How Getting Stuck in an Elevator Can Help Your Business

My wife and I recently had dinner with our friends Jean and Steve, who told us a tale that was not only amusing, but one that will help you make a very important business decision. Seems like earlier this year, Jean and Steve went to Arizona for major league baseball’s spring training. A lot of fans do this. One day, they got tickets to a game featuring their beloved San Francisco Giants playing at Diamondback Stadium in Phoenix. They took the elevator to get to their seating level--and it got stuck. And stayed stuck. After a few minutes of solitary waiting, Jean pressed the emergency button and sure enough, a voice from the outside came through. Muffled and blurred, but at least a voice. So far so good. Then the conversation began in earnest: Jean: “We are stuck in the elevator.” Voice: “Where are you?” Jean: “In the elevator behind home plate.” (Pause). Voice: “Where?” Jean: “In the elevator behind home plate, the one that goes up to the box suites.” (Pause). Voice: “Where are you exactly?” Jean (a little irritated): “We’re in an elevator behind home plate at the stadium.” Voice: “Where?” Jean (a little more irritated): “The baseball stadium. In Phoenix.”Voice: “Uh, where?” Jean: (sharply): “The stadium. In Phoenix, Arizona.” (Pause).Voice: “Hmmm”Jean (exasperated): “Excuse me, where are you?” Voice: “I am in India, madam, and if you give me more specifics, I will be glad to assist you. Where are you?” At this point, Steve muttered a few choice expletives, then took matters into his own hands. He slowly forced the elevator doors open, and both he and Jean were able to lift themselves up the three feet to the next level. Over dinner, the story was funny, but at the time, they felt very frustrated. My wife, who has a slight phobia about elevators to begin with, said she would have panicked. Either way, it wasn’t the greatest moment in outsourcing history. So here’s the lesson for you business leaders. In today’s global economy, you should always be looking for outsourcing opportunities, even offshore. You should do it not merely to lower your upfront costs, but just as important, you should do it to get rid of non-value-adding functions and assets that suck up your resources and distract you from focusing on the innovations in products and customer care that your company needs to thrive. It makes sense for the Diamondback leaders to outsource the telephone response unit in the elevators. They should concentrate on constantly improving amenities like the baseball team, the seat comfort, ticket selection, food, the lawn on the field, fan loyalty programs, and so on. So outsourcing elevator maintenance is a sensible idea, and frankly, with today’s global communication and information technologies, it technically shouldn’t matter that the call center work is done in India. But—and it’s a big but—never let your outsourcing activities adversely impact the quality of your products and customer service. (Actually, an increasing number of imaginative companies are working with their outsourced partners not just to reduce costs, but to create an improved environment for products and service—but that’s another story). In other words, don’t let your quest for short-term cost savings damage your relationship with your customer. Like many companies, Dell found this out when it had to bring back a number of call center functions from India because American customers were complaining that the service reps could not speak clearly or truly understand the subtleties of their (the customers’) problems. Remember, the customer doesn’t differentiate between you the provider and your supply chain partners. If your partner screws up, the customer blames you—in this case, the Diamondbacks organization. So always stay on top of these supplier relationships, especially when they touch the customer. If customers are in any way distressed by the relationship, fix it or cancel it. Yes, capitalize on opportunities to farm out work that’s not your core competency, but remember that customer care must always remain your top priority.