HR’s Job is to Help Employees Create Great Customer Experiences
Posted on Thursday, July 9, 2009 by Frank Roche
Shawn, our art director at iFractal, picked up his custom shirt at Brooks Brothers in Philadelphia. When he brought it back to our office, it was noticeable that something had gone terribly wrong. It was Frankenshirt.
But this isn’t a story that complains about Brooks Brothers — quite the opposite, in fact. When Shawn took the shirt back to the store they immediately took care of it. Said they’d order him a new shirt. Took his measurements again. Shawn told them he didn’t want another shirt; he just wanted his money back.
“No, no,” said the Brooks Bothers manager. “We’ll refund your money, but we want to make this a positive experience.” They offered to make him another shirt for free.
And just like that, Brooks Brothers became a superstar. Shawn told all of us. And I’m telling you. Brooks Brothers has been in business for 191 years. In fact, they’re the oldest surviving men’s clothier in the United States. It would probably be easy for an iconic brand to ignore a single customer. Instead, they went above and beyond and provided exceptional customer service. I’m sure they have a customer for life.
What’s HR Got to Do with It?
People are your most important asset, right? They certainly are at Brooks Brothers. Sure, their clothing is fabulous. But making things right and giving employees the power, permission and protection to make great decisions — that’s what HR can provide. If your HR processes aren’t focused on getting it right for the customer every single time, you’re missing out. Great HR equals great business.
Sometimes giving someone the shirt off your back isn’t a bad business model.
Shawn
Jul 9th, 2009
A free crispy shirt will definitely keep me coming back. I went in saying I would never shop here again. That wasn’t too hard to change. WHO WANTS A FREE CUSTOM SHIRT??? ME!!
nelking
Jul 9th, 2009
Great post!
I’d add and HR job is to give employees the ability to fix problems so they never happen again. Front line employees especially need to have the ability to change operations to prevent them from having this same customer issue again. HR needs to make sure that’s working too. Otherwise it get’s a little old giving away a free shirt every week.
Frank Roche
Jul 9th, 2009
@nelking: Thank you. And great point…fix problems so they never happen again. That’s even a better outcome!
Frank Roche
Jul 9th, 2009
@Shawn: They have you, man. Very, very smart business approach.
Ron Ulrici
Jul 9th, 2009
Frank, This story reminds me of the customer service that we learned from the Total Quality Management phase we went through. I’m glad to hear that one company still practices it. I have always said that HR should hire only customer-oriented people in their companies. It should not just be the Sales or Marketing departments that practice good customer service!
laurie ruettimann
Jul 9th, 2009
It’s too bad we didn’t see Shawn in his awesome new shirt!
Frank Roche
Jul 9th, 2009
@Laurie, we’ll have him model it when the new one is made. It’s a good story, no?
Ashley Andrus
Jul 10th, 2009
Frank, excellent reminder that EVERYONE in your organization is in sales! Everyone.
And must admit am v. curious about exactly what went wrong with the “Frankenshirt”.
Frank Roche
Jul 10th, 2009
@Ashley Thank you. Great point — everyone is in sales, even HR!
laurie ruettimann
Jul 12th, 2009
It’s a great story and I’ll never turn down a reason to see Shawn model.