Five Companies that Fix their Story to Inspire Service

Branding as a strategy means little if the customer experience is not there. If your story doesn’t align with what you do, all of the clever tactics you can come up with to follow your lofty goal will not make the cut.

Unless you can fix your story by inspiring a culture of service from the inside. You instill a belief as well as make an example of behaviors to follow throughout the organization. You know that this cannot just be a grassroots effort, it needs to come all the way from the top. 

Which companies are doing that today? Here’s five that fix their story to inspire service:

1. Southwest Airlines - anyone who’s ever had the opportunity to be serviced by this airlines knows why we’re Nuts about Southwest. Personality would not be as effective without the service and that is pretty well organized.

2. Patagonia - striking conversations about your passion with employee, friends, and customers can also provide you with many more ideas on how to live a more adventurous life. Check out how their customers participate actively (pun intended).

3. Netflix - there’s something special in a good story, and even more so when there are unlimited stories to choose from. I like that they introduce themselves briefly in each post and that the conversations flow in the comments.

4. Zappos.com - this is the story of a customer service company that happens to sell (mainly) shoes. You can find their core values displayed on every page of the site and as reminders while you search - their first mantra is to deliver wow through service.

5. Whole Foods - they understand the power of a passionate team who know about the products they carry and care about making customers happy.

These companies are doing it without drama. Can you do the same?

[reposted from my column at FastCompany.com from last September. I'm thrilled to see these companies blogs still interactive.]

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Meryl K Evans]

While Netflix may be doing something right with the introductions, they're doing a lot of folks very wrong with their subtitles/captioning process. It's all in the comments. They could not even carry the right version of "Up" the movie (Disney released two versions and the more expensive one comes with subtitles. Guess which Netflix picked.)

[Arik Hanson]

Valeria:

Loved this line: "If your story doesn’t align with what you do, all of the clever tactics you can come up with to follow your lofty goal will not make the cut."

If more companies only followed that mantra...

As a Minnesota guy, I'd add Mayo Clinic to this list. They do a nice job from a health care perspective. OK, so they might not be at Zappos level, but their "Sharing Mayo Clinic" blog was groundbreaking in the health care field (as well as a number of other approaches they're trying). And, from all accounts, their online story definitely reflects the experience people have within the four walls of their facilities.

@arikhanson

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Meryl - I do wonder, as customers, are we ever satisfied? This is an ongoing dialogue I have with a dear friend. There will always be someone who has been frustrated by a business decision. I know I have been more than once. In a couple of cases, I admit I was not a good customer. From what I hear, Netflix does a lot of things right. There's always Blockbusters, paid cable TV, other options... just saying.

@Arik - is it the companies, the disconnect in executive row, the whack-a-mole games of corp downsizing? None of these are excuses, of course. Good addition. I've met the Mayo Clinic social media team, and given your ready testimonial as to the service experience, you're right, they belong on this list. Thank you for suggesting them.

[Cassie Rice]

Too bad Comcast can't fit that group. They were one of the first to create a customer service account, but their service didn't change. They were just named the worst company in America: http://consumerist.com/2010/04/congratulations-comcast-youre-the-worst-company-in-america.html