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 was reading about an interesting policy at a fairly progressive technology company based in a major city. They have about 400 employees or so and an interesting policy when it comes to buying their employees lunch. Quite simply, their policy is “we’ll buy you lunch if you eat with someone you’ve never gone to lunch with before.”

Since they are in a major city and are close to a whole bunch of places to eat, they encourage employees to go out and eat lunch. More importantly, though, they encourage employees to take another employees.

This policy (program is a better phrase, I think) is interesting because it introduces employees to each other. In a company with about 400 employees, an individual employee probably doesn’t know every other employee. This policy / program makes for a nice way to get to know other employees. You can go out to lunch with your friends for the first week or two, but eventually, if you want free lunches, you’ll have to start going out to lunch with people you don’t know.

The company makes the system easy by having a little page on their internal wiki where people can list what days they want to go out to lunch and if they need someone to go to lunch with. Employees can arrange it themselves or they can let the person who oversees the program (it is not their primary job, but something they do for part of their day) match them up. The company keeps track of who you’ve gone out to lunch with and will re-imburse employees for lunch (I think they pay like $20 per person, but you can obviously change this depending on what you’re comfortable with). It isn’t too complicated (it is for the most part on the honor system) and employees like the program.

This program is very much like the old time trick of putting a pizza or food spread next to the new guy’s desk. Doing so encourages other employees to go over, introduce themselves casually, and get to know their new co-worker. This works really well in smaller companies, but as companies grow, this becomes slightly more complicated. You can still do it for each department or team, but for the entire company, it’s hard to put a pizza next to the new guy’s desk and assume everyone will know where it is.

This program is a great culture and team builder. When employees know the people they’re working with, chances are they are going to be more productive and like their jobs more.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Customer Service Representative, Hiring, Little Things, Team Building, Startups

I was exchanging emails with an executive from CARFAX not too long ago and he told me about an interesting program they have called “customer connections.” The program is pretty simple and its goals are even simpler: expose all types of employees to customers and to what the company is doing. It seems like a great culture builder and an interesting program for any type of company.

The way it works is that every employee, from the “receptionist to the President,” is required to have a certain number of customer connection hours every quarter. The hours are determined by the job title and position. Some people need more hours than others. For example, a software engineer (who usually doesn’t interact with customers) might need to have more customer connection hours than a customer support representative whose job it is to interact with customers every single day.

How employees can get hours is really interesting. They can attend consumer focus groups, listen in on phone calls with dealers or customers, visit dealers, work with staff as they answer consumer emails, attend a session with an industry guest speaker, etc. The point is to get that particular employee to step outside of their normal job and their normal element. It lets employees learn about who the “real” customers are, what challenges they’re facing, and how those challenges affect the rest of the company.

Some companies have programs like this, others don’t. I like this program because it’s more flexible than a lot of other ones. When companies have these sorts of programs, they are usually really rigid (”all employees must spend two hours answering support tickets every year). Even worse, a lot of these programs are ignored or brushed aside. Employees get caught up in other things and when things get busy, companies that aren’t serious about these programs brush them aside.

Furthermore, when there are more options available, it seems like less of a chore. You can do something different every quarter or you can keep doing the same thing - whatever works for you. Many educational institutions (secondary and upper level) require that students have a certain number of community service or school service hours to graduate. The programs there are very similar; students can get community or school service hours doing a number of different things and they have to have a certain amount to graduate. The best thing, though, is that the programs aren’t brushed aside. Students have to have the hours in order to graduate. No exceptions.

When I was talking Frederick Mendler from Rackspace yesterday, he mentioned the platinum rule. I admittedly did not pick up on the metaphor right away, but Frederick noticed my confusion and quickly explained it me. The golden rule is treat others how you want to be treated. I had heard that before. Like most children, the golden rule had been mentioned to me by my mother, teachers, and relatives about 1000 times between the time I learned to talk and age 10 (after age 10 or so, one’s knowledge of the rule seems to be assumed). The golden rule shows up in business when executives start to have conversations with themselves (and others) about the plight of their customers (”I wouldn’t want to wait on hold for 3 hours and then get transfered to someone else. That just isn’t right!”) and I was familiar with that thinking as well. But the platinum rule was new to me.

The platinum rule, I learned, takes a different approach. It uses the same basic idea of the golden rule (be a nice person) and takes it a step further. The platinum rule is to treat others how they want to be treated. What an interesting idea. I was intrigued and jotted it down for a future post. A bit of research revealed that the “platinum rule” was a term coined by Dr. Tony Alessandra, a speaker, consultant, and author. More importantly, that research revealed a great description of the platinum rule on Dr. Alessandra’s web site:

“Treat others the way they want to be treated.” Ah hah! What a difference. The Platinum Rule accommodates the feelings of others. The focus of relationships shifts from “this is what I want, so I’ll give everyone the same thing” to “let me first understand what they want and then I’ll give it to them.”

Looking at business (and life) that way makes sense. What’s right for you isn’t always right for the customer. While more than a couple companies are known for designing products or offering that originated from their own needs, the idea doesn’t always work. These companies came to the realization that X was needed to do their business, so they created X. When they were designing or creating whatever X was, these entrepreneurs essentially built a product for themselves. It works in many cases and doesn’t work in others.

The problem with the golden rule is it assumes that everyone wants the same thing. If I am a nine year old who can take a joke about being fat, skinny, or any other childish extreme, that doesn’t mean the kid siting next to me will find the same joke as amusing as I do. If I don’t mind jokes, I’m not breaking the golden rule by saying them to another kid; I’m treating him how I want to be treated. However, if I followed the platinum rule, I would need to consider what the other kid wanted specifically. I would learn (through research of some sort) that he doesn’t like those types of jokes, and as a result, I would try to avoid upsetting him by making such jokes. I could even take it a step further and compliment him. The idea makes sense. Imagine if a company like Intuit built accounting software for itself. Chances are, the $2.6 billion software giant needs different things from accounting software than I do for my personal and small business needs.

I think the platinum rule could be rephrased into something as simple as: work for your customers, not yourself. If your customers needs are similar to your needs, great, that makes life easier. If not, that’s okay as well - just make the effort to understand their needs and keep their needs in mind when doing your job.

Technorati Tags: Golden Rule, Platinum Rule, Culture

Nordstrom. The Ritz Carlton. Lexus. These are all companies that understand customer service at the deepest level and are able to provide unparalleled customer service consistently, across countries and across continents. As a result of their mastery of the customer service experience, these companies are widely regarded as some of the world’s greatest customer service organizations. Rackspace, an IT hosting company based in San Antonio (TX), aspires to become one of those famed customer service organizations. To help reach this goal, they’ve defined their “Fanatical Support Promise.”

The idea behind Rackspace’s Fanatical Support Promise is to formalize a process in which Rackspace investigates issues that upset customers and subsequently develops a plan for addressing such issues. If the issues can’t be resolved in a way that makes the customer happy, the promise provides a way for the unhappy customer to get out of any existing contracts they might have with the company. By making such a promise (guarantee), Rackspace is admitting that things inevitably do go wrong and that they are making commitment to listen to customers and address those problems when they occur.

Rackspace’s VP of Customer Care Frederick Mendler (who I’ve met and also interviewed here) explained to me that Rackspace doesn’t want to hold unhappy customers hostage. Utility companies hold customers hostage because they’re monopolies and customer satisfaction doesn’t really contribute to the success of the their businesses. Companies like Rackspace, though, would rather provide their customers with an option to move on if all options have been exhausted. It makes more business sense to let the customer move on (thinking relatively highly of the company) than to lock the customer into a contract they don’t want to be in.

Functionally, the promise first comes into play when the customer feels Rackspace has failed them in some way. Rackspace failing the customer in some way can include any number of things from not supporting a service that was assumed to be supported to a failure to communicate something properly. Regardless of the reason, the company then works with the customer to collect specific feedback and come up with a plan of action. If the plan of action is satisfactory to the customer, Rackspace will then do its best to follow through on the plan and ensure it achieves all of the plan’s goals. If the plan isn’t satisfactory to the customer, or for some reason, Rackspace can’t successfully execute the plan, then the customer is given the option to cancel his or her contract without penalties.

As a company, Rackspace lives and breathes what they call Fanatical Support. Part of the Fanatical Support Promise included dividing Fanatical Support into five key areas of focus, each of which have a specific set of goals associated with it (see this page): Responsiveness, Ownership, Resourcefulness, Expertise, and Transparency.

The result is a fairly concrete explanation of a somewhat difficult to grasp concept. Rackspace then ties those five areas into the promise and goes on to describe exactly what it all means for the customer. The promise says, quite simply, if Rackspace doesn’t meet live up to its standards (standards set by both the company and its customers), they will take action to ensure a resolution happens. And if a resolution is impossible or the customer still isn’t happy, they’ll let the customer cancel without any penalty.

Companies can learn from Rackspace’s promise because it sets a standard (based on an existing cultural element within the company) and then backs that standard up with a formal process. If a promise isn’t backed by something, it’s more marketing hype than anything else. The company made their promise simple enough to be easily understood, but deep enough to actually have merit and meaning. This promise addresses both the personal and the professional aspects of a guarantee.

I tend to advocate and recommend concrete service mission statements (or promises or goals or whatever you want to call them) because they provide employees, executives, and customers with something to look back at when they’re making decisions — both long term and short term ones. The Fanatical Support Promise can serve as a great one for Rackspace. What do you have that’s similar?

I’ve been reading Managing Online Forums by Patrick O’Keefe over the last few days. The book was an interesting read because Patrick has an interesting, very hands on background. He has a lot of experience running some very large and very successful forum communities and as a result of that, the advice in his book is extremely practical and hands on.

O’Keefe focuses on the “how” and provides a plethora of information about “how” to do things. The book isn’t academic and it isn’t really that marketing focused (i. e. run a community to help brand awareness, etc.) — it’s focused almost entirely on actually running an online forum or community. The book is for those who are looking to learn how to do it, not why to do it.

Managing Online Forums is essentially divided into ten parts:

1) Laying the Groundwork (planning and overall goals)
2) Developing Your Community (setting up and configuring the forum)
3) Developing Guidelines (community rules)
4) Promoting Your Community (self explanatory)
5) Managing Your Staff (working with the people who will help you run your community)
6) Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos (self explanatory)
7) Creating a Good Environment (working well with your members)
8 Keeping It Interesting (games, features, resources, etc.)
9) Making Money (self explanatory)
10) Appendix (resources, templates, etc.)

If you are a customer service manager looking to start a community for your company, you can probably skip parts 5 and 9. While these apply (and are very important) to traditional online communities, communities run by companies usually don’t deal with volunteer staff members or making money (the company handles both aspects). The other chapters, though, serve as a great introduction and overview of what it’s like to run a community. Experienced community managers probably won’t pick up too much from this book (there are still some really helpful tidbits), but for those new to community management, this book is a great book to start with. It is a perfect book to give to the customer service supervisor you want to be your community manager. That manager can have it right on their desk as they go through the process of setting up, starting, and eventually, running, the community.

Managing Online Forums is a dead simple read. It’s easy to skim and you won’t have to think too hard about what’s on the page - it is all pretty logical. Communities, like customer service, require thinking things through and making the logical choice. The topic isn’t that complex and it certainly isn’t abstract, so the simple tone and style of book is appropriate. The content is organized and written in a way that makes it easy to understand and easy to put into action, making it perfect for a newbie.

Bottomline: If anything, Managing Online Forums can serve as a useful and practical guide and overview for starting and managing an online community. O’Keefe provides the reader with an easy to follow how to guide that can be applied to almost any community without difficulty.

Pros: Easy to follow, useful templates and examples, lots of information covering a broad range of topics.

Cons: Because the book covers so many aspects of managing a community, it doesn’t go too far in depth on any particular aspect (with community rules / guidelines being the notable exception).

More on Service Untitled: For some more information about communities, check out this post about looking at communities like parties.

Note: According to the author’s web site, the book’s publication date is April 28. It is currently available in most Barnes & Noble stores.

Companies, especially those with complicated products or services, often run into the issue of the difference in roles. Companies aren’t sure about the lines between support, account management, and consulting. The first step is defining what the exact roles are within your company. Here is how I define them:
Support.
I typically look at support as reactive. The customer calls a general phone number or emails a general email address with their question, a case or ticket number is assigned, and then a pool of representatives responds. There usually isn’t a personal relationship with customers and the company. There are of course cases where individual representatives get to know individual customers, but that is simply because the customer and the representative have been there for however many months or years happens to be the case.

Account management.
Most companies define account management as a service role where the customer is assigned a personal account manager. Account managers develop a more personal relationship with the customer and work with the customer to resolve a majority of their needs. Essentially, the customer has an individual, as opposed to a group or a company, to turn to when they have an issue. Account management usually involves working with the customer to develop solutions that are best for them and doing so on an individualized and often proactive basis. It is a mix of sales and support with some consulting mixed in.

Consulting.
Consulting is the most involved of the three roles. Customers (usually referred to as clients by consultants) work with experts in a particular field (i. e. customer service or sales management). The consulting is usually hands on, it is customized, and while it helps to sell products and services, it does more than that. Consultants often work with products or services that aren’t made by the company and make recommendations that are beyond just the scope of the products and services offered by the company. An example is if a company is a client of a company like Oracle (which makes some CRM applications). They hire a consultant through Oracle not only to implement their new CRM from a technical perspective, but also to get the most out of the CRM throughout the rest of their company. It is part product training, part procedure and process design, etc.

Support is the least involved and consulting is the most involved, with account management in the middle. A future post (probably tomorrow) will be about deciding what your company should offer and perhaps most importantly, what should be standard.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Consulting, Support

A lot of executives seem out of touch with what actually happens on the frontlines of their customer service department. When executives are out of touch (some are more removed than others), it creates not only a cultural problem, but a problem of the ability to keep frontline employees in mind when making decisions.

An executive’s job is not to answer the phones and as such, they shouldn’t be expected to do so on a daily basis. However, it is an executive’s job to be able to relate to the employees he or she is in charge of. The reality of the corporate world is that the decisions executives make usually have a very significant affect on the frontline employees. The changes that come from the top affect those on the bottom. It isn’t fair to those providing the actual service to customers when executives are making uninformed decisions.

The problem in a lot of businesses and with a lot of executives is that they assume. They assume they know the frontlines of a call center is like and they assume they know what challenges individual employees are facing. It sometimes takes more than surveys, more than manager reviews, and more than consultants to get a thorough understanding, though. Sometimes, it takes sitting in a cubicle and answering the phones.

When an executive spends a couple of hours or even a full day answering phones or replying to emails, he or she can learn a lot about what the frontline employees experience on a day to day basis.

The phones may be bad, the chairs could be uncomfortable, the computers are too slow, the Internet keeps crashing, etc. Suddenly, the complaints on the “other comments” part of the employee satisfaction survey start to make more sense. On the other hand, the experience of helping customers fix a problem or hearing positive feedback about the company’s product is rewarding. It gives executives yet another (very valuable) perspective.

Make it a point to schedule a few hours, or even a full day, to sit in your call center and do what your frontline employees do on a daily basis. I guarantee you that you will learn a lot.