Our Clients Do Big Things

Client Success

From Fortune 100 companies and state governments to family-owned businesses and small towns, our deep, real-world experience has led to dramatic financial opportunities for our clients.

ATI Physical Therapy Named Best Physical Therapy Practice In The Nation

Situation

ATI operates physical therapy clinics nation-wide, with a reputation for genuine patient advocacy. But rapid growth caused their contact center to experience long wait times and complaints about service.

Action

The DiJulius Group collaborated with ATI to:

  1. Map the Patient Experience Cycle, eliminate service defects, and create positive experiential moments
  2. Create “Never & Always” service standards to drive speed and consistency in the patient experience
  3. Hold daily inter-departmental huddles to improve leadership and patient advocacy soft-skills
  4. Create a day in the life of a customer, service vision, and pillars.

Results

  • ATI named “Best Physical Therapy Practice in the Nation” by ADVANCE Rehab magazine
  • Average call wait-time fell from more than 3 minutes to 0.12s
  • Dramatically reduced other call-center complaints

Celebrity Cruises Increases Sales Conversion to 30%

Situation

Celebrity Cruises is a leading luxury cruise line provider with the goal of creating a World Class service culture that differentiates Celebrity Cruises in the industry. Turn call centers into Relationship Centers where employees deliver world class interactions on each call.

Action

TDG collaborated with Celebrity Cruises to:

  1. Systemize the Customer Experience delivered by employees to allow consistency at all levels on all ships
  2. Journey Map to create Experiential Standards for each Customer touch point
  3. Above the line and below the line
  4. Create a day in the life of a customer, service vision, pillars, nevers and always

Results

  • Sales conversion increased to 30%
  • NPS improved 4.2 points in 2 years

We are always looking for ways to get our teams emotionally engaged with our guests and our ‘internal guests’. TDG helped us do that and more by looking at real-life scenarios, highlighting authentic & genuine interactions.

–  Jonathan Meyer, Senior Manager, Service Excellence

Worldwide Express Increases Annual Sales From $80 million to $120 million

Situation

Worldwide Express is a franchise shipping company, representing UPS and multiple other freight partners to manage global logistics for clients.

Action

The DiJulius Group collaborated with Celebrity Cruises to:

  1. Identify service defects causing customer defection, improve Operations Management processes, strengthen Service Recovery steps to ensure clients have Zero Risk.
  2. Introduce non-negotiable experiential standards to build positive customer relationships and set up Secret Service Systems to gather customer intelligence that cements loyalty.
  3. Create a Customer Service Vision including “Never & Always” behaviors and observable metrics on  how” they were interacting with clients and prospects.

Results

Client retention increased from 81% to 97% over 4 quarters

Annual sales increased from $80 million $120 million

Domino's Pizza Achieves Highest Customer Satisfaction Score in Company History

Speed of service up, friendly down

RPM Pizza (the largest US franchisee of Domino’s Pizza), which needed its day-in-the-life-of-a-Customer video to help launch its Customer service vision statement and help change the company’s culture to a world-class hospitality culture reached out to The DiJulius Group for assistance.

In 2011, RPM Pizza made major improvements in its already best-in-class speed-of-delivery service by improving its percentage of on-time pizza deliveries by 17 percent. However, according to an independent third-party mystery-shopper survey, RPM Pizza ranked last among its major competitors in hospitality. In 2012, RPM Pizza began a journey and relentlessly committed to be a world-class hospitality company.

SPEED VS. FRIENDLY SCORES

Think about the last time you ordered pizza to be delivered to your home. Why did you do that? It was critically important for RPM’s employees to truly understand the “why” piece. Were their Customers hungry? Yes, but they could get food from thousands of places to satisfy their appetite. Why pizza, and why Domino’s? This is where RPM’s video, titled Creating Smiles, played a major role. To illustrate RPM’s service vision, to really make it come to life and not just be another stale company quote, RPM’s video needed to show all the benefits of what delivering great pizza in less than thirty minutes really provides to its Customers—beyond just filling their bellies. This video showed people being in a rush, with their busy lives, some away from home traveling, others trying to get home from work and get the family fed. In certain instances, it showed people trying to please everyone’s tastes, wanting to spend more quality time with each of their loved ones instead of being in the kitchen preparing food.

It was vital that every team member understood that they were not just making and delivering pizza, but that their purpose—what their Customers truly needed from them—was easy and simple: Domino’s pizza being brought to their door, exactly how they ordered it, promptly, by someone smiling with genuine hospitality. Thus, the Customers smiled because their lives were made easier. This ensured that every RPM team member clearly knew why his or her service vision was “Creating smiles by making lives easier.” By 2013, RPM Pizza’s service culture had made a drastic turnaround. Not only was its Customer-satisfaction score significantly better than the previous year, but it also hit the highest score in RPM Pizza’s company history.

Starbucks Increases Earnings by 44%, Customer Visits rose by 5%+ and More!

Starbucks turnaround

We were growing the company with such speed and aggression that we lost sight of the Customer experience. – Howard Schultz, CEO

In 2010, Starbucks asked The DiJulius Group to help it re-create its Customer service vision statement. We’ve have worked with Starbucks in the past, but this was different. We were so excited about taking on this project, until we asked them what their current vision statement was that they wanted to change: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”

Craig Russell, senior vice president of global coffee, talked about why he felt that statement didn’t work for Starbucks. He replied, “We love the statement; those are Howard’s [Schultz’s] words. It is more of our purpose. As far as a Customer service vision, it is too big, too aspirational. We want something that’s actionable, trainable, measurable.” He was right. If someone comes in and orders a venti soy latte, and the barista gives it to them exactly how they ordered it, in ninety seconds, did the barista inspire or nurture their human spirit? Probably not. That is something that takes dozens and dozens of positive experiences.

So we did what we do with all our consulting clients when making a Customer service vision statement; we started with scripting a day in the life of a Starbucks Customer. A Starbucks Customer is easy to relate to. Starbucks customers are people with discretionary income who are battling the hustle and bustle of their busy lives, trying to balance everything they have going on person- ally and professionally—people dealing with the daily grind that can wear us all down from time to time.

Inspired moments

One of the biggest takeaways from this workshop that the group of executives from Starbucks shared was that Starbucks can’t change what’s going to happen today to its Customers. Whether they get a flat tire on their way to work or they are irate because their package didn’t arrive next-day air, as promised, what Starbucks can provide (and does provide very well) is an escape—if only for a few seconds in the Customer’s day. Starbucks allows its Customers to step inside, collect themselves, see some friendly faces—whether it be the workers, friends, or neighbors from the community—and take a break, enjoy a beverage, regroup, and then go back and take on the world again.

There it was. The team had it: the Starbucks’ Customer service vision statement. One of our proudest trophies as a consultant is the Starbucks green apron. The next time you walk into a Starbucks, anywhere in the world, and you see a Starbucks employee wearing that signature green apron, politely ask them to turn the inside top of the apron over for you. There is where you will see the Starbucks Customer service vision statement and pillars printed. It reads:

We create inspired moments in each customer’s day. ANTICIPATE CONNECT PERSONALIZE OWN

Why is the service vision statement printed on the inside of the green apron? It isn’t for the Customers or public to see; it is for the Starbucks employees to see. And every time they put that apron over their head, they are reminded of their job for every Customer with whom they come in contact with.

The pillars to the Starbucks service vision statement

The four pillars to the Starbucks service vision statement have to do with the company’s key drivers of Customer satisfaction:

  • Anticipate—This might mean that if a barista notices a Customer in a business suit, at 6:05 a.m., ordering his coffee, while barely looking up from his smartphone, he probably has some place to be. Get him his drink and help him get on his way. On the other hand, it can be a completely different pace at 9:05 a.m., when a barista encounters a few mothers who just dropped their children off at school and seem to be in no rush.
  • Connect—A connection could be recognizing regulars and having their drinks ready for them, or it could just be a smile or a kind word.

    • Personalize—This means customization. With over eighty thousand ways someone can order a Starbucks beverage, you truly can have it your way.

    • Own—Starbucks trusts its employees. They can own the experience. If a little girl drops her hot chocolate, a Starbucks employee can give her a new one for free.

    Each of the pillars is critical, but only in conjunction with each other. Customers want their drinks made exactly how they ordered it, quickly—but not by someone with an attitude. Just the same, a Customer does not want someone to greet them by name and have their drink ready for them before they order it, only to have their drink made incorrectly.

    People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they are proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust. —Howard Schultz

    The changes made a big difference for Starbucks. Earnings rose 44 percent, Customer visits rose by 5 percent, and more Customers were paying for higher-priced items.

The DiJulius Group and The Secret Service Summit have helped Starbucks take service to new levels by not only creating a Service Vision but also by helping us adhere to a common goal. The combination of hands-on expertise shared by leading brand executives and the emotional component from motivational speakers, has made your events like none other.

Craig Russel, Executive Vice President

Starbucks Coffee

Al Serra Auto Plaza Wins Auto Dealer of the Year, Again.

Al Serra Auto Plaza has been very successful in identifying their bad habits (service defects) and establishing a more consistent customer experience through implementing their Experiential Standards and Above & Beyond opportunities.

 

Developing the nonnegotiable experiential standards for each stage of the Customer Experience Cycle allows employees to provide a consistent engaging experience that is unlike the majority of competitors. Once these stages and experiences are created, every employee must consistently execute each of these standards.

The “Small Act of the Day” emails encourage the team members to recognize each other and celebrate the stories!

It is no secret that World-Class Customer Service starts at the top. The leadership team at Al Serra Auto Plaza is proud to have the members of their organization following the ACT Model every day.

“…As the saying goes, it’s difficult to get to the top, but it’s harder to stay there.”

Matt Serra told the magazine that the dealership has worked with Cleveland-based The DiJulius Group to enhance its customer service training. The company’s clients include Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Nordstrom and The Ritz-Carlton, among others.

“They showed us how to get all 450 people at the Auto Plaza rowing in the same direction to deliver the best customer experience,” he told WardsAuto. Their message: “Create big impacts through small acts.”

Carter Mario Law Firm Doubles Word of Mouth Referrals through Excellent Customer Service

Situation:

Carter Mario Law Firm, specializing in personal injury, has six locations throughout Connecticut.

When Carter Mario started tracking the source of incoming calls, (the backbone of their business) in 2006 roughly 30% of their calls came from word of mouth/referral sources and the approximately 70%, came from paid advertising.

Action:

The DiJulius Group collaborated with Carter Mario to:

  1. Create a day in the life of a customer, service vision, pillars, nevers and always
  2. Systemize the Customer Experience delivered by employees to allow consistency at all levels of their locations
  3. Journey Map to create Experiential Standards for each Customer touchpoint

Results:

Carter Mario Law Firm, specializing in personal injury, has six locations throughout Connecticut. Carter Mario, CEO and president, a person who is passionate about service, chose to make the client experience the law firm’s strongest competitive advantage.

For instance, the firm guarantees to return a client’s call the same day or lunch is on Carter Mario himself. Carter Mario instituted a procedure for capturing information about each client in a format that allows everyone access.

The firm was able to customize its customer management software, which is made for attorneys, by adding a “Secret Service” tab. This tab contains vital Customer intelligence, such as preferred refreshment, client’s eye color, birth date, spouse and other family members’ names, children’s ages, hobbies, past vacations, even pets’ names.

Carter Mario has a short list of “non-negotiable” standards. Here are some examples:

  • They are available 24/7, live, never an answering machine.
  • All clients get a call back the same day, or lunch is on Carter.
  • At 8:45 a.m. every day, they conduct a “morning huddle” to communicate with the staff about the priorities of the day as well to share “Customer intelligence” on any clients who are visiting the office that day.
  • Front desk is never left unattended.
  • Any staff member to come within five feet of a client is to smile, look the client in the eye, and say hello.
  • Clients are offered Carter Mario umbrellas during poor weather.

By the graph, you can see the positive growth of the law firm’s word of mouth calls, (2006-2012) and last year they eclipsed 60%!

“A world-class hospitality law firm – What changed or what was the driving force behind this movement? “While we thought we were client centric, we realized we were relative to injury attorneys, which means we were the best of a lousy group,” says Carter Mario. “In 2007 our entire organization including receptionists, in-take specialists, administrative positions, and attorneys, became obsessed with being a world-class customer service company, benchmarked against anyone in any other industry.”  That they did! Carter Mario Law Firms are well known for their customer service and the company won the Secret Service System Award, presented to only one amazing customer service organization per year at the Customer Service Revolution conference.“

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