Customer Service

Surprisingly great example of how to treat customers (thanks to Evolving Excellence)…surprising because it is coming out of the airline industry.  Some true servant leadership is being displayed by United Airlines captain Denny Flanagan.  Imagine being stuck at the airport and having the captain buy you lunch?  (insert your own joke about pigs flying here).

An example of un-servant leadership (?) (disservice leadership?) was displayed here.  This is a situation that should have every business saying, "make sure we never put someone through this."  (it’s all about micro-interactions, right?)

And, for more info on how to succeed in providing a positive customer experience, check out this free pamphlet-book-handout thingy (only 12 pages): "The 6 Laws of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths that Define how Organizations Treat Customers".  One item author Bruce Temkin discusses in this booklet is the importance of everyone in an organization understanding customers:

Since many of the decisions that impact customers aren’t debated or discussed, they just happen, it helps for as many people as possible to understand customers.

And continuing my stream-of-consciousness, Bruce’s discussion reminded me of this white paper (Zero Time Thinking), which I read nearly eight years ago, about "zero-time" organizations, which are capable (empowered) to bring all necessary resources to bear on any situation to solve problems or customer needs.

How about that for an onslaught of customer experience thoughts!

I just received an email in my inbox regarding a (complimentary) magazine subscription that states:

You have been part of a select group of senior IT professionals who rely on [Magazine Name] to bring them 50 issues per year loaded with unique editorial and in-depth analysis for business technology buyers.

Okay, so how big is a "select group"?  Let’s imagine it’s 100.  So is there really a company that’s willing to produce 50 complimentary issues of a magazine that is "loaded" with stuff for only a select group of people?  C’mon.  I will continue to subscribe to this complimentary magazine, but not because I feel like I’m in a "select group" of people who are receiving it.  If I were really in a select group, would I receive an impersonal email about my subscription?  Don’t associate the wrong kind of value with the message being delivered.  There is nothing "select" about being on an email blast.

If you truly value your customers, that’s great.  Then make sure the delivery method and message match appropriately.  A phone call makes me feel a little more select (unless it’s coming from a hired call center, of course).  If you are going to throw out a mass email, don’t try to persuade the recipient that they really are special with your words.

What you are shouts so loudly in my ears that I cannot hear what you are saying. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are an email, you’re not fooling anyone with your fancy wording!

I’d better take a deep breath. And before I go into my experience, suffice it to say that I did fill out a feedback form on the company web site, so I am at least trying to do due diligence in giving them an opportunity to improve. But some of these opportunities for improvement seem so obvious, I can’t believe I have to write about them.

Yesterday, I went to renew my McAfee product. I’m going to bullet this to try to keep myself brief:

• Initial renewal screen offers me new products, but no comparison to my existing product
• “Comparison” chart is two links deep, and only offered in a small link that you have to search for on the right side of the screen called “Product Comparison”
• “Product Comparison” screen provides me zero detail, or even a link to detail, about the individual components of the products (what is “Improves PC Health” exactly? and what is “Site Advisor Plus” and why does it not even show that some of the products come with “Site Advisor” and what’s the difference between the two?)
• I had to call sales to get a description of the detail
• Finally, I decided on my product, and conveniently in my shopping cart for me was a $12.95 recovery CD, even though I’m pretty sure I could always download the product if I needed it.
• Made my purchase, and then viewed my products available for downloading (see pic below).

• Clicked the “Download/Install” button and the installation process would begin.
• Installation would be about 95% complete when I would receive a cryptic “Download error: 12002”
• Spent 40 minutes in two separate online chat conversations with tech support, and at least an extra hour on my own fiddling with stuff trying to get it to install
• Finally found out from tech support that since my new product subscription doesn’t start until 5/2/2008, that the installation won’t work until then…well why even have a download button!? Why even get me 95% through the installation and then provide a message that amounts to “something’s broken”!? How about a message that says, “This won’t work until your start date.”

And how about actually talking to someone, rather than on online chat. Which reminds me of an interesting thing I learned from Fast Company’s Bill Taylor a couple weeks ago at the Advance conference (put on by Maximum Impact). There’s a web site with “codes” for many companies to get past the phone menus and talk to a real live person! Wow! The site is www.gethuman.com.