Find the candy!

There’s a potentially high demotivation factor when you feel like your job makes little impact in the larger scheme of things. Truth is, seemingly mundane jobs stand to make critical contributions to an organization’s success. For this to be so, however, the people that have the supposedly “non-critical” positions have to take the lead.

A start-up building supplies manufacturer had the problem of making a big splash in a crowded market and their brand needed attention.  To get that attention, the company invested in all the right advertising and marketing stragegies, and hired a crack team of managers.  But what really made the biggest splash with new customers was a big surprise:  It was the team that shipped pallets of tile from the warehouse every day.

How did they do it? 

They put candy in every shipment of tile that they sent from their distribution centers to their customers.  

When asked why, the team in the warehouse said, “Because we thought it would be fun to do.”  It was not long before warehouse teams in the customer base were thrilled when that company’s shipments of tile arrived!  If five deliveries from five separate companies arrived simultaneously at the dock, guess which one got the handled first?  To put my own spin on a Jim Gaffigan joke, “When you put candy in a pallet of tile, it’s not a pallet of tile any more.  It becomes a game of “find the candy in the pallet of tile!”

What happened next was most surprising.  The delight delivered by the candy opened relationships with customers at the operational level, at a point where they almost never happen.  Those interactions, in turn, provided a wealth of information and insight for the manufacturer. And as they acted upon what they learned, it eventually set them far apart from other competitors.  That’s because being a “supply chain champ” depends more on relationships and less on expensive information management and supply chain solutions. That’s what a McKinsey survey showed and who am I to argue with them?

So what’s the lesson here?  Ask your whole team, “Where can we deliver candy these days when people think we are only going to give them Product X or Service Y?”

You may be surprised by the number of ways you discover to sweeten the deal for your customers.

30 Almonds

Explora Hotel Salto Chico in Patagonia

When I first arrived at the lodge, “Rosario” reviewed some of my dietary preferences, to ensure my meals would be to my liking during my stay.  “Impressive attention to customer needs,” I thought as she asked me questions and I gave her specific requests for my lunches. 

When I returned on the first day from an all-day hike, Rosario met me at the door and asked me how my lunch was.  I told her it was perfect in every way, but I joked that I did not need so many almonds as I had been given. “How much is the right amount?” she asked. “30 almonds is perfect,” I answered. 

When I sat down the next day to eat my lunch out on the trail, I thought, “I wonder how many almonds will be this bag?” I counted them.  …27…28…29…30. 

30 almonds. 

When I returned on the second day to the lodge, Rosario again asked me about my lunch. “Was it to your liking?” She smiled knowingly when I told her I was astounded that there were 30 almonds in my lunch.  Not 29, not 31, but 30.  She smiled. “It was nothing.”

It is easy to sing the praises of Rosario (and I have already done that).  In reality though, she is part of a team.  Her part is important, but it is not the most important part.  She is the “face” of a team of people who truly understand that there is more to lunch preparation than counting almonds.   Lunch preparation and counting almonds is about delighting customers.

On every team, it is the people in the background that carry the heavy water when it comes to delighting customers.   If people are valued as “just cooks” or “only clerks” or “order pullers,” your team is doomed to mediocre service to customers.  But when these “background people” are valued as the “Chief Officers for Delighting Customers,” they will take on the mission with a passion and their work will be meaningful as well.

Don’t let the cooks, the clerks, or the folks in the warehouse think their work is not properly valued, because in reality, they are not counting almonds. They are fulfilling the lifelong dreams of clients.

Above is video of the view from the top of the French Valley in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.


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