Love the “swat team” idea. You’re right, sharing across silos will always be an issue. With good leadership it can be improved, but it will always be an organizational challenge. In addition, specialization dictates that departments will always exists, and these will naturally form into silos.

So, the swat team idea is pretty intriguing — a team that has the authority and skill set to work across departments to help guide the customer to a successful experience.

Thanks for sharing Ryan!

These situations can be very challenging because often, by the time it gets to you, the situation has gone so far that it is beyond repair. Like you say, take responsibility and do your best to turn the situation around.

That is a good story… except for the part where you had to repaint your wall. 🙂

I think the lynchpin here is a 3/4 combo. What I mean is, “nobody” shares across silos and rarely will a customer be with the right department- but I’m not convinced that should ultimately matter: “Ummmm, this is customer service, you need to talk to reservations. I’m gunna transfer you OK? … No, this is individual reservations, you need to talk to enterprise accounts since you’re a business customer and they’re closed for the day.” Does that SOUND FAMILIAR? It’s maddening!

More to the point, I’ve heard of a few companies that have created “swat teams” of sorts that take over/assume snowballing situations to see them through to the end of their experience. Of course the right team should handle the right customers. Information should be shared. Business should be social. Everything’s integrated… until then, “the swat” idea can be effective as concierge-level support for customers that are a quarter of the way to a sucky snowball disaster. I’ve used them successfully in politics. And if they can work in politics, c’mon!

I had a good Lowe’s story however. I had them match up paint to an old can of Sherwin Williams paint we had for our exterior wall. I made the mistake of using up the old can first before buying the new. Well, of course it didn’t match and it specifically says on the can this is a special order and we will NOT take it back. I was just trying to see if they could blend it a little differently. At first he said NO to taking it back and blending, but I remained calm and said I could really use some help so he blended me a new can. It didn’t match either so I had to paint the whole wall over again, but I did appreciate him going over and above to help me out.