Tag Archives: Marketing

Using Your Superpower Responsibly – Common Sense

Posted on 1 February 2010 by | Leave a comment

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?

  1. Checkout step did not accept the promotional code.
  2. Customer Service Team unaware of current sales/marketing promotions.
  3. Customer Service Team has insufficient tools to interact with customers on their terms.
  4. 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?

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

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Don't Lose Your Customers

Posted on 21 December 2009 by | Leave a comment

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?

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Posted in Customer Service, Influential Factors - Harmful

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Third World or Disney World?

Posted on 5 November 2009 by | Leave a comment

I urge you to read an article titled “At the Base of the Pyramid”.  I disagree with much of it, but I guarantee a thought-provoking article.

For instance:

  • P&G states that “the real hurdle to cross when introducing a new product, in any market, is helping the consumer understand the benefit of doing something in a different way.”
  • Consumers “haven’t been conditioned to think that the products being offered are something one would even buy.” Sounds like consumers need a ringing bell to jump-start their Pavlovian response into purchasing bliss.
  • Marketers “must make the idea of paying money for the products seem natural, and they must induce consumers to fit those goods into their long-held routines.”

What?!

The fact that companies can induce customers into making a purchase is part of what makes capitalism work, but it also plays a part (think fast food) in why 18.9% of adults in the healthiest state (Colorado) are clinically obese.  Can slick marketing increase sales?  Sure, but at what cost?  Instead:

  • Make products valuable to consumers so paying is natural.  Then there will be no need to induce them to purchase.
  • Start with the consumer and deliver a product that meets a need.  That alone should provide the foundation for a business plan.

The pivot point is that we will all be better off if we identify what consumers need, versus what we can get them to pay for.  It doesn’t matter whether the market is the Third World or Disney World.

(Towards the end of the article you’ll notice that the author’s intent is to encourage (and enlist) community support when developing a market.  Part of that development is to:  see which products might be useful, determine which ones would be profitable to ultimately answer the question of which products consumers will value.  Now that makes sense!)

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Posted in Influential Factors - Harmful, Influential Factors - Helpful, Uncategorized

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