Service Untitled

Southwest Airlines topped all of their rivals again in the American Customer Satisfaction Index produced by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Whereas the average for competitive airline competition scored in the 65 percent ranging (dropping by 1.5 percent) on a 100 point scale, Southwest scored an 81, and it’s the 18th straight year they’ve been at the top.

Most complaints were about higher fares, higher prices, and how customers overwhelmingly feel they are getting less for their money. Now in organizations based on strict FAA regulations, safety standards, and planned flight routes, etc., travelers are generally disgruntled over the lack of integrity and the lack of customer service.

For example, Southwest has always been a no-frills airline, yet they still do not charge baggage fees, and the company openly promotes that particular perk. Fares offered from as low as $40 bring interest and increased ticket sales. In comparison, who isn’t complaining about increased bag fees, and in the case of Continental Airlines, the complimentary in-flight meals canceled with a rise in fares makes the travel experience worse and worse. Premium paying business travelers are the least satisfied, and business travelers are the majority of an airline’s business.

So even though the airlines in general seldom respond to complaints of unreliability, late flights, lack of amenities, or a profound lapse of customer service, what can we glean from their mistakes, and what can we learn from the continued success of Southwest?

• When competition is keen, concentrate on doing something completely different from your competition to make an impact. On Southwest, a passenger can take two free bags on board; their policy has been consistent. In a local woman’s clothing store boutique, the owner is now offering free alterations for the next few months.
• Customer service has to be consistent. Reservations have become an a la carte schedule of more and more ridiculous charges that passengers now find offensive – from extra charges to sitting in an aisle seat to a charge for pillows and blankets. Customers are offended when an organization raises prices and still takes away services once associated with the business. Diners stopped going to a local restaurant when they increased their prices,and cut the portions.
• Customer experiences have to be positive. On-flight service, on time take-offs when there are no weather barriers, and customer recognition when there is a problem. In local businesses, customers want service to be effortless.
• Customer appreciation – doesn’t that just say it all?

photo credit: StuSeeger

Consumer Reports tell us that organizations rarely listen to the surveys they ask when we hear the infamous, “Your call is very important to us. Please don’t hang up.” So why do they insult us and make us want to throw our phones across the room as we try to make our way through the maze of the company phone tree?

Getting through to a real person is the number one complaint of customers who either need help with their service or product or have a complaint. We know that businesses save money by using these automated systems, but the hopelessly long menus can rile even the most patient consumer. Naturally getting through to a live person may not guarantee that they are going to solve our problem, but at least it’s one step closer to an imagined solution than just pressing buttons.

Mark Kotkin, director of Consumer Reports states people spend good money purchasing merchandise or signing up for services, and want someone to pay attention to them when they have a problem.

Two weeks ago, when I signed up for Comcast as my phone provider, high-speed Internet provider and cable television provider, the sales representative answered the phone within 30 seconds. I was guided through a huge choice of services – all by a human and with an explanation of each service. The sales representative tried to sign me up for services I didn’t need or understand, so after approximately 15 minutes, my new account was formed and due to be activated the day of my home move and promised by the representative to be ready and available the day scheduled.

Of course that didn’t happen, and so the maze of hitting buttons and frustration began; I just wanted someone to help me with my problem. Unfortunately the solution to getting my account activated wasn’t going to happen that day; somehow my order went to the bottom of the pile, and by the time I finally reached a supervisor’s supervisor, I was exhausted and not introduced to Comcast in a positive manner.

Now that I’ve had some time and advice on how to fight one’s way through the telephone robotic customer service conundrum, I can always refer to Get2Human.com, GetHuman.com, or Fonolo.com. Its database of phone numbers and codes for more than 1000 major companies can cut down the frustration factor, however there were no suggested shortcuts suggested for governmental agencies or mortgage companies!

So if you’re frustrated with trying to get through to a human, perhaps some of these hints will help:

• Press 0 or 0# or #0 to get through to a live person.
• Don’t press any numbers. The system may recognize you as a rotary phone user and connect you to a live person.
• Show stress in your voice. Some systems are designed to pick up the stress tension of your voice.
• As you wind your way through the options – for example Press 1 for billing, Press 2 for locating a store – listen to all of the options first before pressing. Sometimes at the end the option will say to stay on the line, and a real person will answer.
• Choose “tech support” or another specialized option where you will most likely reach a live person and then can get transferred to an appropriate department.
• Google your problem first. Many times the answer is on the Internet.
• Don’t be rude once you get a live person.
• Use Facebook and Twitter to fight back. Companies see their complaints brought to the public quickly and are much more motivated to get in touch with someone having a legitimate customer service problem.

And when all else fails – look at Consumerist and see if customer service executives of the company you’re trying to reach are listed. It’s just another way shoppers can fight back.

photo credit: CalEvans

The July issue of Consumer Reports stated there were 1.1 million complaints against North American businesses last year; up 10 percent from 2009. So why are so many people so dissatisfied with customer service ? Jack Abelson, a retail industry consultant called customer service “abominable.” He contends that American business has lost focus on the appreciation and the value of  the customer, and excellent customer service is “a profit producer.” Abelson says that organizations cutting their budgets are at fault.

According to the study, 64 percent of customers left a store because of poor customer service. Case in point – last week I went to Home Depot to buy a washer and dryer. There was only one sales person on the floor, and there were two other customers ahead of me. The representative said he would be right with us, but that certainly wasn’t happening. Two of us left the store and went elsewhere.

On the phone, customer service is even more frustrating. “Your call is very important to us,” leaves most customers mumbling a few choice four-letter words, probably accounting for 67 percent of us hanging up the phone because no one can help us. There are 71 percent of customers who were labeled by the poll as “tremendously annoyed” because we could not reach a live customer representative. There are 56 percent of us who have had to start over and over again through the maze of the automated customer service phone calls, repeat the same answers, ask for a customer service representative repeatedly and seldom get the right person.

Interestingly enough demographics show that women get more annoyed and frustrated trying to get a live person on the line than men, but men get “especially annoyed” when a representative tries to sell them unrelated goods and services before even handling the original complaint or resolving their problem. Older people (50+) were more confused with the automated message systems; finding their way through the maze of customer account numbers, the last four digits of one’s social security number, their first-grade teacher’s name, and the product serial number – found underneath the product in the darkest corner of the house.

Incidentally Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart scored the worst in customer service in eight of the industries which included appliances, electronics, cellphones, and supermarkets.

So doesn’t it just stand to reason that businesses have to change the way they treat their customers? In my own personal experience, Home Depot lost a good appliance sale or two, and AT&T  was canceled by me because their customer service was so poor restoring my service when they prematurely cut it off one day and couldn’t resolve the problem efficiently. Mr. Abelson is correct; until organizations appreciate the value of their customers, polls like this will continue to reflect the outrage felt by customers.

photo credit: edrugsearch.com

Maybe it’s just a coincidence associated with moving that brings me to wonder how customer service representatives relay their particular war stories of having to deal with difficult customers? Perhaps it is that I have had to make more than an average  number of phone calls to various organizations directing new phone, electric, cable, and gas services than most of us regularly have to deal with, or maybe poor customer service is just average, and just more concentrated because I’m dealing with everyone in a compressed time period.

Nonetheless, a writer from the New York Times once called customer service representatives out on their self-reported experiences dealing with angry customers stating that the objective, actual experience differed greatly from the representative’s version.  These perception “deficits” made for good lunch room or cocktail hour stories, but didn’t seem to serve any constructive purpose. The report also brought out that customer service representatives commonly overstate the frequency of angry customers and the number of conflicts they handle in a typical work day.

Of course, negative experiences tend to be more memorable than the routine calls, but when fellow employees dominate conversations with the war stories of the clients from Hell, isn’t that a preamble to growing negative perceptions for other employees? And how does that make other employees deal with angry or dissatisfied customers?

As an example, I called DirecTV and instructed them to turn off my television service as of the end of the month. Yesterday, after a long day, I turned the television on to find out that DirecTV had turned my service off prematurely. What was obviously their mistake and what should have only taken moments to correct turned out to be a drawn out debacle until I finally was fortunate enough to make contact with a customer service agent who immediately figured out the problem and reinstated my service. So was I a client from Hell? I don’t think so, but I am sure the perception “deficit” of the two previous agents who were unable to solve my problem because they had no idea what to do in this particular circumstance, will embellish the story to make it more significant as their own cathartic experience.

So how do we help our customer service representatives be more productive and constructive? From my own experience, representatives need more front line classroom training. Supervisors need to raise the bar on performance, but that’s impossible without giving employees the tools, education, and experience to be able to deal with the unusual. Once an employee is empowered to identify problems, trained and educated to delve a little bit further into possible problems and solutions, customer perception “deficits” are eliminated.

Customer service personnel learn from being monitored, measured, managed, and rewarded. Those who will rise to the occasion have the confidence and desire to help clients and customers solve their problems with a minimum of drama. Perhaps the worst statement I heard yesterday was, “I’m sorry I understand why you are angry, but I can’t help you.” Fortunately I mustered up the stamina to call back and luckily connected with a customer service representative from West Virginia. That wonderful lady saved my evening so I could watch the finale of  Dancing with the Stars.

photo credit: pcutler

As customers we want to choose the companies we do business with based on personal recommendations, reviews, and past performances. Unfortunately, when it comes to telecommunications, most of us are still somewhat limited as to our choices, but still that is absolutely no excuse for poor customer service.

Two days ago I called AT&T to order two new land line phones for my new home. The customer service agent was polite and helped me to plan what I would need and arranged the install date for a few weeks from now when I moved. Unfortunately, he mistakenly canceled my main land line at my current home, which in my line of business has a very negative impact on my business day. With the obvious fault being that of  AT&T, my perception of reality was to be for the company to immediately turn my service back on; eight-hours later, three-and-a-half hours on my cell phone speaking with customer service and an endless parade of rudeness, ineptness, and excuses – finally service was restored.

So let’s make this a serious attempt to explain why customers complain and how any company can and should improve their customer service with a better proactive approach. Perhaps the most frustrating part of a company mess up is the slow response time. Again, a customer’s reality is judged how well a company resolves the problem. The apology is of course necessary, but if the problem isn’t rectified, what has been resolved? A company like AT&T  can not have a customer service agent get on the line and  simply say the service a customer expected is temporarily unavailable.

The unprofessional behavior by employees can quickly become viral when a customer relates their experience to others on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. No matter how angry the customer is, the agent’s job is to listen. Of course, no agent is expected to put up with any kind of verbal abuse, but a customer’s anger for an organization’s error that is costing a customer loss of business or loss of money is justified. (barring abuse of course) It’s when there is a lack of available management, and everyone assures a customer of a realistic resolution and it doesn’t happen, then the failure of the company’s customer service becomes a tragedy.

So what is the great debate how to handle customer complaints? Start with making promised services available, and when a company makes an error, reward customer loyalty with an expedited resolution to the problem. In my case, a supervisor should have been called immediately to resolve the problem before it became an eight-hour ordeal. After all, customer loyalty should never be ignored. There is nothing more disappointing than to feel that lack of appreciation. Rectify the slow response time, and realize a company is judged by properly trained and informed employees. Eliminate unprofessional behavior of employees; more training, more role-playing, and more supervisors available at peak hours of business. And finally – every company worth their weight needs to show their long-time customers the profound advantages of having been with a company for an extended amount of time and give them priority treatment.

And to think I don’t move for another few weeks!

photo credit: gcoldironjr2003

A customer-centric strategy is the best way to deliver world-class service, and it all starts with the initial point of delivery. In order to make customers happy, we need to be sure our employees are happy, and there is no better way to uphold and maintain a sustainable strategy than by being an excellent role model.

Maybe I am a bit more critical of world-class customer service than most people because I write about it almost daily, but I am sure the expectations I have about good systems and processes are consistent with what all people want when dealing with any business. Let’s face it – without customers there is no business.

So here I am in the process of moving from one home to another; an experience that stresses even the most stoic. It’s also  an opportunity that one gets to encounter the customer service departments of the most complained about, the most efficient, and even a few companies who I am still shaking my head in utter disbelief. The experiences however, remind me of what world-class service can offer.

World-class service is made up of the best systems and processes. They keep their promises, they do what they say, and when someone has a question or a problem, someone is there to help. Here are my observations:

• The best companies know their product and services. In the process of learning about hardwood floors and all of the options available, the best company I had the pleasure to deal with didn’t try to sell me the most expensive products, but educated me on options, quality, costs, and extras I might need.
• World-class customer service listened to what I had to say. In a most undesirable situation, the owner of a local auction facility called to complain to me about how hard his business is and to complain to me that customers bother him when they call. Needless to say, his company will never be recommended again.
• Respect is always given to each and every customer. Admittedly some customers are more difficult to deal with, however the customer is always right and he has the right to feel the way he does. It’s when a business doesn’t listen and adopts a negative attitude that a customer will tell the world. Disgruntled customers can cause significant business loss.
• Communicate when things go wrong. We all want to believe our organizations can deliver flawless service, but when things go wrong, our chances to make it better can get a business noticed. Consumers do forgive when organizations take extra efforts to correct problems. Internet service and cable companies notoriously are on the top of worst customer service, yet  some really try to make amends to rectify problems.
• Ownership belongs to the customer service person in an organization who takes the call. Employees need to be empowered to act on the company’s behalf and not have to make a customer wait until someone else gets back to them. When I called a local moving company and requested the movers be at my home earlier in the morning than is the usual procedure, a customer service representative was able to make an exception without having to “check with her boss.”

And to add the best advice to delivering world-class service, is to remember to treat any customer as you would like to be treated yourself. Along with quality, value, and having solutions for the unexpected, take the extra step and be known as the company that listens and lives up to their promises.

photo credit: Meathead Movers

Positive customer experience doesn’t just happen after one transaction, sale, or service, but an initial bad customer experience will send a customer straight to your competition; never to look back at the wake. Therefore I contend that the total positive customer experience I want to appreciate is an organization’s total structure of all departments working together like a finely tuned machine.

When we think of a positive customer experience, we see it as a reflection of the very core values a company has and how that very same organization communicates those values – either through its quality of products or services. The experience begins with the senior executive and works its way through every department.

As an example of a positive customer experience versus a customer who left after only one business dealing, is the difference in core values of two similar organizations, yet one commitment to their business solidly soared over the other. When Cynthia sold her farm in Ohio, she called in an auction company to sell the excess furniture from her house, horse tack, and various equipment and tools she and her husband would no longer need when they moved to South Florida. Cynthia was very nervous about using an auction house, but took her friend’s advice that it was the least complicated way to get rid of everything she no longer needed. Cynthia did relate to the auctioneer how nervous she was as to the prices she would get, and even though he could not assure her of any minimum bid, he promised he would call her after the auction to tell her how she made out. And call he did; not everything sold, but the auctioneer knew that Cynthia needed the extra time and the extra service.

In contrast was the experience of another person from the South Florida area using a local auction house. The marketing, sales, accounting, and support departments were incongruous, and incapable of making a positive customer experience. Where any business needs to coordinate the “first call resolution,” which will clearly reflect the commitment to the shared accountability of individuals to satisfy the customer’s overall experience, the positive customer experience is based on the needs of their customers rather than the needs of the owner or of the convenience of other internal departments.

The South Florida auction house failed to listen to the customer; instead behaved badly – unable and not willing to listen to the customer, nor did he even bother to think about what he would have gained had he listened to his customer’s needs. Albeit one customer may cause your customer service department more time than one might think it’s worth for the moment, the end result is if customer experience suffers, you are most likely losing more than just one customer. The only one thanking you at the end of the day will be your competition, and there’s plenty of it out there.

photo credit: sweetshotphoto

Customers frequently offer feedback; sometimes it is solicited, and sometimes it comes back as a complaint or a question. No matter how the delivery, it comes down to what you do with the feedback that keeps customers and affords an organization the opportunity to build customer loyalty.

More often customers are displeased with a company’s service than with the product. When an organization disappoints a customer, it becomes personal. For instance, my recent experience at Chase Bank in Palm Beach Gardens is an excellent example of what went wrong and what should have been done to correct the problem. Briefly, I needed to see a banking representative to move one account to another. There were six personal representatives; two were involved with customers, and the other four were doing something else, but definitely not serving customers. It was during my lunch hour; there was a general attitude of indifference. I couldn’t wait any longer, and notified a teller I wanted someone to call me to make an appointment for the next day. No one ever called; no one ever apologized, and I wound up at another branch of Chase a few days later and closed all of my accounts.

Analyzing what went wrong with the bank, it seems someone lost sight of customer importance. Customers should not have to wait while representatives are doing work at their desks. In order to establish a customer service culture, the emphasis needs to be placed on the customer. All departments need to attend to a customer so their problems can be solved and someone is not getting shuffled back and forth within the company or just left sitting in a chair wondering about the cavalier attitude of the employees. By that time, customer frustration has grown; surely not a positive experience for anyone.

Someone should have come over to me and explained why I was not being served. Someone should have come over to me and introduced themselves and worked on my customer needs. There should have been trained staff members available that could have addressed my growing frustration before I became a disgruntled customer. After all, statistically 90 percent of dissatisfied customers will not return, and one unhappy customer will tell nine others.

Here are a few basic rules to help establish a customer service culture that can lead to success:

• Make your customer the most important part of your work. That means put the other work away when a customer is waiting.
• Train all personnel so they can attend to a customer.
• Staff members need to have resources and the training to be able to resolve customer problems. Employees need the training so they are equipped to take action when others are engaged in business.
• Bring customer service to a personal level by greeting people by name.
• Have resolutions and compromises available. It’s not always just “yes” or “no” and be flexible. Picture yourself as the customer and how you would feel if placed in a similar situation.
• Reward staff members for outstanding service.
• Ask customers what you can do to improve customer service.

The ultimate reward for companies that provide excellent service is that we keep coming back. Today I was at the Wachovia Bank in Jupiter, setting up a new account. The staff provided efficient, friendly service; exactly what you expect from a well-run bank.

photo credit: paulswansen