What was your absolute best ever service experience? One where you walked away from the event feeling like "Wow, they really get it."An experience where you didn't question how much you paid, even if it was a premium, because whatever you paid it was absolutely worth it. The service was consciously attentive, even to the point of anticipating what you wanted and providing it before you asked. The good or product was excellent, thoughtfully prepared, designed or built. From end to end you were satisfied. And as a result, the experience was memorable and remarkable, and you wouldn't go anywhere else first if you were in the market for the same good or service again.
Sadly, I've had only a few experiences like this. It would elude me as to why because I feel serving with excellence isn't incredibly difficult as difficult things go. I then came realize excellent service has less to do with a single employee and more to do with how those employees are treated and the culture of the company... But more on that in another post.
If I had to guess the industry in which you had your phenomenal experience I would bet it was the service industry - fine dining or a highly rated hotel or resort. It is certainly true for me. Mine is a Michelin star restaurant in Paris, France called Ledoyen I was privileged enough to visit for my birthday several years ago. From the moment I walked across the threshold it was pure excellence. They greeted me by name, which to this day I still have no idea how they knew who I was. And everything to follow was just like that. Thoughtful, anticipatory excellence.
What I am confident in betting is that your excellent experience wasn't in the tech industry. Service excellence seems to have fallen out of vogue in the tech sector in recent years, and I’m concerned that is not going to improve with the advent of generative AI. That is in the wrong direction relative to what customers want. I believe customers want the acceleration of awareness and insight that GenAI provides, that is at the center of what Milvian Group focuses on as a company, however I don’t believe they want that at the further sacrifice of good, human-based customer service excellence. They want both.
The foundation to excellence in customer service does not start with the one providing the service, it starts with the leadership and management of the company. You cannot expect employees to treat your customers like gold if you are giving your employees the coal treatment. That is a “Do as I say, not as I do” strategy that will not fly with this generation of workers, and it shouldn’t. As management we should set the example in how to treat our customers, first with how we treat our employees. Watch this space for a new “People First” philosophy of doing business coming soon.
Remember the phrase “big hairy audacious goal”? It was coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their 1994 book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” to describe a long-term, ambitious, transformative goal. At Milvian Group we have set a BHAG to become recognized as the standard bearer for world-class products and world-class service in the tech industry.
This is not a new or original endeavor. It’s not even the first time I’ve been around it. I was a young guy at Rackspace over 20 years ago, one of the first 500 employees or so when Rackspace put their flag in the ground on “Fanatical Support”. Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace would say “Find your customers’ biggest fear and solve it.” CEO, Lanham Napier, now CEO and Co-Founder of Buildgroup put it more simply for all of us: “We’re going to knock our customers’ socks off.” And in my early days at Rackspace Managed Hosting, I can honestly say that we believed in “Fanatical Support” and we witnessed heroic efforts that go way beyond minimum expectations to show our customers that we meant what we said.
Do customers not want that level of service anymore? I certainly don’t think that is the case. So Milvian Group is putting a flag in the ground and as Lanham would say “Taking the bull by the horns” and going after this big goal. We’re doing so on the basis of a People First Philosophy of business and what we are calling The Milvian Mark. It is our promise and our commitment to our customers and one another in how we will serve.
The Milvian Mark includes five commitments. They are Thoughtfulness, Intentional Preparedness, Anticipation, Memorable and Remarkable and Customers for Life.
I truly believe that the time has arrived, and the market is hungry for a new wave of excellence. We’ve been focused on efficiency through technology for a long time and made some great gains. Along the way I believe the tech sector has lost the human touch and forgot about the personal element and how important that is. People are still people – and they still want to feel special, perhaps now more than ever in a world of technology infused isolation. At Milvian Group we are ready to take that stand. I hope you’ll join me in the conversation over the next few posts as I discuss each one of these commitments. I look forward to your insight and input and hopefully we can all inspire each other and drive change together.
Will you join us?