In today’s hyper –competitive, 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 a shopping excursion for hiking boots, 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, in July I’m helping organize the first fundraising climb up Kilimanjaro involving members of the financial industry across Canada.

One of those climbing is Murray Morton, a thirty seven year industry veteran with Dundee Securities in Toronto. Given the importance of the right hiking boots, on a Saturday in January he went to Bass Pro Shop, a sporting goods superstore north of the city.

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

“I haven’t climbed Kilimanjaro but I have hiked in Kenya” Chris said. He then explained that Murray needed waterproof boots for the low lying wetter terrain as well as boots providing 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 then to come see him afterwards.

After his trial period, Murray was happy with the recommendation, but when he went to look to leave found that Chris was on break, so paid for his purchase and went on his way.

So far, 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, “ I think we may have a message for you.”

Sure enough, when Tusker’s staff came into the office Monday morning, they’d found a voice mail from Chris at Bass Pro Shop. He hadn’t got 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 there when Murray left, but leaving his name and phone number should there be any questions on the boots or anything else he needed help with for his climb.

 “I was absolutely blown away” Murray told me. “In fact, I sent the manager of the store an email about this experience … and you know that I’m going back 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.  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 in the early 1980s, before the advent of centralized call centers.   At lunch on the day that I was scheduled to fly to London, I discovered my wallet missing, along with all my credit cards. On calling the local American Express office, I spoke to “Geoff” 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 that I needed to sign for an Amex card and discovering that Geoff had delivered it in person.

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’ve inconvenienced; think no further than the ubiquitous automated voice attendants  with 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 advisors who are able to personally acknowledge key clients, both reactively and proactively.

The reactive opportunities emerge in the course of your regular week, as clients call with problems or issues. You need to create a culture where 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 Geoff at AMEX.

The proactive opportunities are ones 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 they could reasonably have expected.

None of this is particularly efficient or scalable, which means that you can only afford to target key clients with this approach … but it’s precisely the lack of efficiency and scalability that makes it stand out. 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.

The adventure of a lifetime

For anyone looking for the adventure of a lifetime, there’s still time to sign up for this July’s fundraising trek up Kilimanjaro.

For a conference call with all the details, call 416 365 3272 or +1 855 365 3070, and enter 8489322# as the conference ID and 4155# as the recording reference number.

And to see more about Amani, here’s an example of a personalized fundraising video that advisors on the climb are sending to friends and clients.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vtfDb1SGpc

For more details of the climb, email mabel.vasquez@agf.com.