When did you last speak to your Kevin?
Leaders take note! All day, every day, there are people representing you and your business on the frontline. You might be surprised at the difference they can make…..
Diamonds in the data! Sense from chaos! This is the rationale behind ‘The Power of Personal’.
So, in the annual gloom and doom of rail fare increases, spectacular rail franchise failures and general frustration at public transport, I bring you a ray of light that involves ….. a human called Kevin who rights a very big wrong involving an item that it is both totally worthless and utterly priceless!
From a personal story published in The Times by Emma Duncan, Deputy Editor of The Economist:
“How to turn life’s blunders into triumphs – A train firm saved itself, not to mention my daughter, a lot of trouble thanks to an attitude that should inspire us all!
It is a triumph of H2H/P2P marketing if ever I saw one”.
Here’s the gist of the story:
- Emma’s student daughter is travelling home from Durham to King’s Cross on LNER with a “very large suitcase” that contains all her possessions including, ‘Waddles’, her toy penguin which has been with her since she was three. You’re probably guessing where this is going…..
- Arrives King’s Cross. Suitcase missing from the secure luggage van. Emma: “Looking for help, she [the daughter] found various people in LNER uniforms who said things along the lines of ‘nothing to do with me, guv’, ‘I’m not on shift’ and ‘you’d better report it to the police’.
- Stirred by her wailing daughter, Emma went to the rescue – as any mother would. “I was as angry as a rogue elephant needled by the spears of a thousand tribesmen. I would happily have trampled the CEO and entire Board of LNER while strangling the chairman with my trunk”.
- Enter Kevin, ‘a man towering above a small information booth beside the ticket office’. He listened to the problem and immediately guided Emma and her daughter to the First Class Lounge to await developments.
- Kevin reappeared an hour later with “glad tidings of great joy”. He had called all the stations along the route until the suitcase was discovered and dutifully returned on the 19.18 from Newark, arriving Platform 3!
- Emma’s verdict “LNER was the best company in the world.” Probably not words familiar to LNER!
So what’s this got to do with leadership and ‘The Power of Personal’?
- Kevin is one of the typical ‘invisible’ employees who, often unknowingly, represents the organisation by managing ‘vital touchpoints’. In Kevin’s case he is one of 3,250 LNER employees and, I bet, management/marketing don’t know his name. Well, readers of Emma’s article do now!
- Your Kevins (and their female equivalents, obviously) are one of those 11 touchpoints in Google’s ‘Zero Moment of Truth’ (ZMOT). My take is that introducing personalisation into the ZMOT journey for potential new customers will vastly enrich the quality of the prospective customer experience and may speed up, or even determine, their final decision in your favour.
- For existing customers and contacts, personalisation at key touchpoints can strengthen loyalty. Why not identify all your organisation’s touchpoints to see how well they’re being managed? Problem/complaint handling is one of those touchpoints and, as Emma highlights in her article; “The problem is never the original error but how you dealt with it”.
- Kevin demonstrated total empathy with his customer. He demonstrated what Daniel Pink calls “the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and to intuit what that person is feeling.” Empathy is everything and is a healthy combination of EQ and IQ.
- Beyond empathy, Kevin was interested in finding a solution and, by ‘being interested’, demonstrated it’s pricelessness. This might well have been the thousandth lost property issue he’d been asked about in his career….. Nevertheless, he behaved as if it was the most important matter he’d ever dealt with. He went beyond expectations (giving access to the First Class Lounge was a touch of real genius!). As a leader, how do you rate your organisation’s corporate empathy – which is only as strong as your weakest link?
- “All day, every day, people are looking at your business for a reason” and, because you never know who you are dealing with it’s important to get it right for everybody. In this case Kevin was dealing with the Deputy Editor of the Economist – a prize media supporter to have on your side! In ‘Power of Personal’ terms, that was ‘A Prize’ which converted Emma into ‘An Ambassador’ who then published the story in The Times. The joy of Ambassadors is that they do the work for you – and for free! In the time spent resolving this problem, Kevin achieved more positive media coverage than a whole department of media relations professionals would have done that week (or even that month..…).
- Kevin showed generosity of spirit – and thoughtfulness rather than thoughtlessness – a great untapped resource, and something his colleagues did not display. By paying attention – Kevin demonstrated a quality Simone Weil described as “the rarest and purest form of generosity”.
As a leader, why not scan your organisation (think ‘front of house’, answering phones, catering team etc etc) and think about how many Kevins are representing your organisation. Call one of them or stop by to talk to them. If you know someone has done something exceptional in your business, write them a handwritten thank-you note. It will make their day. And although you don’t know it yet, it could well make yours!
