HFT 3240 Discovering the Soul of Service Chapters 7 12 Identify the principal business of the 14 sample companies profiled in the Soul of Service These 14 sample companies provide the book s foundation Their lessons not only teach but also stretch us to imagine to ask what if questions about our own companies they inspire Lessons from the sample firms are infused into every chapter and readers will be intimately acquainted with all 14 companies upon completion of the book These truly are great service companies companies that demonstrate the grand possibilities accompanying leadership with heart companies that show the way to sustainable success How do the St Paul Saints provide high value to their fans St Paul Saints a minor league baseball team in St Paul Minnesota that sells out every home game and has a season ticket waiting list of more than 1 000 people Operating on the principle that fun is good the Saints offer a strong entertainment value for families and have earned the affection and loyalty of the entire community What role does trust play in building relationships The St Paul Saints illustrate the power of trust based relationships By empowering the fans by giving them a voice in key decisions affecting them such as whether a new stadium should be built by offering them abundant value in exchange for their money and time by naming the team the St Paul Saints and not the Twin Cities Saints a family entertainment company that happens to play professional baseball powers its success with trust based relationships Trust based relationships characterize the sustained success of the sample companies A relationship exists when one assesses specific experiences not in isolation but as a progression of past experiences likely to continue into the future What role does service competence and fairness play in building trust Perceptions of a company s competence and fairness contribute directly to a sense of trust the foundation of employee partner and customer relationships A company s relationships with employees and partners contribute to its efforts to build customer relationships The greater the trust in these relationships the greater the commitment to them How is company fairness demonstrated in the text Two questions individuals often ask themselves before making important choices are Can promises be kept and Will promises be kept Whether it is a packaged goods company selecting a marketing research supplier a prospective employee considering a job offer from a marketing research company or a prospective business partner assessing the desirability of a strategic alliance with the research firm these two questions are pivotal The first concerns competence the second fairness Competence and fairness contribute directly to trust which leads to loyalty Understand the effects of employee turnover and service quality High employee turnover drives a stake in the heart of a company s relationship marketing efforts Excessive turnover negates customers efforts to develop any kind of personal relationship with a firm because they must continually deal with different service providers Because service quality and customer retention suffer from so many new inexperienced and poorly prepared employees profitability is hurt further reducing resources available to invest in employees success Understand the importance of company family gatherings honor fairness and fun In strong families the parents are accessible and approachable They are real people not portraits on a wall or in an annual shareholders report It is easy and comforting to be in their presence Relationships are personal genuine and loving The same is true in strong organizations The leaders are accessible approachable and caring Relationships are personalized Mutual respect is abundant And organizational trust is nurtured What is emotional ownership of the company Emotional ownership of the company the highest level of relationship commitment is an extension and combination of cooperation enhancement identity and advocacy Trust can help a company build relationships with customers employees and partners that are so intense they feel and act like owners of the business and may actually become financial owners Give examples of UKROP s friendship rules or gestures Friendship rules include providing emotional support respecting privacy and preserving confidences and tolerance of other friendships 32 Trust based customer relationships honor these friendship rules Relationship companies look for ways to please their customers to do something extra or special for them just as friends would do for one another They respect honor and trust them EX 1 During a Richmond snowstorm ice slid off the roof of a Ukrop s store and damaged a customer s car Ukrop s was not legally responsible for the damage because it resulted from inclement weather The company paid for the car to be fixed anyway EX 2 Ukrop s does not deliver groceries but a customer called a store to ask if two food trays could be delivered for a neighbor who had a death in the family The assistant manager personally delivered the food trays EX 3 Custom Research mapped the entire research process with one client to avoid duplicating steps and to save the client time and effort A client contracting only for tabular data might also receive presentation charts at no extra charge Know the Cora Griffith story Cora Griffith is a waitress for the Orchard Cafe in Appleton Wisconsin s Paper Valley Hotel She is superb in this role appreciated by her first time customers famous with her regular customers revered by her co workers Cora Griffith is a success story She is loyal to her employer and dedicated to her customers and co workers She is a perfectionist who seeks continuous improvement Her enthusiasm for her work is abundant her spirit unflagging Her energy radiates through the restaurant She operates at a high level of discretionary effort every single day She is proud of being a waitress proud of touching lives Cora implements nine rules of success The difference between an average or acceptable waitress and Cora Griffith comes from Cora s extra effort Cora Griffith is a better waitress than she might otherwise have been because of her employer s willingness to teach her trust her and listen to her How did Midwest Airlines and UKROP train its employees Midwest Airlines Midwest Express conducts a two day orientation program for 25 to 30 new employees every three weeks All new