Service Untitled

The next time you’re sitting in one of those impossibly uncomfortable hard plastic seats at Newark International Airport and you see a suggestion box hidden somewhere, slip a picture of Singapore’s Changi International Airport in there. It’s certain to be an experience any traveler will remember for years to come.

In the online blog  The Middle Seat, Scott McCartney writes about Andrew Tregonning and his wife’s experience covering the joys of an airport. No it’s not a syntax error – the couple traveling from New Zealand to India actually wanted a long layover at the Singapore airport. Imagine amenities such as comfortable sleeping areas, work areas, showers, pedicures, premium bars, a swimming pool, and even a tour of Singapore for nominal fees. The airport has a four-story amusement park for the children, and in Terminal 3, a city in itself, such passenger services as a dry cleaner, medical center, grocery store, pharmacy, jewelry and clothing stores all at one’s fingertips.

As a sharp contrast, JD Powers and Associates’ nationwide survey 2010 North American Airport Satisfaction Study which rated comfort and amenities in the United States most likely would have exploded if given the opportunity to rate Singapore’s airport. The survey covered basic needs which included seating comfort, ease of moving through the airport, getting passengers in and out of the airport efficiently, and reducing passenger stress with the TSA. Small airports scored significantly higher than the largest airports.

For large United States airports, Detroit Metropolitan scored the best with such amenities as an arbored concourse, people movers, sculptures, an on-site Hyatt Hotel and purple lit tunnels to connect terminals. Scores were rated on accessibility, check-in, security, terminals, food and retail service, and the efficiency of baggage claim. The Minneapolis/ St. Paul International Airport scored closely behind the one in Detroit; the connection between the airport and the Mall of America is cited as being very convenient. My son flies through Detroit regularly and agreed that it was one of the nicer airports in the US. He also reminded me of a post he wrote about the Charlotte airport in 2009.

Do you think it’s possible to actually transform travel into a less stressful environment given the security demands of today’s society? While North America may never be able to offer the top-notch creature comforts of the Singapore Airport, why not start with some of the more practical ideas to lessen the stress? Let us begin with some soothing music quietly resonating throughout our airports. How about reducing the number of announcements and the noisy horns of the passenger carts traveling through the concourses?

In Singapore, touch screens are provided in every bathroom to allow passengers to send a text message to attendants when towels or tissues are needed in the restrooms. Currency exchange booths and clothing stores are all in one area to encourage and stimulate competition for both merchandise and prices.

All of the 28,000 employees at the Singapore Airport are required to attend an orientation to help them help passengers. It’s a people pleasing business where successful concession spaces support 50 percent of the airport’s revenue which keeps the costs down and helps to pay for the amenities. Even the JD Power survey concludes that high levels of airport satisfaction create a strong positive impact on retail spending. Passengers who are “delighted” rather than “disappointed” spend up to 45 percent more at an airport. That’s a substantial difference.

While I’m pretty sure, the United States will never boast a butterfly garden as does Singapore, shouldn’t we still be taking lessons from those who do it so much better? Ironically last week I watched the ABC series Pan Am which takes place in the 1960′s and flying sure looked like more fun, and a much more relaxing and exciting way to travel.

photo credit: mikecogh

American Express Global Customer Barometer, a survey conducted in ten countries examined the public attitudes and preferences of consumers toward customer service. While Australian customers ranked high as the most vocal when it comes to bad customer service, the results and feelings of consumers are still universal.

Just think about the effects of poor customer service on our own shores and how easily bad news spreads so quickly. That same bad news continues to spread – reminds us when we played telephone as school children – the story grows legs of its own by the time the last child hears the story because the facts have become so distorted. Probably one of the most common examples revolves around customer experiences in restaurants. Diners are reluctant to say much during an evening out with friends, coworkers, or family; after all who wants to ruin their evening complaining about slow service or mediocre food. That restaurant however becomes part of the “blood oath” never to visit again. We might see a Facebook entry or a Tweet, but for the most part, one person tells another person and before long that bad experience causes lasting brand damage.

The unfortunate part of poor customer service is when the consumer doesn’t vocalize their complaint, but no longer returns to that particular establishment. The business owner may be completely unaware of the problems or circumstances that encompassed that bad experience.So what’s the solution?

Businesses need to find more efficient ways to gauge customer service. Interestingly enough, there is a restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens called Blue Water where the chef comes out of the kitchen and stops by each table to inquire about the guests entire dining experience. It only takes a moment; it’s completely unobtrusive, and more like another way to view feedback as a barometer to help this fairly new restaurant raise their customer service standards. If a business owner knows something has gone wrong, he can then figure out ways to correct the mistakes thus providing better customer service experiences for the future.

The American Express Global Customer Barometer reminds us that every interaction counts, and when business owners train and hire quality employees, keep customer service personal, be receptive, be intuitive about their needs through body language and anticipate customer needs, customers react with their loyalty and their business. A consumer who has become a loyal patron of an establishment is more likely to forgive a faux pas and still return – understanding that mistakes can happen. It’s just building that solid foundation that requires a lot of work. Are you up for the challenge?

photo credit: La Citta Vita

Squeezed between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the second annual Small Business Saturday encouraged shoppers to show support for their local businesses. The campaign, started by American Express small-business unit has helped to advertise the advantages of shopping locally – personalized service, convenience, and the opportunity to promote healthy economics in one’s own neighborhood.  A survey done by American Express revealed one-half of the nation’s retail sales come from small locally owned businesses.

Statistically in the past 20 years, the 28 million small businesses across the United States have created 65 percent of new jobs. As more shoppers presumably come home to shop in their own backyards, the small guys will find more ways to appeal to more shoppers.

In Hawaii, small businesses make up 98 percent of the 30,000 businesses, and where huge retail establishments can beat prices and offer a wider inventory of products, most consumers still believe in putting money back into their own communities. Small businesses can answer their own phones instead of having to “press one” to begin the maze of customer service, as well as actually do hands on personal service for customers while they wait. For instance, a local jewelry store can tighten the clasp on a bracelet a customer purchased a year ago while she waits, a hardware store can show a woman how to replace a sliding glass door lock step by step when she calls up in a state of pure frustration, or a custom men’s wear shop can spend the time helping a recent college graduate build a professional wardrobe little by little.

In my own hometown of Palm Beach Gardens, the local stores were booming with shoppers this past Saturday afternoon. The local chocolate store for discriminating chocolate lovers was busily taking orders for holiday baskets, the local photographer was helping a family to prepare for a photo shoot at the nearby beach, and the teenage boutique – employed with local students had a steady stream of teenage girls flowing in and out of the store.

All in all, it seems like a positive holiday shopping season with merchants thinking positive thoughts. Let’s hope it continues.

photo credit: fsgm

Statistics for the 2011 shopping holiday season look a little scary for merchants this year. According to a Price Grabber survey, 45 percent of consumers say they are going to spend less on holiday shopping compared to what they spent in 2010. Luckily 49 percent say they are going to spend the same amount. Only 7 percent say they are going to spend more. Considering many businesses depend on the holiday season to boost their earnings for the year, it would seem logical to bring out the heavy artillery to entice as many of those shoppers as possible for the year’s final hurrah.

What are some of the incentives businesses offer to maximize a customer’s buying experience? Shoppers will be looking for the best prices, discounts, free shipping, coupons, and blowout sales, however organizations that match the atmosphere with the merchandise will find an increase in buyers and an increase in sales. And what that means is the need of customer service representatives demonstrating those people skills that assure shoppers they are making good decisions. Buyers however are well-educated and sophisticated, so the merchandise has to reflect the quality, the grand selection, and the price, but the sales people need to be available to help customers select the best choices for their own particular needs and to assure customers they have made the best possible purchase.

The average holiday shopper will spend 15 hours this season shopping for presents. Walk into a store like Harry and David, and the scents and sounds already feel like grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve. There’s Christmas music filling the store, and shoppers are already humming and singing that Santa Claus is coming to town. The irresistible aroma of hot apple-cider adds to the scents and sounds which all affect the moods of shoppers. The longer a consumer stays in a store, obviously the more money a person is going to spend.

But whether it is an online business or a store in the mall, making the shopping  experience easier for the busy consumer is of prime importance. As you walk into the store of Harry and David, gift baskets with one of a kind holiday designs already wrapped makes decision-making quick and easy. A personal assistant who offers to customize a gift basket for a customer, wrap it in festive paper and send it off to its destination and still stay within a shopper’s budget is the ultimate in customer service and a great way to minimize the hassle of shopping and shipping. Make it worth the money, make it convenient, and make the staff get out on the floor and help – then join in the joys of the Season.

photo credit: Zürich Film Office

Amazon.com’s newest customer service facility opened on Friday with a fanfare of speeches and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The new 70,000 square-foot center in Kinetic Park, West Virginia was described as a “perfect fit” by Vice President of Amazon customer service Tom Weiland. The new site will provide the company with more flexibility to train workers and take care of customers.

There are approximately 500 employees, and Amazon is planning through a job fair to immediately hire 200 more innovators and problem solvers. The company states they look for candidates that know what needs to be done and then acts upon those tasks. Products sold and supported at the Huntington facility will be Amazon’s retail Kindle, Amazon Instant Video, and Amazon Prime. Service representatives will be handling phones, emails, and chat contacts.

Customer service representatives are recognized as valuable partners in the company’s success also. Creature comforts such as a quiet reading areas, game room with television, pool tables and ping-pong tables are available for some downtime.

So what makes Amazon so successful? After all the company is rated as one of the favorite online businesses customers want to use. The answers are obvious – Amazon makes everything easy. The company offers low prices, vast selections, fast delivery, and convenient buying and returning. The focus is on the customer experience and having everything the customer wants.

Amazon’s innovative ideas have resulted in price guarantees, alerts to rising and dropping prices, and through this builds consumer confidence – enough to be labeled as one of the “most reputable” businesses. Their product reviews have surpassed most other sites, and more people continue to use Amazon as a research tool. Even the company’s technological advances such as the Kindle e-reader, the Android app store and movie streaming service has set them apart from their competition.

In my own experience, my son just purchased a Kindle for my birthday recently, and not more than two-weeks later, the Kindle Fire was announced. I had already thrown most of the packaging away, but wrapped up the original one, sent it back, no questions asked and I am eagerly awaiting the new one when it is released on November 15.

When once asked what founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos thought about on his own time, he responded he was obsessed with customers and felt driven to become the most customer-centric company on the planet.  It looks as if that might be happening.

photo credit: Chrysaora

JetBlue Flight 504 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Newark, New Jersey was diverted to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut at 1:30 on Saturday because of a freakish snow storm affecting the East Coast. Passengers weren’t allowed to deplane until 9:30 that night and were forced to remain on the tarmac and in the aircraft for seven hours with no food, water or working bathrooms.

The situation already reeks of terrible customer service, but the airline industry often has their own particular spin on egregious situations which somehow is supposed to explain any and all miserable experiences passengers are forced to endure – of course for the sake of our safety. When a dozen passengers called 911 hoping to get an answer why they were not allowed to leave, there were no explanations given. When an unidentified pilot called for help to JetBlue and asked his own company to provide a tug and a towbar, no one from the company responded with any help.

When the plane first landed the passengers were told the plane would de-ice, refuel and fly to Newark. During the seven hour debacle, no logical answer was ever given by JetBlue.

In 2010 the Federal Aviation Commission required that an airline has to provide water and snacks to passengers and the option to deplane after three hours on a domestic flight. If the government determines the airline violated the tarmac delay rule, the airline could be fined $27,500 per passenger. Consumers are not entitled to any of the fines. Pilots did not want police to board the plane until hours later when a taped recording stated:

“I got a problem here on the airplane. I’m gonna need to have the cops on board.”

The ordeal was finally over when police and firefighters came on board to attend to a diabetic person and a paraplegic flier who had difficulty with the circulation in his legs.

The JetBlue website boasts the highest customer service rating among low-cost carriers. According to JD Powers and Associates, the airline scored high grades for the seventh year in a row. The company offers free television, free snacks, leg room and “award-winning service.”

“JetBlue is also America’s first and only airline to offer its own Customer Bill of Rights with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within JetBlue’s control.”

In a JetBlue statement, the organization apologized and blamed the situation on an “unusual combination of weather and infrastructure issues.” The next day however passengers had trouble finding new flights – many of them decided to use ground transportation to get back to Newark and their final trip destinations.

So what could JetBlue have done? Good, bad, or indifferent passengers are entitled to the truth. Two-hundred passengers sitting out on the tarmac should have been enough of an impetus to alert an official who had the power to do something and make a positive decision. It was the airport that finally sent a towbar and tow to Flight 504. JetBlue couldn’t even get it together to help their own company.

photo credit: prayitno

How many of us really take the time to sit down and Google all of the information we need to make a formal complaint when a business treats us poorly? At the time and day this poor service happens we are angry, and we vow the moment we get home we will get a letter out to the CEO of the company and reiterate the miserable events of either our last purchase or service.

As reality settles in, and the other demands of life weigh more importantly upon our daily lives, often the letter doesn’t get written. Good thing for social media and Twitter however, but will that solve all of the problems we can’t quite condense to 140 characters or less? Sometimes we just need a letter with the chronology of events to point out every wrong either imagined or real done to us while spending our hard-earned dollars.

So who do we tell about bad service? Most of us will tell our friends. We go out for a Saturday night dinner with our neighbors, our relatives or our co-workers and the conversation most likely centers around that last unhappy experience at the airport, the restaurant, or the mall. Sometimes we just observe another shopper losing her patience, and we’re not sure if we should stay for the “show” or join in if the complaint is valid. Still imagine all the damage this entire bad customer service experience has had on the business.

How many times have any of us just left our would-be purchases on the ledge or on the counter because service was so slow? That then becomes a direct hit in the company’s wallet, but what can we do about some of this to make service better and keep customers coming back?

Some organizations seem to have misplaced the concept of customers first. Instead company policy intended to streamline and reduce costs wind up costing an organization more money. For example – a consumer’s cable television isn’t working correctly and the customer is told to call back later to see if the problem has been resolved. Unfortunately the  customer has then to repeat the entire telephone maze process again – thus releasing that exhaled breath of pure frustration and obscene muttered curse words.

What happens to customer service when the right candidates aren’t hired for the job? Customer service requires a certain type of person – one that can effectively demonstrate their patience and knowledge of customer preferences. One size does not fit all in the people pleasing category, but all too often customer service jobs start out as entry-level positions with entry-level salaries. In the nearby mall, there is a young adult clothing store which hires its sales personnel by their physical attractiveness – agreed the young women and men are extremely good-looking, but it hasn’t been any boom to their customer service skills. Many of the representatives have had no customer service training and appear to be incapable of making decisions when required they think “out of the box.”

And what every business needs to succeed and rise above the “bad” customer service is to lead by example. I just toured Zappos last week, and along with all of the camaraderie and team spirit, one aspect of the business plan particularly captured my attention. The CEO, Tony Hsieh’s desk and “cubicle” is out in the arena with all of the associates. There’s no special sign – no fancy glass walls – just a dangling bunch of green vines hanging through the aisle way as if out of a scene from a cheesy island adventure. The point – however – Hsieh is involved with the entire organization and has made customer service a priority – not by telling his employees, but being right there in the middle of the action. That my friends is what makes great customer service.

photo credit: jeffkward

In Manchester, Connecticut Big Y Foods, a chain of 61 supermarkets is phasing out the do-it-yourself grocery shopping check out aisles. What was supposed to revolutionize and speed up a trip to the grocery store seems to falling by the wayside in a trade for the human cashiers. In fact, market studies have shown shoppers do prefer the personal contact.

When the idea was first conceived, store owners had already been anticipating less overhead; surely many of the cashiers were going to be replaced by self-check-out scanners. After all, the self-check-outs are quite popular in Kmart, Home Depot, and Walmart. Supermarkets however seem to be different. For instance,  if a shopper buys tomatoes, potatoes, wine, and bread, can a scanner get the customer checked out quicker than a cashier? Having tried it myself at a supermarket there was a bit of confusion. The scanner stopped at the wine purchase to ascertain if I was old enough, the scanner wouldn’t honor my coupons, and a mix-up on the type of tomatoes I purchased scanned the wrong price. A store manager rushed over and helped me, but that experience cost me time, and from then on I have preferred the live models.

Michael Tami, vice-president for information resources and technology for Big Y felt the automated lines were not  providing exceptional customer service, so instead opted to return to the time honored tradition of humans saying, “Hello, have you found everything you needed?”

I also can’t forget the attachment, we as humans possess for the personal touch. Here in South Florida, Publix’ customer service includes someone always willing to help customers load their groceries into their cars. Even if it’s raining – a customer can use a huge green and white umbrella to get you to your car and then pull around to the front entrance and without even getting wet, someone has been waiting to pack up your trunk.

Self-service-checkout lines undoubtedly have a lot to do with demographics. Younger consumers have grown up with self-service lines, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t expecting superior customer service. As the trend forges ahead to using bar code readings on our Smartphones, another phase of innovation – hopefully the personal touch will still move the grocery lines along quicker and more efficiently.

photo credit: Polycart