Quality customer service drives success at FedEx

The International Customer Service Association states, “Management in corporate America recognizes it costs nearly five times as much to get new customers as it does to keep existing ones. Consequently, more resources are being committed to all aspects and levels of customer service: salaries, training programs, human resources and equipment. Senior management is finding customer service more integral to their competitive advantage and to their bottom-line profits.”

This constant commitment to service has nothing to do with phony smiles, clever phrases and hanging banners with slogans.

It means the ability to compete and compete profitably now and throughout the 21st century.

It requires passion, a missionary zeal and relentless pursuit to satisfy your customers.

Few companies possess this collective commitment. However, one company that has made customer service its fierce battle cry is Federal Express.

FedEx is a young company. On its first night of operation, April 17, 1973, FedEx shipped only eight packages. Seven were trial runs. In 1983, it was the first corporation in U.S. history to hit the $1 billion mark in annual revenues within its first decade of operation.

Today, FedEx has more than 245,000 employees in 215 countries who make sure that when “the most important package is yours” and “it absolutely, positively has to get there”... it does! And they do it in excess of 4.8 million times a day.

When Federal Express won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Chairman and CEO Fred Smith didn’t say the Baldrige was a testament to his company’s expertise or an apt award for years of dedication. Instead, he said, “I hope we don’t take this damn thing too seriously!”

Great quote!

What Smith is saying is, “OK, the statue is nice, but it doesn’t matter to our customers that we won some award if their packages arrive late or on the wrong day!”

Smith knows he and FedEx can’t allow the past to block their vision and customer commitment for the future.

Although FedEx now has about 665 aircraft and a family of companies with annual revenues in excess of $25 billion, its quest for service excellence hasn’t peaked.

It continues daily.

I know firsthand. As part of my preparation and research for programs I conducted with Federal Express senior managers, I observed, read about and heard about this service passion.

The American Management Association’s Management Briefing, “Blueprints for Service Quality, The Federal Express Approach” states, “There are no ‘secrets’ at Federal Express. The company’s impressive growth and its distinguished service quality achievements have little to do with ‘magic’ formulas.

“Their foundation lies in sound managerial theories and practices – the staples of management literature and of the wisdom espoused by quality “gurus” for years, even decades.”

What sets Federal Express apart:

1. A consistent, clearly stated service quality goal – 100 percent customer satisfaction – enunciated frequently and pursued doggedly in innumerable ways, large and small.

2. A mathematical measure of absolute service failures as a catalyst to promote continuous quality improvement.

3. Employees who feel empowered through open communication, training opportunities, quality improvement tools, and excellent leadership. They thus gain the freedom to take risks and innovate in the pursuit of quality and service for both internal and external customers.

4. Finally, and most fundamental, is a people-first environment that acknowledges employee satisfaction as the primary corporate objective, and nurtures a culture from which customer satisfaction and profits spring.

Regarding this last point, Smith explains the FedEx corporate philosophy this way: “When people are placed first, they will provide the highest possible service, and profits will follow.”

When I asked FedEx employees what service means to them, here’s how they responded:

• Achieving 100 percent customer satisfaction. Period.

• Providing timely, accurate responses or solutions that meet customers’ needs and doing so with a friendly, positive attitude.

• Keeping promises.

• Being readily available and efficiently prepared to handle problems, questions or suggestions in order to maintain a relationship in a proactive way.

• Doing whatever it takes to give customers the perception that they are receiving more value than the investment they’re placing in the partnership.

• Making our customers’ problems our own.

• A willingness to go the extra mile ... on your own!

And as a client once told me, “Remember, in the extra mile, there’s no traffic jam!”

Jeff Blackman is a speaker, author, success coach, broadcaster and lawyer based in Illinois. His clients call him a “business-growth specialist.”