Service Untitled

If you’re lucky, you have customers who will take the time to write to or otherwise contact your company with feedback. (Unlucky companies have customers that just cancel / stop choosing your company and tell their friends how little they like your company.)

What does your company do after it receives feedback, though?  You can share the information with engineers, pass on praise accordingly, and so on. However, those options and the procedures that most companies seem to follow leave out the most important aspect of the feedback process – the customer.

It’s really great to see companies taking time and investing effort into taking action based on customer feedback, but all too often, these same companies completely miss the ball when it comes to responding to customers and letting them know that their feedback is being taken seriously. 

When a customer takes the time to provide feedback to your company, take the time to reach out to them and let them know what you’re doing as a result of their feedback. As you make progress on changing whatever based on whatever their feedback was, keep the customer in the loop. If you don’t plan to make any of the changes that a particular customer suggests, at least say that you read their letter or email over, explain why or why not you’re going to do what they suggest, and that you encourage them to write in with further feedback.

Reaching out to customers who write to your company with ideas and suggestions is critical. Even if you’re making changes based on the feedback you receive, you need to tell customers that so they’re aware of what’s happening. Otherwise, customers think their feedback is being ignored  or dismissed.

Today’s post was written by Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson, two authors and customer loyalty consultants.

“When Business Week picks Amazon.com as the #1 best service company– an on-line fulfillment company—it’s proof good old fashioned service is dead.” The comment sounded like a “kids are going to the dogs” statement someone’s grandfather might make. But, it was coming from a non-computer savvy physician in one of our client focus groups.

Suddenly others in the room jumped into the discussion with jubilant praise for Amazon.com. “Their website is so easy,” “I always get what I order,” “Their prices are the best,” and “Returns are a breeze.” Their comments reflected excellence at the basics—the core expectations of all the shoulda’s and oughta’s. Then, someone told the story of a customer ordering a used book through Amazon.com, not getting the book expected, with zero success contacting the used book company. Amazon not only refunded the customer’s money before the flawed book was returned but took on the rogue used book dealer on behalf of the customer. Even the naysaying doctor was impressed.

Imaginative service creates devoted customers. However, imaginative service only works if the basics are met. Great service providers like Amazon.com provide only as much service as is needed—until more is required. A routine order and you get exactly what you hope for, no more no less. But, if there is an exception or problem, you witness greatness and creativity. We all like service with a cherry on top. But if what’s under the cherry disappoints, the cherry won’t matter. Are you focusing on sparkly service and letting solid service slip?

Writer Bio: Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson are customer loyalty consultants and the authors of Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers. They can be reached through www.taketheirbreathaway.com.

I was going to hire a company today to do something fairly simple that would have cost about $45 (that was the advertised price). It wouldn’t have taken them more than 15 or 20 minutes and I live within 10 minutes of the company’s office. Thinking I had found a reputable and affordable company, I called them to schedule an appointment and was told there was a $85.00 minimum service charge. The fact that I was a first time customer didn’t matter. Essentially, I would have to pay $85 for a $45 service.

I’ve never liked minimum service charges because I think they scare off potential (first time) customers. Because of the minimum service charge, I won’t be using the company and obviously won’t have any basis to choose them in the future or recommend them to others. The business the company is in is a type of business that is largely dependent on positive word of mouth, so they are losing out on a potentially lifelong, loyal customer over $40.

Most minimum service charges seem to function similar to this. The company doesn’t want to bother doing whatever for whatever the relatively low price point they set is, so they implement a minimum service charge. The company doesn’t find it profitable to help customers on an individual service basis, so they make you purchase more services to hike up the per visit/transaction charge. No matter if you get the most basic service or one that costs exactly the minimum service charge, you have to pay that minimum service charge if you want them to do any work for you. For the company, it’s upselling disguised as a policy.

What made my experience with this company even worse is that the minimum service charge wasn’t advertised especially prominently (it was buried on an obscure page on their website). They get their customers to call and talk to someone and then the minimum service charge is mentioned. If you’re going to have a minimum service fee, at least be forthcoming about it and tell your customers exactly how much it is and what they can get for that amount in the very beginning. Otherwise, customers will feel as if their time has been wasted and they’ve been led on.

The most important thing to do, though, is to think of the long-term value of your average customer.  If I use the above company 10 times over the next 10 years, that’s $450 they could make from me directly. They’re missing out on that direct revenue, as well as any revenue that might come from me telling others about the company, over a difference of $40. To me, that isn’t a good business practice.

I found myself citing one of my favorite customer service quotes at least once a week. The quote is “the road to success is paved with well handled mistakes” and I think it summarizes and important aspect of customer service.

I recently sent a complaint letter to a Fortune 500 company I had a problem with not that long ago. I just sent the letter yesterday so I’m not expecting to hear back anytime soon, but their response will show a lot about how they think of their customers and their customer service. If a company gets a complaint letter and dismisses it, that doesn’t reflect well upon the company. If they respond to it and make an effort to make a bad situation right, it tends to show they are committed to customer satisfaction.

When you get a complaint letter, how do you handle it? The companies that handle complaints really well seem to have some sort of formal process. They have someone empowered to handle and respond to complaints. The person has good customer service skills and gets in touch with customers and helps them with what they need. This helps add some accountability to the process and lets customers know that someone at the company cares about them.

There is data out there that says that a well handled mistake actually results in a happier customer than if nothing went wrong in the first place. Essentially, the act of the company making a bad situation right improves that customer’s overall satisfaction. That’s the power of making a bad situation right.

I spent Friday and Saturday in New Orleans for WordCamp NOLA and part of my traveling experience was going through the Charlotte International Airport to catch a connection flight (each way). I’ve been to a lot of airports and I have to say that Charlotte is one of the nicest ones I’ve been to for a few reasons.

Nice amenities. It is a little (but pleasantly) surprising to see a live pianist when you walk into the central terminal area in a big airport. There was a nice business center, lots of restaurants that served real food, lots of places to shop, plenty of nice seating, wi-fi, and all of that. It was definitely a step up from the plastic chairs in weird rows that you see at most airports.

Lots of bathrooms. My local airport has like two bathrooms per terminal. Charlotte had a set of bathrooms like every 200 feet. Even more importantly, the bathrooms were large and clean. They even had mouthwash and little cups that you could use to freshen yourself up after a long flight. I’ve never seen that in an airport before, but it makes for a nice touch.

Kept clean. The entire airport (not just the bathrooms) was kept quite clean. You walk through some airports that are grungy and nasty, but Charlotte’s airport was kept extremely and consistently clean.

Air travel is tough, so it’s especially nice to see and go through an airport that is nicer than most. You can apply the same idea to your businesses – check out your competition and see what you can do better. Try to understand your customers’ pains and troubles and work to address them. That’s what Charlotte International Airport did and it worked for them.

Yesterday’s post focused on how to avoid situations in which different representatives will give conflicting information to your customers. While avoiding the situations is obviously the ideal thing, chances are, you will encounter problems with misinformation being given at least a few times and find yourself having to deal with it.

So what do you do when a customer tells you he or she was told something else by another representative?

• Apologize for the miscommunication. First of all, apologize for the miscommunication. Clarify what the correct answer / information is and then apologize to the customer for having to hear the wrong information.
• If possible, provide proof. Many customers become a little bit suspicious (understandably) after they experience a situation in which they have been given misinformation. Whenever possible, provide proof to backup the correct answer. Email an article, point customers to a place on the webpage, etc.
• If it’s simple, give it to the customer. If the thing that was miscommunicated is easy to do or follow through with, just do it. Apologize to the customer again and say “we will take your word for it and honor this for you.” Then, do what the customer said was promised to them and let them know the results.
• If it’s complicated, try to compromise. If it’s complicated to follow through with what the customer said was promised to them, try to compromise. Offer to do what is the standard process and then do something like offer a gift certificate or service credit to make up for the miscommunication. This is usually a simple way to help the customer calm down.
• Tell the customer where to get information in the future. Another good way to help put a customer at ease is to let them know where they can go to get the correct information. Point them to your company’s knowledge base, FAQs, online manuals, etc. This should help comfort customers and let them know that there is an easy way to get a definitive answer.
• If possible, follow up with the original employee. It is always important to follow up with the original employee who gave the wrong information whenever possible. Let the particular employee know what the correct answer is and ensure that the particular employee gets all of the training he or she needs.

Do you do anything differently in these situations?

Misinformation in customer service is pretty common. It’s probably something you’ve experienced firsthand as well. You call a company and you’re told one thing by one representative. Then you call back a few days later and you’re told that what the first representative told you isn’t true. The service doesn’t work that way. It really costs more than that. The fee does apply to you.

When this happens, customers get frustrated. Being told something is one way by one person and then being told it is another way by another person is one of the most annoying things that a customer may have to deal with. So, as a company, how do you avoid situations like that where inaccurate, and often conflicting information, is given to a customer?

The first and most obvious suggestion is to not misrepresent the information in the first place. Consistently accurate information comes as a result of experience, training, and easy to access resources to verify information. Many customer service representatives like to assume an answer and tell a customer without really knowing or bothering to check.

Companies have to work very hard to strongly and actively discourage the giving of inaccurate information. Make complete accuracy a major quality standard, ensure that quality assurance people are noting the accuracy of the information, review phone calls and emails to ensure the information being given is correct. Let employees know when they give wrong information and take it seriously.

One way to ensure information is as accurate as possible is to ensure that employees have extremely easy access to accurate information. This means having an extensive internal knowledge base or wiki (that is reviewed reguaraly by supervisors / management) and a representative having plenty of people to ask in case he or she isn’t sure of something. An internal IM system, easy physical access to a supervisor, an internal chat room, etc. are all great ways to encourage that type of quick communication.

The supervisors or senior employees being asked should encourage employees to ask questions. If the answer is available in the knowledge base or wiki or on the company web site, that supervisor should let the customer service reprsentative know that and keep the interaction positive. Employees who are afraid to ask for help will usually resort to just making the answers up.

Last, but certainly not least, companies need to train well and train often. Accuracy usually comes from knowing the ropes. Employees starting at companies with good training programs typically start their “real work” knowing more than employees starting a companies with bad training programs. And training does not stop after the first month, either. Ongoing training will ensure that employees are kept up-to-date about the latest changes and updates and are able to provide the most accurate information. I talk about training a lot because it’s so important. Don’t underestimate it at all.

What have you done at your company to help ensure employees give the most accurate information? My next post will cover how to actually handle a situation where there was conflicting information given.

The consulting company Accenture recently surveyed about 650 senior executives in different industries from 11 countries. What interested me was how the importance of customer service varied in different industries. Here is a listing from their press release of the percentage of business customers who switched to other vendors due to poor customer service and how it varies by country:

• China: 55 percent
• Sweden: 46 percent
• India: 44 percent
• Italy: 44 percent
• Finland: 43 percent
• Japan: 24 percent
• Great Britain: 24 percent
• Brazil: 23 percent
• United States: 22 percent
• France: 16 percent
• Canada: 16 percent
• Denmark: 15 percent
• Mexico: 13 percent
• Argentina: 7 percent

This data can of course imply either one or both of these two things: the customer service in the countries with lower percentages is better and/or customers in the countries with lower percentages value customer service less than the customers in the countries with high percentages. For example, we can that business customers in Argentina either don’t care about customer service and do not let it influence their business choices and/or we can say that business in Argentina provide great customer service and the business customers don’t find it necessary to switch vendors because the service is so good. Both factors are probably at play here.

What have you noticed about service in countries besides the United States? I checked the web statistics for Service Untitled and about 68% of my visitors live in either the United States or Canada, so I have a very North America-centered readership, but I’m sure many of you have worked with customers or companies in other countries and have perhaps noticed a difference in the importance of customer service.

The survey that Accenture conducted had a lot of other interesting findings as well. I’ll be including some of them in future posts.