When I arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport last week to check in for my Delta flight, I had one of those high-stress moments: the self-service kiosk wouldn’t print my boarding pass, and the line to the ticket counter stretched halfway to my final destination.
But the really frustrating part was that the same thing was happening to other people, and there were no Delta employees roaming the kiosk floor to help us. So many self-service kiosks, but so few delivering any value for Delta, or its customers.
But it didn’t have to be that way.
There’ve been other times in other airports where I’ve noticed one or more ticketing agents out from behind the counter, assisting and encouraging passengers to use of the kiosks. That’s a smart idea!
By adding some live human assistance to an otherwise purely technological transaction, Delta could get a lot more mileage out of the self service kiosks. Sure, it seems counter-logical (pun intended), to add human costs back into the deployment of a self-service initiative. But by paying one more ticketing agent to assist passengers at the kiosks, Delta would be coming out ahead in two ways:
They’d process more passengers faster.
Their customers would have a far better experience, and greater impression that Delta cares.
In her recent blog post, Kerry Bodine of Forrester Research talks about how Apple combines human beings with technology to enhance the customer experience in the Apple retail stores.
This addition of humans to a technology-centric process may seem like it’s going backwards, and defeating the whole purpose of “self service,” but think about it for a moment:
What’s the ultimate goal of customer service? To reduce costs, or to improve the experience of the customer, and the brand equity of your company?
Real humans, effectively combined with technology, can give us both.
If you’ve ever had a flight cancelled, chances are you’ve experienced the dark side of customer service.
That’s exactly what I expected when I received a text from United Airlines Wednesday morning, telling me that my 5:30pm flight from Chicago to New York was cancelled due to severe weather conditions. But instead of the dark side, I saw the light; exactly how good customer service can be when the agent cares, and is equipped with the tools to do whatever it takes to solve the customers’ problems.
After receiving the cancellation text from United, I quietly left the meeting room to call Orbitz Customer Service, to find another flight home. I reached a live agent in less than two minutes, even though the message told me there was a six-minute hold time.
I called from my cell phone in a section of a hotel conference center, where the signal was weak at best. The agent said three times, “Hello, please speak up – I can’t hear you.”
In the past, if a customer service rep couldn’t hear me, they politely apologized, and hung up to take their next inbound call. The bad connection was seen as my problem; not theirs.
But Heather from Orbitz didn’t do what most customer service agents have done. She said, “Sir, I can’t hear you, because you must have a poor signal on your cell phone. Please go to a spot where there’s a better signal, and I’ll call you back in two minutes.”
I went up the escalator, and over by a window where the signal was stronger. Precisely two minutes later, my cell phone rang – it was Heather. She assessed the situation (customer calling from cell phone, weak signal) and took ownership of the problem.
I told Heather my situation, and she listened. I told her that I’d like to be on the first available flight, Thursday morning. She told me that there were no United flights available until Friday; that the only way for me to get a Thursday flight home would be if airline would accept my United ticket. That would take several phone calls, and a lot of hold time. But Heather promised that she’d make the calls, and get back to me with an update.
I told Heather that I would be in meetings and unable to take a phone call. “Could you send me a text message instead?”
“No, but I can update you via email. Don’t worry Mr. Watson – go back to your meetings, and I’ll take care of this. I’ll update you when I have more information.” I didn’t expect this level of service, when I bought my flights on line through discount broker. But I wasn’t going to question my good fortune.
Forty-five minutes later, I received an email from Heather – she said she booked me on Delta’s first flight Thursday morning. That email was followed by another, containing a confirmation number and updated itinerary.
Life was near normal again, thanks to a customer service representative that took ownership of my problem so that I didn’t have to worry about it. Heather at Orbitz had made my life a lot easier, and guess who’s now going to buy more of his airline tickets through Orbitz?
Thanks to Orbitz Customer Service for restoring my calm after the storm. And thanks to pixdaus.com for an equally soothing image!
I've been spending this week at a conference in Chicago. Trade shows and conferences are interesting places; everyone there has a motive - learning, selling or job-seeking.
If you've ever been a vendor at a trade show, you're probably familiar with the challenge: striking up conversations with complete strangers, qualifying them as potential customers, and leaving a credible impression in a short amount of time, so they’ll remember you after they’ve returned to their office. I’ve never been speed-dating, but I suspect similar skills apply.
To be successful, you’ll need to make the most of a short encounter by asking good questions, listening carefully to the answers, and managing the conversation toward a desired outcome, while establishing yourself as trustworthy, credible and memorable.
Two years ago, I attended a conference in what can be considered the conference capital of the free world: Las Vegas. I observed the tactics of dozens of salespeople; how they approached and engaged with potential customers. But it wasn’t until I left the conference that I had a chance to observe a true master of the brief encounter - the bellman that ran the taxi stand, in front of the Mirage Hotel.
There were about forty hotel guests waiting for taxis. The bellman would signal for a cab, then turn to the next guest in line, and begin a 15 to 20 second conversation. He’d ask short, non-intrusive questions – interesting questions – that his guests would gladly answer. He’d ask another question, based on the guests’ response. These conversations were short, but extremely engaging for both the bellman and the guests.
By the time each guest was in their cab, they were offering the bellman information about themselves, their lives and businesses. In less than a minute, the bellman learned a lot about each guest, and established enough rapport to induce them to share personal information with a virtual stranger. I had no doubt that if he were working the conference floor inside the hotel that he’d walk away with a high number of qualified leads.
I'm convinced that most salespeople fail at these trade-show encounters, because they don't plan for them. Trade shows and conferences can consume a lot of a marketing budget, so what can you do to maximize your return on conferences? It comes down to advance planning.
The planning shouldn’t be the exclusive domain of marketing. The sales team should also invest time preparing for the event. Find out what companies will attend the conference. As a paying exhibitor, you may have access to a list of the companies that will be represented. Go to their websites, understand their value propositions and the common challenges in their industries. Read their press releases, and other news items. Understand their current circumstances that may be impacted by your offering. Know who you’ll want to seek out at the event, and identify a reason to meet.
Contact attendees before the conference to introduce yourself, and schedule meetings. I once worked for a VP of Sales who made it a privilege to attend a conference, and awarded those sales people that had the most confirmed meetings a week before the event, with the right to attend. It was no coincidence our trade shows were extremely successful events, yielding high numbers of qualified leads.
When you’re at the conference, make it a point to be where your best prospects will be. Review the agenda, and identify those sessions whose topics are likely to be of interest to your ideal prospects; sessions that will focus on the business challenges that are addressed by your solution. Go to those sessions, and engage with the attendees. Put yourself in the right place to ask the right questions to the right people.
Trade shows and conferences are opportunities to meet a lot of potential customers in a short amount of time. With some advance planning and thoughtful questioning, you can be the one that the prospects remember. And you’ll have plenty of good news for the bellman, as you leave the hotel.
I have an old Boston Terrier. Each morning when I go downstairs to make the coffee, she's standing there waiting.
She greets me with her dog smile, and as soon as she hears the click and gurgle of the coffeemaker, she retreats to her bed, knowing that all's well in her master's world. I think she just wants me to know that she's available as a trusted friend, in case I need her. My dog knows my routine, and she's adapted to it. She anticipates it each day, without fail. My dog knows anticipation.
If any family member, friend or neighbor comes into our home, the dog will greet them with all the domestic enthusiasm she can muster. She focuses on that person as though they are the only person on the planet. She makes them feel appreciated, and best of all, she's extremely genuine. I don't think dogs can fake sincerity. Few humans can engage with other humans the way a happy dog can. My dog knows engagement.
I remember times when our son or daughter was not feeling well, and napping on the sofa. The dog would sit like a sentry next to the sofa, showing an unwavering sense of caring until her human was feeling better. My dog knows empathy.
Anticipation, engagement, and empathy are skills that dogs have mastered. And coincidentally, those same skills, done well and done consistently, can build long-term loyal relationships with clients, friends and family. But for the sake of this article, let's focus on the clients.
How well do you and your employees anticipate your clients' needs? Do you capture information about their product consumption patterns, product usage and lifestyle habits, and study the information to see the trends that will help you anticipate their future needs? Do you ever have open conversations with your clients, outside of the sales process, asking them how you can better adapt the service delivery to suit their exact needs?
When the needs do arise, are you there with the reliability of a trusted friend to fill those needs? Or do you merely react to their requests? What else can you do to get better at anticipating?
How well do you and your employees engage with your clients, and your prospects? Do you make the engagement something that will stand out from the other routine transactions and meetings that your client experiences each day? Or do you make a conscientious effort to transform engagements into experiences that become memorable, and stand apart from routine transactions? Do you engage with your clients in a way that will cause each one to feel that he or she must be your most valued client, because you treated them that way? Approaching routine encounters with a little more creativity and enthusiasm is something that's easy to do, while costing very little, and will absolutely be noticed and remembered by your clients.
How well do you empathize with your clients? While our dogs possess a great sense of intuition, we humans have to rely on other methods to know what's happening in our clients' worlds. Unless you talk to each of your clients every day, and ask them lots of questions about what's new, you may have to resort to other means to stay informed.
For this, a simple use of technology comes to mind.
Use Google Alerts, or follow your clients using social media for each of those clients whose worlds you wish to know better, and you'll start to know more about them very quickly. (If you're not familiar with Google Alerts, just "google" Google Alerts, and you'll become a fast expert.)
As the Alerts tell you more about your clients, you'll be in a much better position to serve them as a truly informed, trusted advisor. Do this well, and do it consistently, and your clients will sense the empathy.
Dogs are fascinating creatures. They have the innate skills to anticipate with regularity, engage with sincerity, and empathize with insight. When it comes to customer relationships, dogs can surely be our best friend, if we take the time to follow their lead.
A statue of "Hachiko," Japan's famous faithful dog, buried at the National Science Museum in Tokyo.
In 1992, I bought a bicycle from LL Bean. It was a high-quality road bike that I expected to own for several years of heavy use. One afternoon in 2005, I was cresting a hill when the welding snapped at a key point in the frame. I rode that bike hard for 13 years, and clearly got my money’s worth. Perhaps it was time to finally buy another. But born with an old New England mentality, I thought I'd try to get it repaired if I could, so brought it back to the bike shop at Bean's.
The shop manager told me that he couldn’t repair the frame, but would check with the manufacturer. A day later, the shop manager called to tell me that they no longer worked with that manufacturer, but instead, would credit the 1992 purchase price toward the purchase of a new bike.
Now, I'd already gotten more than my money's worth from the bike, and I told that to the shop manager. But he told me that he was entitled to issue the credit, and felt that the situation warranted it. So I didn't argue any further.
Here’s the point: LL Bean’s had a policy to protect the customer. And the employee had the authority to use that policy, where he felt it made sense to do so.
Normally, the mere mention of the word "Policy" sounds like fingernails on a blackboard to a customer. We just don't like to hear it, because we've been conditioned to think of policies as cast-in-stone edicts that have the company's best interest in mind.
Yes, companies do need to create policies to serve as guidelines to help employees make the right decisions to resolve issues in a way that's reasonable for the customer, and the company. But too often, the policies become more about protecting profits than about creating customer relationships.
This is because policies are frequently based on two false assumptions:
Most customers are unreasonable.
Most employees are not capable of making the sound decisions.
Most customers are in fact, reasonable people, particularly when dealt with in a reasonble way.
And most employees, given good hiring practices and proper training, are fully-capable of making the right decision that will please the customer, without giving away the enitire store. Yes, companies do need policies. But three important guidelines should be followed when creating and enforcing policies:
First, never say the “P Word” to a customer. Customers don’t care about company centric policies, nor should they. “Policy” should be considered one of those words that you never, ever say to a customer.
Second, give your employees the authority to override a policy, if the employee thinks the situation warrants that. Through good hiring practices, and proper training, front-line employees can certainly have the wherewithal to make the right decisions themselves, without involving a supervisor. This is good for the employee, good for the company, and very good for the customer. You’ll be perceived as a more customer-centric company, and earn greater customer loyalty.
Third, encourage your employees to side with the customer; say “yes” to the customer more often. That builds stronger relationships, and customer confidence in your company. But this is where too many executives get concerned about giving away the store, and hurting profitability. Sure, there will be some transactions where you lose money, but think of those sales as the loss leaders for generating greater lifetime value from that same customer.
LL Bean has lost money on their fair share of transactions since 1912, but a policy of siding with the customer has helped them grow to over 1.5billion in annual sales since those early days, enjoying far more profitable transactions from a growing population of loyal customers.
Customers are generally reasonable people.
And front-line employees are smart employees, when given the opportunity.
Keep these factors in mind when establishing and enforcing policies. You’ll end up with more motivated employees, more loyal customers, and a very healthy bottom line.
A few years ago, I brought a pair of cotton trousers to the dry cleaner. Upon dropping them off, I explained that the trousers had to be dry cleaned; not washed and dried.
Later that week, I returned home with the trousers, and tried them on. They were tighter and shorter than even Pee Wee Herman would wear; the dry cleaner did the unthinkable - they laundered my favorite cotton khaki's!!!
I called the dry cleaner, and explained what I thought happened. They agreed; they shrunk my trousers, and promised to reimburse me for them. I told them how long ago I bought them, and how much I paid.
A week later, I received a check from the dry cleaner – a check for exactly half of what I said I originally paid for the khaki's a year ago. Figuring that this was an honest mistake, I called the dry cleaner to find out why the check was for only half the cost. I was transferred to the general manager, and he explained their policy:
Him: "We applied an industry standard policy - and that's paying you half the cost, since the pants weren't new. If they were brand new, we'd have paid you the full amount - that's an industry-wide policy."
Me: “But I can’t replace the pants for what you refunded me. I’ll have to pay out of my own pocket, to fix your mistake.”
Him: “I understand what you’re saying, but we’re going by the industry standard – providing 50% of the full price is what all other dry cleaners do.”
Me: “Do you want your customers to think of you as just another dry cleaner like all the others, or do you want me to think you're more customer-friendly than the rest?”
Him: “Well, tell me what you think would be a fair resolution.”
Me: “I'll buy another pair of the same pants. I'll send you the receipt, and you can send me a check for that amount. Is that fair?”
He reluctantly agreed.
The point here is not that I wrangled a few dollars, or a new pair of khaki's from the local dry cleaner; the point is that if a company uses industry standards as their business guidelines , they'll eventually become just another industry standard company. Customers don't go out of their way to buy from just another industry standard company; customers will go out of their way for the thrill of buying from a company that stands apart from the crowd.
Rather than benchmarking your service against what the competition offers, think of what else; what better level of service is possible. It’s OK to consider the industry norm, but only if you use it as a sign for when to turn onto the road less travelled; when and how to differentiate yourself from the competitiion.
Industry standards should't tell you what you should do; you should read them as signs of what NOT to do, if you want to be better than the industry. Thanks to Yuri Artibise for this morbidly normal sign to nowhere.
(This post was originally published in May of 2011, but with trust at the center of business and life, the points made here are worth re-stating!)
Several years ago, I rushed into a supermarket to pick up some apple juice for my toddler son. In my haste, I read “Apple Juice…” on the label and brought it to the checkout.
When I got home, I realized that I bought a product that wasn't what I thought it was; it wasn't really apple juice; it was a watered down, sugared-up version of the healthier product that I thought I was buying.
At first, I wanted to kick myself for making a stupid mistake. But the guilt was short-lived. Instead, I decided to blame those duplicitous marketers that designed the label. In great big letters, the label announced “Apple Juice.” Beneath that, there was much smaller print that said “… beverage containing 10% juice.”
"The only reason," I thought, "that those revealing words were smaller, was because the company’s marketing and product packaging team were trying to deceive me; they knew I’d read the bigger words on the label, and no more. They thought they could trick the customer, and I fell for it!"
This week, there was an interesting article in Sunday's New York Times about the claims that many food product companies are making about the often exagerated healt benefits of their food products, particularly in advertising, and product packaging.
This article illustrates an unfortunate reality of the traditional approach to consumer-focused marketing:
What you claim doesn’t have to be TRUE, it only has to be LEGAL.
It’s about saying whatever you can get away with saying in order to sell your product, as long as you're not breaking any laws by saying it; whether or not the claim is true based on how the customer will perceive the message doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s legal.
Presently, companies have to answer to the FDA and FTC when they make marketing claims about the healthfulness of their products. The ultimate goal of the messaging used by companies named in this article is not to make people healthy; the goal is simply to sell more product.
Eventually, and hopefully sooner than later, legal authorities will have less influence on the claims that marketers make. The influence of these legal authorities will be obfuscated by the influence of the drive toward TRANSPARENCY.
Customers crave truth and transparency, and thanks to social media, they're getting more of it. Twitter feeds, Blogs, Facebook postings and other Web 2.0 sources are revealing more information about companies at faster speeds than even the companies can keep pace. The access to information, and “Truth Brokers” such as Angie’s List and others, and the increasing use of social media, are collectively forming a stronger force than the smartest deception-based spin masters and hair-splitting corporate attorneys in marketing departments.
In the future, a dubious health claim made by a company about its product will do more harm to a company’s reputation and market standing, by painting the company as dishonest and deceptive - exactly what consumers are learning to loathe.
The companies that realize this and the companies that voluntarily move from a legal orientation to one of pure truth and transparency will ultimately prevail.
Those marketers that take it upon themselves to be more truthful will ultimately win more market share. They’ll do this by de-emphasizing a legal-orientation in their marketing claims, and increasing their focus on truth and full disclosure.
Before long, Truth will be the only healthy alternative for marketing .
Thanks to Daniel Rosenbaum and The New York Times for this image of purportedly functional foods. According to the Times article, "Shoppers must be able to trust brands "to have good science backing up their claims," says Mary K. Engle of the F.T.C."
I buy a lot of books through Amazon, and I do it for two reasons:
It saves gas.
They give me a lot of information.
Let’s talk about the second reason – the information.
Amazon provides a lot of information that many vendors won’t. And because of that, I trust them.
First, they tell me if they have the book I want in stock, and if I order it, how soon I’ll have it.
They tell me what other readers said about the book, even if the readers didn’t like it. They’ll tell me how many people wrote negative reviews about the book, and they’ll show me those negative reviews if I want to read them. How many other vendors have you bought from, that show you their customers' complaint letters?
If another person was thinking of buying the book that I’m thinking of buying, but that person bought something else instead, Amazon will tell me that, too. And they’ll tell me exactly what book that person ended up buying.
If an affiliate has the same book – new or used – available for a lower price, Amazon will tell me that. And they’ll even help me order if from the other seller. They make a lot less money from me in the short term, but it makes me a more loyal customer over the long term. Not exactly your typical car-buying experience, is it?
The Internet makes more information available to more people than ever before. And the Internet has created an entire industry of what I’ll call “Transparency Brokers” – companies like Angie’s List, Yelp, and the BBB are examples of organizations who promote fair business practices using real customer feedback, according to “I of the Consumer.”
Customers are growing accustomed to having access to more information before making a purchase decision. The person or company that provides the information is the one that earns the trust. As a company, you can work really hard to sell your products, or you can provide information to help your customers make informed buying decisions, earn their trust, and a longer-term relationship.
It’s your call.
Most customers - if not all - trust those vendors who expose all.
Most companies are always – or at least, they should be – looking for ways to improve the customer experience. They’ll invest lots of resources to uncover those bottlenecks in their processes, and those small issues that are perceived as a big pain by their customers.
They’ll engage consulting firms, and seek answers from industry experts outside of their organizations, in hopes of learning what they can do to generate more customer love.
They’ll invest time and money, often spanning the proverbial globe in hopes of learning what changes will make them easier to do business with. But they may not need to travel at all, because more often than not, the answers are right inside their four walls; they just don’t see them, and they just don't hear them, because they're not listenting (and by the way, this isn't about using Twitter more.)
Here’s the point:
The employees that deal directly with the customers see the experience happen live and first hand. They witness customer complaints, customer inconvenience, and customer delight. Those customer-facing employees are the eyes and ears of the customer experience, and because of this, can offer excellent ideas to implement; they’re the first-hand witnesses of what’s working, and the changes that can be made to improve the experience.
Unfortunately, there’s usually a disconnect between these witnesses and the judges.
If there is no formal process in place for the front-line employees to relay their observations, along with raw customer feedback to the people who make decisions to design a process, the information is lost.
What’s required is a formal feedback mechanism that will allow customer-facing employees to submit their observations in a way that can be captured, classified, reported and acted upon, to improve those processes that contribute to the customer experience.
Three companies come to mind, that do this well:
Ritz Carlton conducts their “daily line-up.” Each morning, Ritz employees (Ladies and Gentlemen, as they’re called) meet for ten minutes to discuss the experiences of the prior day. During this meeting, specifics ideas for improvements are captured, where they can be considered for standard implementation.
HCL Technologies, took this process to the next level, by implementing a “Smart Service Desk.” This is an internally developed software application where any employee, from anywhere (frequently a customer site) can access a web portal, and enter the details of a particular customer interaction or idea. These “tickets” are classified and managed just like a tech support call from an external customer would be. The intent is to make sure that all ideas are captured, considered and implemented as appropriate, to improve the customer experience.
Dell Computer has suffered its share of criticisms over the years, primarily for the way it subjected its customers to painful outsourced and offshored phone support. Dick Hunter was the VP of manufacturing, who moved to the Support VP role to make the kinds of changes that would improve the customer experience (and stop the defections!). In addition to actively listening to customers through Twitter, Hunter also asked employees to send him notes about dumb things that the company was doing; dumb things that could be corrected to improve the overall customer experience.
Ritz Carlton, HCL and Dell have become better companies by involving front-line employees in the process of designing a better customer experience. They’ve done this by opening communication channels, and encouraging employees to use them. Most companies will be very surprised to learn about the actionable knowledge that exists, right inside their own four walls.
When executives can't hear what's broken, they can't make it better.
There’s a small city in Michigan called Wixom. Wixom is home to 13,498 citizens, and the Wixom Public Library. The library is essentially a public service provided by the City, to its citizens. But you’d never know that, by reading its customer service policy:
“While at work, each staff member is a representative of the library. The impression we make profoundly affects the library’s image and ongoing support. Because every patron interaction is important, being helpful is our highest priority. All other library policies should be interpreted in light of the principles outlined below.
Customer service principles
Treat every patron with equal respect and every request with equal importance.
Always be ready and willing to help, making patrons feel valued.
Provide accurate, friendly and efficient service, and invite patrons to return.
Do your best to meet patrons’ needs and exceed their expectations. Whenever possible, judgment calls should be made in the patron’s favor.
If you are unable to comply with a request, offer an alternative.
Be well-versed in library policies and be able to explain the rationale behind them.
Always seek possible improvements to promote service excellence. “
How can this public library in a small town “get it” when large companies with multi-million-dollar customer service budgets seem to completely miss the mark on customer service as they train their employees to parrot company-centric policies?
“Getting it” means setting the customer-facing employees free to use their own judgement when it comes to serving the customer.
There’s another organization in Seattle that takes a similar view; just like the Wixom Public Library, it encourages its employees to use their own judgement when serving the customer. And just like the Wixom Public Library, this company – Nordstrom – has a dedicated and loyal customer base.
For years, Nordstrom’s entire Employee Manual was 75 words long. Not 75 pages, but 75 words. It was printed on a 5 x 8 inch gray card. The core of the card simply stated:
“Use best judgement in all situations. There will be no additional rules.”
The key point is this: Employees who are face-to-face and voice to voice with customers all day long have the best vantage point of the customer experience. They’re in the best position to determine what action or decision will best delight the customer.
Sure, there are concerns of “giving away the store,” but most employees are smarter than that, and most customers are more reasonable than that. Maybe that’s why Nordstrom has been able to grow to over 8 billion dollars since 1910, and why the Wixom Public Library continues to increase the number of patrons it serves, and the breadth of the services it provides.
The best customer service happens, when employees are free to deliver it through their own best judgement.
