February 22, 2012

Posts Comments

How Zappos Affects Your Customer Experience

September 6, 2011 By 10 Comments

Who is your customer experience competition? Those of you only looking inside your own industry need to take a look around, as your competitors are not who you think they are – especially online. Organizations should be asking this question: Which companies have the best practices in customer focus across all industries?

I recently exchanged Facebook messages with Deb Robison, a smart marketing and social media gal. She wanted to share a customer service story with me and get my take on it.  Here is her story:

I got a new computer recently and needed to order some accessories. Around this same time, I needed some shoes and books. I placed orders with Zappos, Amazon, Apple, and a designer’s shop, Jonathan Adler. Of course, the three big guys sent me order acknowledgment and tracking info all through the process. I got an order notification from (ordered a laptop sleeve) Jonathan Adler, then nothing, so a few days after I placed the order, I sent an email asking if my order had shipped. Later the next day I got an email from a customer service rep explaining that they did receive my order and that “my colleague is trying to find your bag at one of their stores.” Once it ships, I would get a shipping notification. That was two days ago. And, I noticed they have already charged my credit card.

So my question is this – are my customer service expectations skewed because I have dealt with some big companies that have solid customer service and shipping systems in place? (Note: Zappos had the best and most prompt services of the three big companies, of course.) Jonathan Adler is a smaller brand, but a high-end one and kind of trendy right now, so is it fair for me to set the same expectations on them?

My expectations have clearly been shaped by the immediacy which other retailers respond & deliver. Is that fair? As customers, we never had this kind of relationship before. We used to get out the catalog, fill out the form, put a check in the envelope and wait.

Yes, Deb, customer expectations are absolutely set based on our experiences with companies such as Zappos and Amazon. In fact, every interaction we have with a company sets our expectation for the next interaction, whether with that business or with another completely different organization. Additionally, the online experiences that customers have with companies, whether on the company website or via social media, are creating a higher degree of visibility. In social media, this becomes even more important as the social customer’s friends and followers are also watching, and sometimes sharing the experience with their network (unfortunately, this is more often the case when the experience has been poor).

Customer Expectations of Service

It is important to understand the needs of your customers, as well as their wants and desires. It is also critical to understand what they expect when they contact your company. Typically, customer expectations of service tend to fall into three areas:

- Customers want fast service: They want their problems solved or questions answered quickly. “Help me get back to what I need to do.”

- Customers want friendly service: They want to feel that the company appreciates their business. “Help me know that you care about me.”

- Customers want it to be easy: They want to be able to accomplish the task in the most efficient way possible. “Help make this simple for me.”

The three areas listed above may change in priority based on who your customer is, what kind of relationship they have had with your organization, and, as mentioned by Deb, what types of interactions they have had with your company and with others. Do you know what your customers want from you?

Taking Action

What can you do tomorrow to improve the experience your customers are having with your company?

1. Ask your customers. Really – go ask them! Find out what they expect from you, what you are doing well, and what you need to improve. Your customers will probably be happy to tell you, and they will also be glad you asked.

2. Look in the mirror. When is the last time you or someone from your organization called into your customer service line? Ordered something from your website? Tried to get help via your social media channels? Find out what it feels like to be your customer; I encourage you to look for both areas of improvement as well as your own best practices to share with your organization.

3. Look at the competition – from your customer’s perspective. Understand who is competing with you for the best customer experience, keeping in mind that it may not be anyone within your industry.

A world-class customer experience doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a plan that can be executed across all aspects of your organization. Your customer experience strategy should facilitate consistent treatment of customers, cultivate customer trust, and enable meaningful interactions at all points of customer contact. Most importantly, it should meet and exceed customer expectations. Now you have a customer experience that will ignite passion, inspire brand loyalty, and cement relationships.

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service, Customer strategy, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

The Old College Try

August 5, 2011 By 3 Comments

Today, I have a special guest blogger, Greg Meyer. Greg and I are kindred spirits when it comes to customer experience, and I asked him to share a recent car rental story and the lessons one can learn from it. Thanks, Greg. You rock!

The Old College Try

“Do, or do not. There is no try” -@yoda

“We try harder” -@avis

It’s really challenging to “speak with one voice” as a company, whether your company is small, large, or anywhere in between. I recently had an experience with a major car rental company that left me appreciative of individual effort and frustrated at the inability of the company to meet the needs of the customer.

So, what happened?

I had a small crisis – a flat tire on the way to an important meeting while traveling on business to Research in Motion headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario. I called Roadside Assistance, and my expectation was that Avis would send a crew to fix my tire. They actually told me to fix it myself and that there were tools in the trunk to accomplish the task.

Lesson #1 – The Company Process Doesn’t Always Benefit the Customer
The representative from Avis wasn’t necessarily wrong – he was following a script that suggested what he should do when someone calls in with a flat tire – but he wasn’t able (or willing) to see things from my point of view. I didn’t want to learn a new process, use any tools, or to do work because my day was already full.

Lesson #2 – Help can come from an Unexpected Place
Lauren (the building receptionist) went above and beyond my expectations by finding a local Avis rep when he was returning another car and escalating the issue to the local sales manager Chris. Chris showed up and brought me a new car – a Kia Soul – and was very pleasant. I was ecstatic and wanted to shout everyone’s praises to the whole world. And I did.

Lesson #3 – Oops, Everyone’s not on the same page
I drove off into the sunset with a new rental car and went along my merry way. Everything’s great, right? Not quite – when I returned home to the states I got a bill to replace the tire. Huh? After a few emails to figure out what was going on, I found that because my corporate office advises me to decline the rental car-provided insurance, incidents like a flat tire are “rotten luck” and need to be paid out of pocket.

I wrote to @AvisWeTryHarder and explained to Ann Smith (the social media representative) that this outcome was silly, that I shouldn’t need to pay it, and that she should fix it. She did (eventually), but she wasn’t able to do so immediately (by policy.) And the overall experience was one of confusion, rather than triumph at great service and heroic efforts by a few people.

What did I learn?
Avis resolved my issue and I didn’t have to pay for the flat tire (yay!) There were a few key lessons that I gleaned from this experience, including:
  1. It’s hard to speak with one voice – even if everything goes right, training your employees to understand the complexities of a situation and how to use common sense is difficult to train, so you’ve got to hire for attitude;
  2. The customer decides if it was a good experience — customers don’t care why it went wrong, they just want you to fix it. Or explain very clearly why you can’t fix it and to offer a good alternative;
  3. There might be good substitutes, but it’s hard to think of them sometimes - I could have called AAA Auto Club, but I didn’t realize that they would cover me while traveling in Canada. In this case heroic effort won the day.
What’s the impact of the “old college try”?
The customer doesn’t care whether you try harder. The customer cares whether you get it done. Yoda wins.
About Greg Meyer: Greg delights customers and tries to provide the best customer experience possible by listening, providing support, and solving problems. He is a startup veteran of several early stage companies including Gist (acquired by Research in Motion.) In addition to his ability to translate simultaneously between English and Geek, Greg likes to draw things and take pictures of signs. You can contact Greg at @grmeyer. (photo by http://flickr.com/photos/gregmeyer)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service, Featured, Guest bloggers Tagged With:

Killer Customer Service, or Customer-Killer Service?

June 26, 2011 By 5 Comments

A friend of mine has been a member of a particular airline’s frequent flier program (we will call this major US airline, AirlineX) for a number of years. He even has a credit card linked to that account to help accrue points. This friend had earned enough miles for a free trip to Europe but hadn’t been able to fly AirlineX for awhile since his company now required him to fly the cheapest option (which this airline never was). Knowing that his hard-earned points would expire soon, he called the airline to see what could be done to retain them. AirlineX told him that he had to fly a “qualifying flight” in order to retain his points. Unable to do that due to the aforementioned company policy (and with no other potential trips on the horizon), my friend lost his accrued points (and a future flight to Europe).

Now, this happens all the time; that is the part of the formula for points-based loyalty programs. Keep customers coming back so they will continue to earn points and hopefully continue to spend money with the business.

The real pain in this case is the monthly emails that my friend receives from the airline. Each month, AirlineX sends an email showing how many frequent flier points he has (or at this point, doesn’t have). This is most likely intended to help the airline stay top-of-mind with the customer and gently encourage them to book their next flight with the airline. However, in this case, the monthly email only serves as a reminder that this particular customer doesn’t have any more points with AirlineX – and that hurts.

Customers are watching the actions of your company. Every email they receive, commercial they view, social media site they “like”, and direct mail piece they read (or not) affects their view of your business and their overall customer service experience. It may be something that seems small to your organization which pushes the customer out the door.

What do your marketing communications say about your company? Are they helping your customers to buy more from you? Or are they painful reminders of a damaged relationship, resulting in customer-killer service?

(Photo credit: marco)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Customer service, Featured Tagged With: , ,

Letting Customers Contribute to the B2B Experience

January 17, 2011 By 3 Comments

SpiceRexHow can companies get their customers more engaged and involved? Social media has been making it easier for user-generated content to appear as part of a brand’s marketing, usually with consumers. If a consumer is truly a loyal fan of that brand, they will be very excited to see their submission being used by their favorite company. There are many, many examples of companies using these tactics for marketing buzz and excitement as part of a social media campaign. When the campaign ends, the buzz usually dies down, and the new “fans” go look for other contests to enter. Not a great way to create long-term relationships. For this reason, I often say that social media is not a campaign; it is a relationship.

Customers Contribute

Some companies have been engaging with their true fans for years. For example, at Jones Soda their bottle labels are actually photos submitted by their customers via the Jones Soda website. Customer photos appear on the Jones Soda gallery, and a lucky few get theirs put on a bottle. Even though there is no fame and fortune to be received from this activity, Jones Soda fans love to contribute to the Jones community in this fashion.

Spice it Up in B2B

Spiceworks is a great example of letting customers contribute in the B2B space.  Spiceworks is a free set of tools that helps over 1 million IT professionals manage their network, helpdesk, and “everything IT in small and medium businesses.” They have a very active online community which answers questions for each other and shares what they think on a variety of topics. Spiceworks put together a photo contest asking IT professionals to share some creative pics that contained the Spiceworks logo, brand name, or simply a red chili pepper. From that contest, a community mascot was born, SpiceRex. Submitted by one of the members, SpiceRex grabbed the attention of the Spiceworks team and the hearts of the community, and he travels the world to visit various members (he is made of paper, so he travels light). He has become so popular that Spiceworks will be featuring the red orange T-Rex in a series of ads, created by community members, to tell the IT world about their free software. Spiceworks recently won a Groundswell award for the way they have energized their customers and created tremendous word of mouth through them.

When you have information about your customers and their passions that your competitors don’t have, you have an advantage.  When you use what you know about your customers and let them play a role in the experience, such as featuring a community mascot in your ads, now you are building on the customer relationship and increasing the likelihood of loyalty.

(Credit: SpiceRex created by akp982 @UnofficialSpice)

Filed Under: Advertising, B2B Marketing, Community, Customer experience, Customer loyalty, Customer strategy, Featured, social media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Customer-Obsessed Service

March 30, 2010 By 3 Comments

heart-gift.jpgI have been broadcasting my Customers Rock! Radio program now for 6 months, and I feel it is time to pull together a summary of information from some of those programs into a post (or two!). The radio program is really an extension of this blog; you get to hear my voice as part of an hour-long conversation around the topics we all know and love here: customer experience, customer service, loyalty, marketing, and social media. But I can really sum up the first 6 months of the program with the title of this post: we have been talking about what Customer Obsessed Service looks like. (Note: I borrowed this term from something that Rayanne Langdon was talking about on the show; she was sharing about Freshbooks and their involvement in the Small Business Web – companies focused on customer obsessed software.) This post will discuss the operational perspective of Customer Obsessed Service – what does it take to make this happen at an organization?

Expectations

Before we can discuss Customer Obsessed Service, we need to make sure we understand customer expectations. Customers have changed, and customer expectations have greatly changed! Social media has put everything into a new light as empowered customers are taking up their mobile phones and tweeting their distress for all the world to see. Here is a typical customer service tweet:

Does anyone know if COMPANY X has a Twitter? I want to make sure everyone knows how POOR their customer service is!! I’m sooooo annoyed.

If nothing else, brands need to be using social media to listen to the customer conversation for concerns or issues. Sometimes customers may be whining, and sometimes customers may have a real problem that needs to be addressed. Customer Obsessed Service means a company is attentive to what their customers are saying via social media (and via other mechanisms as well, including surveys, comments to sales, feedback to customer service reps, etc.) and then takes action to make sure the customer’s issues are resolved to their satisfaction.

Action: Do you understand the expectations of your customers for your products, and for your customer service? If not, spend some time listening to customer conversations, talking to customers for clarification, and determining the top pain points.

Employees

Most employees in an organization don’t understand what it takes to provide great customer service, much less Customer Obsessed Service. Yet employees are a key factor in whether customer service sucks or rocks. This is true whether the employee actually works in customer service or whether they are not customer facing at all!

Customer Obsessed Service starts with hiring the right people – those who are naturally people-focused, have a passionate spirit, are empathetic, and like to think creatively to solve problems. Southwest Airlines calls this having “…a Warrior Spirit, a Servant’s Heart, and a Fun-LUVing Attitude.” I couldn’t agree more!

These employees also have to be empowered to do what is right for the customer. This doesn’t mean giving every customer a discount, or something for free when they complain. It DOES mean listening to the customer’s needs and doing what they can to make it right without always having to get a supervisor’s approval. Guidelines need to be clear, and when they are employees are freed up to get the help they need to turn around a bad situation with a customer.

Action: Start with an assessment in your organization. What do your employees think about your customer service? What would they do to make it better?

Customers as Assets

Customer Obsessed Service is also achieved based on how we measure it.

Incredibly, many companies today are still measuring their customer service based on how many calls they can process in an hour. Get the customer off the phone/chat as soon as possible in order to respond to more customers. The end result is usually customers that have to call again in order to finish getting their questions answered. These types of metrics are used when organizations look at the customer service department as something to be measured on a P&L statement. Customer service is viewed as a cost center.

Organizations espousing Customer Obsessed Service view customers as a valuable asset that belongs on a balance sheet. Each customer interaction is a golden opportunity to improve the relationship, and each customer touch could result in a customer who is so happy they become an evangelist for the brand.  Don Peppers and Martha Rogers talked about this in their book Return on Customer Companies that treat their customers as an asset create a very different approach to customer interaction; each customer contact is reviewed to see how it will add to or detract from the value of each customer.

Action: Review your customer service metrics to see how you view your customers.

What About You?

What else do companies need to get right operationally in order to create Customer Obsessed Service? Who is doing it well? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and let’s start a discussion on Customer Obsessed Service!

Filed Under: Customer service, Customer strategy, Featured Tagged With: , ,

The Social Customer

February 4, 2010 By 5 Comments

conversationI have been reading quite a few blogs and comments lately about how social media and customer service need to come together. There has also been a lot of talk about the Social Customer and its importance. I wholeheartedly agree, and as you might imagine, I have a few quick thoughts on the subject which I will share below (inspired by some comments on left on Esteban Kolsky‘s post at the blog TheSocialCustomer).

Service is the New Marketing

Been hearing that for ages; I even spoke at  a conference of that name 2 years ago! But what I believe is really trying to be said by this statement is that each interaction with the customer (each customer touch) has an impact on the customer’s impression of your company. That impression often imparts more about the brand than any marketing campaign. The contact center/customer service team/retail clerk is usually the place in the company with the most direct customer interaction (this is especially true for B2C companies). Hence, each customer service “touch” is an opportunity to “market” to the customer – or to leave them with a positive impression of your brand. In that sense, customer service is marketing – but I wouldn’t consider this to be new!

Community

My current role is in this area, and it is indeed a complex one. There are many types of communities: branded, customer-run, service-focused, etc. Interestingly, customers who are part of an online community are even MORE sensitive to “corporate marketing” than other customers, and they have a strong voice that will ring out over it. The main thing to remember here is that many of these communities have been around long before social media (for example, the customers participating in the San Diego Chargers forums are much more loyal than other customers participating in their other social media outlets), and the communities belong to them. Brands need to be aware of this type of “social customer” and realize that they cannot take-over these groups. They need to collaborate with  their communities to be successful.

Customer Experience

The customer experience is very important to understand across the organization. There has been talk about whether various departments will merge together in the future as social media begins to blur the lines of corporate siloes. However, I don’t believe the customer experience can or should be managed just through one department; our customers don’t see us that way! There is indeed a place for separate functions within the organization. There is also a place for metrics that will help companies understand how well they are doing with the customer experience and how well they are performing against customer expectations. Companies that are customer-focused tend to have customer-focused metrics that bring disparate business functions together, working towards one common goal: customer retention, loyalty, and evangelism. When these metrics are corporate, everyone wins.

The Social Customer

Yes, customers are much more socially connected in this day and age, so many of the aforementioned “marketing” activities are now taking place between customers (ratings/reviews/blog posts/tweets/etc.) rather than being broadcasted by the company.  However, that does not mean that each customer doesn’t want to be treated as an individual by the company. One-to-One Marketing has less to do with sending separate direct mail pieces to each person as it does with treating different customers differently. Having worked for/with Peppers & Rogers Group for many years, the 1to1 marketing process is mostly about managing the entire customer experience – which may be different for different customers (and likely is!). In order to do this properly, one needs to understand the needs of the customer. Now that many customers are interacting online, it is easier to listen and hear what they need. Companies just need to make sure they act on what they are learning – before their competitor does.

Your Turn

What do you think? How does an organization’s view of their customer need to change in today’s “social” world?

(Image credit: sqursozlu)

Filed Under: Customer experience, Featured, social media Tagged With: , , ,