Do your rules make sense?

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Every organization has its rules. These can be:

• We are open 9 to 5
• We only accept returns with a receipt within 90 days
• We require your account number to transact business with you.
• We will return calls within 24 hours.

Some rules make sense. They were developed to give the organization a consistent guiding policy.

On Consumerist.com, we came across the e story of a young man who is  in Afghanistan. He wanted to transfer money from his bank account to his mother’s. He wasn’t able to because of a rule that said that if you are outside the country you have to obtain a “safepass” card. It would take a long time to get the card, and even though he explained the situation, his bank would not budge from its rule.

This is an example of a rule that is being applied blindly, and although it makes sense generally, it does not make sense in this individual case. Or perhaps, this rule does not make sense if you are living outside the United States in countries that have bad mail systems.

Even though it is an overused expression, rules were made to be broken, and there ARE exceptions to every rule. Companies should realize that exceptions happen and that rules do not always make sense for every customer in every situation.

And on another note, ARMA, Inc. would like to wish our readers a very Happy Independence Day!

Tags: exceptions to rules in customer service, rules and customer service
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Learning from the worst

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Consumer advocate Christoper Elliot lists the 10 Industries with the Worst Customer Service on Bnet.com. They are the following:

• Airlines
• Newspapers
• Subscription television service
• Wireless telephone service
• Motion pictures
• Fixed-line phone service
• Cellular telephones
• Hospitals
• Network cable TV news
• Computer software
• Limited service restaurants

What can we learn from this ranking?

Having superiority or monopoly in your field gives you little incentive to provide customer care. Cellphones, airlines and cable are industries that have little or no competition (for airlines, many times one airline will hold monopoly over certain routes).

If you don’t look after your customers interests, your industry will die a slow death. Newspapers are the prime examples of this. For years, newspapers took their subscribers for granted, bombarding them with advertising and increasing subscription prices, only to see a drop off as more subscribers turn to the Internet for news.

Carelessness costs you. Hospitals are notorious for sending bills full of mistakes.

If you are going to charge high fees, you better provide better service.  Computer software is expensive and yet tech support when something doesn’t work is hard to find.

Elliot sums it up like this:

These are industries with distinguished track records of taking their customers for granted.

Airlines, with their de-facto monopolies and powerful lobbies, don’t have much incentive to serve all but their best customers (and even then, they often do so grudgingly). Newspapers have been slow to innovate and meet the expectations of their customers, allowing online sites like this one to claim their once-loyal readers.

Many people have horror stories about any of the above industries.  Do not allow your organization to follow in their footsteps.

Tags: learning from the worst customer service, worst customer service
Posted in Customer service, customer loyalty | Comments Off

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.

Tags: automation and customer service, dealing with people in customer service
Posted in Customer service, customer loyalty, customer retention, customer satisfaction | Comments Off

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.

Tags: wait time for customer service
Posted in How to improve customer service, customer retention, customer satisfaction | Comments Off

Personality goes a long way

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Think to the outstanding customer service experiences you have had. Chances are those had one thing in common: dealing with a person with a stellar personality. You know those folks: helpful, friendly, enthusiastic. In fact, a good personality will make bad news go well.

Imagine you call a company, and the person who helps you has to tell you that what you need can’t be done. This person talks in a monotone, and seems disinterested and uncaring. Imagine the same scenario with someone who is truly apologetic and concerned. Which situation will seem bad and which will seem bearable?

Of course, personality will not compensate for inefficiency or lack of knowledge. You can be very sunny and helpful, but if you take a long time to get things done or just don’t have answers to basic questions, the customer will be put off.

Hiring people with the right personality is crucial to your customer service efforts. Personalities should match your corporate culture, however. You can’t have a really laid back personality at a high-stakes financial firm for instance. Your customers will expect to deal with someone who respects time constraints. Similarly, if you run a funeral home, you may not want a chirpy person to answer the phone. That would be jarring.

A good personality will help your customer service representatives to deal with the sometimes difficult situations that arise in the field. Personality does go a long way in resolving conflict and making things seem better.

Tags: personality and customer service
Posted in Customer service, How to improve customer service, customer satisfaction | Comments Off

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.

Tags: corporate culture and customer service, thinking customers are stupid
Posted in Customer service, General, customer retention | Comments Off

Learning from what doesn’t work, part 2

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

A recent survey by the Consumer’s Union showed exactly what is peeving customers. Christopher Elliot summarizes it in his blog post “12 Ways to Annoy a Customer” on Bnet.com.  One thousand consumers were surveyed about what irritates them, and the survey results were as follows:

1. Can’t get a human on the phone
2. Salesperson is rude
3. Many phone steps needed
4. Long wait on hold
5. Unhelpful solution
6. Salesperson is too pushy
7. Extras are pitched
8. No apology for unsolved problem
9. Can’t find store salesperson
10. Boring hold music or messages
11. Wait at counter or checkout
12. Wait for scheduled repairer

To learn from this, let’s see what are the common themes:

• Lack of respect for the customer’s time
• Rudeness
• Incompetence

Time and again, companies fail to see their service from the customer’s perspective. Customers do not want to wait for service, and when they do get service, they want that service to be efficient. It is really that simple. Again, the solution is obvious: make sure you have sufficient and well trained customer service staff. If you don’t have enough people for the amount of business you generate, you will have wait times. If you have poorly trained staff, you will provide poor or inefficient service.

Tags: consumer's union survey, fixing customer service, what annoys customers
Posted in Commentary, Customer service, How to improve customer service, customer satisfaction | Comments Off

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.

Tags: customer complaints, customer service is not what once was by Mark Hare, learning from customer complaints, Mark Hare
Posted in How to improve customer service, customer retention, customer satisfaction | Comments Off

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.

Tags: customer service metrics. customer service and social media, tips for using social media in customer service
Posted in Customer Satisfaction Programs, Customer service, customer retention, customer satisfaction | Comments Off