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Do you have the authority? The authority to do what? What is authority and customer satisfaction?
From the most new person, who is holding their first job in your organization, to the most senior executive in your organization, do they have the authority to fix the customer’s complaint and move the customer back to enjoying the product or service again?
You would think that the most senior executive would have the authority to fix something at any moment without delay, but this can put an executive on the spot.
What if they make a wrong decision that costs the company a lot of money and loses shareholder value- do they get fired?
How about the new recruit, what if they make a mistake and get fired.
These are extreme examples of course, and don't happen very often. But they do happen, and we have to prepare ourselves, not only for our own cause and career, but also the company’s. What is the culture and what are people likely to do?
One of the most famous examples is Tylenol. In the fall of 1982 on Chicago’s west side seven people died and authorities had determined that all seven had ingested an Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule.
Panic is not the word, for two firemen discovered the why people were dying: from cyanide laced in the Tylenol capsules.
The cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules were found to contain 65 milligrams of cyanide, 10,000 times more poison than necessary to kill someone, according to doctors at Northwest Community Hospital in the area of the Chicago poisonings.
The tampering could not have taken place at the factory, investigators would later find, but happened in the Chicago area after the product had been delivered to stores.
So what do you do? Tylenol had almost 31 million bottles on the shelves in America, with a retail value of over 100 million dollars in 1982 dollars. This didn't include the millions of bottles already in consumers' homes. This could be a deathblow for Johnson and Johnson.
Most companies up to now would try to distance themselves from any wrongdoing. For example, the Perrier company at the time learned that benzene was found in some of their bottles. It was called just a local problem, and they did not hold themselves to be accountable. Later benzene was found in bottles around the world.
Johnson and Johnson could have said, we didn’t do anything wrong. It is only in Chicago, everyone else keep those pills popping.
They recalled all of the Tylenol in stores, and people could send back their bottles for tablets, a move that would cost millions more. Johnson and Johnson did not make their quarterly earnings, to say the least.
What would you have done? What are you doing now to ensure the right thing would be done?
One thing that the executives of Johnson and Johnson pointed out was that the company leader Robert Wood Johnson wrote a credo in the 40’s that explained how the company should act, and executives used this credo to make their decisions.
Pretty incredible, don’t you think? That the thing on the wall or in the desk was a document that people actually used over forty years later.
What is hanging on your wall, or is in your desk? What are the values of the company and in truth isn't that the final authority? What do you want your company to be? What is hanging on your wall and does everyone believe that you believe it is the right thing to do?
Enron prided itself on teaching values. Values were on the wall, in every desk, and seminars and workshops were held all of the time. I guess that is not enough, but action from people doing the right thing is.
See Previous Customer Satisfaction Articles:
- The customer is Not always right
- You have to have happy employees
- Do you have the right tools?
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