In today’s hypercompetitive, commoditized world, everyone needs a point of difference. In the absence of unique products or a cost advantage, many businesses point to a commitment to “service” as their competitive advantage — although, in truth, many more companies talk about exceptional service than actually deliver it.

That’s why I was struck by a financial advisor’s story about shopping for hiking boots, a story with a key message about delivering service that truly stands out.



> Preparing For A Hike Up Kilimanjaro

For the past three years, I’ve co-chaired a Toronto fundraising dinner for Amani Children’s Home at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. As an extension of that, I’m helping to organize a fundraising climb up Kilimanjaro in July involving members of the financial services industry.

One of those climbing is Murray Morton, a 37-year industry veteran with Dundee Securities Corp. in Toronto. Given the importance of having the right hiking boots, he recently visited Bass Pro Shop, a sporting goods superstore north of the city, on a Saturday in January.

Once there, Murray talked to a salesperson named Chris about his need for hiking boots for the trek up Kilimanjaro. Murray also mentioned that the tour company he’s going with is Tusker Tours, which has a 95% success rate of getting climbers to the top because Tusker’s method takes a few extra days to help climbers acclimatize to the high altitude.

“I haven’t climbed Kilimanjaro,” Chris told Murray, “but I have hiked in Kenya.” Chris then explained that Murray needed boots that were waterproof for the wetter, low-lying terrain as well as insulation for warmth for early and late in the day at high altitudes — all without being too heavy.

Chris pulled out several pairs, recommending one in particular, then asked Murray to wear them for 15 or 20 minutes to ensure they were comfortable — and to come see him afterward.

Murray, after his trial period, was happy with the recommendation. But Chris was on break when Murray was ready to leave, so Murray paid for his purchase and went on his way. So far, he had had a satisfactory experience with attentive service from someone knowledgeable and interested — but nothing especially extraordinary.



> Going The Extra Mile

The following Monday, Murray called Tusker’s offices in Nevada to discuss a couple of details of the trip and mentioned that he’d bought his hiking boots on the weekend.

“Hold on a second,” he was told. “We may have a message for you.”

Sure enough, when Tusker’s staff had arrived at the office that morning, there was a voice mail from Chris at Bass Pro Shop. He didn’t have Murray’s name but had remembered the tour company and, after going online to find its phone number, left a message apologizing for not being around when Murray had left the store. Chris also had left his name and phone number should Murray have any questions about the boots or anything else he needed help with for his climb.

“I was absolutely blown away,” Murray says. “In fact, I sent the manager of the store an email about this experience. And you know that I’m going back [to Bass Pro Shop] for the rest of the stuff I need for my climb, even if it is a bit of an extra drive.”



> Emphasizing The Human Element

I suspect that most of us would have had the same reaction as Murray did. What made this experience stand out, quite simply, was the human element — someone taking the time to go way above and beyond what could be reasonably expected.

I was reminded of an interaction I had had in the early 1980s, before the advent of centralized call centres. At lunch on the day that I was scheduled to fly to London, I discovered my wallet missing, along with all my credit cards.

Upon calling the local American Express office, I spoke to Stephen in customer service. When I emphasized that I was leaving that evening, he assured me that they’d courier a replacement card to me by the end of the day. That didn’t blow me away; but what did astonish me was getting a call from reception at 4:30 p.m. that I needed to sign for an Amex card and discovering that Stephen had delivered it in person.@page_break@When I expressed my surprise, he said: “Normally, we do send cards by courier. But occasionally things go wrong. Given your situation and that your office is on my way home, I asked my manager if I could drop the card off and get you to sign for it myself.”



> Building Personal Connections Into Your Process

In both of these cases, what made an ordinary service interaction extraordinary was the personal dimension. As consumers, we’ve all become accustomed to companies’ focus on efficiency at all costs, no matter how much we’re inconvenienced. Think no further than the ubiquitous automated voice attendant as an example, with its multiple levels of screens we have to fight through to speak to someone to get our questions answered or problem resolved.

Today’s increasingly depersonalized “do more with less” world creates an opportunity to stand out for those financial advisors who are able to acknowledge key clients personally, both reactively and proactively.

The reactive opportunities emerge in the course of your regular week, as clients call with problems or issues.

You have to create a culture in which everyone on your team sees any issues that key clients run into as opportunities to astonish them and deepen relationships, just as Murray was astonished by Chris at Bass Pro Shop and I was blown away by Stephen at Amex. Large call centres are intensely focused on “time per call” and penalize employees who take too long with a customer on the phone.

You need to do the exact opposite: you need to encourage your staff to spend extra time with key clients, and recognize and reward them when they do.

One top-producing advisor focuses on these kinds of small touches and “above and beyond” efforts. He circulates any “thank you” emails from clients to his team — and whenever a client mentions notable service to the advisor on the phone, he asks the client to send a quick email so the advisor can send that around as well. Then, every three months, the advisor and his team have a lunch to review all the client emails and to vote on the “client delight experience of the quarter.”

Proactive opportunities are those that you initiate. As part of your weekly planning meeting, take five minutes to focus on one important client and brainstorm around what you could do to provide a level of personal attention and acknowledgement that would surpass anything he or she could reasonably expect.

Years ago, an advisor told me about a multimillion-dollar business-owner client who had taken a two-week holiday to go on a cruise after years of prodding by his wife. When they checked into their cabin, they found a congratulatory note from their advisor along with flowers; at dinner on the first night, the advisor had arranged for a bottle of champagne to be delivered.

This advisor told me that on the client’s first day back in the office, the client called her and said: “I was planning to phone to thank you at some point this week, but my wife made me promise that I’d call you first thing this morning.”

The client’s response had nothing to do with the cost of the flowers and champagne, but everything to do with the bit of extra effort it took to make this gesture stand out.

None of this is particularly efficient or scalable, which means that you can only afford to target key clients with this approach. However, it’s precisely the lack of efficiency and scalability that makes these kinds of communication effective.

In an impersonal world, one of the ways you can differentiate yourself is by providing your best clients with a level of personal attention far above what they expect or are used to. IE



Dan Richards is CEO of Clientinsights (www.clientinsights.com) in Toronto. If you’re interested in the adventure of a lifetime, there’s still time to sign up for the July trek up Kilimanjaro. For information, email dan@clientinsights.ca.