Learning From Dunkin' Donuts & Subway: 6 Ways Agents Impact the Experience

When asked to identify iconic customer service brands, contact center professionals typically highlight organizations like Zappos, Disney, Nordstrom, the Ritz-Carlton and Apple. They will occasionally focus on organizations within their specific industries or geographic regions.

They virtually never demonstrate reverence for Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts. They are not wrong in their omission: neither is at all famous for a dazzling customer experience.

Both, however, present tremendous insight from a learning standpoint.

Insofar as factors like product quality, core brand values and pricing are deliberately constant from location-to-location, few variables exist in the restaurant’s customer experience. If one is satisfied with the quality and price at the 86^th Street Dunkin’ Donuts, he will probably feel the same about what is served in the 45^th Street location.

If significant disparity still exists in the experiences provided by each location, it can be traced to the few variable (and very manageable) variables that exist.

Agent quality is one such variable element. While recruiting and training practices may be consistent across locations, the individual quality and personality of each agent is absolutely not. Management ability and workplace culture also produce disparity between locations.

Within New York City, there are two separate Dunkin’ Donuts locations that I routinely frequent – one near my home and one near my office. There are two separate Subway locations that I routinely frequent – one near my home and one near my gym.

Even though the offerings are identical, I find the overall experiences to be anything but. I am generally delighted by the experiences at the home locations and generally indifferent to – if not frustrated by – the ones away from home.

I know the food is the same. I know the prices are generally the same. I know the overall 'offering' is the same.

Employee quality is not the same.

Over the past few months, I have noticed that the agents at my home possess six attributes not routinely demonstrated by the agents at the alternative locations. Since the consistency of the chain concept assures most elements are controlled, I can be confident that the agent factor is meaningfully affecting my perception of each experience.

I can thus be confident in my decision to share these six ways agents impact the overall customer experience.

The Greeting

First impressions matter in the world of customer service. The manner in which the employee greets the customer often provides that first impression.

Not all customer service interactions warrant extensive conversations, but all benefit when the agent expresses delight – and enthusiasm – over the prospect of interacting with the customer. An affable, high-energy greeting goes a long way in setting a tone of excellence.

Example:

- The employees at my workplace Dunkin’ Donuts do not make any effort to greet customers. They simply bark "what are you having" without making any attempt to engage the customers.

- The employees at my home Dunkin’ Donuts smile and enthusiastically welcome me upon arrival.

The Affability

Great greetings are important (and sadly rarer than they should be), but they can be faked with the right combination of scripted dialogue and caffeine.

Great employees maintain an aura of affability throughout the call. No matter how monotonous or contentious their role, they are consistently energetic, engaging, cordial and respectful. They are wholly committed to creating a delightful customer experience.

Example:

- The employees at the Subway near my gym make no investment into the conversation. They seem themselves as order-takers – and actually hide from the customer while the sandwich is in the toaster.

- The employees at the Subway near my home engage in constant conversation. They joke. They ask me about my day. They recognize that an efficient experience does not have to be an unhappy one.

The Connection

Affability is always welcome, but it is particularly valuable when rooted in a sincere motivation to connect.

Instead of being nice for the sake of being nice, the best employees leverage their pleasant, cordial demeanor to form legitimate connections with customers. Those connections are instrumental in building loyalty.

Example:

- The employees at the Subway near my gym are order takers. They demonstrate no knowledge about their products or interest in learning about their customers, and they unsurprisingly make no effort to align their products or experiences with the needs of actual customers.

- The employees at the Subway near my home aspire to connect. They recommend new sandwiches. They alert customers to deals. They recognize customers as human – and present themselves as human.

The Personalization

In addition to creating a layer of humanity on the call, employees who connect are also able to form personal, lasting bonds with customers. They learn who their customers are, and they learn what those customers want.

When they employ that knowledge in future interactions, they take the customer experience to the next level.

The differentiator, again, comes down to whether an employee is guided by obligation or motivation. An employee who tries to humanize the interaction because he is supposed to humanize the interaction may create a pleasant experience, but one who connects for the purpose of truly learning about his customers creates elite ones.

Example:

- The employees at my workplace Dunkin’ Donuts know nothing about me. Even though I visit the store fairly frequently, they show virtually no sign of recognizing me and even less familiarity with who I am or what I want. They do not know my name. They cannot anticipate my order. They cannot read my sentiment.

- The employees at my home Dunkin’ Donuts absolutely know me. They begin preparing my sandwiches the second I walk through the door – they do not need me to physically order. They know that I’ll sometimes go next door to pick up my dry cleaning and are prepared to hold the food until I get back.

The Appreciation of Empowerment

Empowerment is the responsibility of the organization rather than the agent. If the company does not allow its agents to go above-and-beyond for customers, they cannot realistically do so.

Appreciation for that empowerment is, however, a trait that exists exclusively within individual agents. Great agents understand when – and how – to go off-script when serving customers. They do not randomly throw coupons at customers. They do not randomly offer discounts to quell complaints. They consider how they can most appropriately – and most effectively – add value to individual interactions. They assess which customers possess a higher lifetime value and actively pursue such customers’ loyalty.

Example:

- The employees at the Subway near my gym are offering a location-specific promotion: every footlong sub is available for $6. Unfortunately, they adhere to corporate standards when it comes to sandwich creation. They build each sandwich with a designated quantity of meat (see: minimum. They apply the designated (see: minimum) quantity of toppings (until a customer asks for more).

- The employees at the Subway at my home offer contextually valuable discounts and promotions. Knowing I tend to eat more meat, they put a few extra slices on each sandwich. Knowing my brother asks for an absurdly great quantity of jalapenos, they fill his sandwich with as many as possible. Instead of simply offering value in stock pricing terms, the employees make educated decisions based on context and customer.

The Skill

The aforementioned "soft" factors play meaningful roles in the customer experience. They meaningfully affect customer sentiment.

Possessing those skills does not, however, exempt an agent from his core job responsibility: efficiently and effectively giving the customer the product for which he is paying.

If the agent makes mistakes with the customer’s order, takes too long to deliver that order or executes the delivery with recklessness or sloppiness, his friendly, engaging, empowered demeanor will mean nothing.

Skilled agents can enhance a static customer experience. Unskilled ones can undermine it.

Example:

- The employees at my workplace Dunkin’ Donuts often require me to repeat my order. Despite those repetitions, they still occasionally get it wrong. They do not exercise fair time management; they will, for example, defer my food order to address some coffee orders, which creates an undue delay. They do not properly wrap the sandwiches, which results in excessively greasy bags.

- The employees at my home Dunkin’ Donuts do everything correctly. They recognize the product line and thus never need me to repeat my order. They personally communicate the order to the cook, which helps remove a source of error. They always provide my food in a clean, neat bag that has already been filled with napkins and condiments.