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JIM WATSON

JIM WATSON, a founding partner of Presentations That Stick, can be reached at 741-9047 or jwatson@presentations thatstick.com

Some businesses really do try harder. And when they do, their customers feel it.

During a recent family excursion, a car rental was included as part of the vacation package.

When I rent a car during business travel, I prefer to use a certain company that places a huge emphasis on a thing called "the customer experience."

On this particular trip, I didn't have that option. But I wasn't worried about a thing, because the company that I was renting from this time is the reputed leader in the industry. It's been around forever; it ought to know what it's doing.

And it did know what it was doing. The people who work for the company have processed a lot of car rental transactions over the years, and they do it very efficiently. You might say they have transaction-processing down to a science.

On this particular trip, I wasn't your ordinary business traveler. I was one of a family of four with an overflowing luggage cart.

When I approached the counter, the uniformed agent greeted me with the standard "May I help you?" And so the transaction began.

When I asked the agent if he thought all of our luggage would fit into the trunk of the pre-assigned vehicle, he shrugged his shoulders, and said, "I can upgrade you to a larger car for $20 more per day. Do you want to do that?"

"I don't know," I said. "Will the luggage fit the vehicle that you have waiting for us?"

"I don't know," he replied, "but if you want, I can upgrade you. Do you want to go with the upgrade?"

Key point: I was the only customer in line during this highly personalized transaction.

Now, let me tell you about the smaller, newer, more entrepreneurial company that I usually rent from, whenever I have the option.

One hot and humid afternoon in June 2008, I walked into the lobby of this other company's rental facility at the Charlotte, N.C., airport. A cordial agent approached me, handed me a bottle of cold water and apologized for the long line.

There were all of five people in front of me.

As at the first company, the guys who work here have their process down to a science. But the focus of their process seems to be more on me than on the transaction.

They always begin by thanking me for coming in to rent from their company (using the company name is always effective, subtle brand reinforcement), introduce themselves by name and then ask me my name.

Whenever I'm renting from them, I always feel like they're giving me all the attention, even when there are plenty of other customers in the room. They have a way of making me feel like I'm the entire reason they came to work that day; like I'm the last customer of the day, and they want to make it memorable for both of us.

How do your customer-facing employees approach their routine transactions? Are they creating a memorable experience for the customer, or are they focused on getting through the transaction so that they can move on to the next one?

Last year, I attended a national conference on customer relationship management. One of the speakers presented a series of slides that showed measurements, statistics and graphs in support of the idea that if you improve customer service, you'll ultimately improve your market share and your revenue.

Then he said something that really hit home. It had nothing to do with statistics, and everything to do with what a customer feels, and how we respond. He said, "Customer service people are really in the business of creating memories."

I remember that remark, and I remember that bottle of cold water in Charlotte.

What kind of memories are you creating?