“I won’t charge you for it, but I cannot in good conscience, leave it looking like that.”
I overheard Jeff say that while he was cleaning the carpets at a friend’s house the other day. His instructions were to ignore the stained carpeting in the sunroom. “Just leave it,” said my friend. “We’re going to pull it up and replace it soon.”
That’s when Jeff made that statement: “I won’t charge you for it, but I cannot in good conscience, leave it looking like that.”
Jeff’s an owner operator of his own carpet cleaning company. He’s right in the middle of a busy season. We live in a college town and he’s up to his ears in apartment move-out cleanings so it’s not like he has a bunch of extra time on his hands. But it was important to him to spend a few extra minutes to leave my friend’s house in the best condition possible.
I recognized it right away as Shareworthy Service, the type of customer delight that makes you want to tell everyone you know how great your experience was. But it wasn’t until a couple of days later that it dawned on me there was something deeper.
Jeff, as owner operator of the carpet cleaning company was ensuring his reputation of excellence. Everyone who stopped by and asked about the clean carpets in the rest of the home would also notice the sunroom. He didn’t hesitate to be sure the floors were spotless before he left that day. He wanted his good name associated with a job well done, and in that generous moment, left my friend ready to recommend him to everyone she knows.
Which leads me to ask you:
• Are you protecting your reputation by providing the best possible level of customer service?
• Are you empowering your employees to go the extra mile to ensure your good name?
• Are you willing to invest now to ensure what your customers say about you later?
This week, make it a point to identify those spots on your customers’ carpet. And then go ahead and clean ‘em, and empower your people to do the same.
What a great customer service story. Thanks so much for sharing it. I love it.
But I can’t help thinking that it’s about a lot more than customer service or word of mouth — it get’s to the heart of company Ethos — what the owner is really made of and cares about enough to pursue even when it doesn’t make business sense to do so. What will you insist on because you simply refuse to do it any other way, because it speaks to who you are?
This is a much bigger thing than “going the extra mile” or “delivering great customer service,” though it is admittedly tied to both those things. This is about core identity, down at the botton of The First Order of Business, more than it’s about Customer Experience.
Jeff – I couldn’t agree more! Goals and values are at the foundational level of every decision, conscious or unconscious in business and life, aren’t they?
Thanks for weighing in!