As the company lore goes, Virgin started in the 1970's as a student newspaper. As Richard Branson decided to also mail out records, he quickly moved into retail after seeing how easy it was to break 33" LPs in the post. Then? Producing records. And then? The airline business. Today? Communications, money, health, renewables, and charity, with over 200 companies and 48,500 employees. Michael Murphy came to Customer Service is the New Marketing to talk about how to provide the same Virgin customer experience across all of them.
Six core values are a guide for all Virgin businesses. Each business must apply these values when establishing their own, business-specific tenets for their local environment:
- Fun. Be wacky, but not irresponsible.
- Value for money. Be simple and clear, but never cheap.
- Quality. Pay attention to detail, but don't be expensive for the sake of it.
- Innovation. Be willing to take risks.
- Competitive challenge. Respond to our customer's needs.
- Brilliant customer service. Hire empowered and professional people.
Although its customers may expect perfect service, Virgin doesn't believe that it can be perfect. Especially when running a lean business, "it's important to compensate by adding a personal touch," and by focusing on how to handle challenging situations when they arise. As Murphy says, "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it."
Virgin's Customer Experience Charter articulates that "Virgin will offer an experience that's 100% human, treating customers with respect and speaking from the heart, not from a script." Murphy was brimming with anecdotes on how Virgin employees are empowered to act on company values every day, in myriad small ways:
- The flight attendant who, after having to forbid a small boy from bringing his goldfish on board, called the destination to arrange for 'his goldfish' to be waiting upon arrival.
- Virgin Mobile's decision to pay for 13-month, rather than 12-month, phone warranties.
- The call center rep who biked out to a new customer's house to personally deliver the correct handset on his day off, after taking responsibility for incorrectly entering the customer's order.
Empowerment is "about having fun and pushing boundaries, as well as about encouraging people to bring their personalities to work, and listening to feedback or learning from mistakes...If employees don't believe in it, then they can't sell it to customers."
Murphy, an unabashed Virgin cheerleader, proudly described Virgin as a leading consumer champion. To illustrate, he posted a screenshot from Hellopeter, the largest consumer web site in South Africa. Companies are on Hellopeter because consumers put them there, not because the companies have joined up themselves. As a company, you can either ignore Hellopeter (and be listed as unresponsive), or face the music of your customers within the public forum. Virgin participates here, and most Virgin businesses have a 'customer board' on which multiple departments are represented.
Teaching almost 50,000 employees to live and act in 'the Virgin way' is a big investment, but it's what Virgin does to protect its customer experience - and by extension, its brand. According to Richard Branson, "convention dictates that a company looks after its shareholders first, its customers next, and last of all worries about its employees. Virgin does the opposite."
