Through the Eyes of the Customer

Pacifying a Customer is Never Enough; You Must Find the Root Cause of the Problem, and Fix It.

Customer complaints are often a sign of a deeper problem.

When you receive a complaint from a customer, there are essentially two main things you can do to address it:

1. Pacify the customer.
2. Identify and correct the problem that caused the complaint.

Too many organizations do the first, but never get to the second.  And maybe that’s why so few organizations actually make it to the Customer Service Hall of Fame.

 I recently had an experience on Delta Airlines that caused me to nearly miss my flight, and waste a lot of time waiting for luggage that never arrived, all because Delta failed to communicate.

Before I stepped of the final leg of my flight, I explained to the pilot what had occurred.  He agreed with my concern, and its likely cause, then handed me a business card containing the email address of the Director of Customer Service at Delta.  I sent an email to the Director, and described in detail what I believed to have caused the negative experience.

The following day, I received a response from not the Director, but a subordinate.  Here’s an excerpt (I've boldened sections for emphasis):

“We appreciate receiving your analysis of our operation. I realize you feel that we could have done better by having our flight attendants announce the connecting gates upon arrival, implement notifications to connecting flights that luggage and passengers are in route, also informing passengers if their checked bags did not make their connecting flight. Many customers share their feedback with us, and these observations oftentimes form the basis for improvements in our service. Be assured I will be forwarding your comments to our Airport Customer Service leadership team for internal follow up and future consideration.

 When our service does not meet our customer's expectations, we feel it is important to acknowledge this and appeal for a degree of understanding. As a gesture of goodwill for your suggestions, I have added 2,000 bonus miles to your SkyMiles account. Please allow three business days for the miles to appear. I realize that incentives may not erase the negative impact of your past experiences, but I hope that an immediate recognition of them will symbolize our commitment to a future partnership. “

 

Delta addressed item number one – they’ve made an effort to placate me by giving me 2,000 bonus miles.  Thoughtful as that might have been, it didn't make me feel any better about their ability to deliver a better experience in the future, should a similar situation arise.

 

It’s been 30 days, and I haven’t heard any more from Delta on this issue.

My cynical side is telling me that Delta hasn't done anything further with the feedback that I provided in that email; I suspect they'll just continue to do things the way they've been doing them, and  continue to give out more bonus miles to placate disappointed customers.

That’s no way to achieve excellence.

Any business can reduce complaints and increase satsifaction, delight and loyalty not by giving away free stuff, but by following five key steps each time a complaint is received fromm a customer:

1. Listen to the customer – don’t talk, but listen.
2. Acknowledge – make sure you fully understand the issue.
3. Offer compensation, if appropriate.
4. Determine the root cause of the problem that drove the customer to complain.
5. Close the loop by telling the customer what you’ve changed, to prevent the problem from recurring.

An infant is a pure and unbiased form of human.  When an infant cries, it's communicating that something’s wrong.  You can give the baby a pacifier, and it will stop crying for a moment.  But unless you address what’s wrong, the discomfort and the crying will return, and deeper issues can occur.

Every time a customer complains, they’re giving you a sign that there may be something wrong with your operations.  It’s up to you to find out what’s wrong, correct it, and tell your customer that you’ve taken care of the problem.    Complete follow-through will go a long way to improve the experiences you deliver, and the relationships you build.  Not to mention the health of your bottom line.

 

The Perfect Storm of the Voice of the Customer

During the past few months, we’ve seen big companies bruised in big ways by the Voice of the Customer. 

Sure, customers have always had a voice.  They’ve always been able to speak their mind; that's not new.  But what is new is the volume and the reach of their voices, and their ability to drive consumer sentiment and change in the marketplace, faster than ever before. 

On September 29, Bank of America announced that they’d be imposing a $5.00 monthly “maintenance” fee on debit cards.  Customers vociferously  voiced their concern, and  Bank of America sheepishly withdrew the decision on November 1.  Bank of America co-COO David Darnell issued a statement saying, “Our customers’ voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.”  Credit the customers with speaking up, and Bank of America - after some initial stages of tone-deafness - for listening, and more important, acting on what they heard.

In July, Netflix announced a restructuring of its services, which amounted to a 60% price increase for many of its 12 million-plus customers.  Customers immediately expressed dissatisfaction, prompting an apology from CEO Reed Hasting.  The apology was too little too late, as Netflix lost $8 Billion in market value, and upwards of 600,000 subscribers.

So what exactly is happening?

Market dynamics are changing.   The new social-media-powered voice of the customer, combined with higher expectations for better service and more respect from the companies they buy from, has created a very low margin of error for those companies. 

When a company makes a mistake today, it can quickly escalate into the Perfect Storm: 

A negative customer experience triggers an emotional spark that when fanned by the winds of social media, ignites an exposion.  

A mistake made today can cost the company a lot more than that same mistake, just ten years ago. 

This should be a wake-up call for all companies to place a higher value on the customer's point of view; to purposefully look  at more situations through the eyes of the customer before finalizing any decision.  And in some cases, actually collaborating with customers in order to determine the  right course of action.

The cost of being inwardly-focused, the cost of not being customer-focused; the cost of not engaging the customer, is becoming very expensive.  Companies that are paying attention, and working within the new dynamics are likely to prosper.

Those who don’t, well, they could lose billions in market value, and hundreds of thousands of customers.

The market dynamics are changing.  And they're changing fast.

3 Steps that Delta Airlines Could have Taken, to Create a Better Customer-Experience

If mishaps are going to happen, they'll happen when you're travelling.

Earlier this week, I flew on Delta from Orlando to Portland, Maine with a layover in Atlanta.  When I travel on business, I never check my luggage.

Just as I was about to board the plane in Orlando, I was told that there was no more room in the overhead bins, and that I’d have to check my luggage through to my final destination – the very thing I was trying to avoid, because I loathe staring idly at a luggage courosel, especially at 11:30 at night.

By the time we finally got wheels up in Orlando, we were 30 minutes behind schedule.  When we landed in Atlanta, I had a mere five minutes to make my connecting flight – the last one of the night to Portland, Maine.

Once we landed in Atlanta, I asked the flight attendant if he had the departure gate information for connecting flights.

“No - we don't always get that information."

Delta, is there any reason why you don’t ALWAYS give flight attendants the connecting gate information?  Sure, you do it sometimes, but you didn’t do it this time.  What's preventing you from doing it every time?  If it helps just  one customer, it's worth it.

So, I ran up the jetway, out into the terminal, and checked the nearest monitor… "Portland, Maine - Gate B18."  I was at gate B4, about 200 yards away.  I started running, broke a good airport sweat at about the 50-yard mark, and heard the final call for Portland.  

Without breaking stride, I cut right to dodge a set of twins from the movie "The Shining" wearing matching tank-tops and  Mickey Mouse ears, then immediately cut left to avoid running over an elderly woman in a wheelchair.   I hated to be the jerk in a hurry, but I was that guy, because a reticent Delta had me on a scavenger hunt.

I crossed the goal-line at the Portland gate just as the attendant was about the close the jetway door.  Feigning composure, I asked:

“Did anyone from Delta notify you or the flight crew that a couple of your passengers just arrived from Orlando?”

“No, they didn't.  Besides, you made it with 10 seconds to spare.”

When I stepped inside the airplane, the pilot happened to be standing by the entrance.  I asked him the same question.  His answer:

“Sometimes they tell us if we have passengers on the way from a late connection, but they don't tell us all the time.”

 “But shouldn’t they tell you every time?”

After a brief pause, he said, “Yes, they should.”

Had they done so, my luggage may have also made the connection.  It didn't, but nobody told me that either, so when I arrived in Portland at 11:30, I had to stare idly at the baggae caroulsel,  until all the luggage had arrived - except for mine.   That meant I had to waste another 15 minutes so I could complete the "lost baggage" report, because Delta never tell the Portland-bound flight crew that they had luggage on the way.

Hey Delta, you guys  had all the information in your system to know that the flight just in from Orlando had at least two passengers that were booked on the Portland flight.  Is there any good reason why you didn’t share that with the Portland crew, so that they could act on it,  and make life easier for your customers? 

The reality is, this kind of situation isn't limited to Delta, or the airline industry.  There are plenty of situations where a customer experience goes south, for lack of proper communication. 

So, what could Delta have done to prevent this kind of negative experience, and what can any company do to to improve their customers’ experiences through better communication?

1. Study the information that's gathered and created during the course of transactions, and determine where and how that information can be useful to the customer, or customer-facing employees, for the sake of the customer experience.
   
2. Create a process to make that information readily available, and be clear about the outcome that you're trying to accomplish, by sharing it.  Delta should have first shared the connecting gate information with the flight attendants, so that they could pass it on to the passengers.   Next, Delta should have informed all connecting flights waiting for Orlando passengers, that the flight had just arrived, and where feasible, to delay take-off until the passengers arrived. 
   
3. Build the information sharing and delivery into your standard procedures; don’t make it optional, because what’s optional often doesn’t get done.    If Delta can make it standard procedure to the  tell us to close our tray-tables and put our seatbacks in the upright position, they can also make it standard procedure to share connecting gate information, and “close-call arrivals” to connecting flight crews. 


Information and knowledge that's not put to productive use, is, well... useless.



Things a Pretzel Bag can Teach us about the Power of Clarity and Communication.

Most CEO's have a clear vision for their companies.  They know where they’re going, and they know how they’re going to get there.  But too often, they wind up some place else. 

While many CEO’s can craft a killer vision statement, if the front-line, customer-facing employees don't get it, company results can fall far short of expectations.

The most successful companies in any industry consistently execute on their vision, regardless of the economy or market conditions.  And they do it because that vision has been clearly communicated from the CEO throughout the organization, right down to each and every front-line employee. 

One of those companies is Southwest Airlines, and I have a pretzel bag to prove it.  More on that in a minute…

When Southwest began in 1967, their vision was “to become the low cost leader amongst the airlines.” Their original tag-line was “The speed of a plane at the price of a car.”

In the beginning, Southwest established a clear focus:  friendly service, speed and frequent point-to-point departures.

To make their strategy work – especially “at the price of (travel by) a car,” Southwest would have to keep its operating costs low.  That meant eliminating a lot of things that normally drive up costs for the traditional airline.   Lower-than-industry-average costs, and higher than the industry-average service were two elements that had to be clearly communicated from the mind of founder and CEO Herb Kelleher to the minds and hearts of the people throughout the company, if this strategy was going to work.

Everyone had to have a crystal clear understanding of the vision and the strategy, and what they had to do, to make it happen.   This is where communication normally breaks down within an organization – the CEO thinks it and speaks it,  but between  his words lose a lot of meaning, by the time they reach the people most responsible for making them a reality – the employees on the front lines.

Now, back to that pretzel bag…

A couple years ago, I was on an AirTran flight from Atlanta to Portland, Maine.  As I was opening a bag of the official in-flight pretzels, I noticed the creative copy and printing on the pretzel bag.  That custom-printed bag was memorable.

But custom-printed bags cost more money than generic bags.

Two weeks ago, I was eating another bag of pretzels on an AirTran flight.  But this time, the thrill was gone.  No more cool blue bag with the creative “Eating Instructions.”  Instead, a generic pretzel bag that left me bored and thirsty.

I asked the flight attendant what happened to famous blue AirTran pretzel bags with the Eating Instructions.  Her response was very telling:

“When AirTran was bought by Southwest last year, we stopped printing those bags as a way to save cost.  Now that we’re part of Southwest, we keep costs lower so that we can continue to offer no-fee baggage, and lower fares.”

You had to be there to appreciate it – she explained it as though it were her own idea.  That's probably because she felt like she owned it.

At 30,000 feet, while pouring a cup of coffee for another passenger, this AirTran flight attendant that was part of Southwest for less than a year, was already fluent in the Southwest culture and corporate strategy.

That’s what clear communication can do. 

And when the front line employees have such a clear understanding of the corporate strategy that they can act it out unconsciously, it shows up in the bottom line:

According to Jim Collins’ new book, Thriving in Uncertainty, $10,000 invested in Southwest in 1972 would be worth nearly $12 million by the end of 2002. That’s a performance better than GE, Intel, Wal-Mart and Disney. 

That's also what clear communication can do.

How clearly is the strategic vision communicated within your company?  Can every employee explain it in their own words?  Can they explain how their actions contribute to fulfilling that vision on a daily basis?  What if a customer asked one of your employees a question about your "pretzel bags?"  Would the employee know the answer, and "own" the answer?

 

When CEO Herb Kelleher communicates, his employees hear and own the vision.

Small things Create BIG Impressions, even if its just a Small Cup of Coffee.

Small things create big impressions.  And the impressions define the experience.

This past week, I travelled to Miami, Florida to deliver a presentation on the Human Side of Service.  Traveling outside of one’s normal routine can make one more sensitive to that which one doesn’t normally encounter; travel offers the opportunity to experience the remarkable.

One such incident occurred on the first leg of my JetBlue flight from Portland, Maine to JFK Airport in New York, before transferring on to Ft. Lauderdale.  Portland to JFK is about an hour, and the beverage choices on those flights are usually limited by the time factor.

At about 30,000 feet over Massachusetts, a flight attendant asked me what I’d like to drink.

Me:        “Coffee with cream, please.”

He:         “Sir, we don’t serve coffee on these shorter flights, but if you don’t mind waiting about ten minutes, I’ll be happy to go back and make a pot for you.”

Wow.   An offer of personalized service on flight of over 100 passengers!  That was pretty cool!!

In prior experiences on PWM to JFK, or PWM to LGA (LaGuardia Airport in New York), when I requested coffee, the response was more like, “I’m sorry sir, but we don’t have coffee on this short a flight; may I offer you juice, water or soda?”

Now, that’s a perfectly polite and reasonable response.  But it’s not in any way remarkable.  But when a flight attendant offers to ditch the standard practice, and go out of his or her way to please the customer, now that’s remarkable!

And it’s the remarkable stuff that gets repeated, and gets passed on in word-of-mouth conversation.

So, this is a pretty simple concept, right?  But if it’s so simple, everyone’s probably doing it, right?

Well, they’re really not, and that’s why it is so remarkable.  And that’s good news for the companies that are willing to be systematic about identifying the opportunities in their businesses, where small things can make BIG impressions.

Here’s an easy way to make it happen:

1. Ask all the customer-facing employees in your company, what the top five requests are that you get from customers.  I’m talking about those requests for which your answer can vary. 
2. Then based on the answers you receive, compile a list of the top ten.
3. Then give the list of the top ten back to those employees.  Challenge them to work as a group to come up with three “remarkable” responses for each of the ten questions.

You’ll accomplish three things in the process:

1. You’ll teach your employees to think more like customers; to put themselves in the customers’ shoes, and determine the kind of a response that would really impress them, as customers.  As a result of this, your employees will become more customer-centric.  And that’s a good thing.
2. You’ll generate alignment among your employees, by getting them to think together, as a group, with the common objective of delighting the customer.  Alignment is a key factor in customer-centric organizations.
3. Finally, you’ll come up with 30 ways to engage and delight a customer, to create positive word of mouth.

It's the remarkable things that we remember, which often influence our next purchase decision:

  

3 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Target When Bad Things Happen

When bad things happen that affect your customers, you've got to handle it right, or risk losing a lot of customers.  The latest victim on the company side seems to be Target. 

 

But how a company responds when bad things happen makes all the difference in the world.  This customer's story says it well:

 Brielle deMartino, 23, from Del Ray Beach, Fla., was so excited that she woke up at 6 a.m. on the launch day and spent $700 on Missoni clothes, a bike and plates. The next day, she got an email from Target that her on-line order was cancelled. Then, she spent hours on the phone with Target customer service representatives she describes as unapologetic.

"I have never been treated like this," says deMartino, who got the charges removed from her card after calling her bank and posted on Facebook and Twitter about the ordeal. "Instead of taking responsibility, they didn't care. I have always been pro-Target, but I don't want to give my money to a company like that again.''

While Target made the apology from a corporate level, it appears to have done a poor job at the one-to-one level.   I’m talking about those individual situations in which a Target representative is engaging with a Target customer – typically a Target Customer Service Rep, talking to an upset customer.

The contrition exhibited at the executive-level didn't seem to find its way down to the Customer Service Level.  And it’s at ground level, where most customers are lost most often.

So, what 3 things can a company do, to avoid becoming a similar “Target” of consumer angst when something goes wrong?

1. Be sure the spirit of contrition is communicated top-to-bottom. 
As the CEO delivers a public apology, be sure that same spirit of "I'm sorry" has been communicated consistently, from the CEO level, all the way down through to the front lines.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to have happened with Target.

2. Invest more time training front-line employees on the art of empathy. 
All too often, employees are taught to explain policies and procedures to the customer, as the actual cause of why the bad stuff happened.  And the explanations are often delivered with an “it’s not my fault” tone. 

But what the human in the customer craves at this point is empathy and understanding.  Train the CSR’s to shut up, listen and agree with the customer that their situation stinks, and that you genuinely want to make it better.  And here’s the financial beauty in this approach:  It carries no cost – it doesn’t cost any more for a CSR to show real empathy, and admit fault, as it does to come across as not caring.

When a customer feels this simple sense of caring, their attitude toward the company can shift 180 degrees.

3. Conduct regular check-ups with the CSRs, during the storm.  
Throughout the day, bring groups of CSR’s together for 10-minute huddles to discuss calls that went well, and calls that went poorly.  Share the knowledge and experience on what works, so more agents can do more of it.

When bad things happen in big companies – and not so big ones – an executive apology is just the beginning.   Carry the spirit of contrition down to the employees on the front lines; train them to engage with real empathy, and follow-up regularly. 

Show true, human-to-human caring for customers, and you'll love watching them grow.

 
Thanks to Amy Kidd Photography, for this picture of genuine empathy.

 

What do the US Post Office and Borders have in Common?

They lived by paper, and they died by paper.

The Post Office sells communication services, but only when the communication is printed on paper. Borders sold reading, but only (mostly) when the reading was done from paper. 

According to an Associated Press article, Border’s is "a victim of a shift in the industry brought on by customers who'd much rather read their favorite titles on an electronic book or tablet computer than turn the page on a paperback.”

The Post Office and Borders built their businesses around a product, instead of a solution. When companies are built to deliver solutions instead of selling products, changing products is easy, because it’s a step toward improving the solution.

But when companies are built to sell products, changing the product means changing the company, and that’s hard.  So when customers want their solutions to be delivered differently, product-centric companies experience problems, while solution-centric companies experience growth.

 
 

When You Speak, Does your Customer Really Hear You? Really?

When you communicate, do you communicate in the context of you, or do you communicate in the context of your customer?

This past Sunday, my wife and I, along with another couple drove to Central Maine to look at some possible vacation rentals for the summer of 2012.   Before starting the trip, we identified several properties that we wanted to see, and downloaded and printed directions to each of the properties, as listed on the realtor’s website.

Now, if you’ve ever searched for a “camp” in the state of Maine, you’ll know that camps are not given an address that makes them findable with a GPS.  Instead, camps tend to be off of an unpaved emergency access right-of-way, called a “fire road.”   To find a camp, you must rely on directions from someone who’s been there before; someone like the listing realtor.

The challenge is that many of the local realtors don’t see the area from the same perspective as the people “from away.”  They see it through the lens of a local resident who’s been living in the area for years, and who knows what it means to bear left just past the spot where the Tasty Freeze used to be.

Our search for these camps became more of a scavenger hunt, as  we deciphered the directions from the realtor, and applied equal parts logic and orienteering skills.  Ultimately, we found each of the camps, but not describing the realtor in some choice terms.

The realtor communicated directions in her own local context,  rather than in a more universally understood context that would make life easy for the customer from away.

When we think about the customer experience, we often think about sales and support processes; those person-to-person, live interactions that occur between buyer and seller.  And we often overlook those events that happen when we’re not present; those events that most definitely occur when the customer is on their own, trying to figure out how to understand your invoice, open the package, or assemble the *&^%$#  product.

When our communication fails for lack of the right context, our message isn’t received, the expected outcome of the communication is lost, and we can erode trust and credibility.

So what can you do, to deliver your message in a way that the customer is sure to understand as you intend it?

Begin by putting yourself in the customer’s place.   Think from the customer’s perspective, and understand their starting point.  The customer’s level of knowledge probably isn’t the same as yours, so here’s where you need to cater the customer by fitting yourself into their shoes, and thinking like they think.  After you’ve done this, and while you’re still standing in their shoes, go ahead and craft your message.

Use terminology that will be familiar to the customer.  Don’t allow yourself to use acronyms and phrases that are the arcane language of your craft, even if you think that will  give your credibility by sounding like an expert – it won’t.  Customers will judge you more on your ability to help them understand what they need to know, than by using the language that they don’t know.

Finally, confirm that your message was received, understood, and enables your customer to take action.

Sure, these are all  common sense points that may not merit a blog post,  right?   But then why do they get violated so often, by so many of us, in so many ways?

When we communicate, we’re doing it for our audience – not for ourselves. Our communication should lead our customer down a clear and simple path to a happy destination.

 

3 Restaurant Practices that build a better Customer Experience in any Industry

This past Saturday night, my wife and I had dinner at a popular local restaurant.  When I first made the reservation, I was told they could seat us at 8pm, in "the chef's corner."

I didn't know what the "chef's corner" was, but being desperate for a last minute reservation at a popular restaurant on a Saturday night, I agreed to sit there.

"The chef's corner at eight sounds great.  We'll see you then."

The chef's corner turned out to be four stools at a granite counter-top, overlooking the grill and the food prep area, just a few feet from the chefs.   These seats gavie us a fascinating perspective on the live creation of a dining experience.   If you're a baseball fan, this was the dining-out equivalent of watching a game from inside the home team's dugout.  From where you're sitting, you can learn a lot about the details that make the entire event successful.

Throughout our meal, we were able to listen in on the short but highly communicative conversations between servers and chefs about customer preferences.  Everyone had a job to do, everyone worked at a fast pace, but nobody worked in a silo - all jobs were tightly-connected through constant communication.

Point #1:  Remove the walls between your functional employees to facilitate more open communication between different functions.  This will increase the alignment between what you deliver, and your customers' preferences.

As we dined, we were able to watch several different entres from the menu be prepared by the chefs. During a rare lull in the action, I asked a chef how often the menu changes, and if it's a challenge to learn each new recipe.   His response was very telling:

"One of the great things about working here is that we have a lot of say in what makes it onto the menu, and also how we can prepare it.  Basically, the owner gives us a lot of flexibility to do it the way we think the customers will like it."

Point #2: Empower employees to make more decisions, and use their own judgement.
This formula appears to work for David's 388.  They have loyal customers, and it's often difficult to get a reservation.  The servers have personalities, and they're not afraid to use them.  The kitchen staff is creative,  and they're free to apply use their creativity to please their customers.  Management recognizes this, and they leverage it quite well.  We enjoyed how our meal was prepared and served, and we plan to return.

As the mood became more subdued later in the evening, one of the chefs asked a server to change the music that was playing.  "Go to play-list 17,"  he said, as he glazed a creme brule.

I asked him what that was about; he explained that they'll change playlists a lot throughout the evening, to suit and create a mood in the restaurant.  "It's kind of a balance thing, and we always try and figure out what works best as the crowds change each night."

Point #3: There are a lot of touchpoints that exist between your business and your customers.  Know each touchpoint, how they impact the customer, and continually adjust them to optimize the experience.

Dining in the chef's corner gave my wife and me a deeper understanding of the elements that contribute to a wonderful dining experience.  Many of those, including open communications between functional departments, empowered employees to exercise judgement and decision-making, and continual refinement of customer touch-points can be applied in virtually any industry.  

Do these things consistently, and your customers are bound to return for seconds.  

Sitting in the Chef's Corner allowed us learn the recipe for a better customer experience.

How Functional Silos Can Kill the Customer Experience ... and 3 Steps to Avoid Catastrophie)

 
I hate to sound negative in a blog post - after all, nobody likes to listen to a whiner.

But my recent infuriating experience with FairPoint  Communications was caused by such blatant disregard for the basics, that I'd feel  irresponsible if I didn't call them out.

Here’s how it began…

I had no dialtone on my office phone.  So, I called Fairpoint Customer Support at 866-984-2001.

A recording instructed me to call a different number -866-984-1611 - if I needed technical support, or wanted to report a problem.

 STEP # 1:
Even if you operate out of functional silos, don't make it ugly for your customers by making us take extra steps.  Connect your different departments through seamless phone transfers, and simple information sharing.  Make it easy for me, by linking that second number to the first, so that all I have to do is “press X” for technical support.   Fairpoint is a phone company after all, so they should be able to do that, right?

Matt, the tech support rep, was a nice enough guy, who quickly told me that there were no outages reported in my area, and that therefore, there may be an isolated issue around the utility pole  outside my home.   He told me that I would need to speak with the repair group, and he would transfer me there immediately.  (Great, he’s going to transfer me.  At least I don’t have to dial a third phone number, myself.)

After a brief silence, Donna answered the phone.  Here first question to me was:

“Sir, can you tell  me what phone number you’re reporting an issue with, along with your name and address?”

My response:  I just gave all that information to  the last person that I spoke to.

She:       “I realize that sir, but I need to have that information as well, because I don’t have any of the information that you gave to customer service.  We’re a different group.”

Do whatever you can, to appear like one single harmonious company to the customer, even if you don’t operate that way internally!

STEP # 2:
Don’t force your customers to repeat their stories.  Every company on the planet should know by now that customers hate that.  As customers, we don’t want to have to think  that we’re dealing with multiple companies.  The fact that you don’t share information internally shouldn’t be the customer’s problem.

Invest in some very basic CRM or Call Center technology so that you can share customer information across your functional silos. 

The first two minutes of my conversation with Donna was spent re-telling all the details that I explained to Matt.  Each time Donna asked me for more information, I reminded her that I already gave that information to the last Fairpoint representative I spoke to.  Sure, Donna probably thought I was a pain.  But she was very blunt about it not being her fault, and couldn’t I understand that?  She had a point – the fact that I had to re-tell my story wasn’t her fault.

STEP # 3:
Donna was forced to do her job with inferior tools.  This made life ugly for Donna, and ugly for her customer.   But instead of denying responsibility, Donna should have simply commiserated with the customer, by showing some empathy:  “I apologize, but our systems are not able to transfer that information to me, so I’m going to have to ask you to repeat it.”

Nothing elaborate; just  a simple acknowledgement to let me know that she appreciates the inconvenience I’m subject to.   If your systems and processes cause any inconvenience to your customer, train your customer-facing employees to openly acknowledge it, and show some empathy. 

A little empathy goes a long way to create good will, and clean up a customer service mess.