Service Untitled

You read the title correctly. My most recent interview is not with an executive at a technology company nor with a leader at an organization particularly know for its customer service. It’s with a leader from academia.

Christoph Guttentag, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Duke University runs the admissions department at one of the nation’s leading universities. The challenges that Duke has encountered and overcome are almost identical to the type of challenges that any sort of technology, retail, or consumer company has experienced and tried to work through.

The point of this interview in particular is to not only inform you about the fascinating process behind college admissions, but also to show that all types of organizations, large and small, for profit and not for profit, experience and hopefully, overcome, the same type of challenges.

In the first part of this four part interview, Christoph and I discuss his professional background and how Duke manages the more than 20,000 applications it receives on a yearly basis.

This interview is one worth reading. Christoph is an extremely interesting guy with an equally interesting job. Click the link to read on.

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On Friday, I wrote about what it means to have a customer-focused strategy. Today, I was asked to broaden the scope a bit and talk about what it means just to be customer-focused. I defined customer-focused strategy as:

Most simply, I would define “customer-focused strategy” as a view on business that puts customers at the center of business decisions.

That, along with several of the other examples and ideas I mentioned in the post on Friday, capture the essence of what I would call customer-focus. But what makes a customer-focused company? It’s a term we hear periodically and can’t think of any sort of successful company that wouldn’t like to describe itself as customer-focused, but what does it actually mean? And most importantly, when is it actually put into practice?

Customer-focus is quite literally and quite obviously, focusing on the customer. That means thinking about them when decisions are made, policies are implemented, and employees are trained. It spans across the whole business and is a cultural thing as much as it is anything else. Customer-focused businesses think about what they can do to make customers happy (as opposed to get the most money out of them, signup the most accounts, etc.) all the time and think about how they can make the customer experience better.

The best companies actually put that view into practice, though. It’s pretty easy to talk about (and to want), but it’s difficult to actually do it. I’d say that customer-focus and customer-focused strategy go hand in hand. The companies that are customer-focused (the ones that actually do it, instead of just say it) are already depending on a customer-focused strategy. If they’re doing it well, they’re most likely seeing that strategy work for them in all areas (happy employees, happy customers, financial success).

How do you define customer-focus? Do you think I’m pretty close or totally off?

Earlier this morning, Glenn from AllBusiness CS sent an email to several customer service bloggers (including me) asking us to define “customer-focused strategy.” It’s an interesting prompt and one worth talking about.

Most simply, I would define “customer-focused strategy” as a view on business that puts customers at the center of business decisions. It’s a long term view and not a short term goal or phase. Essentially, all decisions revolve around the ever important question of “how does this affect our customers?” Companies that make customer focus a part of their competitive strategy (I think of companies like Nordstrom, The Ritz Carlton, etc.) value the customer experience above almost all aspects of the business. They also are likely to adopt the view that shareholder value will follow customer satisfaction (as opposed to always trying to appease Wall Street or other investors).

I think the most important aspect of what makes up “customer-focused strategy” is the thinking of making decisions with the betterment of the customer and the customer experience in mind. In practice, that means having the flexible return or cancellation policy, empowering employees to take ownership over issues, and rewarding employees who provide great service and continue to make the experience better for individual customers and the majority of customers.

Companies with a “customer-focused strategy” are constantly, and actively, seeking ways to improve their customer service. They have people whose sole responsibility is improving the customer experience, they are hiring consultants, looking at themselves from different perspectives, encouraging customer feedback, and making use of that feedback. They respond to the good and bad and make sure that opinions are voiced and are taken to heart.

I’d actually like to argue that “customer-focused strategy” is more about implementation than actual strategy. It’s as much as a cultural aspect of any particular business as it is a strategic aspect. If it’s reduced to a buzzword used solely among the upper echelons of management, it won’t be effective. If “customer-focused strategy” is something that a particular company lives and breathes, if a company is constantly asking itself “how does this affect our customers?”, then they’re onto something great. And that something will likely result in success.

I spent over an hour and several phone calls today trying to find a place that could embroider a logo and two lines of text on a polo shirt for a reasonable amount of money. After several phone calls, several quotes, and an hour or so, I decided I’d stop wasting my time and just pay the money. In the process, though, I learned a few things that I can pass onto you.

Explain the process.
I’m not sure about the average customer, but I knew essentially nothing about embroidery. I (stupidly) assumed you could bring in your logo on a flash drive, tell them what you wanted, and leave with a shirt in 15 minutes. I was totally wrong. They need the logo, they have to digitize it (a process that they charge you like $40 - $80 for), and then they need a few days to actually embroider the shirt. Some companies buy the shirts for you, others won’t. The point is the process isn’t super straight forward and none of the companies I talked to explained it on their web site. They assumed I knew a lot more about the process than I did. Never underestimate the value of a “dumbed down” page on your web site that explains what you do and how it all works.

Communicate expected times.
As mentioned above, the process of digitizing a logo is a bit tedious and also the most expensive part of the process (at least when you only need a couple of items embroidered). There was no set fee at any of the companies I called for digitizing. Instead, I had to email the logo to each one of them and wait for a quote. At one company, the guy called me back after a few minutes, at another, the lady emailed me after a few hours, and with others, I still haven’t heard from them almost a full day later. When you ask a potential customer to spend time to send you information required to produce a quote, be sure to communicate how long it’ll take to get that quote.

My two generic collared shirts ended up costing about $60 each, between the actual shirt, the embroidery fee, and then the “setup fee” for the embroidery. For my $120, I’ll get my two shirts and now I’ll know about the process of embroidery. Maybe it was worth it after all.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Embroidery

I talk a lot about technology and about how to use technology to improve the customer service experience. What I don’t talk a lot about (and I should talk more about) is providing customer service in person - physically interacting with and talking to customers in person, issues relating to the design and flow of stores and businesses, etc. This is different from what I usually write and consult about, but also very interesting to me and very relevant to many companies (I don’t write about things I don’t find to be interesting).

A lot of companies that do provide service in the physical world (as opposed to online or over the phone) often neglect something they can almost always use to their advantage: signs and signage. No matter what business you’re in, signs and signage can always be helpful. They direct customers, answer questions, clarify points, address issues, and so on.

Well placed and effectively written signs make it so your employees don’t have to answer the same questions all the time (where is the bathroom?) and just as importantly, make it so your customers don’t have to ask in the first place. Like with anything, though, you as a store or business manager need to keep some things in mind when ordering, placing, or deciding whether or not to use signs.

Don’t overdo it.
As someone who has gone “sign crazy” when setting things up before, take my advice when I say it is not necessary to have a huge number of signs. There will always be people who will not read your signs, no matter how many you have or how effective they are. You want your signs to stand out and be useful. You don’t want your signs to detract from the aesthetic appeal of your business location, annoy the customer, or most importantly, overwhelm the customer.

Keep it simple.
Signs should be simple and should convey simple information. Where’s the bathroom, where do I need to go for a refund, who do I see about a job opening, etc. are all great things for signs to answer. They shouldn’t have too many words on them and the copy should be simple (”Bathrooms” with an arrow instead of “Bathrooms to the Left”).

Make them look nice.
It’s worth it to pay (or find) someone to design nice looking signs. Signs that are designed by someone with a background in design (especially graphic design) tend to look better and say more with less.

All of these are simple things (just like the signs themselves) that you can keep in mind as you design, order, and setup your signs. If your signs are effective, your customers won’t ask those same four or five questions nearly as many times. And your employees will stop looking for the exit sign.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Signs, Stores

Yesterday’s post was about a company that used technology to their advantage. Today’s post is about a company that doesn’t.

I received a letter from the said company that addressed me by name on the address label, but had a generic greeting in the actual letter (like Dear Friend). It’s obvious that they had my name in their database, but they decided not to use it in the actual letter. The company missed out on a great (and simple) opportunity to personalize the experience. The letter they sent tried to have a personal and friendly tone, but that’s difficult to do when the letter is addressed to the generic “friend.”

When you have someone’s name, use it in as many places as possible. The front page of the user section on your web site should say “Hi -Name-”, the emails you send should address the customer by name, the bills and invoices should have the customer’s name on them, etc. You don’t want to obnoxious, but the line between obnoxious and personal is usually pretty clear (it always depends on the situation, of course).

You should especially make it a point to use the customer’s name when you send out a mailing asking for information or asking a customer to buy something. A majority of software programs that design or send mailings have features built into them that allow you to put the customer’s name right on the letter, as well as the envelope or label (Microsoft Word has a feature to do it). It definitely is not complicated, it isn’t expensive, and it doesn’t take up much extra time. It shows the customer that you at least put some effort into personalizing the letter they’re received.

This relates to “use my name, especially if you have it,” which I wrote about back in November.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Mailings, Personalize, Technology

People who know me know that I hate paper. I think an excess of paper is an excess of waste and that documents and information stored on a computer are much easier to manage (and harder to lose) than the paper equivalents. I’ve also had bad handwriting since I learned how to write and out of necessity, have been able to type fairly quickly since before I was even a teenager (before that, I could get along).

As a result of my dislike of paper, I’ve always encouraged companies to digitize as many records and documents as possible. Put them online as forms to fill out, scan them, etc. Not only does this save trees and space in back rooms that would ordinarily be record rooms, it ensures sanity. Documents that are scanned in, tagged, cross referenced, and searchable through fairly advanced computer systems are a lot more manageable (and flexible) than the plethora of documents located in some filing cabinet somewhere in the basement.

I had to go to a company today and hand in a form. I was surprised, but also impressed when the lady processing my form put it through a document scanner and got out a stamp that said “scanned” and placed it in a box. She explained to me that they keep the paper records for a month in case there are any problems, but after that, they destroy them. She also explained that they not only do they save space by not having to store all of documents, but people throughout the company (with proper access, of course) are able to look at the documents right away - there’s no need to come to the records room, find them, and pull them out.

Remember my post about The College Board on Friday? They utilize document scanning as well. The essays that the millions of test takers do every couple of weeks for the SAT? They are scanned in and read by readers throughout the country. It’s infinitely more efficient than sending the essays to readers or than bringing everyone together to read the essays. Duke University (which I wrote about not that long ago as well) is investing in document scanning to make their admissions process more manageable. Both of these organizations have to deal with a lot of paper, so document scanning makes a lot of sense. Educational institutions, hospitals, HR departments, law firms, etc. all deal with a lot of paper and can benefit from document scanning.

Digitized documents are already the future to some extent. It isn’t a mysterious technology, it is realistic and necessary technology. And any technology that makes a previously drawn out process simpler, easier, and more efficient, ends up leading to better service. If document scanning makes it so organizations don’t lose my forms, have less trouble making use of those forms, etc., then it means better service.

When I was doing research for another article. I came across an article that talked about an interesting aspect of The College Board’s web site. For those of you that remember, The College Board is the organization that designs and manages the SAT, the popular college entrance exam, Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and a host of other academic testing and related services. For the SAT, which the organization is probably the best known for, they do something interesting with their web site.

Firstly, the day before a particular test date, the SAT posts about “test center closings” that could affect where particular students take their exam. A link to a page with information is posted clearly on their homepage. This is nothing out of the ordinary, though - all smart organizations and companies place links they know are particularly relevant to visitors on their homepage.

What The College Board does that s most interesting is this: in the area where students login to print their admission ticket, view scores, etc., The College Board posts something along the lines of “Good luck on your SAT! Go here to print your admission ticket and go here to read what you bring to the test center.” This is added a day or two before the scheduled test date and is shown right when students login. It’s a simple message that makes the process a lot less confusing and stressful for students who are almost certain to be stressing out on the Friday before their Saturday morning exam.

All types of companies can use this same idea and implement it into their systems. Do you expect payment for invoices and bills by the 1st of the month? If so, around the 25th or so of the previous month, place a prominent link in your customer center saying “Now is a perfect time to pay your monthly bill.” It’ll direct customers to where they need to go in order to pay their bill. If you are having a conference or event at your office that people have to pre-register for, place a prominent link on your web site that attendees can click on to confirm their registration and print out directions.

The specific uses and applications of the idea vary from company to company. The most important point is that it’s a great idea and a crucial thing to do. Successful companies and organizations use technology, especially their web sites, to make their customers’ lives easier and more efficient, while at the same time, ensuring the maximum level of efficiency possible for themselves.

I called PayPal this evening to ask a question about my account. The experience was fairly positive overall, but actually getting to a human drove me crazy. The system wasn’t fully saying out the options (it’d cut itself off and say it couldn’t understand me) and there was no option to press a number. It didn’t take long before I started speaking very slowly and deliberately (sounding like an idiot) at this voice activated IVR. I couldn’t get it to work, so I resorted to pushing “0″ several times.

The problem was that PayPal’s IVR didn’t give me any alternatives. I had to use the voice activated system. And the voice activated system didn’t work as well as it could have or should have. Both of these problems are serious problems. They made an otherwise okay customer service experience frustrating at best. When designing any type of system (especially phone systems, which are notorious for having such difficulties), include alternatives whenever possible. You never want to force customers to do anything any one way (especially when the possibility of running into problems is so prevalent). It makes for a better system that’s far more reliable.

Edit: Apparently, this was posted as a draft instead of a finalized post. My apologies.