Using Your Superpower Responsibly – Common Sense
Sometimes customer service can be very difficult to deliver. However, more and more I am convinced that the problems originate from failure to observe the maxim: failure to plan is planning to fail. When these cases arise, customer service problems stick out like sore thumbs. To spot them, you only need the superpowers of common sense. Here’s a recent illustration of an interaction my wife had with Shutterfly, Inc.
- Upload photos. Save draft project.
- Receive email with $10 promotional coupon.
So far so good. Shutterfly “knows” my wife is interested in their product and knows that she didn’t make a purchase on her first visit, so “interacts” with her via email to entice her to make the purchase.
- Finish project. Place order, attempt to redeem coupon.
- Coupon redemption fails.
- Shutterfly customer service doesn’t know which promotion my wife is referring to and asks her to send an email (no attachments please since Customer Service can’t view attachments) with details.
- Details exchanged.
- Company is sorry coupon doesn’t work.
- Company’s verbatim response: “I request you to get back to me once your ships and you have received the shipment confirmation email. I will insert a gift certificate worth of $10 to your account for $10 off. Gift Certificates do not expire and it can be used to purchase any Shutterfly product from your account.”
Now, using your superpowers of common sense, what Customer Service sins has Shutterfly committed?
- Checkout step did not accept the promotional code.
- Customer Service Team unaware of current sales/marketing promotions.
- Customer Service Team has insufficient tools to interact with customers on their terms.
- Service response did not yield desired result on order ($10 discount).
This experience begs two questions. Is the company inept? Or do they value their customers so little that they don’t bother to create a working coupon redemption transaction? Regardless of the answer, the problems my wife encountered, along with the poor way the problem was handled leave a bad impression. (If you are a NetPromoter proponent you will recognize me as a “detractor”.) The pivot point is that if your company fails to use its common sense superpower, your customers will find better alternatives – faster than a speeding bullet. In the next post we’ll propose recommended recovery steps!
Any “promoters” out there to balance the view?
Add comment 1 February 2010
Tea Leaves, Tarot Cards and Customer Service
Most companies think they know how their customers view them. Most companies think they understand what their customers want. Most companies are wrong.
Fact is, most companies are still chasing the next big deal opportunistically. They rely on gut feel and promises of new growth and revenue rather than relying on existing customers to help them navigate the pathways to growth. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Should customers dictate the direction of a product line? Definitely not. Should customers get a voice at the table? Absolutely.
I classify product inputs in 5 classes:
- Fault Correction (Technical Support) – These features help your tech support team do their job better. Ideally implementing these features means that customers don’t encounter the problems in the first place.
- Necessity (Must-Do) – This input includes all the un-sexy aspects of a product that make it work. Need a new feature to satisfy a federal safety regulation? It gets placed in this bucket.
- Market Driven (Growth Initiatives) – Hopefully your product team is focused on what the customers need most and what they need next. This is the team that should be spotting and jumping on chances to innovate.
- Opportunistic (New Deals) – No, this doesn’t refer to FDR’s plan to bail out society from the Great Depression, though you may think so given the importance your sales team may attach to it. Phrases like “we’re losing deals left and right and can’t sell anything until this feature is implemented” are clues that you are in the land of opportunity.
- Responsiveness (Customer Feedback) – Your customers have needs, and you can either meet those needs, or have your competition meet them. Your choice.
The sooner and more successfully you engage in meaningful conversations with your customers, the more closely aligned 3, 4, and 5 will be. When that happens, your Product team delivers more value to the Sales team, which in turn delivers more value to the customer, which creates more value for the company.
It’s tough to escape the common pitfall of chasing the latest deal/fad and it involves trusting the Development and Product teams. But without a model that relies on facts, you may as well be reading tea leaves or consulting an Ouija board for direction. The pivot point is that by communicating with customers about their goals and objectives, your company can get ahead of the panic-curve and deliver innovative solutions which capture new market share while driving additional value to existing customers.
How do you use your customers’ input to shape your future?
Add comment 19 January 2010
Remember… What You Say Counts
When I’m engaged in selecting a technology vendor I often rely on a simple heuristic to discern whether I am getting a vendor or a partner, whether I am getting a company focused on their success or one that recognizes that my success is their success.
The method (remember I mentioned it was simple) is to count how many times they say words that matter to you. Or mention concepts of importance to your success. When you are beginning the process of selecting a vendor listen to what they say.
If the people you interact with use words like “customer, satisfaction, value, use” their culture is likely focused on your success. You may have a good vendor and a partner if the:
- Conversation is focused on your needs
- Discussion seeks to uncover what your company is trying to achieve
- Discovering your business objectives is the vendor’s key purpose
If your vendor uses words like “product, specification, function” you can be sure their culture is focused on producing a quality product. As Seinfeld might say, “not that there’s anything wrong with that.” But savvy buyers realize that even quality products are better with great service. Even if the product looks good, you may have a bad vendor if the:
- Selection/conversation is a monologue versus dialogue
- Monologue focuses on what the vendor’s product does
Of course you still have to make a technology selection. (Does the vendor/product meet your needs?) But you also have to be on the look out for nuances in the discussion. About five years ago I was charged with making a vendor selection for communications services which we would use to create a new service offering. After a comprehensive RFP process we whittled the list from ten companies to two — AT&T and Sprint. The products themselves were commodities and had few differences in price, functionality, and quality. One vendor asked “why” we were planning to use the service and “how” we envisioned delivering value to our customers. Guess which vendor won the business? Guess which vendor acted like a partner in our success? The other vendor? They never really understood the concept even with repeated prompting. (Drop me a note if you want to know the winner.)
The pivot point is that given the choice between companies with similar capabilities, choose the company that has your interests as their goal. Choose the company that is willing to demonstrate that commitment over and over again. Many companies can compete with one another on an equal footing with regard to technology. Few companies beat the company that is focused on, engaged in, and dedicated to their customers’ success.
How do you tell if you’ve selected a customer-focused company?
1 comment 4 January 2010
Kissing Your Customers Goodbye
Gill Corkindale recently wrote a compelling article titled “Does Your Company’s Reputation Really Matter?” What if your service or product was a monopoly? Would that fact change the answer?
The article picks on how Eurostar has handled their recent service interruptions. Eurostar provides a service that meets consumer needs since it is as fast as flying and is just as reasonably priced. That the service has delays is 1) understandable and 2) acceptable. If those delays were unacceptable no one would take the train, Eurostar would go bankrupt and another company would swoop in to leverage the rail system’s assets.
Returning to the main question… if in the end, nothing is going to change does reputation management matter? If your company has a sustainable monopoly, then why bother with reputation management? Taking the question a step further, if the monopoly is sustainable and protected, why spend time or money on customer service? After all what choice do your customers have?
The answer is that customer service is a necessity, and not an option. That fact is as true in Eurostar’s example as any other. By successfully managing its reputation (the public relations side of customer service) Eurostar has an opportunity to win business from their airline competitors, expand market share, and create a sustainable advantage. Eurostar doesn’t have to be the “best” they must only be “better”. Failing to address service impacts profitability in the short term, opens doors to your existing competitors through word-of-mouth, and is a gold-plated invitation to new competitors.
The pivot point and reality is that, since no company has a sustainable monopoly, customer service (or reputation management as Ms. Corkindale refers to it) is a critical aspect of all businesses. Unless Eurostar figures this out quickly, and acts accordingly, they may soon be kissing their customers goodbye.
Add comment 29 December 2009
Don’t Lose Your Customers
You can’t lose what isn’t yours. And if you recognize that your relationship with “your” customers is tenuous at best, you have a good chance of creating lasting bonds and keeping customers. Customers are transient. They are supposed to be transient in a free-market economy. In our Darwinian economy, only the strong should survive. In our economy we should want consumers to make the best purchases for them. I used to feel bad when I didn’t “buy American” until I realized that American’s don’t buy American, they buy smart. Now I only feel bad when companies think of their customers as entitlements. Here are some surefire ways to lose customers:
- Hammer them Like a Nail – If your answer to dissatisfied customers is to run a public relations campaign trumpeting how much you’ve improved, you are on the wrong track and wasting money. Customer satisfaction can be addressed only by improving customer service. In the world of social media and connected buyers/consumers, the good news about service will spread. Without tangible customer benefits your PR campaign will seem like you view service as a marketing problem, rather than a service problem.
- Treat Customers as an Inconvenience – We focus a lot of time, energy, attention, study, research, and ultimately money on acquiring customers. Who can argue with an approach that lends itself to growing and building the business? Yet we invest very little on retaining those customers we worked so hard to acquire. If our acquisition message of “you are important” is to resonate and remain meaningful, we must back it up with actions and deeds that shout “we still value you!”
- Create Processes that Benefit You or Your Company (but not the customer) – I had a surreal experience recently when trying to pay off the balance on a loan with Chase Bank. It took only a few minutes to get the loan. But paying it back required two (2) hours and the involvement of at least four (4) different departments (I stopped counting). Amazingly, Chase Bank had to verify that it was authorized to accept payment. I don’t know about you, but when someone offers to pay me back, I don’t ask where the money came from… I’m just happy to see it again. Now I’m beginning to understand why people think the banking system is broken. First it lent money to people who shouldn’t have gotten any in the first place, and now it won’t take the money back? Quite simply, if your processes aren’t benefiting customers, they are losing customers.
The Pivot Point is that “your” customers have choices. And so do you. If you choose to ignore customers or erect barriers to their success they will take their business elsewhere. After all, customers are yours only as long as you provide a benefit.
What about your experiences? How have the people who are the face of those companies pushed you to the competition? Any good stories detailing the things companies have done to lose you?
Add comment 21 December 2009
