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Stop Thinking Short-Term
Author: Jeannie Walters
June 24, 2009
I had the privilege of attending the all-city Chicago Vistage meeting last week. While it was great to meet other like-minded business leaders, it was most compelling because of the speaker, Alan Beaulieu. Alan and his twin brother are economists who provide forecasts for companies, organizations, and even governments through their company, the Institute for Trend Research.
If you’re thinking “you lost me at ‘economist’” then we are kindred spirits. It’s not my thing. But he was powerful in his predictions, and I’ve been thinking about the discussion ever since. I admit, when he first began speaking about 2011 and the future, I was growing uncomfortable. What about NOW? What about TODAY?
But his focus was on beyond. What happens beyond Chicago, beyond the United States, beyond 2011, beyond this economic turmoil in which we’ve been immersed.
It’s so tempting to think short-term. So many organizations are focused on the immediate realities of our world today. Even the “unsinkable” companies of past generations are looking at how to make the next payroll; how to pay off the latest debt; how to cut the costs FAST.
When it comes to customer experience, it’s easy to fall into short-term thinking. Here are some examples:
- Promotion without strategy – customers can smell desperation and often exploit it. Know your limits and understand your desired pay-off before promoting something too quickly. (KFC!)
- Talking without listening – Executives who decide what to say to customers without talking to them first will have a hard time appealing to them. (MotrinMoms learned this the hard way.)
- Sacrificing current, loyal customers for the sake of acquiring new customers – AT&T recently retreated on their original iPhone policy in response to the outcry from current customers.
- Finally – this one is a personal favorite – treating social media as the end-all of customer communications. Social media is a fabulous tool, as I discuss here, but it’s just that – a tool. It’s part of a larger strategy of connecting with customers in powerful ways to naturally create loyalty and retention. If there is no larger strategy at work, social media will be a way to possibly connect with a segment of customers, and that’s only if it’s executed well. If not, it’s just another tool being underutilized.
So, as hard as it is, I believe we all have to start looking at beyond. Take a minute, map out where you want to go with your experience strategy, and then take the steps to get there. I feel better already.
Emotionally Connecting With Customers Through Social Media
Author: Jeannie Walters
June 18, 2009
Yesterday at a conference, I was peppered with questions about WHY small and growing businesses should enter into social media. This video from a few weeks ago helps answer some of those questions. But it’s important to note that it’s always wise to think of the WHY prior to jumping into the HOW.
4 Ways Real Companies are Dealing with Customer Experience TODAY
Author: Jeannie Walters
June 11, 2009
Let’s not whitewash it. It’s a scary world right now. Everyday, we’re absorbing news via all our devices and witnessing low quarterly earnings, uncertain futures, and friends and family being laid off. It’s easy to just keep going through the motions of cutting expenses, limiting focus to “critical” activities, and just making sure the boss is content.
And yet some companies are innovating right now. Here’s a sampling of how some of them are working on the customer experience (and action you can take) TODAY.
1. Take one small step. A client of ours is focusing on their e-commerce strategy. With limited resources, they are making small changes to their e-commerce process to ensure customers have a better, faster checkout process. This has led to improved conversion, cross-sell and up-sell numbers via the web site.
2. Unite! One organization asked us to come in and rally the troops around customer experience. Summer is their big season, so we are helping every person at the organization - from the CEO to the janitorial staff - understand their place within the customer experience. It’s helped them create a common language and improve their own service standards.
3. Focus on the future. One client in a very hard-hit industry is creating a 3-year plan to get ready for the future. Dabbling in new ways to connect with customers, testing theories, and gathering feedback, they’re able to set the stage for success instead of stagnate where they are.
4. Communicate. Many industries have been hit hard, resulting in difficult times for customers and employees. The focus right now for a client in such an industry is on engaging their employees to deliver a superior customer experience. How? By implementing ways to stay connected through dialogue and communication that’s honest, compelling and relevant. They’re asking employees to celebrate each other and their little victories in new ways. Engagement is up and customers are remaining loyal, even through bad news cycles.
These aren’t costly, cumbersome projects. These are lean and flexible in response to the times we’re in. Anything you can take away here to get started? Let me know.
Not “Technically” Fraud
Author: Peggy Entrop
April 23, 2009
I shop online. A lot. This makes me somewhat paranoid about my credit card numbers being stolen. I know that most online sites are secure, but I still check my accounts daily to make sure nothing fishy is going on.
This morning I saw a charge I didn’t recognize, so I called Bank of America and spoke to an extremely helpful fraud claims rep. She immediately identified the claim with no help from me. “Are you calling about the $14.95 charge on April 21st?”
Yep!
She told me some things that shocked me.
(1) It’s not technically fraud. YES - I didn’t authorize the charge. But, what most likely happened was that I bought something from Company A that sold my credit card number to Company B who started charging me monthly for a service that I knew nothing about. And, I technically authorized the charge by doing business with Company A.
(2) She gets calls reporting these kinds of charges every single day.
(3) She told me that if I called the company and asked for a refund of all charges, they would immediately give them to me because, “They know you didn’t ask for their services.”
(4) She advised me to ask them which company gave them my credit card information so that I can be cautious when dealing with that company in the future. This kind of charge happened to her once, and it was Best Buy that sold her card number.
(5) All this is legal.
So, I called the company, told them I wanted all my money back and no future charges. They folded immediately and gave me the refund. They told me it was YourCableStore.com that gave them my number. (I bought a stereo headphone adapter from them a month ago.) And they sent me an oddly delightful cancellation confirmation email:
The irony of this situation is that even though my “membership experience” was based on what I feel are duplicitous practices, it was much easier to resolve the situation with them than it was to cancel my AOL membership, or my 24 Hour Fitness membership. And, at least their exit communication was well written and even gave me the opportunity to provide them with “comments or suggestions.” (I remember my AOL confirmation email as essentially saying, “You are dead to us.”)
The real losers in this scenario are the companies that are getting my business honestly with their right hand and quietly scamming me with their left. What kind of customer relationship does that build? Will I ever buy from YourCableStore.com? No way. And now even Best Buy is even looking fishy to me, because my friend at BofA warned me.
Happy Customer Loyalty Month!
Customer Loyalty Month
Author: Peggy Entrop
April 10, 2009
April is Customer Loyalty Month!
Here at Vox, we talk a great deal about how simple improvements to the customer experience can increase customer loyalty and therefore profitability. Giving people a personal touch is often the key in creating the kind of relationships that will win a loyal customer.
What simple things do you do to keep your customers coming back for more?
How do you build relationships with them?
How do you repair relationships that may be on rocky ground?
Leave a comment with your tips on building customer loyalty!
Are Customer-Indifferent Companies Getting the Message? Evidence is Mixed.
Author: Bill Cusick
February 5, 2009
We’ve all heard the nightmare customer stories about a handful of companies: Comcast, AT&T, and Dell to name just a few. The complaints are myriad - everything from labyrinthine call center menus, to poor service, to general belligerence. While we’ve all heard the stories, the question is: have Comcast, AT&T, and Dell listened, and are they doing something about it?
Of course I’m just picking on those three, but they serve as appropriate effigies to whack around when spotlighting poor customer service and relationships. There are indications that at least these poster children are taking steps to hone their customer experience efforts. Dell and Comcast have both had strong presences on Twitter and other social media sites, encouraging more real-time conversations with groups of engaged customers and nipping some customer service issues in the bud, before they become viral PR problems. Dell’s gone so far as to offer exclusive discounts to the influencer on Twitter.
Anecdotally, I just heard from a colleague who described a very recent call into Comcast. My friend procrastinated and approached the call with trepidation based on previous experience. Consider his surprise then, when the service rep he dealt with was pleasant and knowledgeable spending almost 40 minutes on the call answering questions, and even called back the next day at a prearranged time to be sure she could help him through the entire situation. Crazy, right?
And what of AT&T? The partnership with Apple on the iPhone caused much head shaking among those who had personal experience with some of AT&T’s past service issues (as well as its predecessors Ameritech and SBC). And a quick scan of the webosphere confirms that despite some limited activity in social media, they still have a long way to go. In fact they were just passed by Sprint in terms of service and overall customer satisfaction.
So the consensus is, there is no consensus. Until the senior management of each company makes a sincere commitment to honestly recognize and acknowledge the issues and puts real resources and muscle behind improving the situation (which looks to be the case with Comcast, Dell and Sprint), no amount of lip service to customer satisfaction will make a lick of difference.
Follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bill1vox
Jewel-Osco, Chase and Employee Indifference
Author: Peggy Entrop
February 3, 2009
What happens when you have a great website, great ads, but a terrible in-person, face-to-face customer experience?
That’s a dumb question, right?
Every few weeks, my coworker and I run to the grocery store to stock our office kitchen. We usually spend a couple of hundred dollars. We started doing this after a really fantastic new Jewel-Osco grocery store opened up right up the street.
The new grocery store is gigantic. It’s clean. It has an amazing selection. And, it has the grumpiest, meanest, rudest cashiers known to man. I learned awhile ago that I’m much better off going to the self-check-out, because then I won’t have to deal with the cashiers.
Guess what will happen when another option for getting our groceries presents itself?
That’s a dumb question, too.
Perhaps no-one needs customer loyalty more than banks right now. So, what are banks doing to win our trust and secure our loyalty?
A co-worker relayed this story of her recent trip to a Chase branch:
There was nowhere to sign in or anyone to direct me, so I walked up to teller. After a few minutes, I was asked if I needed help, but when I answered “Yes,” the lady answered a phone, and apparently forgot she had already asked me if I needed help, because a few moments later, she asked me once more.
She then went into the banker’s cubicle for a couple minutes, came back out and walked right past me, obviously forgetting what she went in for.
Finally, she saw that I was still waiting and went back into the banker’s cubicle. When she came out she told me that he would be with me shortly and walked away.
I waited in the seating area as another customer came in to see a banker. When the lady came back only two minutes later and saw me in the sitting area, she asked if I had been seen yet! I said no-by now very annoyed.
When I finally saw the banker, I was rushed out of the banker’s cubicle so that he could go to lunch.
I decided to never go to that Chase location again.
What really bothers us as customers more than employee indifference? What are businesses doing to engage and empower their employees?
Follow Peggy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/entrop
Expectations Are Important, Right?
Author: Peggy Entrop
January 29, 2009
My best friend’s older brother graduated from high school 2 years early and went to Harvard on a full-ride scholarship. He is now an international financial advisor, living abroad. Her younger sister has a degree in physics from MIT. But, sadly, my friend *ONLY* became an architect.
We laugh about this a lot, because I consider her to be very successful, but she often comments on having middle-child syndrome.
How hard do you have to try, then? Is there a minimum standard of success that applies to everyone, across the board?
In the U.S. hotel industry, the system seems a little bit more clear-cut. There are seemingly endless websites filled with customer feedback and ubiquitous star-ratings. But how does all that translate into expectations?
What are your expectations when you visit a hotel with a low star rating?
One hotel in New York claims that since they are a 1-star hotel, they shouldn’t be criticized for having “1-star standards” (like dead bodies and filthy rooms). “What do you expect for $99.23 a night?”
But, if you talk to some people that regularly stay at 5-star hotels, their expectations may seem so astronomical that no hotel could ever exceed them.
How important is it, then, to realize that all businesses aren’t judged by the same standards. You have to understand what your customers expect and exceed those expectations consistently.
Marriott vs. Hilton: Customer Satisfaction or Self-Satisfaction?
Author: Ryan Cleek
January 27, 2009
In response to my previous post, 3 Common Problems With Satisfaction Surveys, I received forwarded emails from Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors members. Both Marriott and Hilton are competing for the rank of Best Hotel Program in the Freddie Awards. So, each company sent emails in an attempt to convince customers to vote for them.
Here’s a summary:
- Marriott says they have quick service, mobile access, better points redemption, and more flexibility
- Hilton offers free nights with no blackout dates, and claims to have more awards from J.D. Power and Associates
- I don’t care. Not even a little bit
The real question is: why should we, the customers, take the time to vote? Personally, I can’t think of a single reason. As a customer, I expect and tolerate marketing materials because that’s what companies do, and because it shows that they value my business. But these emails aren’t asking for my business, they’re asking for a favor.
Why should I rate you a 10?
- What do I get in return?
- How will your program improve if you win?
- Will prices go down?
Fun fact about the author:
I only give money to panhandlers who impress me with wit, talent, or ingenuity.
Why the Nice Factor Matters
Author: Jeannie Walters
January 26, 2009
A few months ago, I started parking at a cash-only lot down the street. It was ok, but the parking attendant was somewhat grumpy and I didn’t always feel good about parking there. Something was, I don’t know, unsettling. I would park there when I didn’t have other options, but usually I avoided it.
Recently, a big sign promoted “Under New Management,” and I tried it out again. Same price (and a recent increase) but the whole experience is better. I thought about it today on my walk to the office. It comes down to the guy. He greets me with a smile, says, “Good Morning,” and is generally pleasant.
That’s enough. It’s earned my loyalty. He is happy to have my business, and it shows. It’s not a process or a system - it’s a smile. And sometimes, that’s all it takes.
