Hotels and Cars

Something has been on my mind lately and it has been bothering me to some degree. For years as I have worked in customer service I have been talking with people about loyalty and what creates an experience that fosters this loyalty. Then I had a moment in a conversation that caused me to pause completely and re-evaluate my thinking.

So, I was recently at a Frost and Sullivan Customer Service Conference in Florida and I was talking to a great thinker that I respect quite a bit in the industry. His name is Jim Nagle and he is the VP of customer service at Kohl's, the retail store. We were just chatting about random thoughts and we happend upon similar experiences recently in the world that caused us both to stop and think. Jim told me a story about how 2 years ago he had been having some car trouble, so he took his car to the dealership where he bought it. Long story short, it was a miserable experience for him and he swore that he would never go back to this place again. He went down the street and got his car fixed at another dealer. The thought provoking part of the conversation was when he said that 2 years went by and he was ready to buy a new car. Where do you think he bought his car? Yep, the place where he swore he would never again step foot in. But wait, based on all we know and all the consultants tell us, wasn't his loyalty supposed to be firmly entrenched with the second dealer that fixed his problem?

My story was similar, but instead of negative, mine was incredibly positive. The similarity was that my loyalty was not locked in, even after this incredible experience. Long story short, my family was staying in a Westin Hotel and we needed a microwave in our room for our daughters food. The hotel had given out all the microwaves they had in house, but they still managed to find one for us. Only later did we find out that the manager of the hotel had gone to her home to get the microwave and bring it back for us to use. Truly amazing customer experience! But, the next time I was looking to stay at a hotel out of town, my first stop was not the Westin or even a Starwood property. Why?

That is the point of this post. Why did Jim and I both react to our situations in similar ways, in essence breaking the paradigm of customer service that we have heard for years? Why did Jim go back to a place that he swore he would not to buy his car? Why did my next search for a hotel not start at the Westin?

I don't have the full answer to this quite yet and am interested in anyones perspective. I think the answer has something to do with the incredibly complex nature of buying and not only the quantitative needs of a customer but also the qualitative needs of the customer along with deep emotional reactions that one can have with a product or service. But, I have this nagging pull in my head that says that it is more than this. And if it is, does this mean that we need to change the paradigm in customer service to match the change in the customers behaviors?

What do you think?