Earlier this month I took Gallup’s StrengthFinder 2.0 online assessment. Connectedness emerged as one of my top five strengths. Connectedness is the ability to see how people, things and ideas are linked to something larger. Connectedness implies certain responsibilities – if we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves.
During the same week of learning this strength about myself, I discovered this strength in a total stranger. She works as a shift supervisor at Starbucks in Austin, Texas (where Dachis Group headquarters is based). Chances were greater that we would meet in-person during one of my 4pm coffee runs, but we met via Facebook first.
The notification arrived before I even realized my wallet was missing. I had made a Starbucks run with a colleague earlier that afternoon and in the chaos of sugar, cream and conversation, I left my wallet at the store. My wallet did not include any identification with a telephone number. The Starbucks shift supervisor noticing the credit cards and cash (I had just recently visited the ATM), decided to immediately look me up and contact with me via Facebook. When I met her at the counter to retrieve my wallet she explained how she too had recently experienced the nightmare of losing her wallet. We connected.
I doubt that Starbucks trains employees to service in-store customers this way on Facebook, but it is evident that making a commitment to increase points of connections with customers is a big part of the company’s culture. Facebook enabled the shift supervisor to contact me when she had no other means than the mailing address on my license. The shift supervisor could have kept the wallet until I connected the dots about what happened (which I could have, as it is also a strength) and returned to the store. Of course, that would most likely be proceeded by the anxious discovery that the wallet was missing at the moment I needed it and a frantic retracing of steps in my head of where I could I have left it. The shift supervisor saved me this emotional energy by making the extra effort to search for me on Facebook and send me a message immediately.
So what does this really have to do with customer service? It has everything to do with me – the customer. I feel more connected to that particular Starbucks location and I feel safe shopping there. Although Starbucks coffee is available at the hotel where I typically stay in Austin, I made a mental note of wanting to give this Starbucks my business, even if it means walking an extra street block. Someone there cared about me and I will reciprocate.
While this story has nothing to do with innovative social CRM strategy, it has everything to do with how a social savvy shift supervisor connected the dots and leveraged Facebook to send a high impact signal to a customer. To the shift supervisor, it was a no-brainer. While social technology can automate and innovate many processes, I still believe it is the human behind the technology that makes best-in-class customer service. To that end, connectedness is a quality I would recommend Starbucks preserving and nurturing at the front lines.
What are your thoughts? Do you believe connectedness is an important quality for customer service?
I think that the great experience you had has nothing to do with customer service or Starbucks or Facebook. It has to do with a good person doing the right thing for another human being because she had recently had a similar experience and could empathize with you. 20-30 years ago that same employee may have just looked you up in the white pages.
“Customer Service” is a big umbrella term and it encompasses an awful lot. Success is comprised of lots of moving parts, and different business models with different service models require different things. The big success here is likely quite simple – a manager made a good hiring choice.
I’m glad you had a great human experience. In this high-tech world so many of us live in, or endure depending on one’s perspective, it’s refreshing to hear.
Jay
Hi Jay, Thanks for your comment. You are right in that positive human interaction is definitely the heart of this story – more so than customer service, Facebook and Starbucks. Still, I think this story illustrates the impact this interaction had on me – the customer. That said, I’ll confess that I make the connection to customer service given my line of work.
Hey Caroline, I’d like to say, I’m proud connectedness is a strength of mine also, according to Gallup. I agree with Jay on this but would like to add my interpretation of the demonstration of connectedness through this act of kindness, and it has nothing to do with corporate PR. The shift manager probably helped you out because she understands that we’re all connected and that her personal choices affect others who in turn make choices that affect her, so finding a way to return the wallet was the only viable option within her moral framework.
Your awareness should also be brought to the connections that Starbucks has to the exploitation of coffee growers throughout Latin America and the closing of small coffee houses. If you look closer, connections like these can be made within many industries. I suggest you search for a nice locally owned business to buy some delicious fair trade coffee in a socially conscious atmosphere. People working in these kinds of places are usually nice too!
Take care.
I know it’s not the main purpose of your article, but it sparked a memory for me … I, too, took the Strengths “test” about 4 years ago … before I had anything to do with social media. Turns out that Connectedness was also one of my top 5 strengths (along with Innovator, Collector, and some other stuff I can’t remember). At the time I questioned it … but now, having made a career out of collaboration and community, it makes perfect sense.
Wonder how many of us who work in this space share that strength? Would be interesting to find out!