Service Untitled

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

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.

Skype has an interesting way of gathering feedback. After every call, a little survey pops up. They ask you to rate the quality of your call (they use a 1-5 star system) and then they show a list of things that could have gone wrong (echos, etc.) and ask you to check boxes of anything that was applicable.

The survey is super simple and has gotten even simpler over time (it used to redirect you to a web site - now it seems to be built into the program). It’s very self explanatory and since it pops up after every call, you have the opportunity to rate your experience frequently.

The survey is optional, but I bet that Skype has really high response rates. Again, the simplicity is probably what would lead to high response rates. I’ve already talked about what a big hit one question surveys are and this just serves as an extension of that. Keep your surveys simple, keep the questions relevant, watch the results pile in.

Christoph Guttentag’s positive experience with Duke’s HR department got me thinking about internal customer service. Isn’t the customer service you provide to your employees just as important as the customer service you provide to your customers? They should be happy, too. They should like working for and with your company in the same way that your customers like working with your company. But companies tend to place internal customer service even lower on the priority list than regular, external customer service.

Headsets.com (discussed here) has an internal customer service policy where their marketing team promises to make web site updates within 24 hours of the initial request. While they obviously can’t do that for every request, they make an effort and a commitment to each other to get things done and to respect everyone’s requests and wishes. This isn’t always easy, but it makes working with the marketing team, and as a result, contributing to Headsets.com’s web site, a lot easier. They’ve made it easy and it’s paying off.

At other companies, internal customer service is almost ingrained into the culture. The whole idea of treating your co-workers with respect and doing what you can to make their life easier is a big part of many companies’ cultures. Solidifying the process and the cultural idea is always helpful, though.

I’ve also read about companies (I believe it was a hotel) that do things to make the behind the scenes experience enjoyable for employees. They’ll do employees’ laundry, have employee concierge services that run errands, daycare, etc. These are all becoming more and more common, especially at companies in industries and cities where there is competition for employees. All of these things make the company a better place to work. The best places to work tend to attract the best talent, which more often than not, leads to a return on the bottom-line.

In addition to the hiring and retention benefits of internal customer service, great internal customer service tends to make jobs less stressful and more enjoyable. When Mr. Guttentag can pick up the phone and easily get answers to questions about his retirement packages and what not, it makes his life easier. He doesn’t have to scramble for answers and think about what a pain it is to get an answer each time he has a question. The experience is hassle free and maybe even enjoyable.

Service like that, whether it be internal or external, sets the average companies apart from the great companies (or organizations).

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Customer Service Representative, Little Things

I’ve talked about the importance of engaging customers on a human level before. It’s critical to an excellent customer service experience and it’s critical to making the difference between an above average and an exceptional customer service experience. The companies (and more so, the employees) that can engage customers at a more human level are the ones that are going to see their customer satisfaction scores coming in as 10’s as opposed to 8’s or 9’s.

I was at a nice restaurant this evening with some family members and the waiter engaged us on a human level. We’ve been going to this restaurant for quite a while and we’ve seen this waited plenty of times. We hadn’t been there recently, but he remembered us (he said “welcome back, good to see you again”) and when another person at our table asked him a question about how he’s been doing, he told us about a several month RV trip he took around the country.

The story about the trip was interesting - the waiter and his wife had taken their RV to about 40 states over about 6 months. They had seen most of the country’s major cities and national parks and had an overall great trip. He wasn’t rushed when telling it and took the time to answer any questions we had. It definitely brought the experience from a good to an excellent level. He engaged us on a human level and certainly made ordering our food and drinks much more interesting. When the story was effort, he remembered (very accurately) what we usually ordered to drink and to eat.

This waiter not only recognized as regular customers, but he responded to a customer’s question in a manner that went above and beyond. He engaged all of us and gave us something to talk about after he left. It was a great experience and one that only reinforces the positive views I’ve had of that restaurant since we started going there six or seven years ago.

For more on restaurants and customer service, check out this post that I wrote back in July of 2006 (though it’s still quite relevant). I apologize for not posting yesterday - I did not get home until pretty late and didn’t have a chance to write up a post for the day.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Customer Service Representative, Personality, Waiter, Restaurant

After we finished his interview Service Untitled on Tuesday (it’ll be published in early May), Christoph Guttentag, Duke University’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, and I talked about customer service in more general terms.

I scheduled an interview with Mr. Guttentag because I personally find the college admissions process to be fascinating. There are so many aspects of it that make it incredibly interesting and worth talking about.

One of the most interesting things I learned from the interview is that the challenges that one of the busiest admissions offices in the country faces are essentially the same challenges that many for profit companies find themselves facing on a daily basis. Educational and corporate America seem to tackle the problems in similar ways, too. It’s extremely interesting to say the least, and in the interview, Mr. Guttentag discusses the logistical as well as the more philosophical aspects of admissions in quite a bit of detail.

Putting that aside (you’ll read about it more next month), Mr. Guttentag told me about two recent customer service experiences he has had, both positive. Always eager to hear about great customer service, I asked him to tell me about the two experiences.

The first one was with Land’s End. Mr. Guttentag, like many Land’s End customers, was impressed with the fact that the company answers the phone right away (often, on the first ring) and then to top that off, has friendly and intelligent people answering the phone. He was also pleasantly surprised that the woman who answered the phone was able to help him with everything he needed. The experience was simple. It lacked the unnecessary complications that tend to characterize the negative customer service experiences. A simple experience with helpful representatives usually makes for a positive experience and in this case, it did.

The other experience was with Duke University’s own human resources department. The experience was just like the experience with Land’s End; the representative answered the phone right away and was able to answer all of Mr. Guttentag’s questions without any difficulty. The person who answered the phone had no trouble directing Mr. Guttentag to the correct forms, telling him exactly how to fill them out, and providing Mr. Guttentag with the information needed to send the forms in. Again, it was the simplicity and ease of the customer service experience that made it notable.

Because customer service is so bad so often, customers tend to remember experiences like the ones described above. With today’s dreadfully low standards of customer service, companies that have intelligent people answering the phone, and the questions that are a natural result of those phone calls, are the exception. The norm is an endless jungle of phone menus, ruthless bureaucracies and departmental divisions, and incompetent customer service representatives. When those standards are reversed, customers can’t help being pleasantly surprised. And when customers are pleasantly surprised, they tend to tell their friends.

Technorati Tags: Internal Customer Service, Land’s End, Human Resources

Today, I went into a store at my local mall to buy a shirt I wanted. The store was nice, the shirt was easy to find, and I proceeded to the cash register expecting to have a pleasant customer service experience. I waited for a moment or two and then noticed the woman in front of me was filling out an application for a store credit card. There was no one else at the cash register counter and it looked like this would be a lengthy process.

I asked the clerk if she could check me out while the customer filled out her application, instead of me having to wait for this entire process to be finished. The clerk looked at me strangely and said no one else was on register duty. I saw other people working at the store, folding clothes and doing things of that nature, but apparently, no one else would help to check me out. I didn’t feel like waiting and walked out.

Besides my occasional tendency to be impatient (ironic for a customer service person, I know), this story shows a few things. It shows that this particular company did not keep this situation (where a customer fills out a credit card application, other customers are waiting, and there is only one employee working on the register) in mind when they were designing their systems and processes. It also shows that this particular employee wasn’t interested in going above and beyond to help another customer.

The first fault was that this company designed their system so that it can only do one transaction like this at a time. Ideally, the credit card application should be able to operate alongside of the regular checkout application. Whoever designed the system should know that it takes time for that credit card application to be filled out and processed and that there is a good chance other customers would be waiting. When designing systems and/or processes, keep situations like that in mind. Keeping things like that in mind is best done by thinking about the experience from as many perspectives as possible, and when possible, asking other people involved to think of the process as well. Chances are, you won’t think of every possible situation by yourself, so tapping other people for their ideas is usually well worth the time and effort.

The second fault is that the particular employee decided not to bother going above and beyond. This is probably because employees at most retail stores are rewarded for getting customers to signup for credit cards and usually aren’t on commission for the actual sale. With that reward system in place, it is in the employee’s best interest to cater to the customer filling out the credit card application. However, a motivated employee could have gone above and beyond (opening a new register, asking someone to come over, etc.). Encouraging employees to go above and beyond is necessary to great customer service.

Tomorrow’s post is about a positive customer service experience.