Customer Satisfaction

How to tell the difference between a company that cares about customer service and one that doesn’t

June 22, 2010 by Susan Getgood

A company that cares about customer service sends an apology when it inadvertently sends emails improperly addressed. For example, the JetBlue email I got this morning that apologized to customers for a systems SNAFU yesterday:

A company that doesn’t care about customer service can’t fix an error in the database used by its email marketing vendor, even after multiple requests from the customer, as reported in this post about my listing in the Avis email database. I got so sick of getting emails addressed to: GETGOOD that I unsubscribed and now primarily rent from Hertz.

A company that cares about customer service looks at the lifetime value of the customer, does what it can to make the customer happy when there’s an issue and follows up afterward. One that doesn’t won’t refund a $16.00 purchase of screen protectors that wouldn’t go on properly because you no longer have the original packaging.

In this case, it’s Verizon in both cases, but it’s the difference between Verizon customer service online (which has been GOOD whenever I call) and the local Verizon store. Customer service knows how much money we spend with Verizon for FIOS TV and Internet, a landline, a MiFi and three cell phones, two of which are smart phones with an Internet plan. The local store doesn’t give a tinker’s damn unless we are upgrading our phone.

How do you tell the difference between a company that cares about your business and one that doesn’t? And what do you do about it?

What #maytag & @dooce says about customer service in America… and it’s NOT good

August 30, 2009 by Susan Getgood

Earlier this week, a customer service nightmare erupted for Maytag when popular blogger Heather Armstrong, “dooce,” tweeted her frustration with the company’s service, or lack thereof, to her one million plus Twitter followers.

The incident raised more than a few issues, from whether celebrities have a greater responsibility for restraint in their use of social broadcasting tools like Twitter, to just what IS wrong with customer service in this country. We’ll take each of these in turn, but before you read my analysis, if you aren’t familiar with the tale, read these posts:

@dooce summarizes the tale, along with its relatively happy ending in Containing a capital letter or two
@sundry, another highly respected mom blogger, clarifies her concerns about Armstrong’s use of Twitter in To clarify
@mommymelee provides some perspective on using our powers for good in What would Peter Parker do?
And do a quick Twitter search on #maytag.

The Celebrity Effect

It’s a well-known fact. Celebrities get better customer service than the rest of us. If Caroline Kennedy, Oprah or Madonna called Maytag customer service, they probably would have had a better outcome than Heather Armstrong, even if the telerep were in Bangalore not Brooklyn. There’s real-world celebrity, and there’s web celebrity, and the reality is very few web celebrities cross that chasm.The digerati know who we, and they are, but the public at large, no.

As a result, corporate policies and processes are still trying to catch up with the effect of the web, and the social broadcasting tools at our disposal. They don’t have a good answer for Heather Armstrong or Dave Carroll (United Hates Guitars) because they don’t understand how online influence works.

Here’s the scary reality: a little influence and a good story is enough. Sure, Heather Armstrong’s one-million followers made it happen faster but even someone with far fewer followers can precipitate a customer service nightmare.

Yet, most customer service organizations are still operating under a policy that doesn’t understand the impact of social networks. I completely understand not wanting to respond to “blogger blackmail” but increasingly by the time there is more proof, it’s the VP of Customer Service and the CMO dealing with the problem, not the line.

Social networks give us all far more influence than we had before. Our words are amplified.

Responsibility and influence

Does that mean we have to exercise greater care with our online influence? I think yes. While I understand the frustration that leads to TWEETS IN ALL CAPS, Twitter is like the game of Telephone. Unlike a blog post, in which we can explain, a tweet starts with only 140 characters, and as it is retweeted, original meaning can be lost. Even if we link a post, the original link can be lost.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to tweet about customer service frustrations. We are. It does mean we have to weigh our influence before we speak, and do our best to tell the story, not just vent. Whether we have a one million Twitter followers or merely a few thousand.

We also need to collectively guard against the mob mentality. Sure, we can sympathize with a fellow blogger, but the Twitter pile-on can be a bit excessive.

Think. Before you tweet. Before you retweet. Before you respond.

The fundamental customer service problem

At the end of the day, no one should be so frustrated with customer service that they feel they need to tell 100 or 1 million of their (closest) Twitter friends. Yet it happens everyday. If it did not, @dooce’s fans would not have been so ready to jump on the maytag-hating bandwagon. It isn’t just that they love her, and she had a problem. They can identify. They’ve had a customer service nightmare too.

We know from research conducted by the Society for New Communications Research that people are increasingly willing to share their customer service experiences online. We also make purchase decisions based on the experiences of others.

That, combined with anecdotal evidence like the #maytag twitterstorm, would indicate that it is well past time for companies to develop a better response to online criticism than “sorry” and throwing tons of resources at high profile problems.

Even better, why not anticipate, and avoid, potential problems. You know, with better customer service.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

More disconnected customer service

June 15, 2009 by Susan Getgood

I like Avis well enough. They generally have reasonable prices and decent availability for the places I wish to go. But I am irritated that they have my name wrong in their promotional database — they have my first name, Susan, as my surname and my surname, Getgood, as my first name. Hence, the somewhat rude sounding salutation in the email subject line above (received today).

This would be mostly amusing, except that at one point, it prevented me from renting cars online with Avis because my Wizard number and login didn’t match in the customer database. So I contacted customer service, via email of course because the database errors prevented me from using any online mechanisms. After much back and forth, we managed to get the customer record and online login fixed. I’m pretty sure I can rent cars from Avis online, although I haven’t had the need to do so since; it was a family trip and easier to just use my husband’s account.

Apparently they couldn’t propagate the change to whatever vendor or department handles the mailing list, because sure enough, the next email campaign cheerily advised “Getgood” that I could do something or other with Avis.

So I contacted customer service again, because it just annoys me to be called by my last name, which is when I learned that the two databases were — ta-duh — separate. The customer service rep told me she’d pass the word along but there was nothing she could do personally to fix it.

DISCONNECT.

And still not fixed. Promo emails from Avis continue to be addressed to Getgood.

That makes it more than a disconnect. It’s borderline stupid.

Clearly, someone isn’t trying harder.

—

My previous post on the customer service disconnect

The customer service disconnect

June 11, 2009 by Susan Getgood

The customer service disconnect is not an unintended/accidental hang-up. Nor is it the insidious phenomenon that influential bloggers and tweeters seem to jump to the top of the queue while others languish. The “celebrity” effect has always existed, to one degree or another. Funnily enough, with social media, it has extended to a broader circle, beyond the famous to the “niche famous” like digital celebrities and other online influencers. That sort of makes it more democratic 🙂

The customer service disconnect is a far more disturbing side effect of the rise of online & social media marketing.

Specifically, it’s the disconnect between the online marketing, community engagement, shopping bots, live chat consultants and interactive advertising we experience BEFORE we purchase a product, and the lack of similar options AFTER we buy. When the only way to get satisfaction for a customer issue is to call or email the service department, and then wait, on hold or for a reply.

Customers don’t have different pre- and post-sale expectations about the product and their experience with the company. We buy a product and we expect a seamless experience. We also expect our vendors to treat us as well as customers as they did when we were prospects.

Which of course doesn’t always happen. Cell phone companies are notorious for giving better deals to new customers. Software companies often have better deals for new buyers than upgrading customers; sure, they’ll extend the better price if the customer asks for it but you have to know, to ask.

Unfortunately for the companies, it’s a whole lot easier to know all the offers on the table, for whatever sort of product, than it ever was before.

And consumers are increasingly frustrated by having to use old media to rectify problems or complete transactions, when the bulk of the interaction is on new media.

Some examples of the frustration

My son recently signed up for an online site that uses some of his personal information. Under COPA (Child Online Privacy Act), a parent has to extend permission for children under age 13. But the only way to do it was by fax or snail mail. Total disconnect for my son (and my husband and I too). Twenty-four hours later, the permission had still not been processed and my son was pissed that he couldn’t play on the site.

Catalog retailer Lands’ End does a super job all around — online marketing and customer service. Have a question while shopping? Use live chat to ask your question. Need to change an order that hasn’t been shipped? No problem. Many post-sale transactions can even be done online. When you do have to call, the telephone reps are courteous, helpful and you never have to wait.

But, good as it is, recently I had a transaction that showed that even the best have room for some simple improvements in the connection between marketing and customer service.

I’m a regular Lands’ End customer. I’m on the mailing & email list and have an account and stored preferences on the site. I’m in their system, full stop. This spring, I placed an order on a Friday evening. The same weekend, on Sunday, when I opened my email, there was a promotional email for Free Shipping, starting that day. I phoned customer service, asked for the free shipping to be applied to my order and it was with absolutely no problem. Great customer service.

Even better though would have been an email that Sunday morning telling me that because my order was placed within 48 hours of the start of the promotion, it was automatically applied and my shipping was now free. Would I like to add some items? That would be superior, unforgettable customer service.

It’s not easy

It’s not easy breaking down the functional barriers between marketing and customer service, no matter how good the company is. The larger the company, the firmer and broader the barriers between the silos. At a small to mid-sized company, odds are the players all know, or at least know of, each other. The disconnects may occur but it’s easier to sort it out when your desks or departments are side by side.

Scale up and up and up to the multi-national consumer products companies. Many outsource first line phone support and customer service lines to India and other countries with large employee pools and lower wages. But even if the functions aren’t separated by a thousand seas, often they might as well be.

Organizational barriers, language barriers, corporate politics, reorgs, workforce reductions all play a part, but the truth is that customer service and marketing probably don’t speak with each other enough. Once a year, maybe twice a year at an annual meeting that is often more a dog and pony show than an opportunity to solve mutual problems. Each side takes their assigned pieces of the puzzle and regroups internally to figure it out. Report back next year.

I’m being deliberately harsh and stereotypical. I know that many companies already try to punch through this wall in a variety of ways — multi-functional task forces, employees chartered with facilitating cross-functional communications, CRM systems that make information available across the enterprise.

I just don’t think what we’re doing so far is going to be enough in a world where one customer problem aired on a social network like Twitter or Facebook can spark a customer service conflagration. And the fire spreads pretty fast. You don’t have days to respond. If you’re lucky, a few hours. These customer brouhahas also seem to erupt on the weekends — for example, Motrin Moms. Makes sense, right. That’s when most people are catching up on their personal stuff.

Solution?

I don’t have one. Because there isn’t a one-size fits all solution here.

What is clear though is that marketing and customer service cannot waste time arguing about who owns the customer relationship. They have to put their heads together to figure out how to satisfy it in the new reality.

That may mean cross functional teams tasked with cooperating on a daily, not annual, basis. It may mean new Customer departments staffed with experts from all the disciplines. It may mean figuring out how to use the CRM system as more than a sales/marketing database.

There are as many possible solutions as there companies; every one will be different. Even if they make exactly the same products, the people are different. Within the firm and without.

In the end, it’s all about people. And our expectations.

What we don’t expect is a customer service disconnect.