Monthly Archives: November 2009

See-Through Customer Service

Posted on 24 November 2009 by | Leave a comment

On a recent trip through DFW Airport an advertisement caught my eye.  Not for a product, but for DFW’s customer satisfaction metrics.  One way to improve service is to survey customers.  DFW took it a step further by making those results public!

Their metrics were things like: terminal cleanliness, ease of finding your way, courtesy and helpfulness of security and check-in staff, courtesy of airline check-in staff, and restaurant/eating facilities.  And their scores (on a 5-point Likert scale) ranged from 4.0 for washroom cleanliness to 4.3 for ease of finding your way.

DFW further segments results by terminals.  I like this idea because it fosters healthy competition among terminal staffs.  There’s little harm in sharing the details because, as consumers of the service, we already know which terminals are ‘better’.  As an experiment during a long layover, check out the difference between terminals in an airport.  Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport is a good test case.  The international terminal is spacious and clean while some of the others are narrow, dark, and dirty.

DFW misses two opportunities.

  1. DFW should post their results relative to an industry benchmark.  Management at DFW should determine which airports (globally and locally) set the standards and match their results to those of DFW.  For good results, that would help DFW showcase their performance.
  2. DFW should use the advertisements to highlight planned improvements.

What DFW has done, and what so many companies are afraid to do, is share customer satisfaction survey information.  This level of transparency creates a bond between customer and provider and enables a dialogue.

The pivot point is that service transparency forces service improvements.  Without sharing results, management can hide in blissful ignorance.  By sharing results, by opening a forum so that customers can comment, critique, and yes, complain about service, companies take a visible step in acknowledging what customers want and hold themselves accountable to improvements.  Which kind of company would you rather do business with, one that purports to deliver high quality service, or one which  shares its results transparently?

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Posted in How to Deliver Customer Service, The Right Kind of Customer Service

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Why Getting Rejected is So Great for Relationships

Posted on 18 November 2009 by | 2 Comments

The software industry is faced with a challenge common to other industries; too many good ideas, and not enough time and money to implement them all.  This simple fact can hinder customer service if handled poorly.  When examining customer feature requests (either new ones or product modifications) there are two classifications: healthy and unhealthy.

Healthy

  • Implement the Customer’s Request – No mystery here, right?  Good and easy ideas reach consensus quickly.  When many customers share a need the marketplace self-validates.
  • Reject or Decline the Idea Quickly – Don’t confuse rejecting an idea with ignoring it.  Rejected ideas deserve greater consideration than implemented ideas.  Your company must provide a strong explanation regarding why an idea would be rejected. This rejection is a conversation with your customer.  “I heard you, I considered the idea, yet we will be pursuing another direction.”  Notice that healthy does not mean, without pain.  Customers whose ideas are declined will not be happy yet those same customers will respect your honesty.  That honesty breeds confidence which in turn enables open dialogue which yields future business opportunities.

Unhealthy

  • Provide Lip Service – Letting ideas meander aimlessly along the river Styx to suffer purgatory in an under review status is a coward’s way to work with customers and it does nothing to forge a lasting relationship.
  • Ignore the Request – When ideas are never considered companies send a strong, though silent, message: “your needs don’t matter.” One of the golden rules of service is listening to customers.  If companies fail this most basic of tests they should expect to lose customers.

The pivot point is that when fulfilling customers’ requests, whether for a type of service, a new product, or a product modification, rejecting customers’ requests (with tact) is an acceptable alternative.  Rejection hurts, but so does being strung along.  And no one wants that in their relationship.

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Posted in Influential Factors - Helpful, Uncategorized, When to Deliver Customer Service

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Too Big to Manage = Too Big to Succeed!

Posted on 13 November 2009 by | 2 Comments

In MIT’s Sloan Management Review Julian Birkinshaw and Suzanne Heywood miss an opportunity at a fun knock-out title, so I’ll take it.  However, the content is an excellent view into how complexity can negatively impact a business’s ability to function effectively.

Let’s follow the trail…

  • If your company is too big to manage, then by default it is unmanaged.
  • If your company is unmanaged, its survival relies on chance (good luck or bad).
  • If your company has bad luck then it fails.
  • Thus, if your company is too big to manage, it is too big to succeed.  (Of course, your company could have good luck.  Good luck with that plan.)

After interviewing executives at 900 companies Birkinshaw and Heywood found complexity caused problems,

“…from weak customer responsiveness and inefficient processes to high levels of confusion and stress among employees.”

As a customer advocate let me hone in on how complexity can hurt customers.

  1. Lost Customers – Organization complexity can mean that customers don’t know who to contact to receive support.  Companies are so complicated that they need to hire gate-keepers.  These gate-keepers are a source of knowledge but only of the organization type.  Their domain expertise is to know who to contact for what.  They are the yellow pages of complex companies.
  2. Expensive Products – Complex products hinder product implementation, thus adoption, thus any chance at realizing ROI (whether ROI is measured in dollars or happiness).  How much positive word of mouth marketing should you expect to garner when the product can’t be used?
  3. Slow Responses – Complexity can reduce the speed in getting answers to simple questions which may open the door to competitors.  When do customers welcome slow service when the competition can provide the same service faster?
  4. Stuck in Neutral – Customers can’t purchase a product they need when they need it.  Complex processes delay or prevent sales from being completed.  How many times has a contract been so convoluted that the customer did not know to what they were agreeing?

The pivot point is that when complexity gets in the way of satisfying customers, big problems are on the horizon… unless you’re fortunate enough to receive a federal bailout.  Then, even if your company is “too big to manage” and indeed, “too big to fail”, it may also be “too big to succeed”, which in the end is just “too bad for customers.”

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Posted in Customer Service, Influential Factors - Harmful, Influential Factors - Helpful, Uncategorized, Why Bother with Customer Service

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