The Customer is Always

Amazing Customer Service

2008-10-01T13:52:00.005-04:00

In a recent post on the NY Time Freakonomics blog an example of a company creating a Moment of Truth and really wowing the customer was given as the single best example of customer service.

The linked story is incredibly heart-warming and is one of those times when an employee has gone the extra mile out of care for the customer. Companies should be looking for those moments when they can win a customer (and entire set of blog readers for life).

Not all interactions will have the opportunity to win a customer over, but they are there and companies should be prepared to invest in the right ones, at the right times.

If you have any amazing customer service stories that you'd like to share please email me directly or post via comments.

As I read this story I clicked the link to read the comments. What is interesting was before I could read the comments I was given the option to complete a short Customer Survey through a third party company. Not the ideal customer experience when reading a story about the best customer service ever.

Companies like the NY Times should take into consideration their own customer's experience with the specific stories they are reading.

Do Not Call list

2008-09-29T15:43:00.004-04:00

Coming into effect in the next few days in Canada is the National Do Not Call List. Developed by the CRTC, but managed oddly enough by the largest telecommunications firm in Canada Bell Canada, this is a very water-downed version of what most of the public had been asking and looking for.

In an article in today's Toronto Star they cite a poll of Canadians that state 64% intend to register for the do not call list. I do hope for the sake of bitter irony that this poll was conducted over the phone

Certain organizations such as companies that have current business with you or charitable organizations are exempt from following the registry (you register your home phone number and organizations aren't supposed to call you). The overall number of calls that a person receives may not be reduced however as companies work to re-direct their telemarketing work in an effort to continue sales (yes telemarketing works).

Under the companies that you have current business with I know of a couple of the larger Canadian banks that are going to respect customer's wished to not be called under Do Not Call guidelines in an effort to improve the overall Customer Experience and Customer Satisfaction. Companies should respect the registry and the rights of individuals to not be contacted, but only the test of time and the strength of enforcement will determine how effective it is.

Please share your do not call list stories with me. To register yourself visit this site.

Response Received

2008-09-29T15:38:00.003-04:00

As promised - below is the response I received from the hotel I was dealing with. They are in a difficult position - I have already left - and they have limited opportunities to win me back.

Companies should do what they can to try and restore an overall customer experience though. Dealing with the customer service department or help line is as much a part of the experience as staying at the hotel itself

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Well Hello There Mr. MacDonald,

Thank you very much for reaching out to us. My name is Denny &&&&& and I am a Welcome Desk Manager at the &&&&&. I have received a copy of your customer service file and wish to offer my assistance from this point forward. Firstly, I like to offer my deepest and sincere apologies for the low level service you received while with us. Our goal is to ensure that every minute of your escape with us is pleasant and memorable (in a good way of course). If we have not done that then we have failed our job miserably. We appreciate that you have taken the time to offer this feedback because it gives us the opportunity to rectify and work on these areas that need work. There is no excuse for bad service which is why your feedback is so important to us.

To recover from a bad experience such as this is truly never easy. I am certain however that we can offer much better service than this and I am hoping that we can get this opportunity in the future. I have reviewed your reservation and indeed you did not receive the points that you should have rightfully earned. I would personally like to offer you a total of 5000 bonus points as a token of goodwill. My hope is that we can welcome you again and offer you the quality of service that I am sure we can offer you. I would also like to offer you a complimentary upgrade to one of our suites on any of your future visits. Please provide me with your &&&&& Preferred Guest number so that I can immediately add the bonus points to your account. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions or if there is anything else that I can do for you.

Warmest regards,

Denny

Response from Customer Service

2008-09-25T16:48:00.003-04:00

Following up from my previous posts in my complaints to my recent hotel stay I received a response from the Customer Service desk just within the promised 24 hour window.

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Dear Devon MacDonald,
Thank you for emailing us. I welcome this opportunity to assist you.
Please be assured both &&&&&Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and &&&&& Preferred Guest strive to maintain the highest quality of customer service. I apologize if your experience has not been an example of this and would like to assure you that it was the exception and not the rule.
I have forwarded your comments to the hotel's General Manager on your behalf. This matter will be fully investigated and you will hear from the hotel within five days.
In the meantime, should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us either by replying to this email or by phone at 1-800-###-###. Your reference number for this matter is #####.
I hope your next stay will be more enjoyable.

In order to ensure that we deliver the best customer service to our guests, I would like to ask if you could take a minute to complete our brief customer feedback survey. The survey consists of eight quick questions and should only take a minute or two to complete. We welcome your comments and thank you for your participation.
We appreciate your patronage of &&&&&Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. If you have any further customer service questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at &&&&&@&&&&&hotels.com.

Best Regards,
&&&&& &&&&& Specialist,
E-Communications Department
&&&&&Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

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Meeting established customer expectations within the Customer Service field is an absolute must. I had mentally prepared my post in which I would stress the importance of meeting set expectations with customers, particularly when dealing with a complaint issue. I will save it for another day.

I appreciate the opportunity to submit further feedback using the links provided (hyperlinks from message removed to prevent identifying information), but I will admit to finding it a little premature and untimely. The type of feedback that they are looking for will most likely be jaded by my experience with Customer Service or addressed in my previous complaint. Companies should request feedback from customers, but it should be at dependable and consistent times within the customer lifecycle.

I look forward to the response from the Hotel Manager within the promised time and will share the response with you.

Also, after my wife read this post she let me know of a couple of other issues with the service that I had either a) forgotten or b) not been a part of;

the wake up call that we requested for Sun morning never came (which is potentially very serious - we could have missed our flight)
the front desk staff (who claimed to be on loan from another &&&&& hotel) didn't know where Bloomingdale's was - this is a major tourist attraction and I think that all staff should have a basic knowledge of the major attractions in the area
no coffee maker in room, no restaurant open early to get coffee from and no coffee station in the lobby for early risers/departures
the bathroom in the suite was quite shabby and not at all up to the standard that I would have expected for that calibre of room

I will pass this additional information on the Customer Service desk and Hotel Manager

Automated Confirmation Message Received

2008-09-24T14:29:00.001-04:00

10 minutes after I had submitted my online comments to the hotel I received the below automated response from the hotel.

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Dear Valued Guest,

Thank you for contacting &&&&& Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

This is an automated acknowledgment of your message to let you know we have received your email and that we will reply within 24 hours.

This message is not intended to answer the email that you have just submitted but we do want to confirm that we have received your message.

One of our E-Communications Specialists will read and address your comments personally. This often requires some time for research before replying but please be assured we are working very hard to get back to you as quickly as possible.

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I am looking forward to their response!

Message Sent

2008-09-24T14:20:00.003-04:00

As promised in my earlier post I will be sharing my communications with myself and the hotel regarding my past stay. In a search of their corporate website I was able to submit a complaint through a free formed box and select the "Compliment or Complaint" category.

I first drafted the submission in MS Word - a better way to few the overall message and execute spell / grammar check rather than within a tiny box - and a web pop-up notified my of the message being sent. I did however receive a message received confirmation in my email inbox - which is a simple step that companies should do.

The full text (minus rates or identifying information) of my message is below:

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As a frequent business and leisure traveller and a Customer Experience professional I was looking forward to my weekend stay in one of the suites at the &&&&& Hotel in New York. The overall size and comfort of the room was good, and while it was expensive it was decent value. The service that we received at the hotel however will keep myself and wife from staying at a &&&&& Hotel again.

We did however find the staff to be unprofessional and inattentive to simple needs in a number of ways:
- I was not asked for my &&&&& card or membership and did not receive room credit for my stay
- We requested a standard sewing kit be sent to our room – it never arrived
- We tried to book usage of the complimentary car service but found the attendant to be generally uninterested in our request
- We were assured by the concierge that the adjoining lounge would accept us early and were turned away by staff

For a boutique hotel asking $### a night for a suite I would have expected at least basic services and requests as I have described above to be met. I have received better service at a number of other hotels that certainly don’t claim to have the prestige or pedigree as &&&&, but deliver quality service and deserve my business.

Sincerely

Devon MacDonald
&&& Number #########

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I will post their response (including response time) upon receipt

Style vs Substance

2008-09-22T14:58:00.008-04:00

This past weekend my wife and I travelled to NYC for some fun and adventure. The preperation for this trip has been highlighted in my previous posts (here, here) about dealing with reward companies - we used points for our flight and for a portion of our hotel.

The hotel market in New York is very competitive and very expensive. With high rental rates and a demand for consumer dollars the level of service and comfort is typically quite high at hotels. The hotel that we stayed at was a higher-end boutique hotel that was part of a national chain. And while the room we had was fantastic - it was actually called the Fantastic Suite - the service from the different staff at the hotel left a lot to be desired.

As in previous posts (here) I can not stress enough the impact that front line staff have in delivering a positive customer experience to customers / guests. They have the greatest amount of contact with every client and have the most opportunities to positively and negatively impact the view of the customer on the product or service.

In the case of the hotel, the service and staff are a part of the product. The room is an extension of the service and is what is provided - it is the staff that deliver it. I will give this particular hotel credit for having a large volume of staff on hand, it was the service that they collectively provided that will keep us from going back again. Some examples:

Requesting a sewing kit and it never showing up
Being offered a complimentary car service that was managed by a clearly over-worked and under-motivated employee
Being told by one staff member to sit in the lounge before it was opened only to be told by the lounge staff that they weren't opening for another 10 minutes and we could go down the street
Trying to ask the concierge a question and being told that she was too busy

What all service based industries (and this hotel in particular) should do is put a greater emphasis amongst employees on the impact that they have on the customer (guest) experience.

This should be done through some simple training programs either on an on-going basis or as a part of the onboarding process. They should also provide feedback opportunities for customers / guests to provide employee level feedback - which seems to be a given in other hotels, but was glarlingly absent here.

I hope to provide a link to this post to the hotel manager and will post any reponse or feedback that I receive.

Follow Up - Rewards Programs

2008-09-16T09:51:00.002-04:00

After my previous post I needed to call back into Company A to ask them to do something (send me an email) that they has said they would do, but didn't.

I knew what I was getting myself into so I waited until I had a good gap between meetings and phone calls to call them. After failing the voice authentication again and waiting on hold for 18 minutes (yikes) I was able to get through to someone and have them send me the information I needed.

The interesting part was that I received a follow up questionnaire later that day from them asking questions about the last time that I called into their Contact Centre. These types of questionnaires are familiar to us all but I saw some unique opportunities within this particular one.

Some standard questioning about how everything went and what my customer service rep did and did not do was included. There was a heavy component on what is called advocacy questions -Would I recommend this service? Would I refer friends and family to this service? This type of questioning is used to develop the advocacy score - a common comparative measurement used to assess Customer Experience in a variety of industries - and is very useful.

There was some free-form space as well that allowed me to share my opinion (respectfully of course) of their voice-authentication and wait times.

The survey ended by asking me for my program number and email linked to the program for further follow up. I would normally not provide this information, but I believe that it provides company A with a unique opportunity.

They know I called them, they know who I am and they know what my impressions of the service are. By taking my direct feedback they should be able to link it to the information from my last call. From this they should be able to determine if my recollection of the call information (duration, authentication) was accurate.

Linking this information will allow them to see if the experience that their customers endure reflects what actually happened. Customer's impressions - and expectations - of certain services often vary widely from what they actually experienced. I knew I was going to be waiting long and was prepared for it, as a result I was not as outraged as I was the first time.

Reward Programs

2008-09-11T09:56:00.007-04:00

On my to-do list today was a couple of calls into Customer Service lines for reward programs. Reward programs themselves are a CRM initiative. Designed to increase the buy-in that customers have with a specific brand and reward them with incentives and free stuff when and if they are eligible, they are standard practice amongst a number of industries (travel, banking, retail)

As a CRM and Customer Experience Professional I look at these interactions as ways to learn more about the different technologies and processes companies have in place to engage their clients. As a mid-tier member (by their ranking) with each company I was interested to see what they had in store for me.

With Company A I had redeemed some points for a weekend trip and needed to make a change to the flights. I called their 1-800 number and was asked to authenticate myself by saying my program ID (they had previously recorded my voice in an earlier call).

After 3 unsuccessful tries they program was unable to verify who I was. I was encouraged to either a) call back at a later time b) visit their web site or c) press 0 to speak with a representative. I choose c and started waiting.

While waiting I was on Company B's website and simply needed to change my mailing address (moved a while ago, but never changed my address with them) and noticed a click to chat button on the website. This allowed me to open a window in my browser and chat with a customer service rep.

After providing some identifying information the rep I was chatting with was able to quickly and easily update my information, send me a new card and make me a promotional offer for a new service - all within 4 minutes. Thanking them for their help - and declining the offer - I closed the window and put my attention back to waiting for Company A.

A rep from Company A got to my call after an 8 minute wait - which is an eternity. They were able to process my request and get me off the phone after another 3 minutes.

I recognize that there is limited revenue opportunity for these types of calls and as such these centres are viewed as a cost centre. If reward companies are going to provide rewards and recognize clients they should ensure that their loyal clients are treated in a fair and timely manner, otherwise the rewards become hassles - not benefits.

Having voice-authentication and bio-metrics in place for a call centre is great - if it works. Company A (and others) should look at less expensive and easier ways to interact with the clients to provide the most effective and consistent experience to reward their customer further. Going through repeated tries with a technology is expensive and frustrating for all involved.

Company B should look to expand their click to chat program to move the chat to an actually voice conversation if further interaction required.

Keep 'em Coming

2008-09-02T15:20:00.007-04:00

After a month of either vacationing or working to hard (strange but true balance) I am back at my blog.

Over my vacation and the summer my family and I spent a lot of time at our family cottage and as such drove past the many seasonal businesses and tourist locations that survive on cottage traffic alone.

A particular restaurant (which will remain nameless - first person to guess correctly in comments gets a DVD copy of new release "Your Beautiful Cul de Sac Home" - email me directly once comment is posted with contact info) time and again amazes me because they have average food with high prices but the experience and service is incredible. People are so loyal to this particular restaurant that they actually had to build a dedicated pedestrian overpass on the highway so that people in the opposite direction would stop risking getting hit by high speed traffic just to get a burger and fries.

Their recipe to success? Simple and fresh food combined with excellent service.

All food is to go and the restaurant provides a fair sized picnic area for families and pets to stretch their legs and enjoy some shade. The line-ups for the two kitchens are daunting (never shorter than 20 people) but they move people through very quickly. The smartest thing that they do is that the order-takers work their way through the line to take your order - which commits you to staying even though you haven't paid.

Other businesses have opened next door, down the road, up the road and across the road to try and take some business away - but they all fail. The restaurant makes it easy for people to buy their food, they provide them with a relaxing yet energetic environment and they deliver quality food consistently.

Other restaurants (and those trying to compete) should look at these attributes when trying to emulate their success and keep the customer's experience front of mind.

Measurable Questions

2008-07-29T08:18:00.004-04:00

In a recent consulting engagement I have had the opportunity to work with a major financial institution that is an industry leader in Customer Experience.

Going into it I was interested to see just how they had been so successful and to see what we could uncover to assist in improving their operations. Lucky for us the executive sponsor is very supportive of change and constantly challenges the status quo.

There is heavy focus within the organization on Customer Experience. From Senior Executives to Agents people are measured and compensated based on the Customer Experience. An abundance of training is available for all and there is signage and literature everywhere emphasizing the need to focus on the Customer Experience and exceeding their expectations every time (which I hate seeing because it is an unattainable goal to exceed expectations every time).

In their measurement of the Customer Experience however it was interesting to see what I would call very brand focused questions, as opposed to Customer or business focused questioned. For example;

I want to feel that I am valued
I want to feel confident with the bank of my choice

This type of questioning is very emotive and has no actionable resolution within it. In answering these questions it is fairly easy for a person to gauge how they feel - which is great and that's about it. What is this company going to do is their customer's feel less confident? What programs or measures are they going to put into place to improve customer confidence?

What companies who are interested in identifying root causes and improving Customer facing areas should do is position questions from a rational perspective. For example;

I am recognized for my business and tenure at the bank
I receive accurate statements and consistent information across channels

These questions are measurable and actionable. If a score is decreasing there are clear paths to improvement. Companies should not inundate their customers with every detail, but focus on pain and irritant areas through rational questioning to identify the root cause and improve the Customer Experience.

Perfect 10

2008-07-21T06:23:00.006-04:00

On a recent business trip I had the opportunity to stay at a major hotel chain for a couple of nights. While overall I was pleased with my stay and experience, I was a little put off by their surveying technique and request to receive a 'Perfect 10'.

This chain had a program in place asking their guests to please rate them a 10 out of 10 on their survey and to bring any service or stay requests to their attention so that they could make your stay as comfortable as possible. Now as a CRM and Customer Experience Professional I often look for different things when I stay at a hotel or even shop at a grocery store, but I try to remain as objective as possible.
I can only assume that this type of program was launched to increase Customer Satisfaction levels at the hotel by addressing customer issues. What it did for myself and my colleagues however was make us look at each element of our experience and stay and find ways to NOT give them a perfect 10.

As with most people who travel for business, I have seen a lot of hotel rooms and have had some incredible experiences and some bad ones as well. After seeing a poster for the program when I first entered the hotel I began to see if they could live up to expectation that they had inadvertantly set with me. Things that prevented me from giving them a perfect 10 started to creep up:

I was greeted and addressed by front desk staff over the course of my stay by my first name and last name

The shower head was ridiculously low

The air conditioner was archaic and extremely noisy (making it difficult to work and sleep)

What companies, and this hotel chain in particular, should do is take a outside-in view of their operations and the customer visit to measure their customer's experience to see what needs to be done to receive a perfect 10 every time. By looking at things pro-actively from a customer's perspective smaller but easily rectified issues (with some investment) can be addressed.

By passively waiting for customers to provide feedback they are doing nothing to actually improve the customer experience for that customer, it will only be reaped by the next. This of course for some businesses is too late.

And in case you're wondering I scored them a 6.

Built for Customers

2008-07-14T12:05:00.000-04:00

The common headlines in the Auto Industry today usually relate to escalating gas prices, reduced demand for SUV's and plant closures. What they don't talk about are the dealers and how they make their money - and more importantly how they make their money from good customer service and a well planned customer experience.

This post is being written from the comfort of my friendly neighbourhood car dealership. The radio / cd player in my car is on the fritz and it was due for an oil change. So last Friday I sent in an online request for an appointment.

The form asked for some customer details (what car) and a description of the problem and also a preferred day / time for me to come in. I received a message back from a representative 30 minutes later confirming my appointment - presto. I also received a personal phone call reminder at the end of the day (I'm going to assume they call the business day before) about the appointment.

At the dealership itself they are quick to make note of customer's who wait and those who are leaving. Those who are leaving are quickly offered a ride on the dealership shuttle (comfy with uniformed employee) to the nearest subway stop. Those who wait have a lounge with leather club chairs, a plasma TV, courtesy phones, wireless Internet, complimentary coffee and juice and even a little playground if kids are along for the ride.

To maintain consistent communication and messaging, customers always work through the customer service reps (as opposed to the mechanics) and are greeted and treated professionally.

All of these amenities are obviously built in to pricing and the customer service reps are always looking to add more on to appointment (brakes, filters, etc.). There are also some fairly extensive service packages that are "recommended" by the dealership, but not listed within any formal documentation as required for lease or warranty purposes.

The car business is extremely competitive, and in an urban environment that competition between brands, dealerships, public opinion and public transit is even tougher. Dealerships should invest in customer service and the customer experience to earn the trust of their customers and to make the visit as painless as possible. Customers are more than aware of the typical up sell techniques and "broken"pieces that must be fixed in their cars.

Developing brand loyalty and a positive customer experience may be difficulty across an entire network of dealers, but an individual dealership has tremendous opportunity - and numerous contacts with the customer - to build an excellent customer experience.

Pick you Poison

2008-07-08T08:25:00.004-04:00

In an article in yesterdays Wall Street Journal there is a discussion about a study of the impact to Customer Satisfaction when services are outsourced offshore. Interestingly enough the study states that the impact to Customer Service when outsourced is the same whether it is onshore or offshore.

There are typical drawbacks to offshore service - notably language and cultural barriers - but the costs are dramatically lower and tough to resist.

I am not surprised that simply outsourcing customer service impacts overall ratings. The companies that provide these services do not simply have the access the all of the systems that an internal service unit would. They are also not a part of that organization's culture and can not reflect the values of that organization through the service they provide. Often representatives can be a part of a dedicated team servicing clients from a single organization, but at the end of the day they work for the outsourcer (or themselves) and not the organization in question.

Companies who choose outsourcing are faced with a difficult decision. Working with onshore resources maintains language consistency, but still results in an overall drop in satisfaction and has limited savings. Working with offshore resources presents some communication barriers but is provided at a fraction of the cost.

What companies should do is ensure that whatever decision they make is most aligned to the overall values and strategy of the entire organization. Offshoring has other benefits besides cost and is becoming the leading practice. Onshoring maintains a local (by continent) connection with customers if they are on the same continent.

Companies should also ensure that dedicated staff from outsourcers are immersed in their own training, materials and information as much as possible. This will help maintain a consistent experience for customers and result in improved ratings.

Looking from the Outside

2008-07-03T08:55:00.003-04:00

Most companies today have developed a viewpoint of their customers as an outside looking in approach to how they do business or use a service, as opposed to the inside looking out from a process and system stand point.

This is a huge mind shift for a lot of organizations and takes a significant amount of corporate change to implement. We've all heard the lines from CSRs who say "My system can't do that", or "We have to do x in order to accomplish y" - this is not a customer viewpoint (outside) and does not improve the customer experience.

In developing this outside-in perspective companies have been able to develop customer lifecycles - the various stages that customers interact with their organizations in being a customer. Learning about the product, buying the product, activating or opening it, receiving service, renewing, recommending, and leaving. All of these major stages are imperative to the lifecycle of the customer and should be monitored.

The next step for companies, particularly those with multiple service offerings in different business units, is to look at service delivery from a life event view of the customer. Life events are things like a new baby or a death in the family - changes in your life. This helps customers move through multiple systems and issues seamlessly and puts their needs first.

A prime example of this is moving. We've all been through it when we've contacted the cable company well in advance to have our old line disconnected when we move out, and have a new one installed and ready to go when we move it to our new place. But despite all of the efforts and pre-planning it never works out. The bill either goes to the wrong place, you pay for the wrong service, or even worse you get no service.

If companies could get out of the mindset of silos (business units) and systems (what do they really mean to the customer?) and think about seamless processes it would provide a true outside looking in perspective. They should let the customer go through what should be a simple thing - that often only adds frustration to an already stressful situation.

Health Satisfaction

2008-06-26T14:47:00.003-04:00

An article online at AISHealth.com (oddly dated for June 27, although it's online today) talks about the growing practice of utilizing customer satisfaction surveying in Heath Plan selling and delivery.

Although clearly a b2b styled article, it offers a great prescription (pun intended) for Health companies to work with clients in improving customer satisfaction. The three step approach that they offer is typical of Customer Experience programs within other Industries. Money quote:

"One of the best ways to build and sustain high customer satisfaction is to implement a communications strategy that encompasses both active listening and proactive outreach to members. "

One of the challenges I see in measuring Customer Satisfaction within Health Plans is the lifecycle of the client and what their feedback will be from a health services side versus a plan servicing and claims side. That is, their experience (and subsequent satisfaction) may be adversely impacted by the treatment they receive, as opposed to the ability of the Health Plan to provide service and coverage as required.

What Health Insurers and Health Plan companies should do is develop programs that monitor service and coverage of a series of life events (births, operations, etc) and as their programs are tailored, so to should the service experienced by the client.

The client that is going into or recovering from an operation may need assistance with a claim. Dealing with a new born at home and processing a claim could also be troublesome. The processes should allow for life events and underlying circumstances, or the true satisfaction may not be captured.

Full Report

2008-06-18T17:03:00.002-04:00

The full JD Edwards report to customer satisfaction in the airline industry can be found here. It is interesting to note that the survey found that the overall drop in customer satisfaction is related to interaction with airline staff, as opposed to decreasing service levels and increasing costs. The overall experience is declining for customers - money quote:

“Across the airline experience, from check-in, to the flight, to deplaning, passengers are being affected by the ramifications of carriers making staff cutbacks and have expressed that performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering,”

What is interesting here is that the pain threshold for customers from a cost perspective has not been met despite worsening service and at times insulting surcharges. Airlines will not change their behaviour (reducing staff and service + increasing costs to the customer) until customers change their behaviour (stop flying).

From a customer experience perspective this is termed as a detractor, someone who is actively against your product or service. The airlines should track the experience and customer satisfaction levels of those who are at detractor levels to determine the pain threshold - and watch out because they will.

Apples to Apples

2008-06-18T11:48:00.003-04:00

In an article yesterday on the Detroit News website there is some interesting information and great quotes about a recent JD Power survey on customer experience and customer satisfaction in the airline industry.

In standard JD Power fashion it is a ranking of competitors and once again Northwest is very low in customer satisfaction. In a previous post regarding the huge cuts at Delta I talked about how reduction in front line staff negatively impacts customer satisfaction and customer experience, and it appears that this is coming true with Northwest.

The part of the article that I find most interesting is a quote from Michael Boyd (described as an airline expert):

"They're lumping once-a-year passengers on connecting flights in Bangor, Maine, with daily flyers on direct flights from Detroit to Los Angeles. Its not exactly apples to apples"

This is partly true. While the overall experience of the customer who embarks on a flight (researching, buying, flying, service, baggage, etc) is similar, the segment or profile of the customer varies greatly and as such should be measured differently or at least separately.

Customer segmentation and profiles are a key part of measuring customer experience and implementing successful programs. The daily flyer from New York to LA is a completely different customer than the once-a-year in Maine. They each have different needs and expectations and as such will respond differently to similar questions despite a common experience (or actions in taking a flight).

While I am sure that airlines have comprehensive segmentation and profiles on customers JD Powers should incorporate this into their surveying - based on consolidation of segments from participating companies - to provide meaningful and actionable research for the industry.

Unhappy to happy - how to tell

2008-06-16T11:45:00.003-04:00

In an article (which could also be a press release) today on Newsfactor they discuss the findings of a recent Better Business Bureau report about properly managing disgruntled customers.

The article mentions the importance of well trained staff, which I could not agree with more. Front line workers are the manifestation of company policy and have the largest impact of customer satisfaction and customer experience.

They stress the importance of turning an unhappy customer into a happy one - which they say can be done nearly 80% of the time, but they do not say how. Simply looking at a customer and there interactions in a single point of not is not what companies should be doing.

By looking at interactions from a customer perspective throughout the lifecycle with the company is the true way to measure the customers experience and overall satisfaction. Utilizing a lifecycle approach also lets you track (and manage) customers from detractors (I want to go) to advocates (I want to stay). This allows you to see what programs are working to keep customers, and what is driving customers away.

91% to 50% - where is the disconnect?

2008-06-11T10:49:00.005-04:00

In a post from yesterday on destinationcrm.com there is some great information and insight into Customer Experience and Customer Experience Management. The author is a VP from Chordiant software who are an emerging leader in Customer Experience Management software tools and programs.

The article has a couple of interesting stats, most notably that 91% of companies agree that Customer Experience is critical or very important, but only 50% of customers are satisfied with their telecommunications companies. Where is the disconnect?

A lot of lip service is sometimes provided for Customer Experience within organizations - particularly large ones - but the fact of the matter is that developing, implementing and managing an effective Customer Experience program is incredibly difficult, particularly in the telecommunications industry.

Telecommunications companies are typically organized in product silos / categories and there interactions with customers are managed within individual channels within those silos (i.e. call centre for Satellite and a separate call centre for Wireless). Working through / across these organizations and implementing a consistent and effective Customer Experience for all channels is a growing challenge, and I suspect the reason why customer satisfaction is low compared to companies recognition of it's importance.

Companies should have dedicated staffing and budget to manage the Customer Experience - even through a Chief Customer Experience Officer in some cases - across the entire organization. Executive leadership in this type of program (and any other program that goes across a company) is crucial to its success.

Companies should also recognize that in the business case for a Customer Experience program they should not only look at churn reduction(as noted in the article), but also at the significant cross sell and up sell opportunities that a multi-service organization can offer a satisfied customer.

Nuremberg Defense

2008-06-09T12:34:00.003-04:00

My wife was recently shopping at a large retail story to buy an assortment of gifts for various people. She was buying three separate items and wanted three separate gift receipts for the items. Not an unreasonable request and the cashier able to do the gift receipts for the first two items. With the third item however the clerk forgot to enter it as a gift and was only able to provide a normal receipt. My wife said that she needed the gift receipt still and asked the cashier to change it. The only way the cashier could change it was to do a return and then re-purchase the item. To do the return however they needed a form filled out. Aaarghhh.

Blindly following company policy and putting customers through the run around (we've all been there) is no where near best practices for improving customer experience. Companies should fully train all staff on returns procedures and other policies, but they should also provide customer perspective training on how it impacts them.

Companies should develop policies with flexibility and discretion to handle customer concerns and deal with the issue at hand, rather than needing to invoke an alternative policy to resolve a particular situation.

Taking the Ted out of United

2008-06-04T20:21:00.005-04:00

The NY Times (and loads of other sources) reported yesterday that United Airlines is slashing staff - 1,100 - and gaz-guzzling airplanes, the Ted unit, in an effort to stabilize the company.

The airline industry has been in a tail-spin (pardon the pun) since 9-11 and has never fully recovered. Ever increasing gas prices are killing chances at profit margins on all flights and airlines are being forced to pass more and more costs on to the end customer.

Part of this confuses me however. United's effort on the cuts is to save costs but also improve the customer experience. Money quote -

"The decision to dramatically reduce our capacity profile, particularly in the domestic marketplace, while over time eliminating a fleet type, is a significant step leading to a more effective and efficient fleet for United in the years ahead, while improving our customer experience and reliability."

I will give them the operating efficiency point on an older fleet of planes, but unless they were spewing fumes back into the cabin I'm not sure how this will improve customer experience.

1,100 job cuts is the size of cut that means all levels of staff from the top down - including front line workers. As I've stated before it is often staff on the front lines who have the largest impact on customer experience. With reduced staffing levels and increasingly agitated customers (delays, delays, delays) I don't see any improvement coming - I see the opposite.

United must cut costs to maintain their business and they should retire inefficient equipment. They should also remember that their customers are facing greater stresses, pressures and pain ($) with flying in general and that the experience of their travel has the greatest impact on their relationship with the airline.

New Focus

2008-06-04T10:18:00.006-04:00

In the Brunei Bulletin (I had never heard of it either) there is a great story about a local bank whose strategic approach in engaging customers is going to be by providing the best customer experience. Money quote -

"Customer experience is the new business model that the bank has envisaged for the future"

While this is not a revolutionary statement - this is an aggressive approach for a financial institution to take - and I love it. Putting the customer first is the mantra of many financial institutions, but we all know that at the end of the day shareholder value is really driving the bus. Companies should however look at improving the customer experience as a way to increase shareholder value through increased customer retention and higher wallet share amongst their existing customer base.

The other interesting thought on this is the heavy reliance on cell phone technology and wireless banking in countries like Thailand. With limited touch from the banks on their customers through a cellular transaction it is difficult to improve - or even measure - the customer experience. Maintaining a common experience across all channels (web, phone, cellular, ATM, in person) and leveraging current processes and experiences should be the approach taken by this and any organization looking to gain an edge.

On the Front Lines

2008-06-02T14:45:00.003-04:00

An article today on CNET talks about the battle for customers between phone and cable companies - particularly now that they offer the same services. One of the highlights is the reference to Comcast hiring over 15,000 customer service reps and technicians over the last year and a half - which is fantastic, but this massive onboarding I predict will not increase the overall customer satisfaction of their customers.

In the customer experience it is often the people on the front lines - who in the organization are probably the lowest paid - that have the largest impact on customer satisfaction. It is the representative on the other end of the phone who is putting company policy in action and it is the technician who is the only face of the company when they are doing an install or repair at your house or work. The article also makes a reference to a hilarious story about a technician who actually fell asleep at a customer's house - video below.

This also reminds me of an engagement that a colleague of mine was involved in where part of measuring the customer experience was to do a ride along with a technician for a couple of days. It turns out that one of the largest complaints from customers around installs was technicians cutting across lawns and gardens to do their work - how do you account for that in a survey?

The hirings made by Comcast are great and they should continue to invest in their front line staff and customer experience. However, given the onboarding / ramp up time for this type of work and the immediate impact that these roles have on customer satisfaction, it will be some time before a positive impact is made.

Complete View Required

2008-05-29T07:59:00.005-04:00

When measuring customer satisfaction or the customer experience companies often make the mistake of capturing a single instance of the experience (like when a customer calls in to report a problem) rather than the entire experience over a period of time.

I remember calling into my local phone utility because of a problem and after going through 30 minutes of trouble shooting and my issue not being resolved being asked by the CSR "And would you say sir that you were satisfied by the service you received today?", obviously meant for a check mark in his call log - to which I replied "If by satisfied you mean not resolving my problem then yes". At the time I was not satisfied, but overall I was - which the company will never know.

A story (or press release) on Business Wire talks about the customer service battle in the Automobile Industry and have announced a tie between Ford and Toyota. The study was executed by a company called Strategic Vision who utilize their trademarked process - The Total Quality Index - to measure the experience of customers through the entire buying cycle, not a single moment in time. Based on the approach through purchases in different car segments Ford and Toyota tied with 3 wins each.

The Strategic Vision approach is the right way to do it - not a moment in time but over time. There are a number of methodologies and approaches available that look at the life cycle of a customer as they go through investigation, purchasing, service and renewal - and this paints a very clear picture of where a specific company could do better and where a company is doing well. Aggregating that data by product, by segment and by company offers valuable insight for companies in how they are doing - and what they should be doing to keep up with the Joneses (or Ford and Toyota).

I think we knew this already

2008-05-28T08:46:00.003-04:00

JD Power and Associates have issued another Customer Satisfaction study and as I think we already knew, overall satisfaction for Retail banking is down. Outlined in this article on TheStreet.com it ties consumer confidence (think housing crisis) and an overall belt tightening at the banks to the drop. Money quote -

"Now is the time for banks to really differentiate themselves from competitors
by focusing on customer service and convenience," says Rockwell Clancy, J.D.
Power's executive director of financial services. "Banks with higher
levels of customer satisfaction will generate higher deposit growth and achieve
better financial results over the long term."

This is an opportunity (as the article / quote also states) for banks - and other companies - to differentiate themselves from the competition by investing in some key customer care areas to improve call answer times and reduce customer wait times.

If banks aren't already directing most of their clients to self serve options and light assist options through web and phone channels (as opposed to in person) they should be. By adding some cost effective staffing at call centres during peak hours - normally from the lunch hour to just after the supper hour - banks can provide better service for their customers.

Banks should also start to take better advantage of Voice over IP technology and implement work from home and work on demand strategies for call centre agents - who wants to come into the office for the afternoon only - to bump up their service levels at minimal costs.

High Touch versus Low Costs

2008-05-27T07:41:00.000-04:00

In a story from the weekend NY Times - full article here - they explore the mini-history of call centres and automated phone trees and the rage that it is causing for their consumers. Customer aggravation and ways that companies are looking at easing it are an important part of the article. Money quote -

For the first time, American corporations are acknowledging “customer service as something worth paying for rather than just red ink,”

From the consumer side of the fence, people want to talk to real live people and get incredible service - while still paying low and competitive rates for the products / service they receive from the company. These two things do not correlate.

It reminds me of a discount airline that I did some consulting for that was very focused on personal touch with clients and insisted that no IVR be used in their call centres and that each call made to the call centre would be answered by a live person. At the same time however, they were concerned about escalating costs (no kidding) and the scalability of their call centre operations given a recent boom in business. Unfortunately low costs and high personal touch do not go hand in had - in fact they are opposing factors.

While ultimately we did not recommend going with an IVR, we did ask them to think about their brand promise and the expectations that they have set with their customers - expectations that are getting harder and harder to meet. To be truly competitive from a product perspective means keeping their back office costs low, and their customer care costs even lower.

While the company could provide one-on-one high touch customer service and answer every call, their customers would revolt because of the increase in prices. Tough decision. What should they do?

Who is the real customer?

2008-05-26T15:22:00.000-04:00

In airports you often have little choice as a consumer as to which airports you use - assuming of course that you need to go to or from a specific destination. JD Power and Associates recently released their airport rankings for 2008 - can be found here - and it brings up a couple of interesting questions.

What motivations are there for an airport itself to have high customer satisfaction ratings? Presumably most consumers direct their frustration and satisfaction towards airlines themselves, not actual airports. There may be better parking or amenities at various airports, but they all provide the same basic services to the end consumer. Everyone knows that some airports are worse than others in terms of volume and delays (think Heathrow), but do we need to measure our satisfaction at airports?

I think a more relative study on customer satisfaction at airports would be with the actual airport customers - the airlines. The landing and gate fees are what largely funds airport operations and allow airlines to maintain kiosks and operations at a specific site.

The value for money, or services, that they receive at different airports based on what they pay - which I am going to hope they are tracking - would provide an interesting insight into how airports treat their customers, not their customer's customers.

All airports could provide an improved level of service, but they to are based on a budget which is largely funded by airlines - and where does their money come from? That's right - the consumer.

Where did it go wrong?

2008-05-26T11:08:00.000-04:00

Why is it that in an economy that relies heavily on consumer spending do companies constantly find themselves dealing with enraged customers? What happened to that customer? After all, they initially thought that the company couldn't be all that be bad - they did buy something from them in the first place. The answer lies in the experience that we went through as a customer - and where that experience took a bad turn.

What could'a and should'a companies be doing to rectify a situation?
Where did the company make the experience bad for the customer?

Everyone has a story about dealing with a company that makes their blood boil (think about your favourite airline, cell phone service provider, cable company, etc). This blog will explore some of those scenarios and situations that we hear about in the news and from our friends.