I love getting real examples of businesses and leaders that actually do stuff that works… and do it well.
I’ve just come across a nice profile of Paul English of Kayak, on Inc.com. Kayak is the highly successful travel website comparison site and the article highlights the role of Paul as a leader when it comes to creating a real customer focus across his business.
In what can often be seen as the ‘faceless’ sector of web business, he seems to very much try to ‘humanise’ the business, and does it by ‘leading from the front’.
Here’s an extract from the article:
About a year ago, I bought a red telephone with a really loud ringer for the office. Whenever a customer calls the help number on our website, that phone rings. The engineers initially complained about it. They said, “That’s so friggin’ annoying!” And I’d say, “There’s a really simple solution: Answer the friggin’ phone and do whatever it takes to make that customer happy. Then hang up, unplug the phone, walk it down to the other end of the office, and plug it in down there.”
It’s like hot potato. Except I take it seriously. When the phone rings, I literally jump over the desks just so I can get to the phone before anyone else. I love talking to customers, even angry ones. I learn a lot from them about how to make the site easier to use. When the call’s over, I’ll say, “If you have any follow-up questions, my name is Paul English; I’m the co-founder of the company.” I’ll give out my personal cell-phone number. Only one out of 20 people might actually call, but they’re blown away when I do that…….
The article highlights some really great examples of what I see in totally customer focused businesses:
- They’re easy to buy from and deal with
- They get ‘customers’ on the agenda…. and keep them there
- They hire for attitude, not just skill
- Leaders act as role models – they ‘walk the talk’
You can read the article here…… and after you have, ask yourself:
’How do we measure up against those 4 factors?’
And then maybe work out what you need to do to ‘walk the talk’!
