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2/1/12 Customer Service #Roundup

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

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Smashing Magazine delivers a great long form article on upping the ante with customer service.  The article has both broad strokes, including advice like “If we do not engage with our clients in a real, personal way, then we are just another vendor — and vendors are easily replaceable with better cheaper options,”  (emphasis in original)  as well as case studies, like the work they did with the Tori Lynn Andreozzi Foundation.

A new customer service interface called Desk.com could be a powerful asset for small businesses in particular because it streamlines the various streams of communication that your customers might reach out to you through.  Desk.com’s parent company Assistly (a recent acquisition of Salesforce) works well with massive companies like Starbucks and Bank of America, but Desk.com is more tailored to smaller customer service teams, including those at TED, Spotify, Yelp, Vimeo and Instagram.

Tech Journal shares their thoughts on the concept of “customer blind spots,” and speak firmly in favor of continuing to wow customers after the point of purchase in order to avoid them switching to competitors.  They surveyed a number of customers, and identified that in particular “Wireless phone, cable and gas/electric utilities providers each experienced the greatest increase in consumer switching – five percentage points.”  They determine that the blind spots come from this observation:

The study found that consumers rate “having the service experience match the promise a company makes to me up front” as one of the most important areas of customer service. Yet the greatest service frustration cited is a provider’s failure to deliver on the service experience promised up front.

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A simple way to build customer loyalty

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

The first goal of customer service may be to ensure the customer-company relationship is working. The second goal might well be to build customer loyalty. After all, if a customer has issues, and those issues are handled WELL, then the customer will be more likely to stick around.

Many companies use loyalty programs to encourage customer retention. There is nothing wrong with this of course–it is the idea behind frequent flier mile programs, and frequent buyer discounts. However, there is something much less programmatic, and perhaps less costly: send PRINTED (not electronic) thank you notes.

According to the article “How Thank You Cards Build Customer Loyalty” on the American Express Open Forum website, these cards can serve several purposes:

  • They show, in a tangible way, that you care
  • The break through the digital clutter
  • Help build relationships
  • Are memorable

In a world where email and text have taken over printed communications and phone calls, an old-fashioned thank you card has become so unusual that it takes customers by surprise. There are other small tokens that a company could also undertake to thank a customer, such as gift cards to national stores.

The most important part of the thank you card is the thank you. Many companies forget to thank their customers for their business–there is no quicker way to feel like you have been taken for granted.

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Don’t make your customers unhappy

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

It seems obvious but your organization should avoid making customers unhappy. Unhappy customers can spread the word about their unhappiness fairly easily and in the worst case scenario, unhappiness will lead to defection.

Last week, the online DVD/movie streaming service, Netflix, angered a good many of its customers. It announced, quite suddenly, that it was increasing its prices for its popular DVD plus streaming plan from $10 to $16 per month. All customers were forced to make a decision:  stick with the new, more expensive plan or switch to a streaming or DVD-only plan. The burden was fully placed on the customers with only about a six-week lag time before the price change would be imposed.

Netflix received a lot of flack. Many people cancelled their service, and in fact, Netflix KNEW it would be angering its customers and planned accordingly by hiring more customer service representatives.  Netflix could have, and should have, handled a price increase in a way to avoid making its customers unhappy. Entrepreneur.com analyzed the decision and drew several business lessons from it, which can be read here.

The San Francisco Chronicle had a comprehensive look a the fiasco and said this:

Even though financial analysts said the price increase can be justified, one marketing expert said Netflix did a poor job of explaining it and now risks causing greater damage to a brand that customers loved.

Netflix should start with an apology, said Howard Belk, co-president and CEO of the global branding firm Siegel+Gale of New York.

Businesses and organizations must work to avoid making their customers unhappy because there will be a backlash. Businesses that want to thrive should work actively to make customers happy. Christopher Elliot on Bnet.com offers “Simple Ways to Make Customers Happy.” One simple thing: exhibit a caring attitude.

Netflix made many customers unhappy in order to raise their prices.  Perhaps the company will make up for lost customers through increased revenue, but bad blood and bad publicity is a bit harder to quantify and harder to fix.

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It’s about people

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

In the increasingly automated world, service has become impersonal (and sometimes non-existent).  Years ago, you would stand in line at the bank, post office, or airline counter to have a clerk deal with your transaction. It was a person-to-person interaction. Today, banks, post offices and airlines all have an electronic clerk, whether it be a kiosk or an ATM. Very rarely do you wait to speak to a person, and in fact, you conduct your transaction through a machine.

The danger of automation is that customer service loses sight of the fact that the customer is a person. People have individual needs and requests. Try asking a kiosk to upgrade you to business class because you have a bum leg!

Perhaps this is an issue that is faced only by the bigger organizations, but many times customer service is about inputs and numbers and not about dealing with customers (individual people).

Rawn Shah wrote an interesting blog post (A Tale of Maintaining Congruency in Customer Service) on Forbes.com about how the experience of Comcast’s customer service was vastly different on Twitter versus traditional phone interaction. Apparently, the company saw the social media channel as a public relations move and not a person-to-person engagement, which it was. As Shah writes:

work with your customers as if they were real relationships, not an entry in some database. This means not just knowing who they are but talking and treating them as you would a good friend. It is possible in small and large scale. The hard part is making that happen within the processes of your organization.

Yes, dealing with each customer as if you were dealing with a friend is hard, but the value lies in building the relationship. Customers are only customers as long as they maintain a relationship with your organization.

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Capping waiting time

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Customers don’t like to wait. Recently, a survey of top retailers was conducted to measure wait times. Some well known companies take up to four days to respond to emails and leave customers on hold for an average of eight minutes. This can create distress and impatience

In the blog post “How Long is Too Long to Wait For Customer Service” (from where the statistics above came) the following observation is made:

But, keep in mind that speed of service does not mean the actual interaction is helpful. Once the call or email has been received, customers are more interested in having their issues resolved rather than a quick response.

Companies have to be mindful of how long customers are waiting for service, but also that they are helping customers. It would be just as counterproductive to have many inexperienced agents to deal with customers immediately, but who can’t provide assistance or information.

Recently, we tried contacting a company about a discontinued product. We were told that the warehouses would be searched and that we would receive a response in two weeks if the product was not available. If it was available, it would be shipped out right away. Nearly two weeks went by with absolutely not one word from the company. A call was placed to the 800-number, and we were forced to hold 20 minutes to speak to a representative. She informed us that since our two weeks were not quite up, we called them before they could call us. Product was not available.  This company failed in so many ways–it made us wait on hold. It set an arbitrary time frame to respond to us when they could have easily sent an email when they discovered the product was not available. Why make customers wait for a response for two weeks?

Organizations or companies that deal with the public need to set an acceptable amount of wait time, and cap it. It is not acceptable to have customers holding for more than x minutes. Replies must be done in no more than x days. Companies should remember (unlike the company referenced above) that a cap time is just a maximum–you can and should answer in less time if you can.

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What do you think about your customers?

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

We read a lot about how customers feel about companies, but we don’t often delve into what companies think of customers. If you are a large organization with thousands of customers, chances are you don’t think about them as individuals. However, if you are a small or medium sized business, you probably have customers you know.You deal with them as people, and not as numbers. You may actually have many interactions.

How you think about your customers will affect how you deal with them, and consequently, how they feel about your company.

Michael Schrage, writing “Do You Think Your Customers Are Stupid?” on the Harvard Business Review blog, says the following:

Few things say more about organizational culture and character than how employees complain about the customers and clients they serve.

Many times, account executives or management, may make disparaging remarks about their customers. While some customers can be difficult, or yes, stupid, to let this pervade your organizational culture will undercut any customer ties you have. As Schrage writes:

Why would leaderships in any organization say or do things that disrespect their customers?… if these comments authentically represent organizational perspectives, then no one should be surprised when customers and clients choose to return the favor. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of business people are simply not good enough actors to consistently conceal the disdain they feel for their difficult or troublesome customers.

If you have a very bad customer, then perhaps it is wise to let go of that business. But to have a corporate culture that is dismissive of all customers, and thinks poorly of them, will only result in loss of business.

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Learning from what is not working

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

There are many complaints about customer service, across many forums and regarding all industries. Some industries get more complaints than others (telecoms, cable, banks, and insurance  according to an article in Bnet.com by Christopher Elliot).

Mark Hare, writing in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, says “Customer service is not what it once was.” Sadly this is true. Hare states the following:

We’ve all come to expect such breakdowns — as we are forced to deal with electronic systems that have replaced human contact.

There are reasons for the decline in customer service, most of them connected to cost-cutting. People have endured faulty products and bad service since human beings began selling to each other.

But there is something disconcerting, even dehumanizing, in navigating an e-maze of procedures and rules that make no sense, explained by nameless service reps far away — people with neither the authority nor the knowledge to solve a problem. They merely repeat what the computer screen tells them to say, again and again, until the customer complies or gives up.

Hare provides examples from his own dealings with companies (airlines, car companies, etc.) where a breakdown occurs. He concludes the following:

The problem isn’t a lack of friendliness; it’s the incompetence and indifference of companies whose decision-makers live far from us. In the end, customers are powerless to get answers, let alone, satisfaction. I can’t believe in the long run that any of this is good for business. It certainly is not good for the human spirit.

Customer service is incredibly important to a business and its bottom line. Complaints such as this provide a way to try to fix these breakdowns, by recognizing what is going wrong.

To summarize Hare’s points, in actionable bits, customer service suffers/is bad because of:

  • Lack of human contact
  • Illogical electronic systems
  • Distance from the customer
  • Reps with no authority or knowledge
  • Incompetent personnel
  • Cost-cutting in customer service
  • Indifferent companies
  • Making customers feel powerless

These are all big issues…and some are systemic. If a company is indifferent–doesn’t care about its customers–there is little that can be done to change it. Personnel can be replaced and electronic systems changed.

The key is to make customer service a priority. Listening to feedback would go a long way in preventing the decline Mark Hare discusses.

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Customer service metrics and social media: some tips

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

How do you know how you are doing? One way is to quantify what you want to measure. For instance, you may want to find out how long a typical customer service call takes or what time of day is busiest for customer service. This may help you to then make decisions about staffing.

Kate Legget’s Blog on Forrester.com points out that there is one type of metric that will measure the success of your customer service efforts. Ms. Legget provides some good guidelines for choosing the right types of metrics. She advises starting with understanding your objectives and then choosing the right activity to measure and quantify. For instance, you may want to measure the cost of service. In this case, the metrics to track would be talk time, agent training times, and others.

Social media has become an integral part of most customer service operations. People are using social media as a channel to interact with companies, much like the 1-800 number was the preferred channel just a few years ago. Making the most of this opportunity to interact with customers is the focus of the article “26 Tips for Adding Customer Service to Your Social Media Strategy” on Social Media Examiner.  It is worth reading the entire piece, but some takeaways are:

Allocate resources:

Assign a number of team members the responsibility of managing social networking profiles to ensure they’re all covered throughout the workday.

Listen to what people are saying:

Set up a good listening strategy and be sure to not only listen for customers’ compliments, but also keep your ears tuned to hear their complaints.

Answer customer questions:

Answering consumers’ questions often ends up taking a back seat to responding to customer complaints. However, the timely response to a question will make customers feel heard and potentially can alleviate dissatisfaction.

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The not-so-little details

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Sometimes, outstanding customer service has to do with the details. The small (and yet highly meaningful) gestures that go a step beyond.  Going the extra mile makes an impression in a world that doesn’t often put forth great effort.

Some of these no-so-little details are:

  • Sending thank you notes (bonus for handwritten)
  • Replying to each and every email within 24-48 hours
  • Personalizing correspondence (not writing Dear Customer)
  • Remembering birthdays and anniversaries and sending a note
  • Supporting your customer’s charity
  • Having a live person answer the phone
  • Greeting customers at the door
  • Smiling (even on the phone…it can be sensed!)

Which gestures your company or organization engages in depends on what type of business or industry you are in. But remembering to personalize makes a difference in how you are perceived. As discussed previously, customer satisfaction is different than repeat business. A satisfied customer is more likely to refer business to you, and to give you more business in the future (not just repeat what he/she has done).

ARMA, Inc. would like to take this opportunity to wish our customers and friends a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

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Measuring customer satisfaction

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Do you measure customer satisfaction? If so, how do you do it?

Customer retention is easy to measure. You simply need to track any repeat business from a customer. Customer satisfaction is qualitative, and thus, harder to quantify and measure.  A customer could be doing repeat business with your company based on factors such as price or convenience rather than satisfaction.

The best way to measure customer satisfaction is to have a conversation or send a survey that asks for qualitative information.  Some companies will call customers a few days after a transaction and ask them to answer a few questions on a scale (such as say 1 for least satisfied and 5 for completely satisfied).  Asking for comments may also give customers a chance to express what they liked or disliked about the service or product.

The caveat with any measurement is that it must be analyzed and considered. It does not help a company  to survey customers and not take into consideration results or feedback. If you ask about price, and most every respondent is not satisfied, will you change your pricing? If few people are satisfied with your service, are you going to address sources of dissatisfaction?

Customer satisfaction tells you your company is doing something right–pricing appropriately, treating customers well, providing first-class service.  The higher your customer satisfaction,  the higher your customer retention and the likelihood for referrals.

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