LAST WORD

ML Hannay, owner of the consulting firm that bears her name Photo:  Michael McCord

I recently had a eye-opening experience: I had a close encounter with exceptional customer service. On the face of it, that may not seem too remarkable. But, really folks, despite the fact that we live in a service sector economic universe that impacts everything from our medical decisions to buying milk, customer service, we are told, is the big difference maker. But as we all know, the level of customer service from store to store and company to company is inconsistent at best.

If customer service was a bell curve, the belly part of the graph would be neutral or indifferent at best. Which again is interesting given that customer service has become akin to a new religion in business circles.

Writing in her recent book "The Loyalty Advantage," Portsmouth-based business consultant Diane Durkin wrote, "Stand-out companies find that the differentiating factor in building customer loyalty and long-term profitability is something that every company talks about but not every employee is educated to do: provide exceptional customer service." So it was rather striking when I came across a baby-faced 20-something retail clerk working in a electronics chain store who suffered my somewhat difficult requests with grace and eagerness. He went way above and beyond the call of duty - so much so that his older, more cynical and eyebrow-raising supervisor looked on in what looked to me as amusement. The young clerk's attention didn't help me solve my problem but I did end up purchasing an item I might not otherwise have bought.

I've had enough experience to hopefully tell the difference between sucking up to a customer - which in its own way can be as bad as being rude or indifferent - and generally wanting to help. This was customer service with a capital H help. (I also know what it's like from the other side because years ago I was a restaurant manager and airline ticket agent, two customer-centric occupations that made me yearn for a return to the relative insanity of the journalism business.) Of course, there is plenty of good customer service going on but ML Hannay, a Portsmouth-based communications and business training consultant, tells me what I encountered is, sadly, not the norm. And businesses pay a very heavy price because of it.

"Many people get good service and think it's exceptional," said Hannay who has of helped companies provide better customer service for more than 25 years.

Hannay, the principal and owner of ML Hannay Associates, started out her career in education - training teachers - and didn't have a business background when she started. "I was drafted into the business world," she told me. She may have been drafted but she didn't lack for business. What she found was no shortage of clients nor dysfunctional behaviors that makes us wonder how anybody succeeds in business.

"This isn't rocket science," Hannay said about her customer service consulting. Hannay works from a humor baseline because "no one likes to be lectured" and, fundamentally, "all we are is grown up third-graders." Hannay has had the good fortune of dealing well with all those inner third-graders and she's been successful enough to turn away more work than she can handle. She's works with every imaginable sector of the economy, from doctors to architects, from bankers to lawyers, from retail to professional services.

Hannay said that in her training sessions she highlights what she calls the "3 As" of exceptional service which, according to her, have been perfected by the Disney Corporation.

1) Access/Availability - Under promise and over deliver by giving an expected time frame and then beating it. "Make eye contact within two seconds," Hannay told me. It means "not saying 'can you hold a second?' when you know it will be a minute."

2) Affability - "This means ALWAYS being personable, personal, warm friendly and upbeat - no matter how the customer acts." This requires the ability to suffer fools gladly, even happily even when the jerks don't deserve it.

3) Ability - "We think competence and knowledge would be first," she said. But we would be wrong. Hannay explained that knowledge and competence without empathy and an emotional connection are mostly meaningless. In fact, if the service provider was on time, courteous and showed a warm personality, customers can be very forgiving of mistakes.

Hannay told me the most common cause of lousy service "starts at the top, which is why all of our training mandates that the management be included in some way - they must walk whatever talk they want their front line staff to demonstrate."

One of the more interesting aspects Hannay shared with me tends to be the most overlooked. "Happy customers equals happy employees." And no one needs to explain further the importance of happy employees as a crucial ingredient for a successful business. Even third-graders understand that equation.