Syed's Customer Experience Blog

How do you recognize great service? Meet Frank.

I was recently traveling on a business trip from Vancouver to Kansas City on United Airlines. It was a fairly typical business trip, listening to cab drivers talking about the weather and traffic, witnessing check-in agents typing fanatically into a system that really shouldn't need that much typing, looking at border control officers trying not to judge you while they judge you, etc, etc. Now, I travel a lot so I am used to being treated as a seat number rather than a person and I tend to be on auto pilot. 

On this trip I was connecting through Dallas (one of the most mundane airports I have ever visited) and after my one hour layover, it was time to board my second flight. This is where I met Frank. Frank was the agent whose job it was to run our boarding passes through the scanner and let us board the flight. He was in his late fifties, of African American decent and looked like a long term United Airlines employee. However there was something different about Frank, as I watched him call up the different sections of the plane. He greeted every passenger by their name, shook their hands, and took the time to make a unique comment or greeting. Frank was making people laugh, he was getting high fives and even some hugs from complete strangers! And as I watched, I was amazed and impressed by what this normal employee based in the Dallas airport was doing to delight customers and turn a mindless experience into something that was fun and enjoyable. Now, if I were an executive at United or any airline for that matter, I would spend a day or even a week with Frank to figure out what makes him tick and how I could replicate that X factor.

Unfortunately the reality is that Frank is probably an unsung hero at United, management probably do not know what a unique experience he is delivering, and passengers like me don't have any easy way to tell them. 

This story demonstrates the importance for investing in customer feedback loops that are easy and timely for consumers to use. Forget about comment cards and 1-800 numbers, we are a Facebook and Twitter generation. If I can't let you know my feedback and comments quickly, and preferably through my smart phone, "right now" I probably never will. The disappointing thing here is that all the technology required to be able to recognize employees like Frank exist today, but companies have their heads in the ground and are not embracing the possibilities.  

Until companies start to recognize the role of real-time feedback in their operations management systems, employees like Frank will continue to be overlooked and companies like United will continue to be perceived as delivering weak customer experiences. So you have to ask yourself, how many Frank's do you have in your business? and how long before they leave to join a company that does recognize their contribution?

Finally, I just wanted to say, "Well done Frank, where ever you may be."

Syed

The power of text messaging for customer feedback

The last 12 months have been really exciting when it comes to use of text messaging/sms as a tool for customer feedback. At ResponseTek we have always held the opinion that the closer you are in time and channel to the customer experience the better the information you will collect. This has been easy in the web and call center channels but in the retail channel it has been a big problem. However there is good news, there is a quiet revolution happening in retail feedback management that is being led by the European Telco's and they are quickly being followed by other retailers. The revolution focuses on the use  of SMS to capture the voice of the customer at the point of purchase.

Text messaging is a great technology for certain types of retailers to collect large amounts of timely information that can be used by the front lines almost every day. In Europe the use of text messaging as a feedback tool is rapidly accelerating as companies move away from more problematic or expensive  programs such as outbound calling or receipt back messaging/surveys. It is also very effective, we have seen clients that can expect a 20-30% response rate from text message feedback programs if designed intelligently. The feedback can also be quite rich, with both quantitative and qualitative information being collected across up to 6-10 questions.  Where text messaging feedback was an experiment for lots of companies in Europe 12 months ago now it has become their core retail satisfaction monitoring method.

One thing I do still find surprising is that although North America is the icon for the iphone/smartphone generation there is very little (if any) adoption of this exciting technology this side of the pond. Even though this approach is an obvious fit for companies like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc.  they don't seem to be connecting the dots yet and continue to spend big on more expensive yet less timely research approaches.

Regardless of the differences in North America and Europe relating to text message feedback programs, what we have seen within clients is proof of a technology and approach that is here to stay and one that can dramatically change the way a company connects with it's customers and employees.

Syed

Experience Story: I can’t believe they listened to my feedback! ...(eventually)

I got this story from Gord in Vancouver. It is really a customers perspective about what happens when your CRM systems and marketing campaigns are not working together but it also demonstrates the power of listening to the Voice of the Customer (VOC).

After spending millions of CRM over the past 10 years companies should by now have a pretty good view of who you are, what you buy, and how much you spend. If your marketing departments are not using this information to develop thoughtful campaigns then your marketing spend could actually be working against you! The saving grace in this story is that the company did recognize that they didn't know it all and customer feedback might help them improve their campaign.  It worked! they provided the customer with a feedback channel, the customer used it, they acted on the feedback and they converted one customer from a detractor to a advocate.  They probably used this learning to avoid making the same mistake with other customers as well (I hope?). This story is a great illustration of the power of listening to the voice of the customer and shows the potential value to the business when you think about the number of customers that might have been turned off by this kind of experience.

Experience Story:

"First of all, I have been a Telus customer for a long time, since about 2000 – and I think that means that I deserve some respect from them. So imagine my disbelief when I got a package in the mail from for “our” 5-year anniversary. They sent me a small stuffed animal. I’m not joking – it basically said to me “hey, thanks for being such a loyal customer – here is a stuffed animal to show you what we think of your business”. All I could think was “who thought THIS was a good idea??”. Talk about being disconnected from your customer.

Now for the good part. At the bottom of the letter that accompanied the stuffed toy was an invitation to provide feedback using an on-line survey. I immediately filled it out and very clearly let it be known that after 5 years (and about $4000 of money from my pocket) a cheap stuffed animal was a quick way to lose a customer and that doing nothing would have actually been better. For several months I heard nothing. And then another package showed up, with a simple “thanks for your loyalty” letter, and a headset to use with my phone. It was something useful! And even better, they LISTENED to me. Now I felt like I mattered. You know what happened after that? I started telling people about it. In the end, it created a positive experience for me, and I wanted to tell my friends. Free marketing! And that’s the thing here that so many companies don’t get – all you have to do is ask and listen to what I have to say. It’s really not hard, and it works wonders. Respect your customers and they will repay you with their loyalty. I know I will.  Gord (Vancouver, BC)"

My only other comments would be that it would have been great to have given Gord a number of channels to pick from to give his feedback i.e. sms, voice, ivr, email, etc and the cycle should have been quicker. In the months between the customer feedback and the response, how many stuffed animals did these people send out? Who knows how many customers didn't bother to provide feedback and instead just became active detractors of the brand or even worse switched service.  The fact that it took months indicated that Telusdoes not have a systematic approach to VOC feedback and if they think they do they should call back the vendors who sold it to them.

Syed  

Top down vs bottom up improvement strategies

Are you trying to change your customer experience from the top-down or bottom-up? ..........

I am amazed at the number of executives I meet as part of my work at ResponseTek who greet this question with a blank look or a “what do you mean…”?

Assuming that your business has joined the conventional thinking that a good customer experience leads to a higher probability of happy customers (and that happy customers are good), then you have to come up with a strategy that leads to happier customers.

Here is the top down scenario: First you decide hire McKinsey, Bain or BCG…(nobody ever got fired for that). Six months, a million dollars in consulting, and workshops (ad infinitum) later, your consultants of choice will typically deliver you a comprehensive top-down customer experience improvement strategy. It will include marketing messages, slogans for the employees, new compensation plans, a few tracking surveys and some benchmarking with competitors.  If you’re lucky, it might even have an operational framework for continuous improvement, such as customer workshops, panels and focus groups.

So if you spent the money and got all of this, you’ve got your top-down strategy for customer experience improvement.

The good news? You won’t get fired. Hiring big name consultants is always a great strategy to hide behind when you don’t have a clue.

The bad news? Top-down strategies alone rarely work.

To improve customer experience and sustain improvements, employee behaviors must change. Partner behaviors must change. The behaviors of your outsourced suppliers representing your brand must change. Anyone interacting with your customers has to focus on improving the customer experience.

With top-down strategies such as aggregate customer-sat scores or compensation incentives, the behavioral change needed for business improvement is at best temporary. To sustain improvement, you need to ensure your top down strategies are complemented by bottom-up strategies.

Bottom up strategy scenario: Bottom-up strategies focus on making employees accountable for the customer experience every day, during every interaction. Bottom-up strategies take the basic principles of short interval control, used effectively in the manufacturing sector, and apply them to today's service focused environments, such as call centers, retail stores, and field service and support teams.  Bottom-up strategies focus on timely measurement and reporting of customer experiences at the individual or transactional level. By deploying timely measures within a framework of timely, individual reporting, employees can quickly and continuously identify for themselves behaviors that do not enhance the customer experience.  This level of personal awareness and individual reporting can then be very effectively used by supervisors for training or coaching.

The combination of top-down and bottom-up customer experience strategies is powerful…but rarely practiced.  I don't know if this is because corporations lack an understanding of this as a best practice, or because it’s much harder to do than top-down alone. What do you think?

Final thoughts: Perhaps the best way to think about a top-down strategy on its own – that is, without the bottom-up strategy - is in the context of a manufacturing quality improvement strategy. With a top-down strategy, you just have a quality plan, quality targets, quality linked compensation, and monthly surveys of the quality actually coming off the front line. A bottom-up strategy adds a production line quality team that measures quality at every production stage on an hourly basis, and quality addresses issues daily. In today’s environment, no one would try to improve manufacturing quality with just a top-down strategy, without front-line measurement and improvement processes that shadow the production line. And yet, that is exactly how companies are trying to improve the quality of their customer experience using consultants and market research.

I hope this prompts you to ask your executive team about your company’s top-down and bottom-up strategies for improving the customer experience.  Let me know what you find out!

Syed

Beware of your "Analog Customers"

In today's world of online reviews, customer blogs and social networks, you could be mistaken for thinking that all your customers are online and that is the only place that experience sharing is occurring.  The reality is that we are analog and not digital beings and most of our recommendations or warnings still happen outside the internet, during conversations with people we know (more here).  The vast number of customer experiences and recommendations that I absorb are from people who I know or meet and relay it to me face to face.

We typically think of analog customer advocacy as being less valuable or dangerous than digital advocacy because of the limited audience that is exposed to it. For example, I might not be happy with my cell phone provider but at the most, I am only going to tell 10-20 people about it. On the other hand, millions of people can see the same information online, so companies tend to accept analog advocacy as a high impact but low risk influence on their customer base.

I was recently reminded that the "analog consumer" is getting smarter and learning the power of "eye balls".  As I drove down the highway recently I passed a car with a big sign in the back window. The sign said, "THIS CAR IS A LEMON. DO NOT BUY ONE".  The surprising thing to me is even after several weeks I remember that this sign was in the window of a Ford Escape but I can't remember many of the other cars I passed that day (or any other day). In the online world reviews are not usually linked to the actual product (an image all you can expect) but here the review was stuck onto the product. In the online world you can't see the reviewer or you don't even know if they own the product they reviewed, but here the reviewer/customer was IN the product! This connection between the customer, the product and the review in the real world was incredibly powerful and had more impact than any review I could ever read on a Ford Escape (I am never going to go near one).  Then I thought about audience and the fact that this guy must be driving past thousands of cars per week and influencing everyone's perception of the Ford brand. Now that is power which has a lot more influence on consumers than some online review site that uses reviewers for hire.

Unfortunately for Ford, this example is about them but it could have so easily been about any automotive manufacturer.  The next step might Lemon stickers for cell phones, camera's, etc ...who knows.

We are living in a world where more and more customers are becoming comfortable with sharing and broadcasting their experiences. At the moment the bulk of sharing occurs offline but most of the broadcasting occurs online (interesting blog on online vs. offline sharing here). This story shows the potential for that to shift.

My advice to companies is to beware of your "analog customers" and deliver great experiences every time. It only takes one customer to put a "Lemon" sign in their back window and it could cost you and your brand more than you think.

Syed

NPS™:New measure, same problems.

I know that it is almost considered blasphemy to say anything contrary to the simple teachings of Fredrick Reichheld when it comes to NPS™. The pace at which this latest offering from Fred Reichheld has been adopted by corporate america and beyond is staggering. Corporations are getting on board across the globe and customer satisfaction measures are becoming very "yesterday" when it comes to the army of customer experience managers, directors and VP's that have been hired over the past couple of years. For those of you living under a corporate rock for the past couple of years I should explain that NPS™ is a percentage derived by asking customers to answer, " would you refer the company to a friend/family?" on an 0-10 scale, the NPS™ score is derived by subtracting the % promotors(9 &10's) from the % detractors (0-6's).

Now don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against NPS™, as long as you remember it is only a measure and that's all. My problem is when companies get so focused on the measure or the percentage and forget about the customers and the experiences that make up the this new measure that has got the exec's all excited. The problem I see is that just because NPS™ is a simple measure doesn't make it any easier to improve your customer experience. It is just as hard to improve Customer experience in today's world of NPS™ measures as it was when you were measuring customer sat. last year. Companies need to get focused on improvement rather than just measurement. Improvement can only be achieved when your chosen measure, NPS™, C Sat or advocacy mean something to every employee, every day. that is when things don't seem as simple as some of the NPS™ practitioners would have you believe.

The following is a piece I wrote last year talking to this issue. Hope it gets you thinking.
Beyond NPS™ to Advocacy Improvement

ps. To keep the lawyers from sending me more nasty letters I must inform you that NPS™ is a registered trademark of Bain & Company, Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

Vancity Visa- Not as easy as you think

I just got this great story from a friend and colleague of mine Colin, telling me about his challenges getting a visa card from a local credit union . The credit union in question, Vancity, prides itself on being customer focused and spends a lot of time and resources listening to customers through panels and surveys.  However by missing opportunities to allow customers to provide feedback around transactions or specific interactions they are missing the opportunities to fix broken processes that are causing customers to look for alternatives and take their business elsewhere. 

Three calls to the call center, one dead application and one unhappy customer. Thanks for this one Colin.

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After many sub-standard experiences with TD Canada Trust, I finally decided to switch. Within a month, all my accounts, funds, EFTs and cheques were handled, and I was finally set up with Vancity, the biggest credit union in Canada, and a customer service leader.

Initially, they lived up to their reputation, both in that first month with superior account support, and in the weeks to follow, with personal calls from branch management and others to ensure my experience had been as expected.

So, on to every day banking…my first ‘major’ task was to finally address an imbalance in my wallet. Two MasterCards, and no VISA, which can sometimes be an issue (though rarely). I went online to Vancity VISA, complete the online form, and awaited next steps, as promised to occur within 5-10 business days. I unexpectedly received a voicemail at work (within two business days) from a Vancity VISA customer service rep, asking that I call back to proceed with the balance of my application. Calling the number and referencing my name, I found myself in queue for the credit department, and speaking to another CSR. She said that I would get a call back, as the credit department was rather busy. I proceeded with my day.

The next day, I received another call from a different CSR….would I call them back so the application could be completed? Once again, I called in, but no luck – busy credit department. Could I call back, asked the third new CSR? As nicely as I could – I know they have a tough job, and it’s out of their control – I asked the CSR to tell me when would be a better time to call when I could get someone live on the phone. She could not. I asked her to get someone from the credit department to call me at a specific time, or leave a message with a name and extension if we missed each other. She could not. I suggested to the CSR that they should find a new process for completing the (apparently rather popular) credit check portion of the application process, where the onus would not be on the applicant to continually redial. I suggested that this might not be the best way to maintain a high completion rate for card applications…as I would like not keep calling!

She politely informed me she would make note of my suggestions. A few days ago, I received a form letter from Vancity VISA, reiterating the incomplete nature of my application form, and that I should call the number below to complete my application. The space for the phone number was blank. Have a nice day.

Knowing Vancity, I may actually get a follow-up call once the application is officially dead (I certainly won’t…it’s a nice-to-have, but I have a long list of must-dos at both home and the office). I do like the organization, but I can get a VISA anywhere, hopefully with less hassle.

Like most financial services organizations, Vancity endeavours to provide multiple products and services for all customer needs and life stages. And such an enterprise is difficult to operationalize, while maintaining effective customer service functions. I hope they get it right. There’s no telling how much revenue they lose each month from people just like me….

Should you focus on managing customer value or customer experience

Here is a piece that I wrote about 18 months ago (pre blog) looking at the challenges for companies that continue to focus on customer value management in a world where all their customers high value or low value are probably networked together. In today's network economy company that try to deliver better service to only high value customers and attempt to "fire" low value customers run a massive risk of destroying their brand reputation.

check it out after the jump. Manage customer value or customer experience?