Here’s another car rental story. My mother lives in a very small town in southeast Missouri. It’s 417 miles from my house in Chicago door to door down I-57, one of the longest, most boring, and heavily under- construction routes in the US.

 I have finally wised up and started taking Amtrak from Chicago to Carbondale, IL. That gets me within striking distance—82 miles. Enterprise has the only car rental place in Carbondale. I call them when the train nears the station. Someone picks me up, takes me back to the rental counter, and within 20 minutes or so I’m back on my way. I’ve been following this routine since the fall.

 So the Thursday before Christmas my husband (who LOVES trains) and I board the 8:15 a.m. 391 Saluki line for Carbondale. As usual, I call Enterprise from the edge of Carbondale and they say they are on their way. When we arrive, there is Cody from Enterprise to pick us up in his own car.

 He says that’s because Enterprise-Carbondale has run out of cars and he’s going to drive us to Marion, IL to get a car. Now Marion is about the same distance from Sikeston as Carbondale, and it’s about a 30 minute trip from Carbondale to Marion, so this was a reasonable alternative—but I popped.

 I didn’t want a reasonable alternative. I wanted a car at the Enterprise location in Carbondale like I had reserved—and I for sure didn’t want to have to ride another 30 minutes to get to it. And I sure didn’t like being surprised at the station when they had my phone number or could have alerted me when I called from the train. I demanded to go to the rental office in Carbondale, and Cody, who is personable, gracious and exactly the kind of person you would want to have representing your business, took us there.

 And then we met the new Enterprise branch manager in Carbondale—Elizabeth Dodd. I had to have been the NIGHTMARE customer—insisting on a car when there weren’t any and other people waiting. Angry because when we called from the train, we weren’t told about the lack of cars. Tired from traveling and a little stressed with the whole Christmas thing.

 Well Elizabeth Dodd was unflappable. She expressed regret, took full responsibility and in the middle of my rant, when a car arrived, asked me if I would mind having a larger vehicle and did the paperwork at a lower rate than my original quote.

 It was A+++ in managing rude and irate customer, but the most amazing thing to me was I felt that Elizabeth really did care about me getting to my mother’s house on time and wanted to honor the reservation commitment that had been made because it was a commitment…in spite of the fact that my anger was way out of proportion with the situation.

 Here’s the second amazing thing. When we returned the car, Elizabeth and Cody were the only two on duty again. There were four Japanese-speaking customers trying to change a reservation and understand the pricing and terms. The phone was ringing off the hook with people trying to reserve cars, get quotes, and one guy was even trying to buy a truck from the Enterprise inventory. Elizabeth was wearing all the hats—still unfailingly polite and respectful to the people in front of her and on the phone.

 Lessons from Elizabeth and Cody

•  If there’s a problem that’s going to affect a customer, tell them about it as soon as you can. Offer an alternative.
• Even if the customer is raving and ranting, don’t lose your cool. It will only make a bad situation worse.
• Handling an irate customer smoothly and turning the situation around in front of other customers sends a strong message to everyone in the room that you really do care about customer service.
• Even unhappy customers respect leaders who take ownership and responsibility.
• Sometimes things go wrong. If you make a commitment to a customer (ie, a reservation for a rental car) figure out how to meet that commitment and then, going forward, figure out how to NOT run out of cars.

 Even if there ever is another car rental place in Carbondale, I’m sticking with Enterprise…and Enterprise should stick with Elizabeth and Cody.

Sometimes the easiest customer service requests are made difficult by company employees following a printed policy.

Exhibit A…Thrifty Rental Car

My sister rented a car in Chicago to drive to our beach house in Michigan.  When she arrived, she realized she had left her computer at the Thrifty check in desk in Chicago.  She called their 800 number to confirm it was there.  It took 6 hours of disconnected calls, bad transfers and voice mails to finally reach the Chicago manager’s cell phone.  Once she was able to talk to him (call out to Johnny Alexander and Adam Ahmed), the issue was resolved in 15 minutes and my sister could breath easier knowing her computer was safe.

What made matters worse, Thrifty knew she had left the computer. They had her contact information from renting the car.  Her ID was also on the outside of her  case.  Why didn’t Thrifty provide great service and call her?  Good question.

Don’t let your company’s policy of not sharing contact information for your staff get in the way of great service.  Think through the needs of each customer and make decisions based on making them satisfied!

In this world of less service for a higher price, Bloomberg Businessweek reversed the trend.  I was notified that I would no longer get the magazine by mail but hand delivered to my door!  What?

When a copy of this week’s issue arrived on my steps with my Friday paper I was amazed!  Apparently working with other co-delivery services does not increase their cost over USPS.

Bloomberg says that they want to get the “critical global business news” in my hands before the weekend!  9% of the magazine’s 860,000 domestic print subscribers receive the magazine hand delivered.  The company plans to expand into other metro regions and raise that to 30% by the end of 2011.

In this world of electronic delivery, hand delivered customer service is still the tops!

I received an “astonishing” email today:

Dear Barry,

Recently you may have had trouble instantly watching movies or TV episodes due to a technical issue on our end.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused.  If you attempted and were unable to instantly watch TV episodes or movies yesterday, click on this account specific link in the next 7 days to apply your 3% credit to your next billing statement.  Credit can only be applied once.

Ready to start watching again?  Browse our selection.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.  If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-866-923-0898.

–The Netflix Team

Wow, a service utility offering a discount for an outage?  Have you ever heard of a cable, telephone or utility company doing this?  Never!  They all need to follow Netflix’s example of not only giving a discount but offering it without being asked!

I am always in search of the perfect business card.  Over the last year, I think I found it.  I love Moo Cards.  Their site makes it simple to design your own cards.  My favorite part about dealing with Moo is The Moo Promise.

“We hope you’re happy with all your MOO products, but if you’re not, we’ll do everything possible to fix the problem.  In the unlikely event that we can’t help, we’ll happily give you your money back.”

It doesn’t say that the customer is always right.  But if the customer thinks that they are still right, they will return their money.  No questions asked.  Everyone should be as easy to do business as Moo.

My first job out of college was with IBM.  I didn’t buy an Apple product until the iPod came out. After this last week, I am not sure I will ever own anything but an Apple product.

I have owned an iPad 1 and an iPad 2.  I enjoy traveling with them.  Last week, a cousin visiting dropped the iPad 2 outside (on concrete) and the screen smashed.  Gulp!  This iPad was about 3 months old.  My son took it to the Apple store to find out our options for replacing the screen. To my surprise, they gave him a brand new iPad 2!

Now I have blogged about great customer service before, but this went above and beyond what I thought was possible.

With this trade, Apple accomplished:

1. Me telling this customer service story no matter where I go in person and on social media, and

2. Ensuring I will be their customer forever!  In fact, I now still own the only non Apple product in my house (a Dell desktop).

This is truly marketing lagniappe!

I live in Chicago and I hate taxi drivers.  I know that they do not have the greatest job in the world and with higher gas prices it takes hard work.  Unfortunately, for the most part Chicago taxi drivers are rude and give lousy customer service.  This comes from constantly talking on the phone while driving to not getting out of the taxi to help with the luggage in the trunk…and still expecting a big tip!

This is why I was surprised when I received an outstanding customer service gesture from a Chicago taxi driver today.  I was traveling in downtown Chicago on my way between meetings. When  I realized I was going to be late, I flagged a taxi and got in.  One block after I started my taxi ride, I received a text that my meeting had been canceled and I no longer needed to go to the destination I was heading.  I asked the taxi driver to stop and pulled out $4 to pay the fare on the meter.  The taxi driver declined my money since I had gone a very short distance.  I was shocked and grateful!

I am constantly complaining about taxi drivers in Chicago.  Finally, there is something to cheer!  Have you had a great taxi experience you want to share?

Today’s guest post is from Zanna Joyce, Chief Duck Wrangler:

“Maybe I’m a bit shifty-eyed.  Maybe I hover a little too often.  I don’t know, but I am finding loss-control measures at small boutique stores to be a bit much!

You know the type I mean.  Maybe they’re owned by people who use the store to have around themselves all the things they like.  And I mean all the things.  The store is crowded to the rafters.  There are lots of nice things to look at, but the staff, not able to get a good view of the store and its visitors, are on edge about how many of those pretty, interesting things might go missing.

I am a browser.  I may go into a shop with an idea of what I want, such as “something for dinner”, or “a small gift for Mary”, but I most definitely want to look around, see what is there, find out what interesting products they may have that are different than other places.  I walk in and the staff person pops out from wherever they are squeezing in even more stock to say “can I help you?”

Now, staffers have a few things going on.  They are aware of the pile of stock they have left in the middle of an aisle.  They are aware that if they don’t make the target sales for the month, their job may be on the line.  And they are aware that there are lots of people who will take advantage of an opportunity to steal should it present itself.

So they say “can I help you” and I say “I am looking for some bison for dinner – do you have sausages” and they say no, which hangs in the air.  I want to say, well, then I will just look around, because I really do have a commitment to leaving money in small independent stores whenever I can.  But I hesitate, because too often this means that the staff person flutters around, making it impossible to just look at things.  I might make a half hearted attempt – “Oh, these are nice tomatoes, maybe I will get some of them”, but what I really want to do is to figure out what they do have that I can make dinner from because I just want to do my shopping and I really don’t care if it’s bison sausage or fish or even tofu.  I am there and I want to get my task over with, in a place that I value the very existence of, taking the opportunity to re-familiarize myself with it at the same time so that I know what I can come back for and how best to recommend it.

What usually happens?  I walk out with one or two things.  I have no idea of what else the store might carry that would be useful for future needs, and I feel frustrated at having had to do this little dance with the staffer.  Is my experience completely unique?  I have discussed it with others who are not as easily profiled as me and have heard similar stories.

Less crowded stores, where products are chosen with intent and which leave lots of space for visual observation of shoppers would really help.  As well, a frank and straightforward assessment of security risks, with sufficient mirrors or cameras so that the staff know who is in the store and what they are doing would enable staff to feel safer, and more able to focus on really delivering great customer service, rather than hovering as if everyone is a potential thief.”

I love the reality show, Parking Wars and it is why I wanted this post.  Employees are constantly branding your business in and out of work!  Les O’Dell writes:

“I saw it again this morning.  As I was taking my infant foster son into the day care center, another parent pulled up to take her son in as well.  And, just like every other morning, I saw this mom park her car in a space specifically designated for individuals with wheelchairs or a physical challenge of some sort.  Usually the cars of these people display a special handicapped license plate or placard.

As I watched her remove her child from the backseat of the car and escort him into the child care center, it certainly looked to me that she had no disability, yet she parked in the designated space nonetheless.

You would think she’d know better.  After all, by her clothing it is obvious that she works in a medical facility; every day she wears “scrubs,” the clothing designed for physicians and nurses.  In fact, her top even sports the logo of the clinic where she works.

I wonder if her employer knows how she parks and, more importantly, the image it represents for her clinic.  Here me out on this one.

At best, by parking her car in a spot that she apparently does not need and most likely is not entitled to use, she is sending several potential messages about her own values.  Given that companies often strive to hire people who match their own corporate values, like it or not, it’s easy to overlay what I see as hers onto her employer.

Here are the thoughts that go through my head every morning about this staffer and her clinic (none of them good):

First, maybe she simply parks in the space because it is the closest to the door.  Perhaps she’s running late (every day) and in a hurry to get to work.  Or, in other words, she’s disorganized.

Second, maybe she is just lazy and wants to walk the lowest possible number of steps to take her child into the facility.  Does that mean she’s also taking short cuts at work?  That can be dangerous in any medical facility.

Third, she just doesn’t care about other people, except herself and her child.  By making things easiest for the two of them, they make it more difficult for others, especially anyone who rightfully may need to park in one of those spaces.  Additionally, what is she teaching her son?  That the rules apply to other people, but not them?  That no one else’s needs matter?

I automatically apply this selfish attitude to the clinic where she works, whether it’s right or wrong.  (How can I be sure that they did all of the procedure correctly?  Maybe they don’t care whether or not to get my bill correct.)  It goes on and on.

Listen up, business owners and managers.  Your employees – your people – carry your brand, your image and your reputation everywhere they go, whether or not they are on the clock.  Don’t forget that if they are wearing your logo or driving with your company name on the side of their truck, they are giving people an impression everywhere they go – stopping for a beer after work, cutting off another driver in traffic, carrying 29 items through the express lane or parking in a space reserved for the less fortunate.  What impression are your employees giving outside your store or office?  It’s something to think about.”

Today’s guest post is from Richard Gallagher, one of the nation’s leading experts on workplace communications skills.

“Early one morning this week, on a business trip to a major city, I was desperately looking for a power cable for my dying cell phone.  So I rushed in to a small retailer who happened to be open at that hour, and made a beeline for the front counter.  For a very long time, the person sitting there typed away at his computer without looking up.  Finally he turned to me with a wordless deep sigh.  I politely asked if they had an iPhone cable.  With a scowl that could curdle milk, he said, “Nope” and turned back to his computer.

Places like The Nope Store aren’t just hurting their own business.  They are hurting yours too.  Because we all carry around a running narrative of our own customer experiences.  And sadly, my own narrative includes too many small businesses who have Mr. Nope’s social skills.  Or act way too desperate for me to buy something.  Or look at me like I have three heads when I want a problem made right.  Which is why far too often, I look at businesses like yours and say, “Nope.”

Small businesses are frankly at a disadvantage in the service game.  So how can yours fight back in a way that gets (and keeps) customers like me?  Here’s how:

First, train like the big guys.

I can guess how you feel about big box stores.  That’s OK.  But please understand that their average employee likely knows more (and probably a lot more) about service than you do.  The first thing most chains know is that service is a skill, not just an attitude. Most of us simply aren’t born with the right words to say in critical customer situations.

Employees of big companies aren’t always perfect.  But they have often been trained, and sometimes trained a great deal.  (I know, because I’ve trained some of them.)  You and your team need to do the same.  Even if you can’t afford formal training, you can still buy books, read articles, and put it on the agenda of your team meetings.  Either way it is honestly one of the least expensive things you can do for your bottom line.

Second, have a plan to out-service your big competitors.  Every day.

Have you ever been to Stew Leonard’s grocery store in Connecticut?  They stock dramatically fewer items than most stores, and they aren’t in the most convenient location.  So why are they so successful?  Simple.  Their milk is incredibly creamy and delicious, and their people are always incredibly friendly.  Oh, and being serenaded by mechanical cows in the aisles doesn’t hurt either.  So what sets your customer experience apart?

Third, don’t just serve people – totally blow them away.

In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, there is a spot near the beach where you are overwhelmed with the aroma of freshly cooking fudge, and then you are handed a sample of it as soon as you walk in the door.  How could you not walk away with, say, $20 worth of fudge after an experience like this?  Let’s put it this way, I would never imagine myself getting fudge at Wal-Mart next time I’m in Rehoboth Beach.

Do you think you can succeed in today’s economy without learning to manage your own service moments?  Here is my opinion: Nope.

Rich Gallagher is a former customer service executive and trained therapist, his eight books include the national #1 customer service bestseller What to Say to a Porcupine and his latest book How to Tell Anyone Anything: Breakthrough Techniques for Handling Difficult Conversations at Work.