Custies!

I just read "Let My People Go Surfing" by Patagonia founder and owner, Yvon Chouinard. If you want to be inspired about the future of many things (business, the world, your career) you should read this book. It was recommended to me by a woman I met at the "Beyond Searsville Dam" night and its effect on me is that I want to go work for Patagonia HQ. I just need to get the right skill set. One of the most interesting things in the book talks about customer service. For Yvon, if you do not have good, no great, customer service (which is not the absence of bad customer service) you are not going to get a leg up, especially when you're selling pricey stuff. I have now become hyper-aware of customer service. Nordstrom staff was waiting on me hand and foot the other day and all I wanted were some flip flops.

Why should companies go the extra mile? Because it costs way less to keep a loyal customer than to go out and get new ones (YC gives you the math in his book). And you know how Patagonia has that Ironclad Guarantee...if your stuff isn't performing, just bring it back? You might think that doesn't make business sense. Well, the money the company spends to replace old gear or refund money is less than 0.4% of sales.

I know you probably don't care, but just like I'm trying to figure out who the next CA governor should be right now, I like being able to support companies that I really believe in, as much as possible. And it doesn't just have to be about the environment...it could be what they do for the community or the artistic risks they take.

I'm thinking about this today because I just watching this video (below), which you may have seen on Woot.com or BoingBoing. You see, this guy flew United Airlines and from the plane, he watched the baggage handlers as they threw his guitar around. He got his guitar at baggage claim, it was broken, and went straight to customer service. It's been nine months and only after posting this video did United say "this has struck a chord w/ us and we've contacted him directly to make it right" on their Twitter yesterday.

United has missed YC's class in customer service. Think about it...when you get bad customer service, how many people do you tell? The data says that it's around ten. When you get good customer service, do you tell anyone? Data says that you don't, or maybe you tell one other person. I have almost always found that the airline industry doesn't have the customer service thing down. Maybe it's because they think they have power over their customers because so many people fly. I have sent them a note, of course. I explained the math I laid out here and suggested to them that they think about the cost of keeping a current and possibly loyal customer happy versus having to replace that custy with a new one. As I've learned doing Statistics, the people who usually express their opinion are on the extremes (outside of 3 standard deviations of the mean, I'd say). One result is that when you get bad press, it can be really bad.

On the good side, I just ordered some new lights and other stuff for the Xtracycle from Planet Bike. On the order, I wrote that I was gearing up my new Xtracycle (4 of the 5 employees there have one). I got a personal email back with my tracking number and a note that I should enjoy my new bike and to check out pictures of another employee's new custom ride. I've had a nice email exchange with them about it, proving yet again that they have a great company. They give 25% of their profits to bicycle advocacy groups and always put off a positive vibe.

The "United Breaks Guitars" song is pretty catchy and you'll get the gist after a minute. High five to David Carroll for finally getting United to listen to him. But frankly, it shouldn't be this hard. The custy is always right. Even when they are wrong, they are right. Remember that, United.