Above and Beyond By Jon Gordon When you read the title of this article you might have thought I was referring to heaven but rather I’m talking about heavenly customer service - the kind of service where managers and employees go above and beyond to meet and surpass the needs and expectations of their customer. And when I talk about this kind of service one company comes immediately to mind. Publix Super Markets. They were recently named one of America’s Most Admired Companies and the #1 admired Food Retailer by Fortune Magazine. As a regular customer I can earnestly say that they earn their accolades every day because they go above and beyond. Just the other day my wife sent me to Publix to get a few “hard to find” non traditional food items. In most super markets this would be more challenging than Indiana Jones’s task of finding the lost ark. If you asked a store employee where you could find something they would either tell you the wrong aisle, point and grunt or just say “I don’t know Dude.” But Publix is different. When I told a young man who was stocking a shelf with Campbell’s soup cans about my quest he stopped what he was doing and said, “Let me show you,” and he walked me to each aisle for each item. He made my day and he made shopping a pleasure not a painful arduous process. I also have to tell you about the time that Publix didn’t have the item I was looking for but a nearby competing supermarket did. The manager actually got in his car and went to the competition and bought the item and came back and then sold it to me. I was a Publix customer and he didn’t want me to have to go to another store. He wanted to keep me as a Publix customer and he sure did. They’ve also done this for my wife several times over the past few years. The best part is that these are not just my amazing Publix experiences. My friends and family have all had similar experiences at Publix as well. How do I know this? We have had conversations about Publix. Why? Because when someone provides you with above and beyond customer service you talk about it with others. This is how and why businesses grow and this is how you become admired by customers and other industry leaders. Publix has chosen to go above and beyond what we define as “normal” customer service and in the process they have created a new standard or a new “normal” that customers measure every other experience against. And that’s why they are # 1. So as you read this I hope you are thinking of ways you and your team can go above and beyond the call of duty to serve others in extraordinary ways. Don’t measure yourself against others. Become the measuring stick. Become the standard. Show others what “normal” looks like. Ask how you can go above and beyond and serve your customers, clients, patients, constituents, team and family today. If you go above and beyond you won’t have to search for business but rather they’ll find you.
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