Ed Gibbs, Gib-San Pools & Landscape Creations
Ed Gibbs, Gib-San Pools & Landscape Creations

For Ed Gibbs, customer service is a holistic undertaking. It doesn’t mean just focusing on policies and procedures that are directly connected to customer service. You must tend to the whole animal.

To gain inspiration for customer service and overall excellence, Gibbs looks to global organizations outside the pool/spa industry, with favorites being the Ritz Carlton and Amex Platinum Travel Service.

“I’ve also looked at a variety restaurants in how they catered to boutique-style, high-end clientele, and how they retain them,” says Gibbs, president/CEO of Toronto-based Gib-San Pool & Landscape Creations. “Just because it has phenomenal food doesn’t mean you’re going back. It could have the best ambiance and the best food, but if the washrooms are dirty you’re not going back. It’s interesting that you have to complete that circle of success, that you can’t focus in on one component within your business, thinking that that is going to solve everything.”

To help ensure customer satisfaction and complete the circle of success, the company has placed a greater emphasis on developing leaders within the organization. Gib-San has a longstanding leadership program whereby top-level managers would attend Thursday morning meetings. The group was a small one. Recently, Gibbs decided it should broaden its reach, not just allowing the very top managers of the company.

“I realized, wait a second, how am I propagating our message through the top six or seven people? How am I getting our message out?” he says. “I realized I was doing it upside down, that I have to have it more inclusive and have multiple groups. Because it’s easier to ambassadorize your message with a larger group. Otherwise the message isn’t disseminating and it’s not distilling down the team because you haven’t made it inclusive enough.”

He makes it a priority to make sure his company's messaging and mission are thoroughly disseminated throughout the company, because he believes that major problems can result when the staff isn't acting on the promise being made by management.

"You can say, 'We're client-centric, we love our clients,' but how the rubber hits the can be a different story," he says. "Donut shops in Toronto spend a pile of money on advertising. Every person in the video is smiling and kind. But when you go to the specific donut shop, they’re almost mad that you’re there ... It’s an oxymoron."

Having more leaders in an organization can only enhance customer service, he adds. " I believe that the client themselves sees a person aspiring to a position of leadership versus somebody who is just doing a job," he says.