Tractable
Tractable is defined as: (adj.) susceptible to suggestion; a personality sensitive to other’s desires [syn: malleable, responsive].
This isn’t a word you hear every day. Being tractable means you are susceptible to suggestion. You are sensitive to other people’s desires. To be successful as a growth company in today’s economy, you need to be malleable and responsive. Satisfaction is not on a continuum. People don’t move along in stages from “completely unsatisfied” to “completely satisfied.” By being malleable and responsive, I can grab customers and immediately move them from the bottom of the scale to the top. If I can solve that customer’s problem in a way that’s far beyond what they were expecting, I’ve now got a loyal customer. I have that customer’s satisfaction and repeat business. Most importantly, I probably have the customer’s recommendation to their colleagues, family members, and friends. A potential negative is now a positive.
The best way to accomplish this is to drive decision making down to the point of contact. The person serving the customer needs the power to turn a negative into a positive immediately, with a solution that goes beyond the customer’s expectation.
One of the companies that has made this tractability part of its core value system is the Ritz-Carlton hotel company. Here is an example from my experience. My parents live in Amelia Island, Florida, within walking distance of a beautiful Ritz-Carlton. I was not a guest at the hotel; my wife and I had gone there to shoot a game of pool one evening on a Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Some kids were playing pool on the table, even though it was after 9:00 P.M., and they shouldn’t have been there, according to the prominently posted rules. Their father was playing with them. Some other guests came in and were unhappy about the kids being there, and unkind words eventually turned into wholly inappropriate language and loud, belligerent behavior.
