Could YOU or YOUR company survive if you had to live and work with your customers and coworkers? Hearing every bit of praise, every complaint, and every…everything? That’s what life is like for the cruise industry, where crew and customers live together for weeks in the middle of the ocean. And it’s why my guest today, Paul Rutter, helps land-based companies apply the lessons he’s learned from the cruise ship industry to create exceptional customer experiences.
Today, we talk about what he learned about both customer experience and culture from working in the cruise industry, and how to ensure your employees are supported so they can show up with the right attitude and deliver great customer care. We discuss what to look for in hiring, how to empower employees to solve problems right away, why gossip is a culture killer, the importance of top execs getting in the trenches, and the link between empathy, innovation, and risk-taking. Paul even shares how to deal with extreme customer disappointments – like weddings canceled due to hurricanes – and how empathy helps turn those experiences into lifetime customer value, loyalty, and referrals.
To access this episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- Hire for attitude. Skills can be trained (and training is so, so important and should be done regularly), but without the right attitude having the right skills won’t matter.
- Learn about and celebrate the differences of those onboard your team. You need to take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers. You want your employees to be your raving brand ambassadors.
- If you’re in the C-Suite, take time to work how your lower-level employees work each day. It is important for the employees to see and for the executives to know what your employees are dealing with every day.
“We have one goal on board a ship. That’s it. And it should be the goal of all of your listeners as well: Create such an exceptional experience that exceeds expectations that they will come back because they’ve had such a great experience.” — Paul Rutter
About Paul Rutter, Chief Experience Officer:
After three decades as a global cruise director who lived with his team and clients, speaker, trainer, and author Paul Rutter knows that “perfect” is just a starting point. He knows that with today’s abundance of options for customers, every single experience they have is critical to running a successful business. Paul helps companies around the world set a standard for unmatched customer service.
Recognized by USA Today, ABC, NBC, MarketWatch, and FOX, Paul Rutter is a customer experience expert, speaker, bestselling author, and founder of the More Than Perfect service model. Paul is the author of the bestseller You Can’t Make This Ship Up, a hilarious look at the lessons he’s learned at sea and now applies to land-based businesses. He is also the creator of the strategic guide, Repeat Business Inc: The Business of Staying in Business.
Connect with Paul Rutter:
Smooth Sailing Communication, Inc: PaulRutterSpeaks.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/parutter
Instagram: Instagram.com/PaulRutterSpeaks
Book: You Can’t Make This Ship Up; Business Strategies, Life Lessons and True Stories From 40 Years at Sea
Join the tribe, download your free guide! Discover what empathy can do for you: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy
Connect with Maria:
Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com
Learn more about Maria and her work: Red-Slice.com
Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross
Take my LinkedIn Learning Course! Leading with Empathy
LinkedIn: Maria Ross
Instagram: @redslicemaria
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FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host Maria Ross. I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy from trends and research to the future of work, to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society, it’s great for business. Could you or your company survive if you had to live and work with your customers and co workers, hearing every bit of praise every complaint, and everything. That’s what life is like for the cruise industry, where crew and customers live together for weeks at a time in the middle of the ocean. And it’s why my guest today helps land based companies apply the lessons he’s learned from the cruise ship industry to create exceptional customer experiences. After three decades as a global cruise director who lived with his team and clients, Speaker trainer and author Paul rudder knows that perfect is just a starting point. He knows that with today’s abundance of options for customers, every single experience they have is critical to running a successful business. Paul helps companies around the world set a standard for unmatched customer service. Recognized by USA Today, ABC, NBC, MarketWatch and Fox. Paul is a customer experience expert speaker best selling author, and founder of the more than perfect service model. Paul is the author of best seller, you can’t make this shit up a hilarious look at the lessons he’s learned at sea and now applies to land based businesses. He’s also the creator of the strategic guide, repeat business, Inc, the business of staying in business. Today we talk about what he learned about both customer experience and culture from working in the cruise industry, how to ensure your employees are supported so they can show up with the right attitude and deliver great customer care. We discussed what to look for in hiring how to empower employees to solve problems right away. Why gossip is a culture killer, the importance of top execs getting in the trenches, and the link between empathy and innovation and risk taking. Paul even shares how to deal with extreme customer disappointments, like weddings canceled due to hurricanes, and how Empathy helps turn those experiences into Lifetime Customer Value, loyalty and referrals. Take a listen. Welcome Paul Rutter to the empathy edge podcast, I am so excited to have this conversation with you about living with your customers 24/7 And what that’s like and what you’ve learned. So welcome to the empathy edge podcast.
Paul Rutter 03:03
Thank you so much. It’s great to be with you.
Maria Ross 03:05
So tell us a little bit we heard your bio, but tell us a little bit about your story, and your experiences at sea. And what got you into this work now of consulting with organizations and helping them better connect with their customers to create winning customer experiences.
Paul Rutter 03:22
So I come to you from the hospitality industry, the travel industry, but more specifically the cruise industry. And as you mentioned, I’ve been working on board cruise ships for I hate to say this close to 40 years now. And it’s one of the very few industries where you actually live with your customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So Maria, let me ask you have you cruise before? Have you taken a cruise?
Maria Ross 03:47
Oh, I have not. I am not necessarily a cruise fan. But I come from a family of big cruise addicts. So, yes.
Paul Rutter 03:56
So we’ll have to get you on there one of these days. Because there’s some magnificent ships all over the world, all different sizes, all different products that they have. But one of the things that we learn on board is that you know, you have no excuses. If there’s a problem with your customer, you have to take care of it right away. You can’t have any excuses. And so if somebody comes to our front desk and says, My toilets not working, we’re not going to say well, it’s the weekend we’ll send somebody on Monday. No, we send somebody within 30 minutes to solve any problems because if you have a stuck toilet, you know they’re not going to your customers are not going to be happy about it. Same thing with air conditioning or if they have a problem with their key or you know anything else on board. We have to take care of our situations, problems, complaints or whatever you want to call them. We have to take care of them very quickly because if we don’t, they’re going to be right there. We’re going to walk around the corner and we’re going to run into those people again. And so we have to have policies, procedures, and really put ensembles in place in order to deal with all sorts of problems, some of the largest ships in the world, there’s over 6000 guests on board, along with over 2000 crew that’s over 8000 people in a big metal boat in the middle of the ocean, what could possibly go wrong? Well, pretty much everything can go wrong. We’re sitting in the middle of the ocean there. And so we have to be prepared for all sorts of things that go wrong. And so we deal with that. And so that’s why when I talk with businesses on land, the first question I ask is, could you or your company survive if you had to live with your customers? And their eyes get very big? And they go, no, no, there is no way that I could live, there would be violence involved at some point. In that relationship, I could not live with my customers. And if you add to that, we also live with our coworkers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So the person that we just worked in the dining room or a state room attendant, or next to each other at the front desk, or crew, staff members, or singers and dancers on board, they could be roommates at the end of the day. And so we have to keep our employees engaged, we have to have a great culture on board, we have to have a lot of employee engagement, our employees come from close to 70 different countries, Americans on board are the minority. And so, you know, how do you keep your employees engaged so that when they wake up and walk out of their cabin, they’re gonna have a big smile on their face. And they’re going to want to give to tremendous service, so that people come back, because we have one goal on board a ship. And that’s it. And it should be the goal of all of your listeners as well. And that should be to create such an exceptional experience that exceeds expectations that your customers will come back. Because they’ve had such a great experience. So onboard our ships, our goal is to exceed expectations. So people will book their next cruise right then and there. It’s an impulse buy, people buy an emotion. And if we’re doing a great job, now, we they don’t want to risk going to our competitors, and maybe not having that same great experience. So our goal is to create such an exceptional experience that exceeds expectations, they will book their next vacation with us, and 98% of the time that they put down a small deposit, they don’t even have to tell us what ship or where they want to go. They’re just reserving a room a state room on one of our ships 98% of the time they take their next vacation with us. So if your listeners know that 98% of the time their customers are going to come back to them over and over again, wouldn’t they do what’s necessary to exceed those expectations. And so that’s what we do on board a ship has tried to exceed those expectations. So they come back right away,
Maria Ross 07:56
right. And so you’re helping land based businesses adopt these philosophies. And in your book, called, you can’t make the ship up, which I love the title, you offer this hilarious look at the lessons that you’ve learned at sea, but applying them to land based businesses. So I have so many questions. But I want to start with, before I get to the external customer experience, I want to talk first about the opposite side of that coin, which is the culture that you create. And we talk a lot about, I talk a lot about empathy starting from the inside out, or really any brand attribute starting from the inside out, it’s got to be genuine, it’s got to be authentic, and it’s got to be lived inside the organization. So externally, it can be shown by the employees. You talk about building a culture based around exceptional customer service. And I’m wondering, because of the extremes of the environment for the cruise ship industry, the challenges that you mentioned where you’re living with your customers 24/7 And you’re living with your work mates, your colleagues 24/7? Is there something specific you hire for? And how do you screen for it? If you need to find someone that can thrive in that type of very different culture?
Paul Rutter 09:15
We hire for one thing and one thing only and that is attitude, you have to have the right attitude in order to work on board. There’s an old saying I’m sure you’ve heard hire for attitude train for skill, and that we can do weather. Now if you’re gonna if you’re being hired as a waiter in the restaurant. Yes, we want you to have some restaurant experience. Yes, if you’re we’re hiring you as a stateroom attendant. We want you to have some sort of experience but we can train you how to do the job. But if you don’t have the right attitude to be away from home for four or six or eight months of the time, then you’re not going to fit in now. Training is so important. Now, I know that some land based businesses when they have new hires, they may do an hour of training and that they never, they never do training. Again, we do constant training. And that’s one of the big things, there’s the first of all, for us on board a ship safety and security is the most important thing for us. Because we have to deal with things in the middle of the ocean, you know, fires and groundings or, you know, all sorts of problems like that. And so we have to hire for attitude. But in order to keep your employees engaged, you have to bring a little bit of their home onto the ship with them. So, for instance, as Americans for breakfast mean, we may want fruit, or eggs or bacon. But if you’re from the Philippines, or from Indonesia, or from India, you don’t want that for breakfast, you want rice and you want beef, or you want fish. And so the ships do a very good job, the cruise lines of of trying to bring home a little bit of creature comforts in order to make our crew members feel at home. And we have a saying onboard. And I’m sure it’s the same saying that many land based businesses have is that happy crew equals happy guests. If you keep your crew happy, then they’re going to go out and deliver the product that you really want them to. And so we have some things in place. So for instance, we talk about empathy. Being away from home is so difficult, especially when you’re new. But what happens if you have a family member, your mother is gone into the hospital, and you’ve heard this, how’re you able to go see your parents or your brothers getting married and you want to go to the wedding, it’s in the middle of your contract. So we do things called compassionately where we allow our crew members to be able to fly home for two weeks up to two weeks at a time to take care of business at home. So that they know if there’s a problem, I’m going on a ship for eight months. But if there’s a problem, I’m able to come home and take care of it. And so that’s really important for our crew members to know. And it’s, you know, it’s putting ourselves in their shoes. I mean, that’s what empathy is all about is, you know, if the same situation happened to us, how would we want to be treated, and that’s how we want to be able to treat our crew members there. So we do have things like compassion leave, we’ll also do things you know, we celebrate birthdays on the board, we celebrate independence day. So if it’s Jamaican Independence Day, and we have a number of Jamaican crew members on board, we’ll have a big party for the Jamaican crew members. You know, if it’s Fourth of July for the Americans, we’ll have a fourth of July party. So we will celebrate the differences that we bring on board. And it’s it’s one of the best things about the job of working on board is learning and dealing with and working with these people from all these countries outside the work. It’s such a wonderful education. But at the same time, you have to make sure that you’re taking care of your employees, because they’ll be the ones and they’re going to go home and sing your praises. If they like the atmosphere on board, then they’ll tell their friends that were a great company to work for. So you want your employees to be your raving brand ambassadors. We call them in the book.
Maria Ross 13:11
Of course, of course you do. They are your biggest brand assets are your employees. I want to dig into that a little bit further. Because this idea of attitude, it sounds good. And I think folks think about it and sort of they know it when they see it. But what specific traits or behaviors are you looking for in the hiring process to show you that this person has the right attitude? Well,
Paul Rutter 13:40
I should say that meese specifically, I’m not involved in the hiring process, because we have 26 ships, we might probably have 50,000 crew members now. And so we have a whole human resources team for shipboard hiring, depending on if you’re going into housekeeping or if you’re an entertainer. We have specific people for hiring for skills like that. And so I wish I could tell you that I’m personally do all the hiring. I don’t that the crew members are my responsibility. Once they walk up the gangway, then it’s up to me to make sure that they feel like they fit in. So for instance, the first day on a cruise ship, for anybody is hectic and stressful. There’s people running all over the place down in the career areas because we’re getting ready for a new cruise. And invariably, every single time a new crew member will say to themselves, this was the biggest mistake I ever made. What am I doing here? This is crazy. And so I make sure as a division head as the cruise director on some of these large ships. I may have 200 people work just in my division. I make sure I bring in a new hire to my office on the either the first or second day and let them know we know how crazy it is. for them to go through, I will always say to the new hire. So have you asked yourself why you’re here, and this was the craziest decision you ever made. And every time they go, Yeah, I can’t believe this, this is crazy. And so we try to let them know that we know what they’re going through, because we’ve been through it as well. And we know how crazy it is. And we know that people get homesick. And so we go out of our way to make sure that people feel welcome. Onboarding is a new term. And it’s such an important aspect of a business to make sure that especially our crew members feel welcome, because we’re flying them there. And we’re making an expense to bring them to our ships all over the world. It’s very important the that they feel comfortable coming on board the ship. I
Maria Ross 15:49
love that because that is so important about empathy for your employees and understanding everything you talked about the benefits, the inclusivity are all of these touches that, you know, leaders are finally understanding that that has a direct impact on the employees performance, which has a direct impact on the customer’s experience. It’s not some fluffy feelgood thing I mean, it is but it also impacts the bottom line. And making that investment in in that connection. And that humanity for each person is so important to ensure that overall, the organization is achieving its goals. So I want to flip to that customer experience. Because, you know, again, your industry very unique, you are living with your customers 24/7. But the we talked a little bit about the bad when things go wrong, or the complaints, but also the good. And so how can organizations that can’t do that, be more in lockstep and attuned with their customers? What are some ways that you’ve worked with your clients to help them not quite mimic that experience, but gather be able to gather the information and the data that’s gleaned from that experience? And maybe a different way?
Paul Rutter 17:06
Alright. Well, I think I understand that question. Let me, let me go one, just back to the one point with the employees first, and that is how important it is to empower your employees to take care of problems right away. Because if I have a problem and go to somebody at the front desk, and then they tell me, oh, sorry, I have to go get permission from my manager or my supervisor, in order to give you you know, the $10 back. And then the manager supervisor comes out in the office explain the problem all over again, like on the phone when you’re trying to call up a business on land. And so empowering your employees to take care of problems right away, helps towards guests and customers knowing that these people care about me that they’re not going to nickel and dime me that yes, if I have a problem, they’re going to take care of it right away, because we’ve learned in the past, if somebody let’s say, has a problem with a shore excursion, and they come to the front desk and say, Well, I didn’t like that shore excursion. 20 years ago, we would hand them a business card and say, Okay, call this number when you get home. And so they’re upset for the rest of the cruise, they’re not having a good time because they haven’t, their problem hasn’t been resolved. And so they go home, and they call the number and then the people in the office call us on the ship. And they say, Okay, what was the story, and the time involved is crazy. If you just take care of the problem and empower your employees to say, no worries, we’re giving you a 50% refund right now. And we’re going to send you a bottle of wine for the inconvenience, then they leave happy, and they can enjoy the rest of their cruise. And they’re going to tell their friends and family when they get home. I had a problem. But this cruise line took care of it right away. So empowering employees. I just wanted to make sure that we got how important that is. Definitely. Before
Maria Ross 18:54
you get to the question I actually asked, I just want to jump on that because that is such an important point. I think there are so many businesses set up to put policies in place that only deal with the random outliers. And yet, there’s really just a cost of doing business. Will people take advantage of liberal customer service policies and refund policies? Maybe, but the majority of them won’t. I mean, we learned this from Nordstrom, we learned this from Amazon. It’s for those exceptions that might milk the system. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to a stellar customer experience where you resolve someone’s problem right away. And the majority of people are not trying to screw the company. The majority of people genuinely have a problem and that is always frustrated me about so many businesses that want to put all these hurdles in place, because of the few people that might take advantage of the system. Meanwhile, they are neglecting all of these potential loyal lifetime customers because They think they’re being savvy about it. And they’re not. So
Paul Rutter 20:02
they’re just wanted to go. They’re not looking at the long term they’re looking. They’re
Maria Ross 20:06
not. And it’s like, you know, what is it worth to be able to save that time and create that better experience? By empowering your employee to solve the problem. This is the thing I love about Amazon customer service is, you know, we are loyal Amazon customers, I know that that’s controversial. But whenever you have a problem with an item, you can just chat with customer service, and it’s no questions asked, they’ll refund, sometimes you don’t even have to ship it back. Right? What you know, you might a CEO might look at that and say, like, look at all the money, we’re letting go out the door, how do we know if that really happened or didn’t happen, we need an investigation, it’s, you know, sort of just chalk it up to a cost of doing business, and reap the rewards of when you solve the nine out of 10 customers whose complaints are legitimate. So now I want to kind of get back to this idea of living with your customers 24/7. Because my point being, you have that advantage in the cruise industry. So when you work with clients and land based businesses, what are some ways you help them recreate that information gathering experience, so that they can get the benefit of hearing from their customers right away and sort of being in the trenches with their customers, without actually creepily going home with them?
Paul Rutter 21:22
Exactly. So, at the end of every cruise, we do surveys, customer feedback is so important. So we get surveys every single week at the end of a cruise. Now, there is so much that you can learn from the surveys. Now a lot of it is just oh, there was a piece of dust in my room. So my cruise was ruined. Okay, you can take that with a grain of salt, right. But if you hear over and over again, let’s say Bob was rude at trivia or at bingo today or an activity. And if you get that once you can write it off. But if you see the same things happening week after week after week, and Bob is rude and keeps getting written up week after week, then we have a problem on our hands that we have to solve, we understand that you can something can happen for one cruise, and somebody takes it the wrong way or, and you can get written up for that. But if you have the same problems, week after week, after week, you need to. And so I would just try to look for trends and tell companies to look for trends that if somebody is getting, you know, as we mentioned a rudeness common every single week, then that is something that you need to look into. The other thing I would mention is, you know, pick up a phone, people are hesitant to pick up a phone. And if you haven’t seen a customer in a while and you want to know why call him up and say hey, you know, we haven’t seen the a year in a couple of months. We’re just making sure everything’s okay. And if there’s anything we can do, please don’t hesitate to contact us. And so picking up a phone, even I’m a big believer in sending thank you notes to people, handwritten, thank you notes are so personal. I have one friend who keeps sending postcards. I mean, when do you get postcards in the mail anymore? Just making sure that customers know that you’re there, and that you’re thinking about them does so much for the customer to then start thinking about your business. Again,
Maria Ross 23:18
I love this. And something that we spoke about pre recording was something I wrote about in the book about executives who sort of outsource the customer feedback. And we know we’ve got Customer Support Teams, we’ve got Customer Success teams, we’ve got account manager, that’s their role to stay in lockstep with the customer. But what about the executive team that can sometimes get into their ivory tower and forget what life is like for the real people on the ground? What suggestions do you have around executives being able to stay in touch with their customers and not lose sight of that beating heart of the company.
Paul Rutter 23:53
I am a very big believer in executives and owners and C suite officers to come on down where the real people work and live and do a job for a day or a week we’ve had people switch jobs we’ve had when a ship is coming out we’ve had captains and all the officers serving dinner to the crew members in the restaurant, I mean and to for them to see how the other half lives, you know talking about empathy, they see exactly what’s going on. And that is so important. First of all, it’s important for the employees to see the executives down where they are instead of in their ivory tower. And so I’m a very big believer in switching jobs or come on down and work the front desk of your hotel or work at the counter of your business and see exactly what your employees are dealing with on a daily basis. Plus, the customers will be very happy to see you there if they know who you are. And so I’m a big believer in switching roles for a day or a week or even an hour
Maria Ross 24:58
or two If you like, yeah, no, I put that in the book of wherever possible, you know, get the CEO on the customer support line for an hour, or, you know, wherever it is possible for them to get into the trenches. I’m a big proponent of airline CEOs, flying anonymously in coach and seeing what that experience is like, which I know they don’t do, I wish they would, or even to understand what it’s like online to purchase from your company or book an experience, to go through that process yourself as an executive every so often, and not be too arrogant about the fact that that’s beneath you. And you know, I shared a story in the book about a CEO who thought it was beneath his executive team to actually spend time talking to customers, and why that’s a recipe for failure because no customers no company, right? So
Paul Rutter 25:54
you’re just to build on that a little bit. I mean, I talked to land based businesses, they’ll park in the back parking lot and use the back door to go up to their offices, the last time they went in the front door where customers actually go in was a years ago. And so they don’t know they don’t see the dirt or the filth or the loose handle or something that’s a safety concern. Because they they go in the back way all the time. And they need to do and walk in the footsteps of their customers. Go online, call your office, call your one 800 Number and see how long it takes to answer. We do that on our ships, we have managers on duty, will specifically call you know, room service, or the front desk to see how long it takes for them to answer. And I highly recommend CEOs to call their 800 Number, or go on their website and see how long they are and see what they need to do to find a phone number to call for customer service. So I highly recommend that CEOs work and walk in the steps of their customers at every chance every chance they get.
Maria Ross 27:00
So in your book, you can’t make the ship up, which I love the title again, you talk about a few business implementation strategies. And I’d love to just get a high level insight on a few of these. One of them is how loose lips literally sink ships. Can you tell us what that one’s about?
Paul Rutter 27:19
Well, there’s a couple of things. There’s no privacy on a cruise ship, you learn that fairly quickly that everybody knows everybody’s business. And gossip can be very bad onboard a ship. Because I think there’s a saying, if they don’t have anything too bad to say about you, they’ll make something up. And so we have to be very careful. And even on land, I try to get the point across that gossip is just such a cancer. And it grows and it brings people down. And so when I say when we say loose lips sink ships, it’s that you just have to be careful what you’re saying, you know, you may hear a rumor, and then you spread it. But you know, gossip is such an especially on a ship because it’s such close quarters. I mean, we have, for instance, to give you an example, there’s a crew bar on board, every ship has a crew bar where crew members can go with at the end of the day and just have a nice drink and relax and listen to some music. Well, Lord have mercy. If a guy and a girl leave the crew bar at the same time. The rumors start to spread, right Oh, you see who left here and and all of a sudden, you know, they’re married together. But that’s not the way it works. And you just real careful about some of the things you say, because gossip is such a cancer in any business and, and there’s really no privacy on board a ship. So I would just recommend to try and nip it in the bud when there’s gossip going around that, you know isn’t true,
Maria Ross 28:51
right? I mean, that is definitely a culture killer for sure. And it’s anything but apathetic. We’re not really thinking about the impact that our words can have on our colleagues and our workmates. But also that that just detracts us from the work as well. It’s all well and good to have fun and, and joke and inject joy I I’m a huge proponent of that to create to create a good culture that then in turn offers great customer service. But yeah, I think we need to we all need to keep each other in check about the gossip issue. You have another one here throwing off the bow lines to take some risks. Talk to us about that. Well,
Paul Rutter 29:26
I just think first of all, working on a cruise ship is a risk because it’s not like it’s on anybody’s radar, they already going to college for all I’m going to college so I can work on a ship. So you do have to take risks in life and business owners need to take risks. If you’re doing the same thing that everybody else is doing. You’re not going to stand out in the crowd. And you need to stand out and even if it’s, you know, some people do it with, you know, crazy colors or a different logo or something like that. You have to take some risks. I mean, you know you mentioned Amazon look at the risk he took by creating Amazon On and things like that. So if you see that there’s a problem that isn’t being fixed, taking a risk to fix that problem is how you create businesses.
Maria Ross 30:10
Well, and I think related to empathy, what we, what the data show is that companies with empathetic leaders and empathetic cultures create more innovation. And it’s because people know, they, they know that they’re seen, heard and valued. So they’re more comfortable throwing out crazy ideas, or, you know, failing in in the pursuit of trying to try something different, you get people that are more willing to step outside their comfort zone, because they know there might not be retaliation, there might not be, you know, people not accepting them. And so that that idea of the empathetic Culture and Innovation do go hand in hand across multiple studies. One study showed that exponentially people in empathetic cultures felt they could be more innovative at work, I think it was four times as many verses in companies where they don’t have an empathetic culture. So that idea of being a disrupter, that idea of risk taking in business to create growth in the company in the business is so closely aligned to how employees feel about giving their perspectives and offering up their ideas, and also about how they know they can innovate, and create and they’re not worried about all the other stuff that happens when you’re in an environment where you’re, it’s fear based, you don’t feel psychologically safe. You don’t feel like you can bring your ideas to the forefront. You’re so worried about that stuff that think about all the innovation you’re losing as a company, because people are too afraid to speak up.
Paul Rutter 31:44
Exactly. Well, if I can give you an example of something that happened on a ship where empathy was involved, weddings, very big business on board a cruise ship, people are now planning their weddings. And there’s two types of weddings on board. There’s what’s called a shipboard wedding where you can let’s say this cruise starts in Miami, people calm, you have friends and family, they’ll come on board the ship, and you get married on board that day, and then your guests leave and then the ship sails and you go on your on your honeymoon together. So that’s a shipboard wedding. And things usually go well and we know how important weddings are. But the other type of wedding is called the destination wedding. And that’s where the couple says, well, we want to get married on the beach in Jamaica, or we want to get married on the beach in Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. And so they make the plans and they do the paperwork and omit they might do it through a travel agency. But everything is set. And so they’re gonna get married, and sometimes they have family, their parents are sailing with them. We had one wedding, we had 200 guests on board were there just for the wedding. There’s only one problem though, when people booked destination weddings. We’ve had a couple when they’ve booked them during hurricane season. So of course what happened, right, for 99% of the summer time, there’s never a hurricane. But of course, that one time when it’s your wedding, there’s a hurricane coming right towards Jamaica or right towards Grand Cayman. And it’s supposed to hit a day or two before or after the day that you’re supposed to get married. While on a cruise ship. We’re not going there. We’re afraid of hurricanes, there’s no reason to go because the islands are going to be in a bad state. So if there’s a hurricane in the Western Caribbean, a ship will usually go to the Eastern Caribbean because it’s not affected. And people want to go where there’s good weather. Yes, they’re upset that they’re not going to the ports they planned on. But they don’t want to go during a hurricane where the weather is terrible. They want to go where there’s nice weather. But the problem with the people who booked that wedding on that day, they’re not having their wedding day and we have some very upset guests. Now we as a cruiseline could say listen, not our problem. You know, we didn’t book this wedding during hurricane season you did. There’s a hurricane sorry, nothing we can do. Or you can take an empathetic approach and put yourselves in the shoes of these people who were so disappointed and all the family and friends who are with them. The paperwork for the wedding, let’s say they planted on Jamaica or Grand Cayman, the paperwork is only good for that island because the government’s are all different. So if you have a wedding license in Jamaica, you can’t use it if we go to one Eastern Caribbean country, because it’s different paperwork. So we could say sorry, nothing we could do. Or we can put ourselves in their shoes and at least make them feel as valued as possible. So we send them to a romantic dinner and one of our specialty restaurants. We book couples massages for them so that they can get a massage. One couple who had their wedding canceled? They had they this is the couple that had 200 people on board, they said what was really important to us was to have our first dance together. And so we arranged it on the last night of the cruise. In the middle of the shift, there’s always a big central area. The bride got dressed in her gown that to the gentleman was in his tuxedo, we announced to the ship that they were going to have their first dance, it was packed, it was crowded, and the band learned their song there one song because it was going to be played on the beach or recording, we had our band learn that song. And so we were able to let them have their first dance. The crowd went crazy. There was not a dry eye in the house, everybody, they understood that they miss their wedding and that they had planned for and they paid lots of money for this wedding as well. This is you know, It’s so upsetting to us that we couldn’t deliver the product that they were looking forward to. But we were empathetic, and this couple. And both couples that this happened to, at different times were so happy with what we provided for them, they’re taking their anniversary cruise with us, they’re going to bring their families the next time they cruise because they felt that they were valued, even though they never got to get married, that they were happy with the way that we responded to their situation. And that’s where the empathy has now gotten us lifelong customers, who are then going to bring their families and their kids in their grandkids. And you know, how much money has now been brought in in the future, because we were empathetic, and it didn’t cost us very much money to send them to a specialty restaurant or get a massage together. They were very happy about that. Right? And
Maria Ross 36:48
that’s about a mindset of being able to look for those opportunities and have people on board who who understood how can we make this better? What and also what I love about that is getting to the heart of what was most important to that couple, which was the first dance. How many times do we sort of try to apply a cookie cutter solution to customers that are unhappy or customers that are having a less than excellent experience? Where if we just take the time to get to know them and talk with them and understand what is really underneath the frustration or the anger or the sadness or the whatever about the experience? What is the most important aspect to you and how can we fulfill that need for you? So that is such a great story to land on. Paul, we’re going to have all your links in the show notes for folks, but for anyone on the go, can you let us know where’s the best place to get in touch with you?
Paul Rutter 37:42
Oh, absolutely. Thank you for inquiring. I appreciate that. My website is Paul Rutter. speaks.com. My last name is ru t t e r. So Paul Rutter speaks.com books are available there. I’m very big on LinkedIn. If people want to reach out on LinkedIn, I have a Facebook public page. Paul Rutter speaks Instagram, YouTube. So all of those all of those
Maria Ross 38:08
website is great. Yeah, we’ll have all those links in the show notes. Thank you so much for your time today and your insights. We really appreciate it. And thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the empathy edge. If you like what you heard you know what to do, please share it with a colleague or a friend and don’t forget to rate and review and subscribe and follow so you always get the latest episodes. Until next time, remember that cash flow creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind. For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy, visit the empathy edge.com. There you can listen to past episodes, access shownotes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice Maria. Never forget empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
