The Customer View

Thank You is Always in Good Taste

You may have noticed that LinkedIn, the online business networking site, recently went over 100 million members.  One hundred million. 1, followed by eight zeros.  A lot of members.

But instead of chest-thumping and crowing, Linkedin co-founder and chairman, Reid Hoffman, took a much more subtle approach.  He sent out thank yous to each of the organizations members, not just the premium members from whom they make money, but even the cheapo freebie members like me!  And it was personalized, not only with my name, but with my place in the long line of LinkedIn members.  (I'm #735127, nice to meet you!)  

Granted, the personalization is not difficult to do, nor is the emailing to the organization's 100,000,000 members.  But this is not about degree of difficulty.  Nor is it about "getting" any prizes or discounts.  Hell, it's a free service - that's my prize!  

What is cool about this is that an organization that has not only impacted millions of lives, but has changed the way the world does business, actually thought of its customers, and stopped and THANKED THEM for being part of the organization's success.

To quote from Mr. Hoffman's email: "I want to personally thank you because you were one of LinkedIn's first million members (member number 735127 in fact!*). In any technology adoption lifecycle, there are the early adopters, those who help lead the way. That was you."

That was ME!  He not only thanked me, but gave me a reason why I was being thanked.  No, I haven't put any money in Mr. Hoffman's pocket, but he nonetheless thanked me for using his organization's product, and the impact that I (and many others) made in facilitating its success.  

I thought it was kind of cool that, while celebrating a significant milestone for his business, he went out of his way to thank the people who made it possible.  A small gesture, but an important one.  You heard from Mark Zuckerberg lately?  Me neither.

Businesses: mind your manners.  Didn't your mommas teach to say THANK YOU?  You don't have to make a big production out of it.  You don't have to offer "discounts" so that people will buy more from you to help celebrate your success.  You can just say thanks, and mean it. 

 -- Chuck Dennis

Fly Me to the Moon

People don’t mind paying for premium service.  They don’t mind cost so much when they know what to expect.  But imagine dining in a restaurant, ordering from a nice menu, and then discovering that there are extra charges for the dishes, glasses, and silverware.  That glass of water?  Extra.  Oh, and remember when you asked to move away from the table by the kitchen door, to that empty booth in the corner?  That's another BIG extra charge.

In this crazy scenario, I believe that most level-headed would soon stop dining out.  But isn't this exactly what the airlines are doing?   

In the 2nd Quarter of 2010, U.S. airlines collected $2.1 billion in fees and extra charges from passengers in the, up 13 percent from the first three months of the year. This is from the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ recent quarterly report.  This $2.1 billion has been collected for the following "services": baggage fees, reservation change fees and miscellaneous operating revenue, including pet transportation, sale of frequent flyer award miles to airline business partners and standby passenger fees, as well as revenue from seating assignments and on-board sales of food, drink, pillows, blankets, and entertainment.  None of these are listed "on the menu" when one buys a ticket.

Oh, and by the way, I haven’t noticed a whole lot of customer service awards being granted to airlines these days. Seems like all of them regularly run behind schedule, and a lot of their personnel are pretty grumpy. There are a couple of airlines that seem to “get it,” but for the most part, the customer experience is pretty mediocre-to-poor.  So what’s a customer to do?  

Well, the Consumer Travel Alliance , the Business Travel Coalition, and the American Society of Travel Agents have launched the website MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees.com.  To date, they have collected over 50,000 signatures, including mine, on a petition they plan to present to the Department of Transportation (DOT) today (9/23/2010).  I think when fifty thousand of your customers speak up against how you are running your business, and they are mad enough to go to the government about it, you kinda hafta listen, dontcha?

I will be very interested in seeing how this plays out.  At least one of the airlines that “get it” is making the fact that they do NOT charge for checked baggage a big part of their advertising campaign.  Good idea on their part, but at the same time, kind of sad that NOT charging a hidden fee is viewed as a competitive advantage.

 -- Chuck Dennis

It's OK, Customer Service (even eService) can be Fun!

My sister, a customer service maven in her day, forwarded to me a wonderful little email she received from the customer service department from Better World Books :

Hey Carole,  <name obscured by me to protect my sister's privacy!>

We're just checking in to see if you received your order (The Golden Door Cookbook ) from Better World Books. If your order hasn't blessed your mailbox just yet, heads are gonna roll in the Mishawaka warehouse! Seriously though, if you haven't received your order or are less than 108.8% satisfied, please reply to this message. Let us know what we can do to flabbergast you with service.

Humbly Yours,

Indaba (our super-cool email robot)

email: [email protected]

Order Number: 53090456101

Fund literacy, care for the environment, and get a fair price on the books you want.
BetterWorldbooks.com (http://www.BetterWorldbooks.com/)

2 Million Used Books. Free shipping in the USA, $3.97 worldwide.

Become a fan of Better World Books... on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Better-World-Books/10669898542

OK, so what did these folks do right?  How about everything?

Let's list some highlights, shall we?

• prompt confirmation of order
• confirmation of order was personalized, with customer's name and name of item ordered
• then... HUMOR!
  Okay, not knee-slapping, milk-through-the-nose funny, but just a little bit of a hah-hah, a few in a rapid-fire row: "heads will roll," "108.8% satisfied," and "flabbergast you with service."  These all caught our attention, and in a good way - with a smile!
• then... FULL DISCLOSURE!
  After sharing a smile with the email, we then learn that it was sent NOT by a witty and clever service rep, but by an automated email responder.  Wow, they used technology to perform a function AND make a funny?  Is that even legal???
• then... the closing of the email, and all the info YOU need to know (their email address and customer order #), as well as info that THEY want you to know (their excellent mission, their web address, their amount of inventory, their free shipping, and their Facebook page.  None of it obtrusive.  And the reader is happy to read it, because they've already been given a smile or two.

See, great customer service is not that difficult.  I like it when businesses get that.

   --- Chuck Dennis

The Death of Customer Service?

This is sad, it really is.  As one who has dedicated his professional life to providing, teaching, and coaching customer service excellence, I was frustrated, but not surprised, to read that Customer Service is not getting any better.  It seems to be getting worse.  And most customers don't even hope for good service any more.

Forrester Research recently released a report based on a survey of more than 4,200 consumers in 10 different industries, such as apparel, banking, hotel, insurance, credit card, wireless phone plan, Internet service, and computers.  The crux of this report is that customers have come to expect lousy service as par for the course. Here are some of the highlights (or shall I say lowlights?):

• Of the industries involved, only in the apparel industry did a majority (a slim majority - 54%) of customers actually expect to receive good service.
• Only 30% of customers in the health insurance and in the computer industries expected to have a quality experience.
• Only 23% of seniors expected good service in the computer and Internet areas.

This blows me away, because I know for a fact that it is not that difficult to create a positive customer experience.  If you care about ANYONE in the world besides yourself, then you simply envision the customer as that person that you care about. And then you treat the customer the way you would treat him or her.  Or at very least, provide that level of effort.

When I see that fewer than a third of customers in major areas of business actually have an expectation of being treated well, of getting what they want when they want it, and having any questions answered, I think, what sinister parallel universe have I happened onto? 

It is 2010 - it is no longer open to debate as to whether it is worth the effort to provide good service.  It is the thing that differentiates business.  It is the thing that retains customers.  In this day and age, in an economy that is still sluggish, one would think that making the effort to provide a meaningful customer experience would be a business imperative.

But apparently, one would be wrong.

Businesses!  I know you can hear me!  Make some damn effort!  I don't care what industry you're in.  I don't care how long you've been in business. Make some real effort to provide a quality service experience for every one of your customers and prospects, and your bottom line will skyrocket.  I mean, what the hell else are you doing that's so important?

  -- Chuck Dennis

US Airways' Heroic Customer Service

*** This post was originally written in the fall of 2009, but for some reason (probably blogger error!) it did not appear on our blog.  Ummm... better late than never? ***

By now, everyone knows about the heroic efforts of the captain and crew of US Airways flight 1549, which had to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River after its engines had been immobilized by a flock of geese.  The captain, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, and his crew became instant celebrities in the aftermath of this incredible event, and rightly so.  We read interviews, and we watched them on morning and late night television.  We saw them in parades and at ballgames.  These were true American heroes.

But one thing we did not hear so much about was the heroic efforts in customer service that the extended team of US Airways personnel to care for the passengers, all of whom survived, following the emergency landing.  This was practically as amazing as the flight crew's actions.

Recently, BusinessWeek ran an article on how the airline immediately put teams into play, to assist the passengers and their familes.  The article called the airline's performance "a model for crisis management."  After reading the article, I must agree.

Here are some of the things that US Airways did right:

• Activated a special 800 number for families of passengers and crew to call
• Scott Stewart, managing director for corporate finance, brought a bag of emergency cash for passengers and credit cards for employees to buy medicines, toiletries, or personal items that were needed
• Others arrived with suitcases full of prepaid cell phones and sweatsuits for any passengers who needed dry clothes
• Staffers escorted each passenger to a new flight or a local New York hotel, where it arranged for round-the-clock buffets
• Arranged train tickets and/or rental cars for those who did not wish to fly
• Some passengers lost their driver's licenses, so US Airways reached out to high-level executives at Hertz and Amtrak to ensure they had no trouble getting a rental or a ticket
• Retained the services of locksmiths to help passengers who had lost their keys get back into their cars and homes
• Sent three letters providing updates to customers, along with a ticket refund to each passenger and a $5,000 advance check to help cover the cost of replacing their possessions
• Employed claims adjusters to compensate passengers whose losses were higher
• Did NOT require recipients to waive their legal rights, "an unprecedented exception to the industry norm."

US Airways has not been known as a provider of world class service.  In fact, oftentimes, their service has left a lot to be desired.  But this time, during and after this crisis, they shined.  Their employees should be proud, the public should be aware of their efforts, and anyone who has anything to do with customer service should take note.  This is how you care for customers.

  -- Chuck Dennis

Above & Beyond

I don't say this often, but in this instance, Cox rocks!

I called our cable TV and internet provider, Cox Communications, because I needed to have an additional telephone line installed. They sent Geoff (known to his colleagues as Tech 66458) to my home to do the work.

First off, he arrived well within the designated 2 hour time frame that was promised to me when I made the initial request for service.  So, Geoff gets points there.  That started our relationship off on the right foot.

Before getting down to business, Geoff needed to scope out the situation, so he'd know if he could utilize existing cable installations or have to install new ones.  In the process of his assessment, he found that he could use the existing set.  But he also found some odd connections that were having a negative impact on our service.

1. He identified a cable from our main cable box that fed our TV and Internet service to the first floor of our house.  A second cable with a splitter allegedly fed the three rooms upstairs.  But the cable TV only worked in one of the rooms, and it was a room where we did not want TV.  In my office, where I did want the TV, no signal came through.
2. He also realized that having the cable come upstairs, split three ways, and none of them being used, was actually sucking some of the life out of our wireless Internet service.  The unused cables were acting as "antennas" and were pulling in part of the wireless signal.

With a few adjustments, he was able to hook up my telephone service, change the splitter, kill the cable TV in the guest room, and install the cable TV service in my office.  So, in addition to the phone line that I requested in my office, I now also have working TV - just in time for the Red Sox playoff run! - and we have faster, more stable wireless Internet.  Thanks to my man, Geoff, going above and beyond the call of duty.

Moral of the story: great customer service doesn't have to be a big deal.  In fact, simply being friendly and helpful goes a LONG way in the delivery of world class service.  Geoff understands this; I hope Cox realizes the positive impact he made on a customer's experience.

  -- Chuck Dennis

Customer Retention Outside the Box

I read an interesting piece today by Australian business consultant Peter Shallard, called Repeat Business and Customer Retention Formula Revealed.

He talks about a coffee shop in Sydney that, in addition to serving good coffee in a timely manner (a baseline for any coffee shop), had Polaroid snapshots all over the walls.  The photos are all of dogs, all taken in the cafe, with each pup's name written on the bottom.  Mr. Shallard then looked around at the other patrons, and estimated that 80% of them had dogs with them!  This is when the light bulb went on for him.

This cafe, one of many within the area, had built a loyal clientele by providing a good product with good service, and then combined that with another, unrelated, aspect that many customers were drawn to. 

To Mr. Shallard, and to me, this is brilliant in it simplicity.  For almost any product or service being sold, there are no doubt dozens, if not hundreds of other competitors selling the same thing.  Quality, price, service, and locale may not be enough to win a customer's loyalty.  But combining a business' primary product with another unrelated (but interesting) concept may seal the deal for certain customers to whom that unrelated concept appeals.

I imagine this was the thinking behind the first sports bar.  People get thirsty and hungry, so let's open an establishment to provide them beverages and food.  But wait, many people like sports, too, so lets decorate the place with sports memorabilia, and put a bunch of strategically-placed TVs throughout, showing sporting events or sports-related programming! Genius!

So, let's look at our own businesses.  We all work hard to provide a quality product and great service.  But what else can we add to that, that will appeal to a significant segment of our buying audience?  It doesn't have to be big, expensive, or complicated.  Polaroid snapshots of dogs on the wall - hello?

This is a great way to increase customer loyalty and retention, and have fun while doing it!  What a concept!  What can you add to your business to lock in loyalty from a significant segment of your prospects?  Please comment and share your ideas, and feel free to link to your site!

Yeah! What She Said!

I was pleased to read BL Ochman's post called "Dear Corporations: Nothing Else Matters if Your Customer Service Sucks." 

Among her salient points is this: "Yet day after day, poorly paid employees, who are not empowered to make even their own simple decisions, handle the most important thing any company has - customers. It's really time for that policy to change."

It has always seemed to me that a business would want its most enthusiastic, articulate, and knowledgeable people on the front line with customers. Yes, they would have to pay more in salaries, but I am positive that the increase in revenue and repeat business would more than make up for it, and pay for itself many times over.

As it is, customers seem to have an across-the-board disdain for customer service personnel, and the feeling seems to be mutual.  If you have any doubts, run a search on "customer service" on Twitter and read some of the comments people make about their vendors, and what the service reps say about their customers.

Much of this negativity falls away if businesses decide that quality interactions with customers is worth paying enough to make this kind of job attractive to the best and brightest within a company.  And I think that EVERY business should make it a point to have ALL management do a stint on the phones or on the front lines, as to not lose touch with the customers OR the people they pay to serve them.

  -- Chuck Dennis

Service So Good it Changed the Game

Readers of this space know that we are, to say the least, passionate about customer service.  REAL customer service, not the pre-defined, pre-packaged, beware-of-the-fine-print kind of customer service.  For that reason, certain businesses have warm spots in our hearts.  Zappos is one of those businesses. 

I will freely admit that I have never purchased anything from Zappos.  But I have read and heard and seen so much about them.  And I think I love them.  Two things always stand out: outstanding customer service, and a wacky, fun work environment.  I don't think these two things are unrelated.

AdAge recently published an article called Is Customer Service a Media Channel? Ask Zappos.  In the article, author Pete Blackshaw states

"Zappos is a game changer, and it found value -- and ferocious word-of-mouth and brand advocacy -- in a place most of us leave for dead and certainly don't consider even close to being a media channel: customer service. They took this "cost center" input and turned it into an unassailable asset, fortified by the founder-CEO's sometimes "cult-like" (arguably irrational, by the typical marketing book) obsession with serving the consumer at all costs."

The game-changing aspect that Blackshaw points to is Zappos' challenging the long-standing tradition of viewing "customer service" as a cost center, a necessary evil where calls can be quickly dispatched to barely-trained entry-level employees who would rather be doing anything else in the world.

By providing a fun and engaging work environment, Zappos has attracted a certain level of enthusiastic employees.  Their enthusiasm is barely containable when they interact with customers, and the customers are energized by the experience. 

Zappos is not the most inexpensive shoe seller in the world, not by a long shot.  You don't go there looking for bargains.  And they are an online-only shop.  They sell shoes, for heaven's sake!  Something that my mother used to have me try on dozens of pairs of, in order to fine the one pair that felt right, and didn't look totally dorky.  And Zappos is raking in the bucks.  Why?

Because their service is legendary.  And they are leveraging it, and not by actively marketing it.  They let their customers do that for them. 

Now we see that another pillar of service, Amazon.com, has purchased Zappos for a billion bucks.  This is interesting.  Amazon has been a real pioneer in self-service... their philosophy is that a great customer experience does not require human interaction if the systems are set up correctly and functioning properly.  I find it difficult to challenge their premise, as I have never had a negative experience with Amazon.  Based on past purchases and recent viewing, they helpfully yet unobtrusively suggest other items of interest.  But they just laid out a big chunk of change for a company known for brilliant service on the other side of the dial - the human interactive service.

It is no great shock that Amazon has bought a shoe store; they've dipped into a lot of product lines since their bookstore days.  But could this expenditure portend an evolution in Amazon's automated service delivery?  It's like a team with great pitching just acquired a bunch of the top hitters in the league.  This could get interesting, very quickly.

   --- Chuck Dennis

The Tweet is Mightier than the Sword

I've been reading a lot about how is really a great tool for business.  It makes it easy for businesses to engage in dialogue with their customers.  It provides real-time market research and competitive intelligence information.  It opens up opportunities for on-the-spot marketing, sales, and service activity.  Monitor the Twittersphere, and respond to every mention of your business or product.  What better time to engage your customer than when he or she is already talking about you?

But on the other hand, if a business has some flaws, made some mistakes, employed some questionable people, provided shoddy product or service, or otherwise failed to live up to a customer's expectation, it should not be a surprise to find angry, pointed, and downright nasty tweets on the subject speeding around the globe.

This scenario, coupled with the fact that 76% of all consumers do not believe that companies tell the truth in their advertising, but that 78% do trust the recommendations of other people (source: Yankelovich, Inc.), does not paint a rosy picture for businesses that are struggling to provide positive customer experiences.  The offended party tweets, and 22 million monthly Twitter visitors have the opportunity to see how poorly the business has performed.  You get enough of those kinds of tweets, and people are going to stay away in droves!

Thus far, I've been speaking about tweets containing legitimate complaints about a company or their policies / procedures / execution.  But what about the lunatic fringe?  This is the Internet we're talking about here.  What of the fabricated smear campaigns, vengefully created by some scorned employee or rejected suitor?  In the Twittersphere, everything looks like a fact!  Businesses must be vigilant in protecting their reputations, but given the public's propensity for believing their peers over businesses, this is a tough battle to fight.

In my view, the best defense is a strong offense.  Businesses need to establish themselves on Twitter, and take the initiative to share useful information and address customer concerns - in other words, become an active and positive member of the community.  Once you've established a good reputation on Twitter, you will have built some protection against the occasional tweets of anger.

 --- Chuck Dennis  (follow me on Twitter @AngryCustomer)