In July I told you the story of Forever 21 versus the Garage and Rachel’s, or should I say my, shopping experience. More recently, I attended a business conference and wound up getting stuck as a result of mechanical difficulties. 12 hours stuck. What I found interesting was the original attendant at the airlines didn’t know her product, really how to help me or anyone else there, and in an attempt to assist me by switching flights wound up placing me last on the stand-by list. I assured the next attendant that I had no influence over the prior attendant nor their computer system and was told there was nothing that could be done and I would remain in last place.
Quickly, having at this point waited 5 hours, requested to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor came and saved the day by placing me at No. 1 in the standby line. This did not help. I had to wait another 7 hours in order to get onto the redeye flight. However, the supervisor also indicated that I could reserve a confirmed seat on the redeye and still try for standby; an option that had not previously been made known.
The conclusion I drew from this experience is that it is critical to know what it is that you do, what your product is and how to provide great quality customer service. All of these ah hah moments are translatable into how we are forever attempting to move Gaylord Popp and our culture as a firm to address these exact customer service issues.
In the same trip, I had the opportunity to listen to the owner of Zappos describe a company culture where people understand that they aren’t in the shoe business but are in the making people happy business. When I came back from my trip, I met with all of our attorneys and staff to describe how we are going to become the Zappos of law firms. Our vision is to make our clients happy. It may sound simple or understated but we believe if executed as we envision it will be the most significant firm culture shift we have had in a long time. We are excited for this journey and invite you to join us. I would love to hear about your experiences with our firm good or bad, preferably bad, and if you would take the time to send me an e-mail at sgaylord@gaylordpopp.com it would be greatly appreciated.