Category Archives: The Right Kind of Customer Service

Eurostar Earns a Second Chance

Posted on 6 July 2010 by | 2 Comments

In my last post, I had some harsh words and pointed advice for Eurostar’s customer service team.  Over two weeks from my initial inquiry, Eurostar’s Traveller Care team responded.

Here’s how I graded the end-to-end experience.

  • Responsiveness – Poor. Two-plus weeks for a response of any kind is just too long.

Read the rest at BNET.

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

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Double Standards and Customer Service

Posted on 25 May 2010 by | Leave a comment

In a previous post I stated that monopolies are unsuited to delivering good customer service.  With tax season well behind us I can confirm my theory.  My recent dealings with the IRS prove it.  Here’s how:

  • If you are a US taxpayer and you file late you get penalized with additional fees (in the form of interest).  If you file really late, you may go to court.  And if you make heinous mistakes you may end up in jail.
  • If, on the other hand, the IRS is late in issuing a refund, the government invokes a grace period of 45 days, which they call putting an account in “suspense”.  The only suspense here is in wondering “will I ever get my money back?”  Who pays?  You guessed it, the taxpayer by providing the government with an interest free loan for 45 days.  No, this “drama” isn’t nearly as suspenseful as an Alfred Hitchcock movie… although we can draw some interesting parallels to Psycho.

The pivot point is that to deliver great customer service (and not just claim to want to), treat customers as you would want to be treated.  No one at the IRS wants to receive their refund late or be penalized… guaranteed, or your money back!

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

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Two Ways Silos Enhance the Customer Experience

Posted on 11 May 2010 by | 1 Comment

Silos get a bad reputation in customer service; for good reason.  Organizational barriers prevent information flow among work groups, customers are asked the same questions over and over again, and blame tends to flow faster than solutions.  But one silo, aligned around a customer for a customer, can actually improve the customer experience and improve business results at the same time.

Create Silos:

  1. To Benefit the Customer, not the Company – Protect customers from bad policies.  My favorite recent example (involving a lost dog) shows what happens when company policies meet the letter of a policy but fail to account for the simplest of courtesies.  When (if?) Delta finds the dog, poor Paco should get a first class return trip with its owner.
  2. To Treat Customers as the ONLY Customer – Companies are powerful entities, and once they have our money, they become more so.  We want to create experiences where the entire strength of the company is aligned around a single customer at a single point in time.  When all the resources of the company are focused on satisfying a customer (even if there isn’t a procedure, budget, approval, etc.) we create memorable and unique experiences that lead to a genuine sense of loyalty.

Silos, often erected to increase operational efficiencies, can have detrimental effects on your customers.  The Pivot Point?  Align your company around the needs of a customer to destroy harmful silos and replace them with a silo that enhances the customer experience and your business simultaneously.

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Posted in Influential Factors - Helpful, The Right Kind of Customer Service

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