the little orange book

Your Mission:

Protect and improve our

reputation at all times.

Reputations are special. They cannot be made.

They can only be earned. They cannot be faked.
They cannot be copied by competitors.

Reputations take years to build

and minutes to destroy.
 Our motto:
cura et celeritas

It is Latin for “accuracy and speed” or

Do It Right The First Time and Do It Fast.

Great companies do both. They don’t pick one

over the other – but accuracy always comes
first.
We trust you to break policy when you feel
our reputation is at stake with the customer.
If you break a policy, we expect that you
will notify us each time, so we can
fix the policies that aren’t perfect.
Keep customers calm by keeping them informed.
 $100 = 1 paragraph

For every $100 a customer spends, give them

at least one paragraph of detail on the invoice.

Tell them what you did, why you did it, how you did it.
Use language they can understand.

Invoices are the most direct marketing.

 Never say:
“I don’t know”

Say:
“I’ll find out”
Always make it easy for customers to complain.
 A customer should never have to prove
that we made a mistake.

If a customer reports a problem, then we should own

that problem until we find a solution.

If it truly was not our fault, a reasonable customer

will be willing to pay for the solution.

The customer may not always be right,

but they should always win.
 Being on time is not on time.
Being on time is 5 minutes early.
No one should ever have to wait for more than 30
seconds anywhere before being personally
acknowledged.
A customer should never be
transferred more than once.
 A customer should be able to order products
and services from anywhere at anytime.

They should also be able to check on the status of any

order or service from anywhere at anytime.
 We are our own greatest competition.

Breaking promises is competition.

Poor service is competition.
Sloppy work is competition.

It’s what we are not doing today that is limiting us.

 Advice for leaders:

The closer you are to a customer –

the simpler the SOP should be.

When designing processes – complexity should be

burdened on the groups that are the farthest away from
the customer.
 Never assume anything.

Never assume there’s only one problem the customer is

reporting. Never assume you know the only solution.
Never assume that you have fixed it (double check your
work). Never assume you haven’t created another
problem. Never assume the customer is completely
happy with the service (ask them!)

Never assume anything.