Investing in Customer Service

Why Human Moments are More Critical than Ever / How QuikTrip Revolutionized the Convenience Story Industry / Why You May Not Be Investing in Customer Service  

The #1 Reason Why Companies do not invest in Customer Service

One of my favorite books I read was The Slight Edge, written by Jeff Olson. It talks about the slight edge is doing the little things right today that has a huge impact down the road. In other words, whether you work out today or you don’t, it doesn’t matter today. Whether you save a dollar today or you don’t, it doesn’t matter today. Success is a habit of making the right, un-dramatic, insignificant choices, compounding over time, and creating a progression of substantial growth.

The Difficulty with Customer Service Investment

One of the most significant difficulties with why so many companies do not invest in customer service is there is no immediate impact. We live in an instant society demanding immediate results. Marketing, sales promotion, and cutting expenses provide immediate results that executives can see. However, those things often do not have a lasting positive impact on business. If your organization trains your new and existing employees to deliver an excellent customer experience today or they don’t, it doesn’t matter today. If you go above & beyond today for a customer, it really has no impact on the bottom line, today. If you resolve a customer challenge or don’t, it doesn’t matter today. However, nothing will impact the health of your customer retention, sales, profits, referrals, morale, and turnover as much as providing superior customer service consistently over a period of time.

Creating a world-class customer service organization is not a short-term game. There is no ribbon-cutting ceremony. You never arrive. It is not about the flavor of the month, program of the year, or management by the best sellers. The true underlying obstacle is getting leaders to be disciplined and patient, not to cut corners and stray away from the plan for short-term gain.

Related:  Do Top CX Brands Outperform the Competition?

How QuikTrip Revolutionized the Convenience Story Industry

QuikTrip is a privately held company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has revolutionized the convenience store industry by disregarding conventional wisdom, breaking the model, and revolutionizing an entire industry. The dynamics of the convenience store industry typically include 24/7 operation, low frontline wages, and an average turnover rate of 300 percent.

QuikTrip’s mission: “To provide opportunity for employees to grow and succeed.” Those are not just words on a plaque; they are committed to their employees, here’s how they show it:

• Hire employees based on their people skills and put them first.
• Pay them generously and promote from within.
• Believe employee compensation is more important than profits and the bottom line.
• Full-time hires get regular medical insurance and a reimbursement plan from day one.
• Their time-off policy is unheard of for frontline employees. Not only do employees get ten to twenty-five vacation days a year (depending on tenure) plus ten days of sick pay, but they can also buy two extra weeks off and request an additional ten days without pay, no questions asked. Rather than calling in sick on the morning of an absence, an employee can request in advance a day off, giving management a heads-up opportunity to restaff without a disruption of service.

Related:  Why Investing in Customer Service Pays Off

The Results

QuikTrip has created an “employer market,” resulting in over a thousand job applications a week. QuikTrip revenues 9.2 billion, with 24,034 employees and over 1000 stores in eleven states. Those revenues place QuikTrip high on the Forbes listing of the largest privately held companies. Fortune magazine has ranked QuikTrip high on the list of “Best Companies to Work For” each of the last ten years.

About QuikTrip Corporation

QuikTrip Corporation is a privately held company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1958, QuikTrip has grown to a more than $14 billion company with over 1,200 stores in 19 states. QuikTrip gives back to the communities it serves, donating five percent of net profits to charitable organizations in those communities.

With over 31,000 employees, QuikTrip has consistently been ranked as one of the top convenience store marketers in product quality and friendly service.

Newsweek’s “America’s Best Customer Service 2025” list recognized QuikTrip for excellence in both convenience store and gas station categories. In the gas station category, QuikTrip achieved the highest score of 89.94, while in the convenience store category, it ranked second with a score of 87.73. These accolades highlight QuikTrip’s strong commitment to delivering high-quality customer service across its locations.​

Related: Revolutionizing the Convenient Store Experience 

Creating Human Moments Intentionally

I love what Will Guidara, an entrepreneur and author, said in this interview about how if we waste an opportunity to connect with a customer when we are serving them, we are being irresponsible.

“The human moments need to be as human as humanly possible, not just because it’s good for the soul, but also because it’s good for business. They are less frequent. They are more fleeting. Yes, that makes them precious. And if you waste one of them, it’s irresponsible. And I think they become more human when you’re more intentional in pursuit of them, and that is at the very core of hospitality.” –Will Guidara

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Now is the Time to Invest in Your Customer Service

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June 9, 2025 | 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

• Identify and eliminate friction points in your customer journey
• Create a proactive service strategy that makes doing business with you effortless
• Learn how to prevent and recover from service failures in a way that builds customer loyalty
• Leave with a Zero Risk Action Plan to ensure every customer interaction is seamless and risk-free

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June 9:  Become a Zero-Risk Organization

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Our Experience Academy courses have been designed to certify people for a new level of leadership, benefiting their career and your organization.

• The Customer Experience Executive Academy enables you to assess an organization’s current state of service and work to build systems to consistently deliver world-class experiences.
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