Down Mexico Way

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Where The Customer Wins

Competency: customer service

Who benefits: all organizations who have customers (and who doesn’t?)

Consultant Usage: for consultants who use stories to make a point

What’s it about? My friend Paul gave me the idea for today’s post. We were both enjoying a liquid refreshment in our favorite restaurant in Zihuatanejo, MX. Zihua, as the locals call it, is a coastal town on the Pacific Ocean side of southern Mexico.

Ever since this community was mentioned in The Shawshank Redemption it has been a popular tourist destination. It morphed from sleepy fishing village to tourist dependent. Except that these days there aren’t many tourists. The town is in its fourth straight year of tourist decline.

According to the locals, the number one reason there are fewer tourists is the economy. True. Second reason for the decline in numbers is a fear of drug wars. False. Drugs are a problem here just like they are in the US. There is drug related crime nearby … but not in the tourists’ districts. Visitors here in Z town are likely safer than they would be in any midsize or large city back home in the US or Canada.

The tourist industry here must have seen that baseball movie with the popular line “If you build it, they will come.” But they didn’t come. Or at least not in the numbers that were projected.

So what does a tourist economy do when there are too few tourists? Success and failure can be directly linked to Customer Service (with a capital C and a capital S). There are a lot of places closing down and a few that are thriving. Que pasa?

The places that are closing have all but ignored the customer. There are two common (failing) strategies employed in this ocean paradise. The first is raise prices for lost revenue. That simply guarantees failing faster. The second stategy is for owners of properties rented to successful business people to double or triple the rents and thus force out the successful renters. This is a guarantee to fail, but at a slower rate. The owners simply have no idea how to carry on the existing business, let alone expand in some financially useful manner. Loyal customers begin to drift away and find more appealing destinations.

There is a beach front restaurant here that was called MJ Richie’s for as many years as anyone I know can recall. It was the daily watering hole for the beach types. By noon most of the tables were occupied. The regulars tended not to spend a lot, but they were regulars. Rafa, the proprientor, could count on them and they received good value for their meager spending. Rafa knew them all, joined in the occasional conversation and created a happy atmosphere. Today, despite it’s prime location, the owners (who drove Rafa out envising a Golden Goose) have (goose) egg on their face. They are clueless about customer service and customer retention. The tables sit mostly empty. Customers are as scarce as the Goose.

Owner Abe and waitress/university student Karen

Contrast this with El Perla Negra, a neighborhood café sitting a few blocks away from the beach. Owners Lisa and Abe run the place a little like the old Cheers Bar — Everyone knows your name. Food prices are very reasonable and have not gone up, the quality of the food is excellent, the wait staff absolutely put customers first. No table, no problem – if there is a chair available the staff will find you a place. If you have to wait, the staff comes by and gives you updates and chats with you. The atmosphere is joyful. Many of the regulars eat there twice a day. Lisa and Abe take super care with their employees, paying them in a unique way that guarantees the employees will do well, even on slow days. Employee loyalty is fanatic.

The tourist industry is doing poorly in this great town, but you would never know it at El Perla Negra … or Hotel Mercedes right down the street. Hotel Mercedes is a small hotel, 8 rooms, a block from the beach. It is clean, has most amenities, prides itself on customer service, keeps its rates low … and has almost 100% guest occupancy during the high season. If they have an opening for an upgrade, you may be offered a bigger room at no additional charge. They have an exceptional return rate and get a large number of guests by word of mouth.

Villa Mercedes

Down the street a much larger hotel with some beach front rooms has recently raised their prices by 25%. This hotel, along with several others in the area, is notoriously poor in responding to its emails.Their current occupancy during this high season is 20%. Similar numbers apply to the other non customer centric establishments.

As noted in an earlier post, I have declared February as Customer Service Month. Today I sit in a room near the beach of a darn good destination. More people should come here and experience real life in Mexico. This is a great place to visit if you like experiences that are different from your daily life back home.

But one thing isn’t different. Great Customer Service, no matter where in the world, is King!

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.