals. That is, ensuring dependable customer service is one of a brand strategy’s most important elements, but launching those extramile tales of employee effort—the ones that are passed like a good virus to hundreds of potential customers—seems to depend more on kismet than coaching. In an effort to codify those corporate policies that seem to set the stage for such events, Marketing News invited consumers to tell us their stories of legendary service they received sometime in the last year or two. (Tellingly, some who received our invitation felt compelled to write us about unforgettably bad experiences.) Then we followed up with the company, or in some cases the employee who was praised, to pinpoint the common factors. Our subjects range from a pharmacy chain to a lighter manufacturer, but share some characteristics, such as customerfocused mission statements, as well as formal programs that train employees to provide great care and recognize and reward those efforts. From their stores, we’ve pulled a lesson or two that help make out-of-the-ordinary service possible.

Two weeks later, the lighter was returned to Hall’s mailbox in mint condition: Not only was the lid repaired, but his lighter fluid and flints had been replenished. Included in the package was a shiny penny encased in a silver emblem, the back of which reads: “The cent never spent to repair a Zippo product.” “This astounded me,” Hall says. “Very few companies, much less American-owned companies like Zippo, stand behind their products and make such an incredible customer service statement like this.” “It’s a whatever-it-takes attitude here,” says Shirley Evers, consumer relations manager for Zippo Manufacturing Co., based in Bradford, Pa. The lifetime guarantee on Zippo products—as old as the 70-year-old company and first promised by its founder, George G. Blaisdell—remains the driving force behind its customer service. In fact, when Evers hires representatives for her six-person department, her training regimen includes showing them a photo of Blaisdell and talking about his motto, “Build your product with integrity… stand behind it 100% and success will follow.” “I wouldn’t want to do consumer relations for a lot of companies because of their poor attitude toward the consumer or because they don’t stand behind their product. This makes my job so much easier,” Evers says. Zippo’s lifetime guarantee has no disclaimers. A common customer inquiry is whether Zippo will repair an item that broke for reasons other than simple wear and tear, such as being run over by a car. Not only can Zippo consumer relations say, “yes,” they are able to send a prepared repair packet, which includes a fiber-reinforced envelope with Zippo’s address and a letter that

Zippo: A 70-year-old promise John Hall’s engraved Zippo lighter—a Christmas gift from his brother 15 years ago—had fallen into disrepair. It was dirty, scratched and the cover hinge was bent. So last October, Hall, a 1

Article 13. Lighting the way begins, “We will not only repair your Zippo Lighter without charge, we would consider it a privilege.” Evers says her department receives from 15 to 20 thank-you letters a week from customers, most of which she keeps on file so she can recognize her employees during their annual reviews. Evers is quick to point out that the commitment to the product’s integrity is not confined to the consumer relations department. In Zippo’s in-house repair clinic, which handles more than 131,000 lighters a year, 14 full-time employees not only repair what’s broken, but look for other parts that may need attention soon, and will replace or fix those as well. “That way, the customer won’t have to go through the frustration of sending it in again,” Evers says.

Rite Aid: For the health of it Last July, a day after his 51st birthday, Marty Pay, a Farmers Insurance agent in Tehachapi, Calif., developed what he thought was a bad case of heartburn during a bike ride. Before taking antacid, he called his pharmacy to ask whether it would interact with his diabetes medication. The Rite Aid pharmacist, Ronde Snell, asked about the nature of the pain and whether he had had heartburn before, and about his medical history. Based on their 10-minute conversation, Snell told Pay that she thought he could be experiencing heart pains (which could be a precursor to a heart attack)—not heartburn—and that he should go to the emergency room. She said, “Even if it’s not (heart pains), they will be glad you came in, so they can rule it out.” A couple hours later, Snell called the local hospital and learned that Pay hadn’t been in yet. Then, she tracked him down at his office and told him again to go—immediately. The doctors confirmed Snell’s suspicions: Pay had 95% blockage of one artery, and within days he underwent an angioplasty. “Literally, if it wasn’t for her…,” Pay says, letting the sentence trail off. “A month later, I was back on my bike.” The pharmacist-customer relationship became a core focus of Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid two years ago, when the drugstore chain, looking for ways to stand out in a crowded market, learned through marketing research that customers wanted superior and personal customer service in their pharmacy, says John Learish, Rite Aid’s vice president of marketing. “Even though it’s a chain of 3,600 stores, customers view each store as their pharmacy,” Learish says. Rite Aid execs visited pharmacies and interviewed and observed their pharmacists at work nationwide, and then took the important step of streamlining processes and procedures in Rite Aid pharmacies. For example, the company implemented a socalled basket system in which, once the pharmacy takes a prescription, that form and all related documents and components stay together in the same basket until the filled prescription reaches the customer. “That way, the pharmacist doesn’t have to go back and pick up components along the way—it’s simple but efficient,” Learish says. Also, it freed pharmacists of certain administrative tasks so they could spend more time with the customers. Those moves have paid off. Says Snell of her customer care experience with Pay: “The biggest thing was that I had a lot of ancillary help. The technicians were able to cover the ins and outs of daily activities so I could talk to this person in-depth— and that made the difference.” Snell also credits other Rite Aid policies, such as its system of e-mail alerts about drug recalls or other changes, for improving her customer service. “When Bayer Baycol (a cholesterol drug) was taken off the market, we had lots of customers calling in with questions—and Rite Aid made sure we had information for them that day,” she says. Such marketing successes often beget their own marketing campaigns: Last summer, Rite Aid launched a six-month national TV ad campaign showcasing pharmacist customer ser-

Enterprise: Seek entrepreneurs When Randy Ross, a Boston-based executive editor of PC World Magazine, arrived early one Friday morning in January at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office in Cambridge, Mass., to pick up an SUV to drive on a ski vacation to the Sugarbush resort in Vermont (a three-hour-plus drive away), there was no vehicle and no record of his reservation. Cambridge’s customer service representative, Wilson Lowery, apologized profusely and called nearby branches until he found the car Ross wanted, a Chevy Trailblazer at a location several miles away. So far, so good. But then Lowery drove Ross back to his house to pick up his ski gear, and to the other branch to retrieve the Trailblazer. He knocked 20% off the rental price, provided Ross the $2 toll he would have to pay to get on the highway (which he wouldn’t have had to pay leaving from Cambridge) and gave him a half-tank of gas. Within a month, Ross had rented twice more from Enterprise and “will probably rent more,” he says. St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car closely ties customer service to employee success. With a tracking system called the Enterprise Service Quality index (ESQi), the company routinely follows up with customers by phone to determine their level of satisfaction with the company; only “completely satisfied” customers count toward a branch’s ESQi score. At the employee level, the ranking is one factor in measuring potential for promotion. “We are very serious about customer service and have done everything we can to link the needs and interests of our customers with those of our employees,” says Sarah Bustamante, an Enterprise spokeswoman. Like other companies lauded for exemplary service, corporate policy frees Enterprise employees to take steps that will make a customer happy, without having to get bureaucratic and time-consuming approvals from upper levels. In fact, Enterprise looks for and hires people who want to run their own business someday, and builds on that sense of initiative with an extensive employee training program. “We try to instill in every employee a sense of ownership— that this is their business,” says Todd Cody, area manager for the Cambridge branch. 2

ANNUAL EDITIONS fort, dismantling, cleaning and putting the mixer back together—which worked, saving Travis the cost and time of shipping it for repairs. Pitcher is the customer service department for Bamix’s North American distributor, 12-employee Ocean Sales Ltd., based in Olympia, Wash. Among the company’s customerfriendly policies: Whenever a Bamix mixer is sold in North America, one copy of the 10-year warranty, along with the date and location of purchase, is automatically sent to Pitcher, who keeps it on file. (“Ten years is a long time to ask a customer to hold on to a warranty,” she says.) Meanwhile, for the past 14 years, Pitcher has owned a Bamix mixer. While it’s not a Bamix company policy that she have her own, it’s a move that other businesses may want to consider, or at least encourage, by giving customer sales reps deep discounts on the products or services they sell, for instance. Pitcher admits that the fact that she uses her mixer all the time often makes a difference in the level of service she is able to provide. Many people, she says, receive the $200 Bamix mixer as a wedding or birthday gift and don’t know the first thing about using it. “I’m able to give them some tips and answer their questions,” she says. At the same time, she is a sincere spokeswoman for the product: “It’s the queen of mixers,” she says with pride. “You can whip non-fat milk into cream.”

vice stories like Snell’s. In addition to reinforcing Rite Aid’s customer focus, Learish says, “It also sets the expectation of what our deliverable is” among pharmacists, and challenges Rite Aid employees to live up to those expectations.

Bamix: Reps are owners, believers Linda Travis’ hand-held wand mixer was on the blink, and she figured since her father had bought it off a TV commercial and because it was made in Switzerland, she faced an uphill battle getting it repaired. As expected, her local repairman said he didn’t have a source for the parts, and Travis, a Decatur, Ga.based brand strategist, turned to the Internet to see if she could learn anything about the company, Bamix of Switzerland. From the Mettlen-based company’s site—which was available in English, German, French and Spanish—she sent an email asking how and where to send her broken mixer. She also found an 800-number and left a message with the same question. Two hours later, Bamix responded with an e-mail offering a mailing address and instructions. But then the customer service representative who sent the e-mail, Patti Pitcher, also called Travis to ask questions about her problem. Over the phone, she walked Travis step-by-step through an overhaul and repair ef-

From Marketing News, April 1, 2002, pp. 1, 11. © 2002 by the American Marketing Association. Reprinted by permission.

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