Archive for Customer Service
Don’t Follow Verizon’s Lead!
Posted by: | CommentsI’m constantly amazed how a large company can be so terrible at customer service and have their systems so poorly designed and run. I’ve written about this multiple times, but there are two key lessons any business ought to take from my latest encounter with the mess called Verizon.
First, before I share the two lessons, here’s what happened. I received my latest bill yesterday and now, for the fourth month in a row it’s wrong. Each time I call and talk with a representative. Each time they make the change on their end and tell me what the correct figure is. Each time I ask, “Are you sure this is the correct amount?” Each time, they say “Yes!” So, I pay the amount they tell me to and then when I receive my next bill, guess what? Exactly, there’s a “balance forwarded” amount equal to what I was told not to pay.
But to make matters worse, when I called this time, I went through their voice mail system (which is frustrating in an of itself). However, when I finally got to the response, “Your wait time is …”, I was told, “Your wait time is 15 minutes. If you’d like us to call you back in 15 minutes, please press 1”. When I heard that, I was pleasantly surprised. “Hey, this is a nice change!” So, I left my name and number (which was interesting given that they already had both), and went and did something else rather than wait with a phone next to my hear.
Around fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. However, instead of a “live” person, it was an automated attendant. It confirmed I was on the line and then told me I would get the next available customer service agent. Why the system was designed so that I wasn’t directly connected to an attendant makes no sense. But that wasn’t the frustrating part. The frustrating part was that I had to wait on hold an additional 15 minutes before a “live” attendant came on line. 
So much for the customer service idea of leaving a number so I didn’t have to wait on a phone line for an attendant. In fact, I would have felt better had I just remained on the line in the first place.
Now that you know the situation, what are the two lessons that you and I need to take away from this experience–lessons even Verizon doesn’t get?
1. Make it easy for frustrated people to contact you and get the answers they want ASAP. When a customer decides to call customer service, they’re usually already frustrated. So when you’re frustrated, how excited are you to have to go through 52 questions to “get to the right person”? Not very. When someone’s frustrated, they want to talk to a real person who can answer their questions and solve their problems immediately. The last thing they want to do is to go through 20 or 50 questions just to get to the person they wanted to talk with when they originally called.
So, as you look at your business, where do you make it hard for customers to deal with you? When do you make it hard for them to get answers or solve a problem?
2. When you make a promise to a customer or prospect, you better deliver on that expectation–or don’t make the claim in the first place. Why? Because promises raise expectations. If Verizon hadn’t offered the 15 minute return call so I didn’t have to wait on the phone, I wouldn’t have been as ticked off. But because they made the offer (a systems choice), they raised my expectations–which made the 15 minute wait after they called me back even worse. I wasn’t ticked the first time, but the second time I was.
So, as you look at your business, where do you make promises that you aren’t fully living out? When do you raise expectations that you aren’t following through (or consistently following through) all the time?
If you want to grow the kind of business customers want to use over and over again, then you’ll want to apply these two lessons on a consistent basis to your business.
To your accelerated success!
New Free Report on Fast Growth Released Today!
Posted by: | CommentsWant to Know How You Can Immediately Begin to Grow Your Business Faster Than You Ever Have Before—While Increasing Your Ability to Lead It More Effectively?
If so, you’ll want to immediately get your hands on the new free report I just released today entitled, “The Seven Secrets of Fast Growth Companies.”
Inside it you’ll discover,
• The number one differentiator between slow and fast growth companies
• The two key elements you need to use to create a fast growth culture
• A simple practice that can radically reduce the time it takes to implement anything
• A lesson from a Harvard professor that can change the way you think forever about your products and services
• A top team practice that can change any meeting you run—and make it more effective.
• The one metric you need to use before choosing any growth idea if you want to be an accelerated growth company
• How you can create a business that’ll scale fast
• How to avoid letting your market think you’re just like “everyone else.”
• How you can create a business that works 24/7, especially when you’re not around.
• And the number one mistake that most CEOs of small and medium-sized make
To get your copy immediately, just fill in the form in the right hand column entitled, “Interested in the 7 Secrets of Fast Growth Companies?” and then click the submit button, “Send it to me now!”
Then after you read it, post your comments below!
Don’t Make an Omni Mistake!
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever set out to create a system in your business that deliberately irritated or disappointed your customers? Probably not. But if I asked, “Have you ever done so?” The answer would probably be, “Yes!”
I had one of those experiences the other week. I was speaking at a convention in Orlando that was held at the beautiful Omni Hotel Resort at Champions Gate. It was around 9:00 a.m., on the morning of my presentation on “The Four Keys of Accelerated Growth,” when it dawned on me that my talk went from 10:15 a.m. until noon, which was also check out time.
So, I thought, “Why don’t I just call and request a late check out time so I don’t have to pack up right now.” At that moment I went over to the phone next to the bed and saw the following button entitled, “Prompt Response.” Note: It’s the first button on the second row from the bottom (you can click on the image for a larger image)
When I saw that, I thought, “What a great name for a button to call down to the front desk or operator,” and promptly pushed the button. Unfortunately, what happened next was anything but prompt.
It took 15, yes 15 rings before the operator picked up the call. She asked, “How may I help you?” I said, “I’d like to get a late check out for my room.” She said, “Let me transfer you to the front desk.” After which I then waited, catch this, for 60 rings BEFORE I hung up (i.e. no one at the front desk ever picked up the call).
Forget how terrible that was (systems mistakes at every level) and instead think back to the expectation that was set by the button, “Prompt response.” When you hear the phrase, “Prompt response”, how many rings do you expect before someone picks up the line? I’m guessing that while your normal assumption is probably three or four rings, when you hear the word, “Prompt,” it probably means, “On the first or second ring.”
In other words, when the Omni Hotel made a decision to change the normal first button on a hotel phone from “Front Desk” to “Prompt Response,” they created a whole new set of expectations. This wasn’t just a cute marketing phrase, it was a whole new level of expectations they created that needed a whole new level of systems to ensure that it would always be executed perfectly–24 hours a day.
It’s irrelevant if they pick up on the first or second ring 80 percent of the time. For the 20 percent of us who don’t get the standard level of service, it’s even worse than if they hadn’t used the phrase, “Prompt response.” And I’m pretty sure than in anyone’s book, 75 rings doesn’t meet the standard expectation that Omni management set with their cool new first button.
So, as you look at your business, what are the standard expectations that your customers and potential customers have of you? What expectations have you set with your marketing and materials? How often do you meet those expectations? If the answer is anything less than 100%, I’d encourage you to start there.
Why? Because the first step to creating WOW, is to eliminate all unWOW. And the place to start eliminating unWOW is wherever you’re not meeting the standard expectations your customers have of you (like getting a prompt response).
Toward accelerating your success!
Note: This is a great exercise to do with your staff or with a customer advisory board.
How to Quickly Raise Frontline and Tech Team Performance
Posted by: | CommentsEver get frustrated by the lack of performance of your frontline or tech teams? Do you regularly see balls being dropped by people who ought not drop them? Well, if you have, you're not alone. But, more importantly, how can you quickly turn that around?
Well, one way is by simplifying the system you give them. In other words, after going through all of the training that they need to go through (assuming that you actually do train them), most frontline and tech staff are overwhelmed by the amount of information they've received. And whenever someone's mind is overwhelmed, the natural tendency for them is to shut down (something we've all experienced). So while we may be frustrated that they're not "following through," the reality is that we probably haven't given them what they need to succeed.
So, what do they need?
One Solution: Give them a simple system that lets them know what really matters. For example, in the case of Disney,
you're probably aware that they've narrowed down their service system to just four service standards. In priority, they are
- Safety
- Courtesy
- Show
- Efficiency
Now, is this everything they're supposed to do? Of course not. But can everyone memorize four simple standards? Absolutely! And can everyone follow through on those four standards? Well, if you've been to Disney, you know the answer to that question.
Another case in point. I was talking with a client of mine earlier today who was lamenting the number of dropped balls by some of his tech people each week. While we were discussing this I suggested that he use a simple four point grid for his tech team.
- Be prepared.
- Be early
- Be alert.
- No dropped balls.
There's no magic in the number four. The basic rule is that any list of expectations is probably best followed when it's narrowed down to the top three to five items. Anything above five tends to be forgotten. And of the three options, three is better than four or five.
So, how are you doing with this? if I were to go up to any employee of yours and ask, "What are the top three to five expectations your boss has of you?" how many of your people would answer that question with the same list (or have any answer at all). If the answer isn't, "Everyone," then you may want to go back and design the top three to five expectations for everyone on your frontline or tech team.
You can even do this with each area/department/business unit. But remember, the key is to keep it simple. They still need the manual and all the training, but they also need a simple grid or rubric to help them sort out what's most important from what's overwhelming.
So what are your top three to five expectations for how you want them to perform? Or, what are your top three to five service standards? Make sure you write that list ASAP if you want to quickly improve the performance of your frontline and tech teams.
Be Willing to Spend a Little More to WOW a Potential Customer
Posted by: | CommentsWhile remarkability tends to decrease the cost of customer acquisition (i.e. as more people remark to others about your products and services, you pay less per new customer because word of mouth doesn’t cost you directly). However, what often drives remarkability is your willingness to spend a little more money on the new customers you do actually attract. For example . . .
Several years ago, when I used to pastor a large church, I needed to hire an architect to design our first building. After doing our research, we brought in two national church architectural firms that were used to designing and building large church buildings and one local firm that had a great reputation for building large public buildings, including concert halls, but hadn’t designed a church (we liked to think differently so we thought that hiring a non-church building architect might allow us to create a church building that would be, well, remarkable!)
The two national firms both sent us similar packages, packages you’d expect an architectural firm to send (with letters and references, basic outlines and images of projects they’d done etc either in a folder or comb binding). Neither was bad. In fact, they were good. But they were predictable (which means they were ordinary).
Then we received the package from the local firm, David Schwarz. David’s package wasn’t ordinary at all. In fact, it was a 272 page hardbound book,weighing in at a hefty 4.2 pounds. And it was gorgeous. The photos in in are simply stunning. As soon as I received it, I walked around my office and showed everyone ("Can you believe this?"). Still to this day, I can’t think of any prospective company that’s sent me anything as stunningly beautiful as that book. In fact, while the other architectural firms packages are long gone, this book still sits on my shelves.
Even though it’s been four years since I first opened that book, I can still see my favorite image in my mind’s eye.
Now, think about this. The architectural fees on this project were projected to be north of $1M. Realizing that, don’t you think every architectural firm would want to WOW a potential client with more than a typical report oriented package? Absolutely. But how many do? Not many.
And this is true for most businesses. The typical thought process, usually driven by account types (and yes, I was an accounting major at UW-Madison) is to spend the least amount possible on acquiring a new customer. But spending the least, isn’t always the wisest choice.
As soon as you or I consider the lifetime value of a customer, plus all of the other people they’ll tell about our products and services (provided we actually do WOW them), there’s no question that it’s worth spending a little more to acquire and retain a customer.
So, in your business, what would WOW a potential customer? What can you give them or send them that would take their breath away? Or what might cause them to immediately tell others, "You won’t believe what XYZ company sent me today?" Ordinary companies benchmark their competitors and do something similar. But remarkable companies do something different. They look at what everyone else is doing and say, "We can do better than that!"
Note: While we originally selected David Schwarz, we came to realize that choosing an architectural firm that specialized in large church facilities was a better choice for us so we ended up choosing Beck out of Dallas and were thoroughly happy with them. So don’t read anything into my earlier comments other than that David’s firm’s 272 page, 4.2 pound book was a WOW I’ve never forgotten. I think highly of both firms and would recommend either firm to anyone considering an architect. At the end of the day, selecting the right architectural firm is about fit–and not just the talent fit for a specific type of project but also the relational fit as well, which can’t be determined from a book or a report. That kind of fit is only discovered face-to-face, when you start working together. And in an architectural project, that fit really does matter as you’re probably going to be spending a whole lot of time together :-)
Is Your Customer Loyalty Program Really Part of Your Strategy (Or Just an Add On)?
Posted by: | CommentsHow many times have you been in a retail location that had a "customer loyalty" program that didn’t really work? Not that the cashier didn’t know how to punch the card, but that the store really didn’t stand behind the offer? Or to put it another way, where you felt like the management had a "loyalty" program because they were "supposed to," but they really didn’t want to have one? If you’re like me, you’ve felt that way often.
Tonight was one of those kinds of nights. I typically do most of the cooking in our house, but wanted a night off. Since our family likes to eat reasonably healthy, I suggested, "How about Ricky’s Rice Bowl?" 
As I was getting ready to head over to pick up dinner I remembered that I had a couple of old "loyalty" cards in my office which would allow me to get one large dinner menu item, which leads to my story.
Back in the early days (under different management), Ricky’s ran a loyalty campaign called "Lucky 7". If you bought seven rice bowls (large or small), you would get a large rice bowl, plus a free drink for number eight. Even better, Ricky’s ran special double stamp days each month. As a regular fan back in those days, all of us "regulars" were incredibly faithful. Not only did we eat there regularly, we’d plan meetings there, and we’d regularly check the monthly calendar to find out when the double stamp days were. And the result of the old Lucky 7 loyalty program was that the place was packed and it was hard to find a table!
However, as soon as the new management came in, out went the Lucky 7 program and begrudgedly in came the new Lucky 12 program, which killed traffic. Even worse, the new management no longer tells customers about the program, has printed on the "loyalty" card, "All stamps must be on the same card. Stamps can not be collated from different cards," no longer includes a free drink (even though you have to purchase five more meals than before to get the free rice bowl), and the management makes you feel bad that you’re using THEIR "loyalty" card. Oh, and the result of all of these changes is that the place is empty–though, of course, the one silver lining in all this is that it’s now easy to find a table at Ricky’s (or two or three or . . . you get the point).
Same restaurant. Same food. But simply by changing the rules of their "loyalty program," one owner was able to pack the place and engender incredible buzz for the restaurant while the other was able to empty it and kill all positive word of mouth. Though I’m guessing that the second owner would say he has a loyalty program, he’s killed his growth by not using it well.
So how about you? What kind of loyalty program do you have in place to facility more frequent purchases and buzz? And if you do have a program in place, is it working for you? Are you committed to it? Does in engender buzz? Are your customers buying more often? Or is it just something you have in place because some consultant told you to have one? I hope not, because if you use it right and make it a key part of your marketing strategy, a customer "loyalty" program (in whatever form it takes) can be one of the biggest drivers of growth for your business.
At the End of the Day, Likability Still Wins in Politics and Business
Posted by: | CommentsRegardless of which political party you’re in, or which presidential election you pick out of the past fifty years, the winner has almost always been the most likable of the two candidates (for example, Kennedy over Nixon, Carter over Ford, Reagan over Carter, Bush I over Dukakis, Clinton over Bush I, Bush II over Gore, etc.). And once again, in the Obama vs. Clinton race or the McCain vs. Romney race, we’re seeing it played out again. Interestingly, as of this moment, McCain wins over Clinton, but loses to Obama.
Now, this isn’t meant to be a final predictor of who’ll win in the fall. Who knows how the race will shape up and who will come off being the more likable (for example, who would have thought six months ago that McCain would be more likable then Romney), but the track record of likability is pretty consistent. Why? Because at the end of the day, we all like to do "business" with people we like.
In fact, just recently I was interviewing a lawyer for a speaking engagement I’m doing in May. During our interview he mentioned to me that he has to train the lawyers he’s hired to learn that most people will decide within four seconds if they’re going to do business with a lawyer. Four seconds! And what can someone decide in four seconds? "Do I think I’m going to like this person?"
Now, lest you be tempted to think that likabilty isn’t relevant to business growth, just review the people you do business with. Yes, you may endure a cranky business owner from time to time, but most of the time, you choose to do business with people you like. Now, occasionally you get stuck in a place where there isn’t much of a choice and neither option is likable. But whenever there is a choice between doing business with someone who’s likable vs. someone who’s not, likable wins every time (and in most case, you’re willing to pay a premium for the likable option–which is another good reason for taking likability seriously.
But it’s not just about you being likable, it’s every person in your business who has contact with any customer being likable. That means that the front desk person has to be likable. The bookkeeper or accounts receivable person has to be likable. Your VP of Marketing has to be likable. The cashier has to be likable. Etc. You pick the position. But whatever the position, the person in that position better be likable. Why? Because if they aren’t I can almost guarantee you that you’re not making as much money as you could.
So as you look through your business, grade your people on the L-Factor (as Tim Sanders calls it in his book, The Likability Factor). Who are your A players when it comes to likability? Your B players? And then your C and D players? Next, make a game plan for ensuring that you (and they) are all moving toward being A players when it comes to the L Factor. And finally, talk about likability frequently–especially with your managers and leaders. Why? Because you (and they) only have four seconds to win a customer over–and most people, when given the choice, prefer to do business with people they like.
Create Incentives for Customers or Prospects to Update Their Data
Posted by: | CommentsAlmost every small business I’ve run into has struggled with keeping contact information up to date. So they tend to avoid doing anything about it (until a new system is put in place and then they have to invest massive amounts of time to verify data and delete old records because nothings been done on the database for years :-). But rarely do these same small businesses ever calculate the cost of having bad data (like sending hundreds/thousands of mailings to old addresses or to people who don’t want materials from that company–and haven’t for years).
Well, I was pleasantly surprised this week when I got an email from the American Management Association (AMA) asking me to update my contact information. The reason I say pleasantly surprised was because they didn’t just ask me, they created an incentive for me to do so. In fact, here’s what they said,
Consider All You Get When You Hear from Us.
From seminars and research studies to conferences and special events, AMA is here to help you improve your job performance and supercharge your career.
But we can’t tell you the whole story if your contact information is out of date. Just provide us with your most up-to-date contact information and you’ll receive 20% off any AMA seminar.*
PLUS, your response will automatically qualify you for a Grand Prize drawing of a $500 Amazon voucher. **
Now, I’m a book guy and a voracious learner so a chance to win a $500 Amazon voucher is a no-brainer for me. Plus, for just verifying my data, I could get a 20% reduction from an AMA seminar (which is easily worth hundreds of dollars)–all for just verifying my data. Not bad.
But it got better. In the email, they not only included the data (as you can see in the screen shot of the email (click on it to get a larger image), they also gave me two options. Option one was, "Click to Update," and option two was, "Click to Confirm." That was it.
The whole process was quick and easy. Totally painless. And for just a few brief moments of my time, the AMA was willing to offer me several hundreds of dollars off of a seminar I might have gone to anyway and a chance to win a $500 Amazon voucher.
Now, since I never win any drawing, I doubt I’ll ever get the voucher. But the fact that they were willing to give me two nice options for just taking a moment to either update or confirm my contact info, was incentive enough for me to take the 15 seconds to update the info that they incorrectly had for me (i.e. if they hadn’t created the incentive, they’d still have bad data on me).
So what can you do to create an incentive(s) for your customers/clients/members and prospects to update their own information? What can you do to automate the process? And how can you make it easy for them? If you follow those three steps, I think you’ll find that keeping the contact info on your people and prospects up-to-date will become infinitely easier–and make your business more profitable!
Note: I don’t know about you, but one of my pet peeves is when a company gives me a blank form to update my data so I have to fill out all of the information again. The least they can do is to make sure they send or print out the data they have in their database. In this day and age, that’s not a difficult technological feat :-)
Free Report on Avoiding Common Small Business Mistakes Now Available
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’d like to avoid the 12.6 most common mistakes that small business leaders make, then simply enter your name and email in the boxes at the top of the right hand column in this blog. As soon as you hit submit you’ll be immediately taken to the download page for the free report.
Once you download the report, you’ll want to read through it and write down, in the margins, any specific actions you need to make in response to what you’ve just read. After you’ve completed reading the report, there are a series of questions to help you apply what you’ve just read. And finally, at the end, I’ve included a one page summary sheet, which reverses the 12.6 mistakes and turns them into positive actions you should regularly engage in (in order to avoid making the 12.6 most common mistakes that small business leaders make).
So don’t delay, just enter your name and email under, "Claim Your Free Report," and in moments you’ll be reading your free 36 page report!
Do You Like Having to Call Back?
Posted by: | CommentsOn Monday, December 17th I went to open my QuickBooks for Mac 2006 edition. A window popped up saying something to the effect, "Can’t download updates, insufficient memory." The screen disappeared and then, right before my eyes, QuickBooks started erasing all of the files on my desktop (a total of six gigabytes of data). Gone! As a Mac guy, I’m not used to this!
Fortunately I do back up and it didn’t affect my whole hard drive, but still six gigs is still six gigs and restoring files takes a fair amount of time. I immediately contacted QuickBooks by email to let them know what happened (it turned out to be a problem on their servers). On Wed. December 19th, one of their reps called me. She got information from me about what happened and how–and then offered to send QuickBooks for Mac 2007 when I asked her how they were compensating us for the inconvenience (clearly none of us were using our QuickBooks programs until we were assured the bug was fixed). She assured me that she would send the new program out immediately and that their fix should be in place shortly.
At that point I was happy and figured, it’s almost Christmas. I’ll get this in two days and then be on vacation. Wait. Wait. Wait. Still no Quickbooks. So on Thursday, December 27th, I called again to check on the status of my order. This time the lady who answered said, "I’m sorry, but your order didn’t get processed for some reason. I’ll take care of it for you." "Promise?" "Yes sir, I’ll get this out immediately to you."
Okay, I hate calling back, but sometimes mistakes happen. Well, today is January 9th (almost two weeks later) and still no QuickBooks. So I once again had to call back and go through the whole ordeal again in order to make sure they sent out the new version of QuickBooks to me–which I finally think the guy I talked with today made happen since I just received an email confirmation that the order has been processed.
However, I’m still a little concerned about this since the order form says that the shipping method is, "UPS Next Day Air" with an expected delivery date of 1/11 – 1/16. You can’t make this stuff up!
So as you look at your business, in which area or department do your customers have to regularly call back? Who isn’t diligent on returning phone calls or following through on promises? Where are your delivery systems breaking down? While this is terrible in a big company, in a small one, it can be devastating. So how can you assure that your customers won’t have to call back two or more times to get what your business promised them in the first place?