Syed's Customer Experience Blog

The amazing effect of a call for help

While we're all busy trying to figure out Apple's Ping, using Google Instant and trying to get our hands on the new Blackberry Torch - there are people on the other side of the world worrying about where they're going to sleep tonight, what they're going to eat for their next meal and how they're going to get medicine for their sick child.

I'm talking about the floods in Pakistan. A single tragedy that is going down in history as one of the most devastating disasters in the world - displacing more than 21 million people from their homes. This is bigger than the Indian Tsunami in 2004, the Kashmir Earthquake in 2005, and the Haiti Earthquake in 2010 - all combined. Now, that’s big.
Here at Responsetek, an employee initiated an internal challenge to raise money for the flood victims. They had seen firsthand, the beauty of the landscape and kindness of the people, ten years ago when they had traveled to Northern Pakistan; the area most severely hit by the floods.

We took the challenge seriously and in less than a week, we raised over $8,500 in actual aid to help the flood victims in Pakistan with more than 75% of our employees participating. Our chosen charity, World Vision Canada, will be able to provide aid and support to over 140 families and their children in the affected areas.

One of the unexpected outcomes of this process has been a really positive effect on moral. Several employees have taken the time to talk to me about how positively they felt about us, as a company, giving back to help those less fortunate. Although it was merely a week, it was a great experience centered around the simple act of giving.

We spend so much time these days preoccupied with shareholders, sales, expense management, the economy and so on and so forth, that it’s easy to forget that most of us started our businesses in order to make a difference at some level. This past week has reminded me that we can make a difference to those people in need, and that too, in a relatively short amount of time. We just have to look in the right places.

Thanks again to all the ResponseTek employees that helped us support World Vision Canada and the flood victims in Pakistan over the past week.

I hope this reminds or at least, inspires you to encourage your company to give back to those who need it most. Take it as a challenge, and I promise you'll feel good about it.

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

What is the role of the Customer Experience Executive?

Companies started formalizing executive roles focused on customer experience about 2-3 years ago. As someone that has operated in the Customer Experience (CE) arena for over 10 years it was great to see the customer experience getting formalized and my hopes for companies using the "voice of the customer" as a serious management tool increased accordingly.  At the time we never really knew how the role was going to play out but it seemed surrounded by good intent.  Unfortunately the SVP/EVP/VP Customer Experience  has rarely lived up to it's promise and now as times get tough the number of Executive's with a "Customer Experience" title that are being let go is increasing almost daily.

The problem I think is that most, if not all customer experience executives operate in a Corporate Group role rather than in the Operating Groups of large companies. The effect this has is that they become responsible for guidance and best practice identification but the have very little power or influence where the rubber hits the road, at the operating groups.  As a result in my experience very few customer experience executives have been able to transfer their excitement and priorities for monitoring and managing the customer experience across to the executives in the operating groups. 

The other factor that has led to the lack of impact a typical customer experience executive has on changing the business is where the budgets are held. Most group level CE executives have a small budget which is focused on addition market research, consultants, etc. However, the budgets needed to truely transform customer experiences are much larger and typically owned by operations or the contact center. As a result most CE executives never get into the real issues around measurement, consistency, systems or behavioral change because they do not have the mandate or resources to affect change.

I am disappointed to see that so many CE exec roles are being cut these day's but I also recognize that the role as it has been used in most companies today is ineffective. The role and responsibilities of a CE exec needs to be revised if they are ever going to impact large organizations. Perhaps the role should sit in the office of the CEO, be an extension of the operations role or operate at the board level similar to an audit or compensation committee?

If you have come across a company where the CE exec does have the influence and resources to make change happen please let me know.

Syed

When agents get smarter than your customer experience systems

I recently had to call a large hotel chain (the Delaware North Group) to make a reservation.  Before getting through to the agent I heard a recorded message telling me that if I would like to give my feedback about the call I should stay on the line after the call ended.  Of course, being in the customer experience monitoring business, I am always interested to see how different companies handle agent quality monitoring and what kind of information is being collected. 

So after a relatively mediocre interaction with the agent, during which she was not able to address my issue (she didn't seem like she cared either), I waited to go through to the feedback system. As I waited for the system to kick in, I thought about how poor the technology integration must be for the transfer to take so long. After about 20 seconds I realized that I was not dealing with a system problem - the agent was, in fact, still on the line!

At this point the silence became more and more uncomfortable, as I sat in this virtual game of telephone chicken. “It’s my time versus her average handling time,” I thought.  After about a minute of this, I gave up, as much out of embarrassment as frustration. She won!

This story demonstrates the problem when companies with call centers jump onto the customer feedback bandwagon, but don't think through the processes, and how these processes can be compromised by their own staff. If the cost of a truly automated call transfer system is too expensive (as they are for some companies) ensure your manual system has the smarts to quickly identify agents that play the system.

At ResponseTek, we recommend our clients monitor results and completion rates for each agent against a benchmark group to deter this kind of behavior. Alerts are triggered when agent sampling, average score, or handling times move outside expected ranges, which prompt supervisors to take a closer look at the agents call records.

You can never stop agents from playing your systems, but you can make it hard for them to win by building some intelligence into your business rules and monitoring.  My experience is just one of many where companies think they have enabled the "Voice of the Customer" according to industry best practices but fail to pay attention to the technology and behaviors they need for the system to work.  In the case of Delaware North their agents have definitely figured a way around their well intended customer feedback system. Is the same thing happening in your call centers? I recommend you find out.

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

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….