Customer Service

(NO AUDIO)
L. Lee Manzer
Department of Marketing
Spears School of Business
Oklahoma State University

Dr. Manzer: Well, thank you for having me here. Can you all hear me?

Audience: Yes

Dr. Manzer: Do you care? [laughs] If you don't care, I guess it doesn't matter, right?

I'm going to take this jacket off. I wore it to impress you and I see that it doesn't work, so...I'm going to take this off. 

I was thinking about it when Lance was introducing me here.He's primary is aging and did that have anything to do with calling me?

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: I'm the oldest person in the School of Business at OSU.I always wanted to be number one and so I've finally made it so, that's something.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: I love Oklahoma. I was raised here. My folks are from Oklahoma. In fact my mother's birth certificate says Oklahoma Territory. Doesn't get any better than that does it? Oklahoma, in many ways, is a very poor state. But it's not poor in people. And that's you.

My wife and I; my wife was raised in Seminole and I was raised up in the Osage. And our children have all lived in Oklahoma. They had opportunities to go other places but they decided to stay here. Two live in the Edmond area and one lives in Broken Arrow. Our life is great. The kids come home. They don't ask for money.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: The grandkids are close enough we can go visit them but not so close that we have to babysit them. Doesn't get any better than that.

Saundra and I had a lot of opportunities and we have lived in the East and North and the South but we decided to come back to Oklahoma.

In our department, and I'm sure this is true in the University as a whole, there's a lot of people come that's going to be on faculty that's graduated from prestigious universities and they come to Oklahoma State and decide that they'll be here for a few years and then get experience and go someplace else. Guess what the vast majority of them do? Dr. Manzer: They stay here. Yeah. And it's not because we overpay them. We don't underpay them either. But don't tell them I said that. But it's because of you. Because of the people of Oklahoma. So anyway, we want you to be successful. 

I'll tell you something else I've learned. We do a program at OSU in conjunction with the University of Oklahoma. I've done this program for almost 20 years - where we bring in the top executives of Oklahoma companies, for-profit companies, for a week. And the faculties from both schools make these presentations. These are very sharp, good people. About seven or eight years ago the state saw this program and said, "Could we design one for the state employees?" And we have done that. And what I've learned is that the people who are these executives of these organizations - I'm talking Devon. I'm talking about, you know Williams. I'm talking about Conoco Phillips, etc. - the people who are the leadership of the State of Oklahoma do not have to stand back at all from those people; just as qualified. In fact, in many ways your job is harder because you have more constraints on you. And so we're great admirers of people who work for the state. And so we want you to be successful and hopefully that might say something here that might be of some value. 

I have a lot of experience. As Lance said I've made presentations to people like yourself across the nation; well over 100,000. People trying to make a living. But I've had 35,000 students at the University. And I don't plan on retiring. I like what I do and I like being here. I know there's one person that will like being here. You know who that is? Me.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Okay. For whatever reason you all, this is my favorite quote about leadership. You all are in some sort of leadership position. I love this by the French philosopher, Tallyrand. He said this, "I'm much more afraid of a 100 sheep led by a lion than a 100 lions led by a sheep." Isn't that great? I'm much more afraid of 100 sheep led by a lion than a 100 lions led by a sheep. Indicating the power of what? Leadership. And that is absolutely true. Now what you'd like to have is 100 lions led by a lion right? But we know that's not always the case.

Audience:[laughter]

Dr. Manzer: So, what we'd like to do here is talk about one particular topic that I point out to you as a leader. Now I like words, and some words I like better than others. This is one of my favorite words. I love this word. It's an old word that you don't see much anymore. "Ponder." In fact if I were you I would incorporate it into my vocabulary because people will think you are smart if you use the word ponder. "I'll ponder that," you know. Gee, will you? 

Now we know that there's a difference between pondering and just thinking, right? Pondering is thinking but pondering is more in-depth. It's delving into things and getting into them deeply.

Now, my experience has been... Now you may disagree with this. You may disagree with all of this, which is fine. My experience has been that there's not a lot of people pondering anything. I guarantee that students don't ponder much. Pondering. I do a lot of work with Indian Health Service; I was down in Talequah. Anyone from Talequah and that area down there? Beautiful country. I was down at WW Hastings Indian Hospital run by the nation; Cherokee. Now, I was down there for three days. I was doing probes in the morning and in the afternoon. And so we had 45 minutes for lunch, so everybody was on their own. And so I got in the car and drove to the closest place that I thought I could get back and it was Braum's. And for three days in a row I got special number two at Braum's, okay? Now, is there a difference between eating a meal and savoring a meal? Is there a difference in that? There is, isn't there? Did I eat that meal or savor that meal at Braum's? I just ate it. I didn't say, "Oh, what a french fry."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Only been frozen since Thursday, you know.

And that's the difference between just thinking about something and pondering it. Getting into and delving into those things. Okay? That's what separates... It's sad if we don't do that because that's one of things that separates you and I from other animals. 

I love this little saying. "A cat that jumps on a hot stove will never jump on a hot stove again nor a cold one." Is that not true? You can't get that cat near a stove period because all they do is react. But you and I know the difference between a hot stove and a cold stove and we will behave differently around each one of them. So pondering is using our cognitive abilities.

What we'd like to do here this morning, or this afternoon I guess it is now, is leave you with one or two points that you might ponder. That's all we're... if that happens, it'll be worth your time, okay? That's my opinion.

Now, I can't imagine that what I'm going to say that you don't already know. I believe that you already know it. The problem is - and I'm going to try to put it in a little different light, a little different way, okay? So that it may affect you in some way. Maybe, maybe not but a lot of times we forget things.

I think it's kind of like the... talk about old couple. This is my favorite old couple joke. I don't know if I ever told you this, Lance. These two older couples are visiting in one couple's house and, you know, they're there. The men are over here and the women are over there. You know how that is; you separate out. And one old gentleman says to the other one, says, "We went to a restaurant the other night and maybe one of the best restaurants we've ever gone to. I mean it was, the food was not too spicy. You know, and the price was okay and it wasn't noisy. It was just a really good place." The other gentleman says, "Well, what was the name of it?" The guy says, "Well, it was, uh, it was... Shoot," he says, "What's that flower that's beautiful and got the thorns and smells good?" The guy says, "Rose?" And he says "Yeah, that's it!" He says, "Hey Rose, what was the name of that restaurant that went to the other day?"

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: See. You can identify with that, can't you? Now, you that are younger - if you were a little older, you'd understand that story a little better. But these are things that we've kind of forgotten.

So let's talk about service a little bit. Now, whatever area of expertise you're in or whatever focus you're in, you're in the service business. You have no product. You're in the service business internally and externally. There's no doubt about it. You're serving one another and you're also serving the citizens of the state of Oklahoma or the county or however you view that. There's no doubt about that. But you're also in the service business.

And I think - I believe - that you ought to think that way, okay? You ought to think you're in the business to direct them but also you're in the service business. The reason I believe that you should think that way is this. Do you believe this or do you agree with this: How a person thinks about themselves or views themselves, does that effect how they behave? Absolutely. Generally that is a true statement. That's why you that have teenagers want them to think good about themselves because they will tend to behave that way. If they think they're dirty rotten rats, they will tend to behave like dirty rotten rats. How about this? How a person thinks about themselves in their employment; does that effect how they go about doing their job? Would you agree with that? Sure. If you believe that you're the protector of the funds of the organization, you tend to behave that way and we must protect the funds. We understand that. But if you believe that you are a giver of service, you will tend to do what? You will tend to do that. And what's interesting about it is, whatever area you're in, would you agree with this? How an organization views itself affects how it goes about doing its job. A little harder to see but it is true. And so if you view yourself as a giver of service then what happens is then it becomes a part of you or tends to become a part of you. But if you never think that way, or never ponder that, then perhaps it's going to be a little more difficult to do.

I do believe this: That superior service, internally and externally, creates an organizational advantage. It is an advantage to you to do this. And I'm not just talking about advantage for the people that you're serving. I'm talking about an advantage to you individually. If you will do this, it's to your advantage to do it. I don't there's any doubt about it whatsoever. 

Now, I was sitting in my office, minding my own business here some time ago. And there was a knock on the door and I said come in. This young man, a student, about 20 years old, he said, "Dr. Manzer, may I talk to you?" And I said, "Sure, come on in." He said, "Well, I'm a student in your class this semester and I'm having trouble in your class and I've come in for some help." I said, "What do you mean you're having trouble." He said, "Well, I took the first exam and made an F, and on the second exam I studied really hard and after studying really hard I made a D so I'm in trouble so I need some help." So I said, "Well, what do you mean you studied really hard for that second exam." Because what they think is hard kind of varies, you know. So he said, "Well, on that second exam I pulled an all-nighter." I said, "An all-nighter?" He said, "Yes." I said, "What's that?" He said, "Well, the night before the test I started at 7:00 O'clock; got the notes out, the book out, study guide - studied all night and didn't go to bed. An all-nighter. Came in at 8:30 the next morning and after doing all that I made a D. So I'm in trouble. So I need some help." Kind of irritated that he's done all that and made a D. I said, "Well, I'll tell you what. For this next exam, why don't you do this. Why don't you read the assignments before you come to class so you kind of know what's going on. And that will help you take really good notes because you know 80-85% of the exam comes from what I say in class. It's not in any textbook. And then each day, I don't know, look at your notes 10-15 minutes; something like that. In other words, keep up and know what's going on. And the night before the exam, study three to four hours according to what you need, get a good night's sleep and come in and take the exam." He said, "I can't do that." I said, "Why not?" And I'll never forget his answer. He said to me and I quote, "It's not my style." 

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: That wasn't you, was it Lance? But it could have been. It could have been. It could have been a lot of you, I'm thinking. That type of thing.

I said, "It's not your style?" He said, "No." I said, "Have you ever tried it?" He said, "No." I said, "What year in school are you?" He says, "Well, I'm a senior." So I got up from behind my desk, went over and gently lifted him up, patted him on the back and said, "I'll tell you what. I'll just see you in class tomorrow, okay?" In other words, "Go away here." Now here's a young man who had style.

I would say a style is a way of doing things. Let's call this his style, okay? He had a way of studying, did he not? And he was attached to that style. And maybe for good reason. He said he was a junior and so he would stay in school long enough, you know, (inaudible) so maybe it served him well. But for some reason that style was now not working. But why wasn't it working, in fact it was failing. Probably a lot of reasons. One of the major reasons was what he had done is he'd brought that style into a new environment; a new condition, a new, in this example, a new class. And when you do that there's things in the environment of which you have no control. Let's see. He had no control of the test questions, the detail of them, the type, where they came from, the timing. Nobody asked him about those. But he was unwilling to do what? He was unwilling to change and he did not. Now he failed that class, made an F. Wasted his time, wasted his money. More than likely wasted who's money?

Audience: Parents.

Dr. Manzer: Parents. And what's interesting he wasted your money because the taxpayers of Oklahoma pay a large portion of their education when in reality he didn't have to do that.

I've taught that course over 40 years and I know for a fact if he'd made those small changes he'd have passed the course and if it made him early enough he would have made a C or B or A, depending on his abilities. Now what's that got to do with you and me?

Well, what it's got to do with us other than it's, you know, an interesting story and if you had a child in my class you'd like for me to say something like that to them, right? Well, some of you I may know and some of you I don't know. But I do know this: I know that state government has a style, a way of doing things. I know that DHS has a style, a way of doing things. I know whatever area that your in has a style, a way of doing things. I know that. I know that whoever you report to has a style, a way of doing things. I know that you have a style, a way of doing things and the people that may report to you may have a style of doing things. I know that. And I know this. That the vast majority of all those who we can enumerate, they are just like that young man. They have a reluctance to change. And they have that style.

So the problem is - and you know this - is you're bringing that style into an ever-changing environment just like that young man. That's true. Over which you have no control. Anybody ask you about healthcare? They didn't ask me. Anybody ask you about the price of fuel? They didn't ask me. Anybody ask whatever? No. And so it doesn't make linear, logical, Cartesian sense that you and I should be doing what? Looking at what we're doing and perhaps making small changes on the margin. Because if we do not, there's a high probability that you and I will end up like that young man. We will fail the course! And when you and I fail the course, that's much more significant than wasting a little time, a little tuition money. Because you have what? You have personal responsibilities, you have children to educate, bills to pay, house payments and those kinds of things. And not only that, you have the citizens of the State of Oklahoma. You are not involved in selling popcorn. There's nothing wrong with selling popcorn but you're involved in a higher order thing. 

There's no doubt about that whatsoever. Just like myself. I believe this. You may disagree with this. You believe this? A student that comes into my class, should be better for having been in that class when the class is over. Would you agree with that? I agree with that. I believe that is true. I think that is true. My philosophy is this: I believe that I not only have a fiduciary responsibility, that is a financial responsibility, in other words somebody pays me to be there; I have a responsibility. I believe I have a moral responsibility to make them better. A moral responsibility. That's higher than a financial responsibility. Now, they've got to do something, right? Well, I believe you all have a moral responsibility to the citizens of this state. Because of what you do. You've chosen that. I believe that. Now, you get paid to do that, we understand that. But I believe you have a moral responsibility to do it. So you've got to think that way. 

And so, what we want to do is that if you think you're a giver of service, you'll tend to give service. If you don't, you don't do it. I can't imagine you not giving good service. I just can't imagine that. But there are ways we can always what? We can always improve. 

Now, there's this reluctance to change and you say, "Well, I like to change." Well, you're unusual if you like to change. You say, "Well, it's old people that don't want to change." Well this kid was 20 years old and he didn't want to change. You know, life's pretty good. You know how you know that you don't want to change? I would be willing to wager, if I were a betting man, that when you get up in the morning to prepare to go to work, you prepare to go the same way every morning in the same order. I would bet that's true. I do. Did it this morning.

First thing I do is I run out and get the newspapers in my bare feet in my jammie poos hoping no jogger sees me, you know. You sleep in that. Well, you've got to do what you got to do, you know. Then I immediately go to the front bathroom. Don't do anything in there; just read the paper.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: One of our daughters was with us for a while and she sometimes knock on the door and say, "Dad, I got to get in." And I say, "Hey, I can't let you in here. I'm doing big things in here."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: I'm not doing anything in there. I'm reading the paper. You know, I can read the paper at the kitchen table but I'm not reading the paper at the kitchen table because you know why? It's not my style. That's why.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Come on. I'm a bathroom man. Come on. Let her go someplace else. Shouldn't even be with us at that time. 

But we know and we can go through that but we know that people do change. I've got a friend. As good a friend that I've ever had. In the Econ Department and now retired. 6'6" and 300 lbs. This is a big man. He loves to eat. He does not eat to live. He lives to eat. His whole conversation is about food. The guy has been on 20 diets since I've known him. He'd go on a diet for about three days and a little chocolate and that takes care of it. The guy gives directions by eating establishments. "You know, go down to McDonald's, turn right over to Wendy's, you know." It's his What? It's his style. 6'6, 300 lbs.

That man this afternoon, by choice, is 6'6 220 lbs. Well after all these years, he changed. He must have had what I would call a compelling reason to change. Something compelled him to change. And you can tell me what it was, can you not. 

Audience member: Health problems.

Dr. Manzer: Health. He was having trouble with his eyes, his arms. Then he goes to a physician and the physician diagnosed him with type two diabetes, which I understand can be controlled with diet and exercise but if you don't control it you lose your eyesight, you lose function of your limbs, they amputate your limbs and you die an agonizing death.

Here's a guy now eating salads and exercising. He told me, he's from Kanab Utah down on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, he told me when he was a kid he could never run as much as a quarter of a mile without stopping. You can imagine what kind of kid he was. He's running marathons. Now, he had a compelling reason but that doesn't compel everybody, as you know.

Organization must also have a compelling reason to change. For you to change something has to compel you to change. And we know that there will be change, you see. Look, when you get... 

Well, let me put it this way, okay?

I want to talk about a change here a little bit and the change to do better services is what I'm really trying to get here. Look.

I'm going to talk about something and I don't want anybody to think I know what I'm talking about, okay? I'm going to put something up here. I don't know anything. I'm just talking. I'm talking about service and change. That's what I'm getting to, okay? But let me put something up here so don't leave here and say, "ugh." Because this is usually not a very positive word. 

(NO AUDIO)
Outsourcing

Is that a positive word or negative word to you?

Audience: Negative.

Dr. Manzer: It's a negative word, okay? Now I don't know anything, okay? What is outsourcing? Outsourcing is when you take something that's done inside the organization and you take that function and you put it outside for some other organization to do it. Now normally people say, "Well." You know like Dell. If you want service on your computer, you're talking to somebody from what? Bangladesh or India. Somebody like that. Somebody named Bob. You know, that type of thing.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: I called Dell and some guy said, "This is Bob." And he's obviously from India. And I thought, "Now you might be able to help me," - and he did - "But your name's not Bob. I know that."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Right? But anyway, it doesn't have to be somewhere overseas. It can be somebody down the street. Talk about IT. IT can be outsourced. A lot of things that you do can be taken out. Now a lot of them can't because of the laws and things and I know nothing about any opportunity to do that. But we do know that cities have done what? Outsourced their what? Fire departments and their police departments and all kinds of things. They're trying to outsource some of the stuff at universities now. Get rid of tenured faculty and what they call clinical faculty. So it's a possibility, okay?

But I don't know anything, okay? We have at the university a motorpool, okay? In other words, this is a series of vehicles that can be used, I'm driving one now. They can be used for what? Business, right? You guys have this same thing. I don't know how many vehicles, they have a lot of cars. It's OSU, have a lot of trucks, you know, and those kind of things. Well, that's just the way it is, right?

So anyway, we get a new President, okay? Of the University. Now, when you get a new leader, that leader has to change something. It's just the nature of the business. You've got to change something. Even if it's just moving the furniture around, you've got to change something. I mean, that's just the way it works, okay? Nothing good or bad about leadership and whatnot, I'm just saying that's the way it works. 

We get a new President, we're under cost problems. As you all are, right? So he looks around places where he can save money. Now we got this motorpool over on the west side of campus. I don't know, we got 100 cars. Well, let's say that they cost $20,000 apiece. That's $2 million just setting over there, okay? $2 million. So the President says, "Wait a minute. Why are we in the car rental business? We are not in the car rental business. We're in the education business. The service business. We're in the education business. There must be somebody that, outside our organization in the car rental business, that can do that more effectively and efficiently than we can. We can save money, etc." Somebody like whom? 

Audience: Hertz

Dr. Manzer: Hertz, or Avis, or better yet Dollar Thrifty cause their world headquarters is in Tulsa. And we have a relationship with them. So, what was decided was a committee was formed to study this problem.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: This is a government entity here, right? 

Now, over at that motorpool you got 20 people or so working there. You got a manager, assistant managers, mechanics, internships, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now what do they think about this idea of outsourcing? What do you think they think about that?

Audience: (inaudible)

Dr. Manzer: They aren't in favor of that, right? So, this committee is gathering information. Now I'm one of their best customers. I was there this morning. I'm one of their best customers. What does the manager of the motorpool want me, one of their best customers, to do in relationship to that committee while they're gathering information. What does he want me to do? He wants me to do what?

Audience member: Answer the questions.

Dr. Manzer: No, the question is what does he want me to say when they ask the questions? 

Audience member: (inaudible) ...testimonial.

Dr. Manzer: They want me to be their advocate, right? That's what you're saying. They want me to be their advocate. They want me to say, "Don't do this. They are effectively and efficient... they make the life of staff and faculty better. It would be in error to do this. They give great service. Don't do this." Now, I'm only willing to do that if what?

Audience member: If it's true.

Dr. Manzer: If it's true. I'm not willing to do that if it's not true. So all of a sudden the motorpool starts calling me. They never called me in their life.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: "Hello, Lee Manzer. Oh, motorpool? Yeah. Might come over this week. Uh, well, I don't know. What's that? If I have a car I like you'll hold it for me? Oh. yeah. What's that? You deliver cars now? Really? Okay." In other words, what are they doing?

Audience member: Bribing.

Dr. Manzer: Bribing... [laughs]

What are they doing? They are increasing the level of their what?

Audience: Service.

Dr. Manzer: Of their service. How about that?

Now that threat passed. The University decided not to do it. Is the motorpool still calling me? No.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Are they holding a car for me? No. Are they delivering cars? No. Too expensive.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: That threat will come up again. Will I be their advocate? No. You have a compelling reason to give better service and build relationships with them.

Does that make sense? And it's the right thing to do anyway. Is to have this great service. It's the right thing to do. It's the moral thing to do. But it's for just your own self. Something comes up you need to have advocates. Just think about your area or whatnot. That's one way you get it. Service will give you a what? Organizational advantage. There's not doubt about that whatsoever, okay? I'll guarantee this. If that threat does come up, I will not go over there. I will not do it.

Now if you want to build relationships with people. In studying relationships what you want to do here is you want to take the people that you serve, internally and externally, and you want to bind them to you, okay? If you bind them to you like this [clasps fingers] that's good. Except there's an old saying that says, "There ain't no brand loyalty that two cents off won't take care of." And what that means is that somebody comes along with a better deal, guess what? So what you want to do is that you want to bind those people to you like this [intertwines fingers] with multiple binds. Now somebody comes along with a little better deal, you see. That doesn't mean that they won't leave you or will not badmouth you or whatever the case may be, but it going to be what? Harder to do. 

It's like the bank. The bank wants your checking account, they want your saving account, they want your CD, they want your mortgage, they want your car loan.  Now try to leave them. You see. You can. But it's extremely difficult. It's like a marriage, for crying out loud, you know, you...

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Right? You bind together like that, you're physically attracted to one another. Well, that's great. Somebody comes along with a better deal... you know... Like better buns, you know.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: So what you do is you get married and you married what? Somebody that's what? That you're physically attracted to, you have the same values, have the same ideas, blah, blah, blah, that type of thing, right? Got a better shot.

My wife and I just celebrated last month our 50th wedding anniversary. And I don't know anybody that's got a better marriage than I do, than Saundra and I. But it has to do with this right here, you know. That type of thing. So, it's the same principle; same type of thing.

(NO AUDIO)
Relationship Building
1) Economic/Financial Benefits
2) Technical/Structural Benefits
3) Social (Service) Benefits

Now there's ways of doing it and in the interest of time this would be one bind. This would be another bind. A couple more binds. The one I want to talk about here is the social benefits or service. In other words, service is one of those fun things that bind them to you. There's other things that bind them to you also but service will.

You remember the old dark comedy on TV M.A.S.H.? Remember that? M.A.S.H. stood for what? "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital?" It was set in Korea. You know, that type of thing. Well, one of the episodes had an officer come to the M.A.S.H. unit, an inspector, and he came late at night and he didn't meet very many people and they stored his gear and he went over to Rosie's Bar. This was the thing that traveled around with them, you know. When he went over for entertainment and he opened a screen door and over in the corner playing the piano is Father Mulcahy. Now Father Mulcahy cannot play the piano. Every third note is a clunker, you know. And he's just horrible. So this guy gives it one of these, you know, and he goes over to the bar himself and gets a beer sees Radar, who is the company clerk - who he had met in the evening - goes over and sits down next to him. When he sits down next to him motioning to the piano player he says, "Who is that?" And Radar says, "That's Father Mulcahy. When you get to know him, he plays better."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Now there is a great truth in that, is there not? Does he really play better? No, he's still missing every third note. What does Radar mean by that? "When you get to know him he plays better." What'd he mean? When you like him and have a relationship with him, then you cut him slack. Is that not correct? You all know that. That's the way it is with the people internally and externally that you manage or not manage or the people that you serve. If you build that relationship guess what? They will cut you some slack. Some will do that more than others. But that's the value of service in terms of building these relationships. I don't think there's any doubt about that and we could talk about that in some detail. 

Now, some of the stuff that... I'm going to talk about some practicalities here in a minute. What's interesting about this is the stuff that you forgot and it's just right there in front of you, okay? 

Sherlock Holmes. You're familiar with Sherlock Holmes? How did Sherlock Holmes solve problems that others could not solve? What did he do? Anybody figure it out? What did he do? Deductive logic. But he noticed things that others did not notice. And from that small thing he would do what? He would do this, one time Sherlock Holmes and his... By the way, how can Robert Downey, Jr. play Sherlock Holmes?

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Something's wrong with America if that's taken place. Solve that problem. Anyway, Sherlock Holmes and his erstwhile companion Dr. Watson went out camping under the stars. At three o'clock in the morning Holmes punches Watson and says, "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you infer or what you conclude." Watson, lying there looks up and wipes the sleep from his eyes and he says, "Well, it's a clear night and you can see millions of stars with the naked eye. There's zillions and zillions of stars that you can't see with the naked eye. There's nine known planets," - now eight - says, "there must be millions of planets that we can't see. If there's millions of planets there must be life there. If there's life there, therefore we can conclude that there's life in outer space." And Holmes says, "Watson, you idiot, someone has stolen our tent."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: You see they went to bed with a tent, see. So, how could he see... If you've got to explain them, they're just not that good, are they?

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: And so sometimes these things are right in front of you. Now, one of the things I at least want to elude to and then I'm going to not spend much time on and that's the idea of a culture. Look, culture is a sociological term that's been stolen. It's the values and the things that we do. Like in the United States we believe in the sanctity of life, right? We believe a person is innocent until proven guilty. A lot of people don't believe in that type of thing.

Well, that term has been stolen and you have a culture in your organization, okay? In other words, what it is - cutting through all the stuff, what it is, is this. You hire somebody and you train them - good training, okay - and you put them in the work place. It won't take them two weeks to understand how things are really done there. I don't care what the training said. How it's really done they will get it. And when the new employee asks the old employees why it's done that way, the old employee always says what? "That's the way we've always done it." And the new employee says, "Okay." And falls right in line. Now that is the culture.

Now that is not... that is, you have that. That is a fact that you have that. It's not some buzz word, some academic term or whatever. It is a fact that you have that. I don't know what it is where you are, but you've got it. 

Now, what a lot of people are trying to create... In other words, you can create a safety culture, you can create whatever kind of culture. What a lot of people are trying to create, and have done, is this kind of culture right here: A culture or an environment where an appreciation for good service exists and giving good service to both external, that's the citizens and internal, that's yourselves, is considered a natural way of life and one of the most, or the most, important norm by everyone in the firm. In other words, what you do is that you create an environment where people just automatically give great service. They may not even know that they are giving the great service. That's the kind of environment that you create. In other words, people don't believe that they are sacrificing or anything to give this great service. They are just doing it, you see. And this happens.

Anybody from Tulsa? Who's from Tulsa? Anybody from Tulsa? Not one person from Tulsa? There's a place in Tulsa. There's a store in Tulsa that's always, in fact, they were just in the paper the other day as one of the best places to work in the United States.

Audience Member: Quick Trip.

Dr. Manzer: Quick Trip. Am I telling the truth here? This is a convenience store for crying out loud. They're not paying these guys $25, these women $25, are they, an hour. You go in there. They've done this thing right here. It can be done, you see. It can be done.

And so what you want to do is create that. Now the question is, how do you create this? 

Now let me tell you about service a little bit. There's two parts to service, okay? And it may require, if you're going to do this, it may require some change, it may not require some change, it may require some motivation, it may whatever. There's two parts. There's the process and the outcome. The customer, client, citizen evaluates both the service outcome and the service process. In other words, the service outcome is the result of the service. 

So somebody comes and it has to do with welfare and you saw their problem. Or has to do with health and you saw the result, whatever the result is. That's the outcome. But they also evaluate the process. That is, how do you get to the outcome. How you got to the outcome. Now if you're not careful you believe if you give people the outcome that they want, that they will automatically be satisfied and be your advocate. That is not true necessarily. Now it may be, but it may not be true because they're evaluating the outcome also.

You were telling me that you work in IT, right? In the helpdesk and things of that nature? Many times somebody from the helpdesk will go help somebody solve their problems, system problem or software problem, and people will still what? Not happy. Why not? Maybe it's because of the process. How long it took, whatever took place, etc., etc.

And we can give example after example of that. Now, let's think about this. Now I will say this. The outcome, generally speaking, is always more important than the process. But not always to an individual, but generally. You take a loved one to the hospital and whether they live or die is more important than if the doctors were nice, right? Unless you're in the will or something, you know... Then you've got to do what you think is right.

But... now answer this question. Of the two - the outcome and the process. Which one do you generally have the most control over?

Audience: The process.

Dr. Manzer: The process. Sometimes you just can't give them what they want. You just cannot do it. It's not legal, you don't have the capabilities or whatever the case may be. But you can always do what? You can always control the process.

(NO AUDIO)
Quality Service Variables
1) Reliability - Consistency of your performance and dependability
2) Responsive - Your willingness or readiness to provide service
3) Competence - The possession of the required skills and knowledge, by the employee, to provide the service
4) Access - Organization approachability and ease of contact
5) Courtesy - Politeness, respect, friendliness of contact personnel
6) Communication - Keeping customers informed in language they understand, listening
7) Credibility - Trustworthiness, believability, honesty, customer's best interest at heart
8) Security - Freedom from danger, risk, or doubt
9) Understanding/Knowing - Efforts to know customer's needs
10) Tangibles - Physical evidence of service; buildings, appearance of personnel; tools used to provide service; other customers in facility

Now, what do people want in the process. Today's your lucky day. Just wandered in here and here is what people say they want in terms how to be treated, n terms of process. Right here. If you ask a thousand people what they want in terms of service, it's not uncommon you'd get 500 different answers. But one of the great things about computers, etc., software is that you can crush them down. And this typically is the variables that people say that they want, okay? I've seen a hundred studies and they all say something like this. Now this is not rocket science and you and I could have, you know, gone through this and come up with these things, etc. What I want to do here is just introduce these and maybe you, you know, look at this further on your own or whatever the case may be.

What I want to do is take one or two of these and show you how it works, okay? Now, these tend to be in order of importance. The ones up at the top tend to be more important than the ones down at the bottom. Now that would vary from individual, you see. But that's generally the way it works. I've seen a hundred studies. Every one of them say reliability or consistency are the number one thing that people want, okay?

Down here. These may not be very important or not. It's obvious that some of these, like communication would be one of them, right? You know what's interesting about it? Look at that. You want to be loved, you want people to love you. You learn how to be a good listener. We got plenty of talkers. We don't have good listeners. True. The best-liked guy I've ever met in my life taught on the OSU campus. Everybody loved this guy. Everybody. He'd go out to eat and they'd force you to come and eat with them. He taught family counseling. How do family counselors make their money? 

Audience Member: By listening.

Dr. Manzer: By listening. He is the best listener I have ever seen in my life. He just made you feel so important, you know. He could convince you of anything. He was such a great listener. People loved him. 

This is what's interesting. See courtesy, politeness, respect, friendliness of contact personnel. If these are in order of importance look where it is; in the middle. I've never seen it be number one. Never. Now that doesn't mean that... you can't be discourteous to people. Come on, we understand that. But anyway, it's kind of an interesting thought. It's easy to be courteous to people that are what? Courteous to you. You're nice to your friends? Well, congratulations. Me, too. The real professional is when you can be courteous to people who are not courteous to you. Now you have done something. There's ways of doing that by the way. It's mostly just a mindset. You know what the basic thing is? Don't take any of that stuff personally. It's hard. I just don't take it personal. A student comes in, thinks I'm a lousy teacher? I don't take that personal. Might be right that day. I don't know. I just don't take it personal. But it's hard sometimes.

What I want to do is talk about in this short time I have; want to talk about reliability here first. Listen, consistency is so important. And we know that. You ever been around somebody whose personality is like this: It's here, here, here, here, here, here, here? Ever been around anybody like that? They fun to be around? They are not fun to be around. You never know what to expect. Because they're not considerate. If you're a person like that? Shape up, you're not fun to be around, kind of thing.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Doesn't mean you're a bad person or anything, you're just not fun to be around. But anyway, consistency is... My favorite little story about difficulty of being consistent; about the guy that goes into the restaurant. Sits down and the waitress comes up and says, "May I help you?" and he says, "Yes, I'd like to order breakfast." She said, "What would you like to have?" He said, "I'd like to have two fried eggs. One fried really hard and the other fried where it's really runny. I'd like to have four pieces of bacon; two burnt to a crisp and two almost raw. Two pieces of toast; one black and one lightly brown and then I'd like to have a lukewarm cup of coffee." And the waitress looks at him and said, "Hey, that's a hard order to fill." And the guy says, "Really? You did it yesterday."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: You see, that's what he got yesterday. He didn't order it but that's what he got. Here's what I really want to talk about, and I'm going to talk fast here. Let me show you how this works. I want to talk about number two on the list here. I've never seen it be number one. It's always number two or number three. It is very important. I'm sure you should be doing it now. It's easy to do and people will think you're great if you will do it. Responsiveness. Your willingness or readiness to provide service. What this means is if, in my opinion, if you are not doing this, you are just foolish for not doing this, I believe. It is so easy to do. People will respect you, admire you, etc. and love you. They'll be your advocate if you do this, generally if you will do this. 

What in the world is it; willingness or readiness to provide service. What it is, is this: when you provide a service for someone they don't want to think they're dragging it out of you. It's very important they think that you wish to do this for them. Have you ever gone into a supermarket and you hear some old guy and gal, couple of gals and one of them's checking out and she's fast and she's efficient and she's really good but she acts like she's doing you a favor and you're spending money there, you know? And here's somebody else who's not quite that good. You're good, really good but not quite that good. But they're just so happy that you're there in the store. Who provides the best service? See, it's the second one and the first one's getting you out faster. What is the difference? Well one you having to drag it out of them and the other is what? "I want to do this for you. I want to do this for you."

Now what have I said if you're not doing this you're foolish. Here's why. When you all in the service business, when you all do a good service, do a good job do you wish to get credit for having done a good job? Now the general answer to that is yes. Now, I know there is exceptions to that. But generally you want the credit. If you are not responsive you can do a good job and they will not care (inaudible) If you don't want the credit, fine. But you should want... Look, when you're here eyeball to eyeball with this person and they're checking you out fast and efficient and they're acting like they're doing you a favor, can you sense that? Absolutely. Do you resent it? Absolutely. Well as your resenting it does this thought occur to you, "What a great employee. If the manager were here, I'd tell her how great she is." That thought never occurs to you. But the one that makes you feel so good about being in the store, does the thought ever occur to you, "What a good employee. If the manager were here, I'd tell her how great she is." That thought may occur to you. One's going to get the credit and one isn't. What is the difference? One is responsive and one isn't.

Let me give you a couple of examples. I get a lot of calls to give talks to service organizations. I'm talking about Kawanis Club, Rotary Club, Women Professionals clubs, clubs that do things for the community. You know, they meet once a week, they eat lunch, do a little business then have a speaker. I get calls to be speaker at things all the time, okay? Now, I don't get paid for this. It's just something I do. I think that's part of my role being at OSU. Now, I don't know if you've ever had to get speakers for anything like that. But these people when they call, they are under pressure, right? And if I can't do it, I say, "I'm sorry, I won't be able to do it." But if I'm going to prepare and do it, that is provide the service, I figure I might as well get the what? The credit. So the conversation goes like this: "Ring. Hello, Lee Manzer. Yeah Charles, what's going on? Speak at a Rotary Club? Why I'd be delighted to speak at Rotary Club." See, I've already said I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Now I've told him I'm delighted. Am I really delighted. I don't know.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: But I want to be responsive and get the credit, right? "Yeah Charles, I'd like to come out there. The food's always good. When is it? Let me look on the calendar. What's a good date? Yeah, I can make that date. No problem whatsoever." Now if I can't make that date, I say I can't make that date. But I will tell you this. I don't tell him I'm going to make the date and then tell him how inconvenient it is for me, and how busy I am, and make him feel like a rat, and then go. If I'm going to go, I just go.

Now I hope I don't hurt anybody's feelings here but nobody cares how busy you are. Now your mother may still care, I don't know. People don't care. You know why? Not because they're bad people. Because they believe they are what? They are busy. The most dilatory student I know is busy, you know. That type of thing. So I just don't waste my time doing that.

In fact when students come by and they always come by when you are in the office and say, "Are you busy?" You know what I say? "No, I'm not busy. I was looking for something to do. Come on in and stay three or four hours. Tell me about your life here."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: You know I do that. That's called sarcasm, okay? I've had some of them come in and sit down and I thought, "Now, wait a minute!"

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: That's just a humorous remark type of thing. So I don't waste my time with doing that. 

"Yeah, Charles I can do that. What topic would you like? Well, that would be a good topic." We try to find a topic that would be of value. "How long would you like me to speak? 30 minutes. I can speak 30 or 10 or 15. I'll tell you what. When I get up to speak just tell how much time I've got left and I'll just shorten the length under what you need. Okay. Hey, don't call and remind me. It's an honor. Thank you for calling. Bye." Now what does that guy think about me as he hangs up the phone. He thinks I'm a wonderful fellow, that's what he thinks. (inaudible)

"Yeah, sure I'll... what? Speak at a Rotary Club? Oh, for crying out loud, Charles. You know how many Rotary Clubs I speak to and the food's no good. When is it? Ohh, that's the busiest time of the year for me. I'm traveling and writing a book, you know?" "What topic? Oh, that's nice. My kids but... my marriage will dissolve because of you." "I don't know if I could work this in. But how long...30? I can't talk 30. 10, 10, 10! Okay Charles I'm going to come and do it. Yeah, call and remind me and remember you owe me one. Okay, bye." Now what does that guy think about me when he gets of the phone. He thinks I'm a jerk. 

Now we got two situations here. One in which I'm a wonderful fellow and the other one in which I'm a jerk. Now am I going to prepare and go do a good job in both situations and the answer is what? Yes. I've committed to that. It makes no sense whatsoever not to be responsive. You see? And get the credit. 

Look I've been married. I've learned something about marriage. 50 years of marriage. I've learned that when my wife gets up in the morning, she wants a coke for breakfast. She didn't want coffee, she didn't want tea, she didn't want a big orange. She wants a Coke Classic. It is a big deal and has been every morning for 50 years. It is gigantic at our house. You understand what I'm saying here? Now let's suppose that I get up and I have to go work at Conoco Phillips of Bartlesville and I got to leave early and it's a two hour drive. Actually I time everything. It's an hour and 37 minutes plus two minutes. Everybody is asleep. I go up there and I stand on my feet for nine hours. I get in my car and go down to Broken Arrow, work for a bank for three hours. Get in the car and drive an hour and 45 minutes home. So I've done what? I've set on my feet 12 hours, you have me 287 miles, left six o'clock in the morning coming home at 11:30 at night. I come to the house, the kids are in bed, come down the hallway, there's my wife lying in bed in her bed clothes. Her dog down at her feet. She's reading a book. She looks up, "You're home." "Yeah." "How'd it go?" she says. "Went really well Saundra. Met a lot of nice people but I'll tell you what. Saundra I must be getting old because I cannot remember the last time I have been this tired. I'm dead. I've had it. I can hardly move tonight. Then she says, "You know what? I was just in looking in the refrigerator and I don't have any cokes for the morning." "And I was just wondering if you could go get me a coke for in the morning."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: What do you think?

Audience: Going to go get the coke.

Dr. Manzer: Going to go get those cokes. You know what's interesting is if I said, "Saundra I'm not getting the cokes," she would get up and go get the cokes. But if you're going to provide the service, that is, go get the cokes, you might as well get the what? 

Audience member: The credit.

Dr. Manzer: The credit. So while she's telling you about this you start thinking, "Am I going to end up getting these cokes? Yes." So, you say, "No problem Saundra. I'm dressed, the car's warm, I'll go up to the convenience store. I'll be glad to do it. We're here to serve." Grrr! [bites knuckles]

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: You might not throw that we're here to serve thing in there guys, okay? Then you get the cokes and bring them home. You get the credit. You see the difference in that and saying to her when she asks you about the cokes, "Well, for crying out loud. Saundra, what did I just tell you. I told you I'm dead..."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: "I mean, how many hours you... I've been working 18 hours for the family today. What have you been doing all day? Eating bon-bons?"

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: "I mean, how many times did you go to the store today? Twice? Did you get the cokes? I don't want the cokes. Why don't you go get the cokes?" Then you go get the cokes.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Right? Because you do a good job and then she won't get the credit. That's why I've been married 50 years. Now, men don't understand this story. You don't want to go get the cokes? Don't go get cokes. We're not talking about when somebody comes to you whether you provide the service or not. We're talking about if you provide the service, you do what? You get the credit. You don't want to get the cokes. Don't get the cokes. You can't provide the service. Don't do it. Makes sense to me. 

Is there anything less responsive in the whole world than a teenager to their parents? When the parents ask the teenager to do something...

Our son, you couldn't have a better son, in high school during basketball season he only had one job. His job was to take out the trash twice a week. Now I timed how long it takes to take out the trash. You can do it in three minutes and do a great job. He did it in six minutes. That meant he did it twice a week. Six minutes a week was his job. Would you call that overwhelming? I wouldn't call it overwhelming.

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: So every Monday and Thursday I would say to him, I'd say, "Hey Brendon, it's time to take out the trash." And with that sour look they got on their face, "Take out the trash? I don't have time to take out the trash. I've got calls to make, homework to do, you're ruining my life. Ahhhh."

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Not quite that bad but you've got teenagers, right? Now, is he going to take out the trash? Yes. Is he going to get credit? No. I'd just once like to say, "Brendon, it's time to take out the trash." And he would say, "Oh, thanks Dad for reminding me to take out the trash. I'd like to take out the trash. I know it builds responsibility in me." You know, and he takes out the trash.

Now if he does that what would I have done? You know what I would have done? I'd have said, "Brendon, do you want the car keys, you want some money? What is it you want?" Those teenagers could play us like a radio if they'd behave... Am I telling the truth back there?

Telling the truth.

If it's true with teenagers, it's true with mates, why wouldn't it be true with others? And the answer is, it is true. That's why all these variables are the same way. Everybody wins by doing these. And they're just really small things.

Well, when you're at home, the doorbell rings, who's the first one to answer the door? There's no doubt about this. You guys don't know? It's the dog. You got a dog? The dog is always the first one to answer the door. Is the door ever for the dog?

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: Never for the dog. "Can Rover come out?" Does that keep the dog from being the first one to answer the door next time? No. Why is that? I'm not sure. But maybe in the dog's mind there's always hope that someday the door will be for the dog, right?

Audience: [laughter]

Dr. Manzer: I think that's the way it is in your career and in your life. I think it is and you that have experience will understand this. That sometimes you just got to keep coming and keep coming, keep coming, and guess what? Maybe the door will be for you.

Our son is the all-time three point, was for years, all-time three point percentage career shooter at OSU. He played ball really. He shot 45.9%. They shoot 39% now and they think they're great. And people ask me, "Did you work with him?" and I said, "No, not really. But I always told him this - I said, 'There's always somebody better than you. Always. They will beat you. But my experience has been if you keep coming, you keep coming, you keep coming, the vast majority of those people will do what? They'll quit and you will win.' I believe that. Let me close by giving you my favorite poem.

You didn't know I was a sensitive kind of guy, did you?

I do know a lot about service, I do believe. But this is information that's out there. And I know this about dealing with people. That if you make a promise to them, you have to keep it. And if you can't keep it, which happens, then you've got to let them know why you didn't keep it.

This poem I heard one time and it's entitled "Advertising" and it says if you keep a promise good things happen and if you don't, bad things happen. And it goes like this: A lion once met a tiger as he drew beside the pool. Said the tiger, "Tell me why you're roaring like a fool." "That's not foolish", said the lion, with a twinkle in his eye; "They call me King of Beasts, because I advertise." A rabbit heard them talking and he ran home like a streak. Thought he'd try the lion's own plan, though his roar was just a squeak. A fox came to investigate - had dinner in the woods. So when you advertise, my friends... Be sure you got the goods!

Isn't that the truth. Thank you all, very much.

[applause]