Sylvia Cooper, a business school professor, was delivering an executive education seminar

for 30 senior managers of a Fortune 500 company. On the night before her big presentation, she

showed participants a Tom Peters video, A Passion for Customers, that included a complimentary

segment on Federal Express. On the morning of her presentation, she had reason to feel remorse

about showing that segment.

Reason:

The day before, Cooper's secretary had used Federal Express to send her a videotape

and some other material she needed for her Thursday presentation. (The videotape had just been

completed by the audio-visual department at her school.) A front desk cler mop k had told Cooper that Federal Express deliveries usually arrived by 10:00 a.m. By that time on Thursday, the daily delivery had indeed been made, but Cooper's package was not there. Her presentation was scheduled for 2:00 p.m.

Cooper then called her secretary, Alice, to make sure she had sent the package. Alice said she

had, and offered to check the university mailroom to see if a mistake had been made there.

"Call me back in 10 minutes," she told Cooper. When Cooper called back, Alice explained that the mailroom had sent the package, and that everything appeared to be in order on her end. Knowing that Federal Express employed a sophisticated tracking system, Cooper asked Alice to call Federal Express to locate the package. To do so, Alice went back to the mailroom to obtain the air bill number.

When she called Alice back at 11:00, Cooper learned that her package had been a

"missort." According to the tracking system, it was sitting at the Federal Express terminal in Savannah, Georgia.

The resort was about a three-hour drive from Savannah.

Cooper often cited Federal Express in classes and seminars she taught as an example of

service excellence; therefore, she decided to see what she could learn by calling the company herself.

She was interested in finding out how Federal Express would "make things right" for her and save

her 2:00 presentation.

On the first ring just as shown in the Tom Peters video a customer service representative

answered.

Cooper:

I have a serious problem. Yesterday, my secretary sent a package that should have reached

me at Amelia Island this morning. Apparently it was missorted, and it's sitting in Savannah. I need

the material in that package by 2:00 this afternoon. What can you do for me?

Federal Express:

I will need some information, ma'am. What is your air bill number?

Cooper:

619732942.

Federal Express:

Thank you. Please hold while I check its status.

C:

No, I know the status _(Pause).

FE:

Ma'am, your package is a missort. It ended up in Savannah, Georgia.

C:

That part I know. What I need to know now is what are going to do about it?

FE:

It's our policy that we'll get the parcel to vou just as soon as possible. And we won't charge

C:

That doesn't do me any good. I need to know when it will be delivered.

FE:

Well, ma'am, we send missorted parcels ASAP. You should have it tomorrow morning.

C:

That's too late- I need the material at 2:00 today. And I won't even be here tomorrow, I'll

back at home

FE:

That's no problem, ma'am. We'll send it to your home address. What is the address?

C:

The address is on the air bill, but that's not the point. I've got to have that material today.

Can you get it to me some other way--put it on one of your trucks, or put it in a cab, or in

helicopter, for heaven's sake!

(Silence at the end of the line.)

QUESTION

1. What should Federal Express do for this customer?
2. In your view, what should Federal Express's general policy be for similar service mishaps?
3. What actually happened?
4. Federal Express handles roughly 875,000 packages each day. What would you guess its error ratetobe?