Efficient alienation vs. effective care.

It was the Thanksgiving weekend and I was taking my younger daughter to the Dallas airport for her return to New York. She had purchased the cheapest ticket available, which required a return trip through Houston on the way to New York. When we arrived, we noticed that there was a direct flight to New York on the same airline. As she waited to check her bag, she inquired of the agent if it would be possible to get on the direct flight. The agent said the flight had available seats. There was only one problem. She could not inquire for us--all she could do was check the bag. She pointed to the other end of the check-in counter--about 50 feet away and said that agent could help us.

No problem. I understand task specialization and decided to practice it myself. While my daughter finalized getting her bag ready to check, I ran to the other end and asked the agent about the direct flight. She said, "I am not allowed do it, but I will get on the phone and see what I can do." She picked up the phone and in just a moment whispered, "I am on a six minute hold" as she leaned over the computer keyboard and screen that I would have sworn were there for making and changing reservations.

Meantime, my daughter was relaying hand signals inquiring if she should send the bag on the reserved connecting flight or re-route it for the direct flight. I did not have a good "We are on a six-minute phone hold because the agent is not allowed to change reservations here" hand signal. After waiting futilely for a few minutes, she checked her bag and headed to Houston on her way to New York.

Who knew that a reservation agent could no longer, well, make reservations? It appeared efficient for the airline, but for the customers scurrying around trying to contort their needs into the airline's rigid rules and process, it was an unnatural act. And in reality it was inefficient for the reservation-restricted agent, waiting on hold while a line formed for check-in.

Self-service check-in, foodless/blanketless flights, automated reservations, remote call centers, online shopping, big box discounters, downsizing, offshoring, outsourcing, rightsourcing, consolidation, re-engineering, just-in-time inventory, lean manufacturing--we are a world obsessed with becoming efficient. Why? Because it appears we serve a marketplace of customers obsessed with price. Management teams have become very efficient at making things efficient. So many of their processes and systems are producing efficient, low-cost, commoditized products and services. And simultaneously producing price-conscious, unloyal, alienated customers, along with uncommitted and sometimes alienated employees. In the process these management teams have become what they produced--undifferentiated, commoditized decision-makers in a marketplace where the supply of that skill set is at an all time high.

With all of this money we customers have saved buying these cheap products and services, where could you purchase a product or service that would make you feel good, satisfied, valued, or even loyal as opposed to merely efficient or cheap?

Starbucks, Whole Foods, and even discounters like Southwest Airline or Costco. This is a group of very different companies with varying degrees of price/cost competition. Certainly Southwest and Costco have written the book on low cost and efficiency, and they all know very well just how punitive it can be to have costs out of line. Yet what they have in common is this understanding: Cost efficiency is a means to an end. They know that the end game comes down to the emotional bond they have with their customers. This bond is driven by a cost component and a value-received component based on things like personal relationships, cool products or sweet service.

It seems that a number of community banks have refined this approach successfully. While they must be competitive on efficiency (they do have to get all the apples picked, after all) they have chosen to make care, as in customer and employee care, their most important word--not efficiency.

To lead is to decide. In the final analysis each organization must decide an even more basic question. What business are you in? Apples or people?