It was a fun and exciting day in Venice Beach. We were heading home to our budget hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Little did we know what excitement was still to come.

It was in the summer of 1988 during the summer school recess. My best friend Daniel and myself traveled for 5 weeks through the USA on a Greyhound Ameripass. An epic journey from coast to coast. On that fateful Saturday we were the second night in Los Angeles. To cover for our travel expenses I had American Express Travelers Cheques, Daniel had cheques from another issuer.

In our room we made a bad discovery: Our room safe was broken open. The travelers cheques gone.

The break-in came as a shock. Okay, the hotel wasn’t a five star hotel, but it was probably still the most expensive hotel on our shoestring trip. It was Saturday evening and we carried only very little cash: We were broke and jittery.

In distress I called American Express to block the cheques. After just a few moments I had a polite Amex representative on the line. I explained my case in my best high school English. A little moment later I had a German speaking agent on the line. That eased the proceedings considerably. I detailed what happened and no more than ten (10!) minutes later the case was solved: Amex offered replacement travelers cheques to be picked up at any Amex office of our convenience (When we arrived in Las Vegas the day after – a Sunday – the office clerk had everything ready) and they even dispatched a messenger – it was Saturday evening by now after 11pm! – with $200 cash to cover for all expenses until then.

Even today I am pleasantly surprised by their service. We were two poor high school students and surely not high-worth clients. Yet Amex helped, even providing assistance in our mother tongue and dispatching a courier on a Saturday evening. What a difference with Daniel’s travelers cheques issuer. We had to spend two hours in a downtown LA police station to get a police report the issuer requested. The police escorted us back to the hotel, because they deemed it unsafe to walk. And we chased the replacement cheques for the next two weeks.

No prices for guessing which credit card I signed up to the moment I could afford one. I’ve been a member ever since on just that basic assumption: Whenever I am in trouble again on a trip Amex will help. Amex earned back their ’88 investment many times over.

First observation: Put your customer first and your customer will put you first, too.

I know: It’s a worn saying “put your customer first”. However, how many times have you been let down lately by a company you trust? At our previous gig we tried to live up to above outlined standards. We had a simple rule: Customer first. Illustration: On each page users can provide feedback. And feedback we got! Funny feedback, lousy feedback, good suggestions, deserved criticism and well earned praise.

Kerstin and myself spent countless hours answering every feedback (3). We got much out of this: We could resolve the issues of a large number of our users and ad clients. Example: Back in 2008 we received an angry E-Mail from the mayor of the municipality of Charrat in the canton of Wallis. They changed some weeks on beforehand parts of their street naming and our map wasn’t reflecting these changes. After a longer conversation with the mayor his anger gave way to satisfaction. We provided him with a detailed explanation of the current situation and how to change.

Second observation: Each (negative) feedback is an opportunity.

There is a fine line between listening to feedback – adapting your service – and ignoring feedback – keeping your service the same. Mostly, only a tiny fraction of your customers speak out. They are the vocal minority as opposed to the silent majority. Therefore before deciding on adapt or ignore we always tried figure out how a proposed change or status quo would affect all of our customers. We tried hard to aggregate the feedback into meaningful categories. And often we tested the alterations extensively. How to decide: Change if this modification can make at least one individual better off without making any other individual worse. The better you do this, the closer you are at a Pareto optimum.

Next in the series how to build a scalable startup: Smaller organizations.

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(1) At the end of the conversation I asked where the agent was sitting. She was based in Utah. I later discovered why: A lot of folks of Mormon religion travel the world after school. On returning they bring home souvenirs and foreign language skills. Should I ever want to open a call center in the US, the first place I will go is Utah. 

(2) Since, I’ve been coming across this story: May be Amex is changing after all to the worse? I sincerely do not hope so.

(3) Flowers where flowers belong to: Kerstin in her unrelenting manner answered much more feedback than I did, and surely her answers were ever more to the point than mine.