Helping organizations succeed through
customer service performance and leadership
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Helping organizations succeed through
customer service performance and leadership |
The Belding Group Customer Service Report Archive
Thoughts from Shaun: I recently had a conversation with a senior V.P. of a large US financial institution. He was lamenting the challenges they were facing in achieving consistent customer service performance in their 1,000+ branches. “We keep telling everyone what the expectation is - but it’s not getting done on a consistent basis. Sometimes I feel like I’m just beating my head against a wall.” Training, he was convinced, was the answer. The more we talked, and the more I learned about the organization and it’s challenges, the more I was convinced that training was only part of the solution. In fact, I suggested to him that doing customer service training at this time would be an almost guaranteed giant waste of money. I had no doubt that we could develop a powerful, sustainable program for their internal trainers and show managers how to coach for higher performance - but that was not going to move them into the realm of world-class customer service organizations. Why would I say such a thing? Here’s what I told him: The reason their customer service performance was generally low wasn’t because the people on the front line didn’t get it, it was because the people in the head office didn’t get it. Being a large and tightly controlled top-down organization, the people on the front lines were heavily restricted in the things they could do to look after their customers. They’d become so focused on the bank’s policies and processes that the people have become a very distant third. In fact, if the bank were to be honest with itself, the mandate of the employees is far more focused on serving the needs of the bank than the needs of the customer. This isn’t a condemnation of banks or of head office people - it’s a truism of virtually all large organizations. Despite what some people believe - bigger is not better when it comes to customer experience. It’s not an accident that Credit Unions completely dominate banks in customer service delivery; or that independent retailers generally provide a better customer experience than most big chains; or that all major telecoms suffer from horrendous reputations for customer service performance. The further away customers and employees are from the people creating the policies and processes, the less connected they feel. The sense of belonging, pride and ownership disappears, replaced by a feeling of ‘us vs. them.’ So how should large organizations address this? Should they reinvent themselves and break up into smaller, more responsive pieces - or should they just stay with the status quo? Is it even worth bothering with customer experience when you’ve managed to get this big without it? The cautionary tales for the latter strategy are too numerous to ignore. The airline industry is one of the best examples - goliaths like Continental, United Airlines and Air Canada, all losing precious market share to customer-focused upstarts like Southwest, Jet Blue and West Jet. But breaking a company into independent business units is risky as well. Sometimes the smaller pieces just aren’t strong enough to be self-sustaining. But there is one strategy that does work - albeit one that sends shivers down the spines of CEOs guilty of control-freakness. Delegate. Push the business responsibilities and accountabilities into the front line. Rather than dictate restrictive, universal policies and practices, and have front-line managers function as business baby-sitters, give them some ownership. Tell them the bottom line they need to achieve, the metrics that are important, then let them make their own decisions on how to achieve the goals. Yes, you still have to give them general guidelines regarding ethics and focus - but beyond that, trust your people to make the right decisions for the right reasons. If you’re not convinced they’ll do a good job, then you need to ask why not. Ultimately, the finger points back at us, as either the company didn’t hire well, or we didn’t effectively train our leaders on how to run our business. One thing is for certain - you have a far better chance of creating positive, ‘wow’ customer experiences when the people closest to the customers are the one’s making the decisions. Did you know? Market studies cited by the Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute found only 16% of supermarket transactions in 2010 were done at self-checkout lanes in stores that provided the option. That's down from a high of 22% three years ago. Overall, people reported being much more satisfied with their supermarket experience when they used traditional cashier-staffed lanes. Big Y Foods, which has 61 locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, recently became one of the latest to announce it was phasing out the self-serve lanes. An internal study by Big Y found delays in its self-service lines caused by customer confusion over coupons, payments and other problems; intentional and accidental theft, including misidentifying produce and baked goods as less-expensive varieties; and other problems that helped guide its decision to bag the self-serve lanes. Customer Service Opinions Consumer Reports found 64% of people walked out of a store last year because of bad service. But as unpleasant as they may be, customer complaints help reveal blind spots in a business. With more vehicles than ever for people to air out their grievances, it's crucial that businesses educate employees on how to react and respond to complaints, always be professional -- and when appropriate, use some creativity and humor. Here are seven highly-publicized tales of customer service blunders that went viral. Click here to see the customer service fails Source: Business Insider Customer Service In The News Customer Service to make you Gasp The basic traditions of good customer service, far too long neglected by many companies, are now exposed by the most accessible and democratic of medias. For Gasp in Melbourne, it all started on Monday, when bride-to-be Keira O'Neill, with bridesmaids in tow, tried on a pink wedding dress in their store. The shop assistant tried a hard sell and when he failed to secure the sale, he apparently suggested to size-12 Keira that "with your figure I really think you should buy it". As the wedding contingent left, he truculently declared: "I knew you girls were a joke the minute you walked in." (More) Kicking baby off bus not 'good customer service' Airbnb: “We Screwed Up And We’re Sorry The result was a firestorm of controversy that wasn’t quelled by a response from Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky or an explanation posted by Airbnb investor and Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. In fact, it got worse when “EJ” publicly refuted Airbnb’s claims that Airbnb was doing everything it could to assist her in her time of need. The result was a crisis in confidence — not only for Airbnb, but its entire business model. (More)
Thoughts from Shaun: I host a group on LinkedIn called Customer Service Champions. (Feel free to join - would love to have you in the group!). Last week someone posted a discussion with the question: “What is your definition of ‘Loyalty’ - both ways toward the customer and the customer towards us?” I think it is an extraordinarily valuable question, and one worthy of thought for each of us. I so often hear business people and the business ‘gurus’ out there saying that “customer loyalty is dead” - that the ‘new customer’, and those dreaded ‘Gen Y’s’ have no interest in creating long-term relationships with companies. This is, of course, nonsense, and if you take the time to think about that question on LinkedIn, you’ll agree with me. What I like about the question, is that it references loyalty as a two-way street, something which has become an absolute necessity in business today. But there are still way too many people and companies out there who want customer loyalty, but aren’t prepared to make that loyalty reciprocal. Here are just a few examples:
My answer to the question was: “I would think that loyalty to customers is 'rewarding them (tangibly or intangibly) for doing business with you', and loyalty to a business is 'making that business the default first choice for the product or service in their category.’” To me, that pretty much sums it up. And from a business perspective, I think we have to wrap our heads around the idea that, in this reciprocal arrangement, it is up to us to make the first move. So here’s my question to you: What is your company doing this year to reward your existing customers for doing business with you? It is the companies who have an answer for this who will excel in 2011 and beyond Did you know? Disneyland has been around for more than 50 years. The company’s credo is, "The happiest place on earth." Disney’s customer service standard is so simple and yet so incredibly effective that it has been successfully adopted by many businesses. Its customer service standard embodies the concept of being "on stage and off stage". The "off stage" area is a place for staff only. No guests are allowed in that area. And that is the only place where staff are allowed to "vent" or discuss their personal problems. But when staff walk through the doors into the main areas of the park, they are considered to be "on stage", and they have to leave all their personal problems behind. The smile that lives in their hearts comes out no matter what is going on in their lives. And they have just one goal: to make the customer happy and leave feeling like they have had the best experience of their lives. When they are "on stage", staff are dedicated to making Disneyland the "the happiest place on earth". Customer Service Opinions 141 executives from large North American firms were surveyed to find out about their customer experience endeavors. - Nearly 2/3 of respondents say that their companies have a disciplined approach to customer experience management -although only 11% see their efforts as being very disciplined. - Three key issues were identified which impacted customer experience efforts: lack of a strategy, lack of processes, and lack of cooperation across the organization. Interestingly, funding has become less of an issue, while the lack of a strategy has become a bigger concern. Customer Service In The News Manchester Airport Unveils First Customer Service Agents Delta Sends Its 11,000 Agents to Charm School Watchdog knocks Toronto for keeping customer-service policy under wraps
Thoughts from Shaun: Well then. Despite economic turmoil over the last couple of years, we somehow all made it to 2011. The recovery hasn’t hit full stride yet, but it looks like the future is very promising. Economics aside, there has been a lot of other change over the last two years - particularly in the area of customer service. And we have seen organizations who have failed to embrace the expectations of today’s customer pay dearly for it. Conversely, organizations who have truly turned their focus on customer experience - Zappos, Air Canada, TD Bank, Amazon.com, Hewlett-Packard, etc - have seen the payoff in hard return. I had an interesting series of revelations last week that brought some of this into focus. I was just finishing my part in an upcoming CBC documentary on customer service (likely to air this Fall). In the interview portion, the director was peppering me with questions about where the world of customer service is currently, and where it is heading. At one point, much to my surprise, I found myself saying, “We are becoming very much of a self-serve society.” This is not something I ever imagined myself ever saying, but the evidence around us today is irrefutable. On-line transactions are skyrocketing. We do our banking on-line, our insurance, our groceries, our shoe-shopping, we use self-serve terminals to check into airports. Heck, we even find out soul-mates on-line. Truth be told, there are many areas today where the preferred customer experience simply doesn’t involve people. Her follow-up question caught me off-guard. “Don’t you find that sort of sad?” she asked. And I really had to think about the answer. In some ways it is sad. Sad to think that at some level we are preferring machines to humans. In other ways, though, it’s exciting. As things start to shake out, it appears we are learning how to automate some of the more mundane things in our lives such as basic banking, renewal of licence plate stickers, and paying the water bill. These are all necessary evils and things we probably would rather not be doing. One might argue, in fact, that the most positive customer experience in these areas might be no experience at all. As I drove home from the studio, it occurred to me that one of the reasons that customer experience and customer service are becoming such a driver in today’s business world is actually because this human contact has been reduced. Sure, we like our convenience and our 24/7 accessibility to things, but when the time comes where we want to deal with a person, we don’t want mediocrity. We want that person to be caring and skilled, and if your company doesn’t have such a person, we will just move to a competitor who will deliver these things. And perhaps that is the biggest issue we’re facing. Moving to a competitor just isn’t as hard as it used to be. A move of a mouse, a click of a button, a Google here, a Google there - presto, I’ve found ten new potential companies from which to choose. The old business standbys of ‘location, convenience, price and product’ just doesn’t cut it any more. The new global reality, with the tremendous parity it has created, has made customer service the only differentiator left. From everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve talked to, 2011 is shaping up to be a defining year for many organizations that are in highly competitive industries. As the economy slowly begins to heat up again, it is those companies which can genuinely stand above the noise that will reap the rewards. The question we all have to answer is, since customer service will be playing the dominant role in this, how well are we positioned to compete? Did you know? Marketers are currently failing to engage with customers in-store, with 46% of UK consumers admitting to never giving out their contact details - or even giving fake contact details - to avoid being contacted in future, according to recent research by YouGov for Callcredit Information Group. Moreover, 15% said that they would be happy to give out their contact details if they were informed about relevant promotions, products and services in future; given the chance to be part of an exclusive store club (11%); or if they were simply asked by a friendly and approachable person (9%). The 'flirt factor' has the biggest impact on men and young people, as 10% of men and 17% of 18-24 year olds would give out their details if they were asked for them by someone friendly and approachable in store. Source: Callcredit Information Group Customer Service Opinions Top 10 Trends for Customer Service in 2011 Trend 1: Organizations Standardize Customer Service Across Communication Channels Trend 2: The Universal Customer History Record Becomes a Reality Customer Service In The News Apple Support Firm Drops Case Against Customer Dimitris Papadimitriadis was not a happy man after he put his iMac in for a little repair with an official Apple support company called Systemgraph. There were gray shadows all over the screen. However, there were gray shadows all over Papadimitriadis' face when Systemgraph sued him for telling his story (in a very polite way, for an angry man) online. The company demanded 200,000 euros, which seemed a little steep when the worst word used in the online post was, allegedly, "shoddy." However, a few days before the case was to go to court, Systemgraph dropped the case and issued what appeared to be a mea culpa. (More) Why Call Recording Works to Drive Customer Service Excellence How important is call recording technology in your organization? If you depend on customer satisfaction to help drive revenue for your industry, call recording may be a viable option to determine whether or not your employees are maintaining your message when interacting with customers. (More) Customer Strategy Trends to Watch in 2011 What trends will alter the customer strategy landscape this year? 1to1 Media queried many industry insiders as to which customer strategy trend would make the biggest impact in 2011 in four specific areas: customer service, mobile, multichannel marketing, social media, and voice of the customer. What follows are the predictions of more than 50 industry observers and insiders, as well as their advice on what organizations should be doing to capitalize on these trends. (More) Gasoline station owner grew his business by a return to old-fashioned service Gas sales at some service stations across Central and Eastern Oregon have been flat for more than two years due to the depressed economy, but fuel sales have steadily risen at the Stop and Go Shell station on Bend's east side — something owner Kent Couch attributes to what he calls the "wow factor" of old-fashioned service. (More)
Thoughts from Shaun: So, what have you done for me lately? My daughter related a truly horrific customer service experience yesterday. It was one of those slap-yourself-on-the-forehead- what-on-earth-were-they-thinking experiences that make you wonder how some companies stay in business. Such experiences aren’t all that uncommon these days, of course. But what might surprise you is where it happened. No, it wasn’t in some local convenience store with an underpaid and untrained employee, or a hot dog vendor on the corner of the street, but with a retailer who has won awards for its innovation in customer experience. Yes, it was in one of the sainted Apple Stores, whose customer support process has become legendary. I won’t go into any details. Hopefully, once my daughter calms down enough to tell the story without expletives, she will put it up on my blog and you can read it there. But I bring it up because there is a lesson here on a more strategic level. It’s all about FAWMYS, and the trap that so many organizations seem destined to fall into. FAWMYS, or Forgetting About What Made You Successful, has played a key role in the decay of many great companies. The precursor to FAWMYS, of course, is usually BYOP, Believing Your Own Press. Examples of these are endless: General Motors, Waterford Wedgewood, Circuit City, Reader’s Digest, Woolworth, Nortel, Parlamat, etc. Somewhere along the line, all of these organizations managed to convince themselves that they were somehow invincible, and they eventually lost sight of the shore. “But how could they be so profoundly stupid?” is the question that always gets asked. “How could the people at the top let things get so very, very bad?” The answer is that most people in an organization don’t realize what’s happening until it's too late. The decay of an organization usually starts with small, almost imperceptible cracks in the corporate bulkhead. A few slips here, a few slips there - and because everyone us up on deck, enjoying the view, there’s no-one to catch the unattended cracks until they’ve grown into chasms too wide and too deep to patch. What my daughter witnessed was a small crack in Apple’s seemingly unassailable customer service bulkhead, and it’s not the first I’ve heard over the last few months. Will they notice them? Can they fix the problems before their reputation for service excellence begins to fade? Only time will tell. The only solution to dealing with any organization’s inevitable imperfections is a combination of rabid vigilance and rapid action. Apple may very well be up to the task. The question each of us need to be asking now, though, is, are we up to the task with our own organizations? Did you know? According to its Second Quarter survey of 11,000 American consumers, the percentage of Americans who said customer service is getting worse rose to 61.7 percent, up from 55.2 percent in the first quarter. Likewise, the 31.5 percent who responded it wasn't getting worse in the first quarter fell to 24.8 percent in the second quarter survey. Customer Service Opinions
Customer Service In The News Capital One hypes customer service in Chevy Chase rebranding In announcing the name change Monday, Capital One emphasized a continuation of the focus on customer service, saying that account holders would be able to reach a customer service representative 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Customers will also have greater access to financial services products at branches including credit cards and auto loans. (More) China's Alibaba.com starts customer service office in Mumbai Building brands and revenues: Changing attitudes on customer experience Mom Bloggers Question if Walmart Lost Its Vision Everyone loves a good deal, and low prices were reason enough for Texas mom Lisa Stauber to travel up to 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart to nab the best deals for her family of 11. But after 12 years prowling the aisles of the retail giant, the mommy blogger finds little reason these days to shop at the store where she once spent more than $10,000 annually. (More) Canada Awards for Excellence Recipients Announced The Canada Awards for Excellence is an annual awards program to recognize business excellence in quality, customer service, and a healthy workplace. "This year marks the 26th anniversary of the Canada Awards for Excellence, which has recognized over 370 outstanding organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors over the past 26 years. Award recipients are recognized for the work they have done to improve the quality of life and the standard of living of Canadians, as well as the sustainability of the world", says Allan Ebedes, President and CEO of the National Quality Institute. (More) Thoughts from Shaun: Over the last six months I’ve read roughly 40 studies and research reports on both organizational and consumer behavior. The conclusions they draw are both unanimous and unequivocal: Customer service focused business and marketing strategies will be the singular most effective approaches over the next five (or more) years. The recession-hangover economy that still haunts many countries and industries has created an environment where consumers are desperately looking for differentiators to help them in their choices. Competition in almost all industries, from mom & pop shops to Wall Street high flyers, has globalized. The old-fashioned standbys of location, price, convenience - are becoming increasingly irrelevant. A simple case in point - I met a young man in Chisinau, Moldova last month who (along with a few friends) wrestled a $300k project out from under a well-known, dominant U.S. consulting firm. The U.S. company had to be shocked. Not only did the competition come out of nowhere - it came from a country most would have to Google-Earth to find. Now add to this a consumer who is demonstrably growing weary of automated, efficiency-focused processes which are more bottom line driven than customer centric, and you can begin to understand the trend. According to the research, customers actually want something to be loyal to. The problem is that they just aren’t seeing companies stepping up to the plate. Sure, there are cards and points and other loyalty schemes, but they have long since begun to lose their luster. Apparently, consumers actually want to do business with people. Go figure. And not just any people. They want skilled, happy, motivated, empowered people who are willing to make the customers’ needs a priority. This, for many organizations which have been going down the ‘process improvement’ path for the last twenty years, represents a true paradigm shift. Many will not be able to make the adjustment. They are too committed to the highly measurable efficiency and effectiveness doctrines, and to make a real strategic jump to customer engagement. Oh, sure, customer engagement sounds warm and fuzzy, but how do you measure it in terms of business results? It’s doable, but hard to sell to CFOs and shareholders as a primary focus. Some companies, like Rogers Telecommunications and Virgin Mobile, have already begun to take the leap by increasing the human touch factor, but whether they can sustain it in absence of irrefutable cause-and-effect metrics to show to stakeholders is another story. It’s an interesting market phenomenon to watch, and it will be even more interesting to see how companies respond. Sadly, I don’t have high hopes. To use a rather dark analogy, it’s a lot like when the Surgeon General officially declared that smoking was harmful to our health. Everyone heard about it. Everyone believed it. Yet how many otherwise intelligent, educated people continued to smoke? Customer-centricity as a holistic organizational approach is the most sound strategy out there right now. Let’s see how many take advantage of it Did you know? A Good Image Doesn’t Always Equate To Good Service Some retailers provide excellent service but don’t communicate it in their image, and vice-versa. Branding is often misaligned with sales and operations. A small update to the company’s online image, brand, or information design can communicate a luxurious, simple or fun shopping experience. Your brand sells the experience of doing business with you before someone does (just as a menu sells the food before someone orders it), so communicate clearly. Customer Service Facts Customer Service In The News: Senator wants disclosure on outsourced calls Customer e-mails CEO; phone company issues warning, then an apology Customer Service as a growth engine
Thoughts from Shaun: Yet another survey is demonstrating why customer service may very well be the single most important factor in customer loyalty and retention. The study, conducted by CSG Systems Teams and Frost & Sullivan on the cable industry, found that customers will change their opinion about a service provider after only two occurrences of bad customer service. If the customer is younger - between 24 and 29 years old - their opinion will change after just a single bad experience. A majority of respondents will switch to another service provider when bad customer service occurs more than 50% of the time, regardless of age and gender. Some of the other findings include: More than 10% of respondents said they would write about a good customer service interaction on a social media site. This statistic nearly doubled for a bad customer service experience (i.e., a service disruption). Friendly staff consistently ranked highest (77%) as a meter of good experience with a service provider, followed by fast, polite and courteous service. What customers hate the most? 68% said being on hold for an extended period; 66% identified rude/impolite service representatives; and 63% said it was being told an issue was resolved when it isn’t . I probably see a new piece of research like this cross my desk an average of once a week. And every time I read it, I ask myself the same question. Why aren’t more organizations focused - really focused - on improving customer experience? Call me a heretic, but I believe there are still far too many organizations that are paying homage to the gods of Process Improvement. The argument is that the more streamlined and process-driven an organization is the more responsive and agile it can be. Process improvement is also very easily measurable - which makes it an easier sell to senior executives and shareholders. But here’s the thing. When it comes to customer service, ultimately people rule over processes every time. People will eventually defect from great processes if it comes with horrible customer service. That’s not my opinion, that’s a fact born of hundreds of studies just like this one. So it’s time more organizations got the courage to pursue customer experience - despite the difficulty in finding short-term, event-based metrics. Customer service can’t be a flavour of the month - it has to be a cohesive, sustainable strategy. And if it means diverting resources from process improvement, so be it. To see more on the study, go to http://ht.ly/1KUqv Did You Know? A recent survey of 16 countries shows companies face increasing customer service challenges due to the lack of cross channel communications. The survey found that in 2009, over 90 per cent of consumers have used multiple communication channels when contacting a company's customer service. The survey showed that customer frustration continues to grow as consumers attempt to contact companies using existing communication channels that do not transfer the context of the contact from one channel to another. The leading suggestion on how to best improve cross channel conversations from 44 per cent of the respondents was to provide "better human service," which includes the agent already having the information provided via a different channel. Customer Service Facts & Myths: Source: Three Myths of Customer Service Customer Service In the News: 1st priority for new United-Continental combo: Keep customers, workers happy Female entrepreneurs are lifting their businesses out of the recession by increasing customer service. Hard Rock Cafe taps SMS to improve customer service Thoughts from Shaun: So, off we head into the second quarter of the year. Things seem to be looking pretty good so far. Most of our clients have told me that both sales and profitability are rebounding quite nicely. It's about time. I always find the first quarter of the year to be the most interesting. For many organizations, it represents a 'shoulder' period - an inevitable downtime between busy seasons. Shoulder periods, traditionally, are also the times when customer service suffers the most. As the pace slows, so do teams' energy levels. Attention to details, and to customers, falters significantly. This phenomenon is, anecdotally, quite apparent once you become aware of it. Through our mystery shopping division, RetailTrack, we also see the change more quantitatively, with customer service mystery shopping scores falling an average of 8% during these periods. Unfortunately, most companies simply accept this as an unavoidable part of the business cycle and really do nothing proactive to prevent it. They allow both employee motivation and customer loyalty to slide. So what does that mean for Q2? Q2, Springtime, is a busy period for most organizations. We can't afford to not be at our best, because this is also the time when people are the most prepared to make changes in their lives. The statistics tell us that more people change service providers, buy new homes, change jobs and look for new restaurants in Spring than at any other time. This is where customer service performance is critical for reducing defection of our existing customers, and capturing those customers becoming disillusioned with your competitors. In order to capture the opportunity awaiting us, we need to shake off the Winter doldrums and reinject energy back into our teams. If you haven't already, this is the time to motivate, stimulate and educate your people. The payoff is huge. The cost of not doing anything is dear. Did You Know? According to a recent study conducted by IBM, Canadian shoppers tend to be more loyal to their primary retailers than people in other countries. When it comes to jumping ship to another retailer due to better prices, product selection, or customer loyalty, Canadians ranked fifth on the list, behind China, India, Brazil, and the U.K. Shoppers in the U.S. are least likely to switch retailers for the aforementioned reasons. Where can retailers improve most? According to shoppers surveyed, it's in delivering customer promotions and access to knowledgeable sales staff. More than half (54%) of respondents said they would spend more time with a retailer if they got these two areas right. Source "Canadian Shoppers Loyal to Retailers; Want Personal Promos" Customer Service Facts & Myths Too many companies are banking on social networking sites to save their customer service and marketing. But are companies losing perspective? Is there more to making customer happy than counting Facebook Fans and Twitter followers? Social media is a Band-Aid - not a solution. You can't simply say you can lower complaints and improve satisfaction by hiring someone to manage a Twitter account. Source "Social networking not enough for good customer service" ; Customer Service In The News: United Airlines Saga brings in a new video eBay Offers Intelligent Customer Support How simple and (human) is your customer service? Thoughts from Shaun: One of the hardest parts about putting together these monthly customer service reports these days isn't deciding what information to include, it's deciding what to leave out. Research and news about improving customer experience is everywhere. If nothing else, the recession we are steadily climbing out of has taught us the importance of customer retention, and how important it is to keep a strong relationship. Although 'keeping a strong relationship' sounds pretty simple in theory, I suspect that many of us will find that this is going to push our comfort zones a lot over the next few years. Many of us simply aren't ready for the level of real intimacy our customers will be expecting from us in the near future. Far too many of us are still clinging to the belief that a mass customer base can be treated with mass market approach, and that's just...well...ancient history.. Interestingly, the kind of relationship that customers are now expecting from us is, in many ways, quite 'old school'. Let me see if I can explain myself with a bit of a customer service history lesson: Fifty years ago, give or take, customers were accustomed to a relatively intimate relationship with their suppliers. They knew the people who worked in their banks and the shops where they bought their weekly staples. Employees stayed in their companies for life, and customers got to know them. We didn't move around so much either, so we were much more familiar with the people in our communities. The employee at your bookstore was the father or mother of your son's best friend, and you worked in the office with your neighbour down the street. Fast forward to the mid '80s when technology started to really seep into our daily lives. ATMs started sprouting up everywhere, so we didn't have to go into our banks any more. The world began to shrink as fax technology brought documents to people in seconds that used to take days - or weeks. As communities grew, the warm, fuzzy connection to the individuals in them diminished. It was the age of consumption, and people just bought stuff, lots of stuff - often regardless of the levels of service they received. Through the 90's, the growth in technology was exponential, creating a global community - and at the same time a profound disconnection with the people around us. We learned a million different ways to connect to each other, but completely lost sight of the importance of connecting with each other. "CRM" became the approach for companies trying to build customer connections without actually having to connect. Companies became faceless, centralized and often outsourced entities, trying to herd customers in different directions without actually having to have a conversation with them. Somewhere around the mid-2000's, however, a curious thing started to happen. The concept of social media began to capture people's imagination. Suddenly, people began to extract smaller, cohesive and more meaningful communities out of the now overwhelming global village. After fifty years, we rediscovered personal connection, and by all indications, we're enjoying it immensely. Facebook alone has over 400 million active users. Add to that other services like Twitter and Linked In and the myriad of others, and it's clear that this trend is here to stay. Our customers now use these communities to talk about us, promote us and trash us. What this means is that the faceless, impersonal, corporate approach to customer experience that we were able to get away with a decade ago simply won't work today. It doesn't matter how big you are and how many customers you have, if Fred Smith from Upper Rubber Boot Saskatchewan has a question for you, you'd better have a real person there to answer it. Not only that, but the real person will have to have a name, a face, a smile and a keen interest in looking after Fred. Whatever investments you've made in technology in the past, you will need to be making in people for the future. Your customers are talking, and looking for "Friends." You want to be part of that conversation. Side Note: I was telling one of our clients the other day that his company needed a Facebook account, with live people there to interact with his customers. I suggested that, despite the expense, he needed to decentralize some of their customer service functions into the communities they serve. I suggested to him that their customer service department needs to be monitoring Twitter every day. He suggested to me in the nicest possible way that I was a futuristic idiot, and that the investment in all these things would be money down the drain. I bet him $10 that he would change his tune within two years. He offered to give me 2:1 odds. Let's see who wins! Did You Know? A recent study conducted by Empathica Inc., a provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions found that: - 55% of U.S. consumers feel their country’s customer service is getting worse; Canadians were less negative about their customer service, with Source "Customer Serving Getting Worse" Customer Service Facts & Myths Myth: “Good service is simply good common sense.” Reality: This is the most lethal myth of all. As we’ve seen, it’s not easy to achieve service excellence. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes. Organizations that build their reputations on service do so by observing not just one, but every “reality” there is to providing excellent customer service. Good training without adequate selection is a waste of time and money. Carefully selected and well-trained service employees who are not empowered to look for ways to improve customer service quality are a waste of precious resources. Good service comes only from a well-executed, coherent strategy. All the pieces of the puzzle need to be in place Source "Three Myths of Customer Service" Customer Service In The News: United Airlines Saga brings in a new video Poor customer service costing firms Firms lost millions of customers, costing them billions of pounds, in the past few years - often because of poor customer service, according to new research. Three out of four switched at least one product or service in the last two years, a survey of more than 2,000 people showed. Professor Merlin Stone, of Oxford Brookes University, who conducted the study, estimated organizations had lost up to 20 million good customers, which cost them around £3.39 billion. (More) Dealerships going above and beyond to help customers Social media adoption has doubled since 2009 Thoughts from Shaun: Customer service has been a hot topic in Toronto, Canada over the last couple of weeks. The TTC - Toronto Transit Commission - has come under increasing public and media pressure for the levels of customer service being delivered by its 12,000 employees. The steady rumbling of discontent rose to a full-fledged outburst when a picture of a sleeping TTC fare collector was published on the internet a couple of weeks ago. While I have yet to see anyone try and dispute the claims about the TTC's customer service levels, I've already read well over a hundred news articles and blogs on what's causing the problem and how it needs to be fixed. Most are overly simplistic, like "they just don't get it and need more training," or "fire the lot of them," or "the whole TTC needs an overhaul." Some are viewed through the lenses of agendas or social prejudices, like, "It's the typical union mentality - they just don't care," or "It's the management that's created a poisonous atmosphere." If only managing customer experience was really so simple.... This tsunami of opinions on the subject illustrates the biggest challenge every organization faces when attempting to establish "customer experience" as a deliverable core value. Customer service, like driving a car or making a cup of coffee, is something most people are comfortable expressing their opinions on. We're all self-proclaimed experts, it seems, and we all think the answers are pretty straight forward. As someone who has spend the last twenty years working to help organizations improve their customer service, however, I can state without hesitation that the solutions to chronic service experience failures is never as straight-forward or simple as it seems. When asked about what the TTC should do, one consultant was quoted as saying that he hopes they don't try to fix it through training, as though training was a dirty word, or some kind of trivial waste of money. A Toronto professor was quoted as saying that the TTC needs to look at "best practices" in other organizations. One journalist decided that the TTC should model itself after Disney. These kinds of knee-jerk reactions are, to say the very least, unhelpful. For the TTC, or any organization, to truly become customer-centric, they need a systematic, strategic approach. The need to begin by reviewing their Structure, Processes and People. For each of these areas, they then have to answer the following four questions: 1. How easy are we to do business with? 2. How eager are we? (How much do we send the message we care?) 3. How enjoyable are we to do business with? 4. How rewarding are we to do business with? These questions cut to the core of customer experience, and the answers will provide tremendous insight into what corrective actions will achieve the biggest wins. It won't be easy for them. A customer-focused culture doesn't happen overnight. Quite frankly, if achieving world-class customer service was really as easy as most people thought, we would all be having a lot more pleasant experiences out there in the world. One thing is for sure - the TTC is hardly alone in their need to focus more on their customers. Did You Know? 92% of all customer interactions happen via the phone, and 85% of consumers are dissatisfied with their phone experience. Harris Poll ranked industries on how well they served consumers and found supermarket and internet industries provided the best service according to U.S. adults. Cable, tobacco and health insurance companies were listed the worst service providers. Customer Service Facts & Myths Consumers are increasingly turning to social network sites to solve their customer service issues rather than contacting a company directly, according to a new report. Companies are now emerging on social networking sites to begin building trust and solve customer problems. Customer Service In The News: Social Media as Customer Service Social media has come along and shaken up everything we know about customer service. It has, in effect, turned it completely on its head. The benefits of social media as a customer service channel are more and more apparent and steadily becoming a necessity for businesses rather than a ‘nice to have’. (More) How one quiet woman made a big noise for customer service It sounds so simple -- customer service. Every business claims it. Every manager preaches it. So why is it that customers sometimes feel they don't get it? Customer service, after all, is the capstone of the economy in Beaufort County. We are small shops. Our product is hospitality. We need people to want to spend time here, even buy property here. That's why I want to tell you the story of Babs Echtenkamp. (More) Poor customer service costing firms Firms lost millions of customers, costing them billions of pounds, in the past few years - often because of poor customer service, according to new research. Three out of four switched at least one product or service in the last two years, a survey of more than 2,000 people showed. Professor Merlin Stone, of Oxford Brookes University, who conducted the study, estimated organizations had lost up to 20 million good customers, which cost them around £3.39 billion. (More) NBC picks up pilot show on customer service Centered on a recently demoted manager of a novelties company who is shipped off to India to manage a ragtag group of customer service reps. (More) Thoughts from Shaun: A few days ago, as I was busily writing a bunch of pieces for our "Winning at Work!" newsletter, I had a bit of an epiphany about "customer loyalty." I had just finished reading yet another article on how good old customer loyalty has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Our new global marketplace is giving people so many choices, the author claimed, that "loyalty" is simply just an unrealistic goal. Her arguments were compelling, to be sure, but they somehow just weren't sitting well with me. If loyalty is dead, how do we explain the rabidly loyal customer base of companies like Apple, Starbucks, Four Seasons, Harvard University, Lululemon, Southwest Airlines - the list goes on. It was then that it hit me. This new global marketplace hasn't killed loyalty. What it's really doing is shining a bright light on loyalty's true nature. Hear me out on this - and I'm anxious to hear what you think: In the "good old days," we customers shopped in the same stores over and over again. We bought from the same suppliers for years and years. Because of this, we were classified as 'loyal customers.' But were we really? When you stop and think about it, why was it that you went to the same bookstore month after month? Why did you buy your groceries from the same store? Why did you get all your hardware from the same retailer? In all likelihood, you did business with them because your choices were limited. They might only have had one or two competitors, or they might have been the only game in town. It wasn't loyalty that drove you to those stores - it was a hostage situation. Rather than kill customer loyalty, what our new global marketplace has really done is free the hostages. Consumers are now free to choose from a mind-numbing array of alternatives, and because so few companies are truly engaging these free spirits and providing consistent value, we end up with a constantly revolving door - or "churn" as the communications industry terms it. What the extraordinarily successful companies have done (like the companies mentioned above) that others have not, is they have made the real shift in their organizations to a customer focus. It's not just lip service to them, or a line item on the mission statement. They truly understand that loyalty is a two-way street. If you want loyalty from someone, you first have to demonstrate loyalty to that person. You have to give them value - not just a convincing marketing spin, but true value. Customers have to believe that you genuinely care more about them than you do their wallets. Your structure, policies, practices and people all have to be focused. The exciting news, I believe, is that all these free spirits genuinely want companies to be loyal to. All it takes is a company with the courage and vision to deliver what their customers need. Did You Know? "Having the right people performing the job is very important. Are your customer service personnel impatient? Is your management bored? Assess the job skills and interests of the staff. If they are not engaged, customer satisfaction can suffer. Additional job responsibilities can increase employee satisfaction. Use the employee to help solve customer satisfaction problems the customer is experiencing, thereby satisfying the customer and giving the employee a new skill set by working on the project." Source: "The Best Way to Improve Customer Satisfaction", EHow How To Do Just About Everything Customer Service Facts & Myths "Only 1 out of 25 dissatisfied customers will express dissatisfaction." "Happy customers tell 4 to 5 others of their positive experience. Dissatisfied customers tell 9 to 12 how bad it was." "The average company loses 10 percent of its customers each year." Mark Stevens, Author - Extreme Management: What They Teach At Harvard's Advanced Management Program. Customer Service In The News: Obama turned to the CEO's of companies for advice on how to improve customer service In brainstorming sessions that followed, the CEOs weighed in with advice as top-ranking government officials listened. Harness altruism, the business leaders said, set higher goals, conduct performance report cards and make results available publicly. They also suggested creating an environment of "do more with less much faster." (More) Multi-Lingual Customer Service is a Must Being able to sell to a diverse customer base is one thing, but it's just the first step in an ongoing process of fostering successful customer interactions if winning loyalty is your goal. (More) Boosting morale by building new attitudes Call Center managers can catalyze representatives boost skills and perk up comfort levels to ensure success in customer service sales. As managers, we can take the following techniques up when equipping the representatives the necessary skills called for in the job. (More) Thoughts from Shaun: I'm perplexed. If you believe everything you hear in the media (which, of course, we all do), the world's economic troubles have hit the bottom and are beginning to bounce back. Good Things appear to be on the way. Now, like a race car driver who slowed down to enter a hairpin turn, it will soon be time for organizations to begin the aggressive acceleration back to full speed. A significant part of their success will hinge on how well they are able to deliver on customer service. The ROI of truly outstanding customer service is becoming more and more evident every day. A survey released last week on the Chinese banking industry (highlighted below) claims that financial institutions with outstanding service have a profit margin growth rate of 21 times that of those with poor service. That is an unbelievable 2,100% difference. Wow. Intuitively, we all know how much of a difference customer service makes. We've all had those horrible experiences that we've told countless people about, then vowed to never do business with the company again. We've also all had those wonderful experiences when we meet an individual or organization that genuinely seems to care about us. We know, first hand, the impact that customer service has on people. Why is it, then that so many of us seem so willing to accept mediocrity in our own organizations? I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard people say things like "Oh, that's just Fred - he's always like that," when referring to an employee who is exhibiting substandard customer service. Similarly, I hear senior executives valiantly trying to rationalize why they can't (won't) change company policies and practices that they know irritate their customers. Clearly, people perceive that there is some sort of risk - but I'm just not really sure what it is. The payoff of a team who is well-trained and motivated to deliver world-class service, and an infrastructure that is customer-focused is incontrovertible. The cost of mediocrity is severe. In almost 20 years in this business, I have never seen a real, concerted focus on customer service make an organization worse off than it already is. What is holding people back? Did You Know? Great Customer Service Experiences! Although many people these days believe that great customer service is a thing of the past, a recent study has found that great customer service experiences still very much exist. In fact, the study found that what consumers describe as "great shopping" actually happens quite often, with more than half (52%) of consumers saying they had enjoyed a "wow" shopping experience, and 35% of all shoppers reporting a great shopping experience within the past 6 months. Source: The Wise Marketer: Verde Group, the Retail Council of Canada, and the Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative at the Wharton School ROI of Customer Service Banking on Good Service Cultivating highly satisfied bank customers has a profoundly positive effect on financial performance, according to a study from J.D. Power and Associates. Based on a customer satisfaction survey at 20 leading banks operating in China, the study found that banks with the highest levels of customer satisfaction experienced a growth in profit margins of 129 percent on an annual basis between 2006 and 2008. To read the rest of the findings, visit this link: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-08/31/content_8634770.htm Customer Service In The News: Speech Self-Service Study Finds 'Disturbing' Numbers 2nd 'United Breaks Guitars' video released Poor Customer Service Holding Back E-Commerce Sales Thoughts from Shaun: I had a conversation a few weeks ago with an old friend who had just run a gauntlet of unpleasant customer service experiences. "You're the expert," he said to me angrily (like it was somehow my fault), "tell me why there are so many companies out there that are so pathetic!" Good question. Most of the companies that have profoundly and consistently poor service are largely unaware how much their poor service is hurting them. Many believe in delivering good customer service, but aren't sure the issues really lie. Far more than you would ever imagine actually think they have good service. I can't begin to count how many times I have heard senior people convince themselves they're doing a great job when every indicator is pointing to the contrary. The fact that poor service is pervasive in some organizations is due to a number of factors. These are the most common: a. Absense of champions b. Size and silos c. Apathy d. Delusions Did You Know? Customer service starts with your employees A recent study which looked at customer experiences during difficult economic times found that of the 869 companies who participated in the study, only 46% responded that their employees had been given the tools, resources and authority to solve challenges with customers. The study also found that only 41% said that they have povided their employess with a clear definition of what a positive customer experience looks like. In a time when delivering good customer service is vital for a company to survive, it is important to start with your employees, by providing them with the tools and basic knowledge of good customer service. Surprisingly, though, more than half of the companies who participated in the study haven't even done that. Source: Telus Mobility & Strativity Group Inc.
Myth MSN Money survey ranks good, bad service Delta brings back the stand-out Red Coats Comcast cares....using twitter to give great customer service AA employees to split $14 million for improving customer service Thoughts from Shaun: Well, the bad news is that the economy is still in a funk. The good news is that it looks like we might be starting to turn the corner. One of the interesting phenomenons to watch for is the slingshot effect - where companies who have excelled at customer service during the downturn will emerge from the recession much more rapidly and robustly than their competitors. There will be a lot of other interesting developments and great lessons to be learned over the next few months. Enjoy the ride - we are living in a time that will be in our grandchildren's history books! Did You Know? The Importance of First Impressions A study conducted at Princeton University, which examined how quickly first impressions are made, found that as minimal exposure time as a tenth of a second is sufficient for people to make a specific trait inference from a facial expression. They also found that while additional exposure time allows for different impressions to be made, the judgments are already anchored on the initial inference. The study also found that judgment commonly made the most quickly based on facial expressions is that individual's degree of trustworthiness. Source: Psychological Science, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov, Princeton University Customer Service Facts & Myths Fact Myth Customer Service Is Crucial in a Downturn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-retail dissatisfaction hampers economic recovery --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Should customer service Twitter? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These days, businesses will "go the extra mile" to get a customer, make that sale or increase profit margins. In times where prices are extremely competitive and quality products often are difficult to differentiate across most vendors, businesses are focusing their energies on activities where the return on investment is more long-term. (More)
Did You Know? Importance of keeping the frontlines strong In this years ranking, more than half of the top 25 brands showed improved customer service scores over the last year. Among the bottom 25 of the more than 200 brands surveyed, scores mostly fell. Source: Business Week, February 2009 Customer Service Facts & Myths Fact Fact Boomers at Retail: A Cautionary Tale Customer Service Tune-Up What's good customer service? How to Play it - Smart Moves to Make Now
Thoughts from Shaun: There is a proverb, often referred to as The Chinese Curse, which reads: "May you live in interesting times." Yes indeed. And the times these days are most certainly interesting. As far as customer service is concerned, organizations today are facing an interesting paradox. On the one hand, organizations which are focused on customer service efforts are doing very well in these tough economic times. (There is a mountain of current data to support this.) On the other hand, there's a very powerful argument for fiscal prudence - resulting in many organizations cutting back on their customer service efforts. Some have reduced training, some have cut staff, some have downsized their customer loyalty programs. So which is the best strategy? It shouldn't come as a surprise that I favor the former strategy. It is, after all, how I make my living. But the philosophy is sound. When the pie is shrinking, the only way to keep from shrinking with it is to increase your share. That means increased customer retention and increased customer acquisition. It really depends, I guess, on how you choose to view customer service. If you see it as an expense, then it's expendable in tough times. But if you see it as an investment, with a genuine payback, this is a great time to press for an advantage. An increased share of market today will have significant implications in the near future when the pie begins to grow again. Did You Know? Retailers' e-channel still failing on service
Source: The Wise Marketer & eGains Communication Coordination Customer Service Facts & Myths Fact Myth Overstock, Amazon Near Top of Best Customer Service Survey E-retail satisfaction shows tomorrow's winners & losers McAllen, Time Warner discuss service complaints Best Customer Complaint Letter Ever? Did You Know? Customers reward for good customer service
Source: The Wise Markete & RightNow Technologies Customer Service Facts & Myths Fact Source: Oprah.com Fact Source: Tealeaf Technology Inc Key consumer trends for an uncertain 2009 Customer service may have saved shopowner's life Geeks at Your Service: Secret of Best Buy's Success How 'digital diseases' are damaging e-retailers Did You Know? Customers fight back
Source: The Wise Markete & RightNow Technologies Customer Service Facts & Myths Myth FBI: 2 Ballard banks thwart robbery with great customer service Online Customer Service Needs Improvement First-ever BHC Customer Day held ADACTUS Celebrate National Customer Service Week Did You Know? Customer Retention a 'Priority' during downturn The result is a dramatic turn-around from previous years, when 40% of businesses rated customer acquisition as their main concern. Source: SPSS Inc. Retail Success The most successful of the four, by far, was Walmart. This was due in large part to it's founder, Sam Walton's continuous goal to "give the customer what they want". Source: Cliff Baird, RISMedia Customer Service Facts & Myths Myth Belding Skills Training & Development expands Customer experiences: Make or break? Hospitality businesses do industry proud at Customer Service Awards Abu Dhabi Airport Services 'Going for Gold' with Olympic customer service initiative Did You Know? Shopping Frustrations The Kronos survey shows that 49% of respondents say they have walked out of a store with long queues at the pay point without making a purchase; 25% have walked out and taken their business elsewhere to find a store with shorter queues. Source: Business Intelligence - Middle East. Justin Smith, June 2008. Driving Clients to Rivals The study also found that 38% of respondents will stop doing business with a financial firm as a result of poor service, while 76% said good customer relations was the key reason behind their choice of provider. Source: ifaonline.co.uk. Scott Sinclair, July 2008 Customer Service Facts & Myths Myth New Focus on Customer Service as Economy Slows PVH, MCR Earn Customer Service Awards Public Sector Customer Service Competition Launched Avis rolls out 3 Minute Promise service Did You Know? Canadian Customer Service Trends The top ranked factors that make service great were:
Most respondents said that they generally receive good customer service and 73 per cent said they had received good customer service in the past month, an increase of 11 per cent over last year. Source: CanadaOne E-zine. Julie King, June 2008. Customer Service Facts & Myths Fact
Fact Customer Service In The News: Good service beats a loyalty scheme, Canadians say Air Canada's Heathrow Based Customer Services Team Honoured with Outstanding Service Award Study: Offshore outsourcing dings customer satisfaction; Taking back office offshore ok Good service counts most in the credit crunch Did You Know? Linking Brand Loyalty to Customer Care Some Key findings:
Customer Service Facts & Myths Myth Customer service looks different from the trenches than from the C-suite Study confirms a lack of win-back strategies Believe It or Not, Someone's Listening The Customer Service Hall of Shame Did You Know? What drives brand loyalty? 1. Satisfaction (51%); Source: The Wise Marketer Why do people switch services? Source: Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study. Susan M. Keaveney Customer Service Facts & Myths Myth Fact Online Websites Help Score One for Consumers Investigators put Customer Service to the Test Drive Towards Better Customer Service Southwest Airlines tops in Customer Service |
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