There once was a company called McDonalds which grew to being not only the largest chain of family restaurants in the world, it was the fastest growing, the most profitable and with a deserved reputation for having excellent customer service, second to none.

No matter where one travelled in the world, McDonalds could be relied upon for clean toilets, clean eating areas, clean condiment areas and a friendly helpful, efficient staff.

My newly extended family, our son having just got married, drove from Melbourne "home" to Brisbane and back for Christmas. On the trip up and back (20 hours each way) we stopped at McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and a local, small, unbranded service station café for lunch or a break for coffee or a cold drink.

Our rating out of ten for cleanliness, helpfulness and quality ranked the local café at 6, McDonalds at 3 and Hungry Jacks at 2.

The two branded stores were appalling, with unclean toilets, flooded in the case of Hungry Jacks, unclean condiment areas and unclean floors and tables. There is no amount of changing of menus that will get me back there in a hurry.

What I have experienced according to the new book by Michael Levine is a "Broken Window". Or in this case perhaps a warehouse full of broken windows.

"Broken Windows, Broken Business", is a book which extends the crime theory of broken windows to business. The broken windows crime theory suggested that fighting crime had to start at the misdemeanours and petty crimes like graffiti, if society was to ever believe that they did not have to accept crime.

The analogy was that if a building had a broken window that was not speedily repaired, people would begin to believe it was OK to smash windows in the building and soon more and more windows would be broken.

In not accepting crime as a norm, then people in society were less likely to commit more "serious crimes". The theory did not accept that there were petty and serious crimes, just crimes.

The theory was most famously executed by Rudi Giuliani, the Mayor of New York in driving down murder rates by as much as 50% by concentrating on "petty crimes" as seriously as any other crime.

In applying the theory to business, Levine compellingly suggests that "Customer service is more important than anything else your business does". He contends that all aspects of customer service need equal attention if a business is to remain not only vibrant, but viable.

McDonalds is a key example in the book. Levine cites McDonalds' customer satisfaction levels being 5 to 10 points below the industry average since 1994. A University of Michigan study of consumer satisfaction found in 2001 that 11 percent of McDonalds' customers were dissatisfied with their visit on any given day. 70 percent of those dissatisfied customers were even more dissatisfied as a result of their complaint handling. More than half the dissatisfied customers cut back their visits and told ten people about the experience.

What were they dissatisfied about? The hamburgers? The French fries? No; the cleanliness of the eating areas, condiment areas and the toilets and the surliness of staff.

What has been the result for McDonalds? Falling sales and store closures is the answer.

Levine touches on several other companies and industries giving examples of broken windows giving rise to a broken business. United Airlines is an example of a company in an industry where much of what is considered service is difficult to differentiate. Planes fly the same distance at the same speed, have the same turnaround time dictated by the airport and have many of the same IT systems.

United's broken windows include staff with no apparent patience for the customer, food which is created to be cheap, unhelpful website navigation and over-promising their friendly attributes. Small customer service elements like these meant United was not able to command any price premium over purpose built low cost airlines. Small things make a difference when you fly every week as many business people do. Too many broken windows sent many American airlines to Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

What about the hospitality industry? Where are our potential broken windows? How about not having a room ready on time? Or looking away when passing a guest instead of engaging them with a smile and warm Good morning, Sir (or Madam as the case may be)? Or not cleaning areas that are dirty because its house keeping's responsibility? Or allowing badly behaving guests to spoil the stay for other guests?

What opportunities do we have to pre-empt broken windows before they are even broken? Issuing golfers with an iced towel at the end of a round on a hot day? Or ensuring all whiteboard pens actually work when setting up a conference room?

How many broken windows you can identify in your hospitality business? Email them to us with your suggestion for fixing them or preventing them from happening. For the best suggestion each month we will send you a copy of Broken Windows, Broken Business.

©2008 Change Factory

This article is in part a mini book review of "Broken Windows, Broken Business" by Michael Levine. In the book Levine transposes the strategy and tactics that Rudolf Giuliani used to reduce crime in New York to the provision of customer service. Competition: The Prize is a free copy of the book, it will go to the best example of a broken window and what was done to fix it. Contact Kevin by email at kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au 

Kevin Dwyer is the founder of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people's behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes.  www.changefactory.com