Now That's Customer Service!

by Graham Denton

There's a lot of talk these days about transforming companies so that everyone, from the CEO on down, focuses on selling, that is, on putting the total resources of the organization into customer satisfaction. It's easier to recite this mantra than to practice it, though, which is why it's so encouraging to hear about companies that are doing it well.

Few companies practice customer service with greater panache than the clothing retailer Parisian, which is headquartered in Alabama. Peter Glen, the author of the "customers first" handbook It's Not My Department, tells a story about Donald Hess, president of the Birmingham-based chain, which shows how thorough the company's dedication to the customer can be.

Shortly before Christmas one year, Hess picked up his phone (that itself is a sign of a close-to-the-customer philosophy). He was scheduled to fly to Parisian's Mobile store the following day, and the person on the other end, who announced himself as Mark, was aware of that fact. He was a sales associate from that store, with an odd request.

One of his customers had her heart set on buying a particular sweater for a Christmas gift, but the Mobile store was out of that item, and she was concerned that if they transferred it from another store, it might not arrive in time. But the item was in stock in the Birmingham store (Mark had called to check), and since Mr. Hess was flying in to Mobile the next day, would he mind very much taking down the size and the color and bringing the sweater with him when he came to town?

Now, in most companies a sales associate who made this kind of request of the president-indeed, a sales associate who even got it into his head to call the president-would probably be instantly tagged as "that crazy Mark." Not at Parisian. Hess said sure, he'd bring it along. Then he called his traveling companion, a senior vice-president who lived near the Birmingham store, and asked him to bring the sweater with him to the airport. The vice-president did so, the sweater reached Mark, and the customer got her Christmas gift on time.

That must have been some sweater, you might be saying. Not really. The value of the sale, according to Glen, was thirty-six dollars. That may not seem like very much recompense for the attention of one harried sales associate, one senior VP, and the president himself. But if you believe that every customer counts, it's payment enough, because that thirty-six dollar sale was a mere down payment.

The real value of the sale would come in years to come, as that single satisfied customer talked about her experience (the typical satisfied customer tells three or four people), and as Parisian earned a reputation as a "people matter" company. The executives' responsiveness wasn't wasted time; it was an investment.