Customer Crossroads

Things That Don't Work: Who's Got the Time??

We don't have the time to deal with things that don't work.  You want to create a great customer experience...?  Then make sure it works right the first time, or gets fixed with blinding ease.  If you won't do this, expect erosion of your brand. 

Case in point: another continuing saga of my Palm TX.

Against the advice of my tech support guy, I bought a Palm. That was in December.  It is now March, and it's not working again. Palm offered me telephone support more than a week ago.  And I just haven't had the time.

Because I know I'm going to need A LOT of time for this.  Uninstall, reinstall, cold start, wipe memory, on and on and on.  You know the drill.  We've all been there, if not with this device, then with some other piece of technology.

A rational analysis would suggest junking the $500 device and moving on. Because I've spent a few thousand dollars of my time trying to get this to work. 

The point here is that ALL of your customers and clients have this problem. No-one has disposable time that they want to spend fixing things that have gone wrong.  We want high, high, high quality and we expect to get it.  And if we don't get it from you on this product, why do you think we would want to try again on another, future, better product? 

There is no such thing as FREE time.

Complexity versus Simplicity: It's Time for Simplexity

Simplicity is the watchword of the day, and it's popping up everywhere from advertising to focus groups to corporate mission statements. But we don't want to give up our freedom to choose -- we want options, we want products and services that fit our individual circumstances.   All those choices give us the antithesis of simplicity: they give us complexity. 

So how do we get simplicity without giving up choice?  We need simplicity and complexity together, we need simple complexity.  What we want is SIMPLEXITY. 

The Complexity Issue

People are overwhelmed by the complexity of every day life. We are drowning in choice. Just look at the people standing in any aisle of your local grocery store, you will see them going tharn as they try to choose between offerings that are close, but not the same. 

We are also drowning in information, and there's more every day. Trying to keep up has become a challenge of mythic proportions. 

As electronic components have become cheaper, many products have become bloated with features.  Do the features add value?  Maybe, maybe not.  But they definitely add complexity.

The New Simplicity is Simplexity

We can't just take away all the features. The new simplicity takes complexity and adds design and usability to make things that work better for us.

The Google home page is the flag carrier for Simplexity.  Marissa Mayer at Google, described by Fast Company as the "high priestess of simplicity", describes Google's home page this way:

"Google has the functionality of a really complicated Swiss Army knife, but the home page is our way of approaching it closed. It's simple, it's elegant, you can slip it in your pocket, but it's got the great doodad when you need it. A lot of our competitors are like a Swiss Army knife open--and that can be intimidating and occasionally harmful." 

Philips Electronics is also on a simplicity mission, that they call Sense and Simplicity.   CEO Rudy Provoost says why:

"All too often we have seen innovation driven by technology for technology's sake...whereas simplicity should be at the heart of the consumer experience. Our research results and consumer insights suggest the public is, in fact, tired. Tired of not being able to record a program on TV...tired of spending hours reading an instruction manual...tired of complexity for its own sake..."

Philips is looking for simplicity through design:

"You may still strive for very advanced solutions, as long as you reduce the effort required to operate them. Or if you have very basic, single-function products, the challenge is to enhance the experience associated with these products."

Apple, of course, has had this in their DNA since the beginning.  And the i-Pod products are the essence of beautifully simple and yet highly functional, easy to use devices.   

Contrast the multitude of buttons and adjustments possible on a typical home music component system with the Bose Wave system.  All controls are on the credit-card sized remote.  Very few adjustments are actually possible, because the system makes most of them automatically.  Just take it out of the box and plug it in.

Design

Good design is at the heart of the Simplexity solution.  Design is about taking what is possible and creating what is good and right and easy and beautiful.   

If you want to find ways to differentiate yourself to your customers, start looking for ways to bring powerful functionality to them in a very simple package.  And let your customers save their grey cells for truly intractable complexity like world peace.

References:
Simplexity is actually a term used in the mathematics of complexity theory. I am hijacking it for the Marketing and Customer Experience world. Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, authors of The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World, came up with the term in this context. 

Do Your Employees Understand the Sales Strategy?

Glenn Ross at Customer Service Experience tells a beautiful story of his early days working in a jewelry store.  He didn't understand why he should develop "move-up" buyers by selling less expensive gold-filled jewelry and school rings:

Years later I realized that, because of its low price points, we could have started relationships with new customers, then helped them move up to diamonds and gold. But we failed to see the big picture.

...later, as a manager, I realized that teens usually brought their parents (most of whom had never been in our store) to see the rings, either at the time of ordering, or on a later trip to the mall. We had an opportunity to make a favorable first impression on parents who were capable of making diamond and gold purchases.

How often is an effective sales and market development strategy undermined because staff don't understand it?  [Yes, I'm guilty too. But we can do better, can't we?]

Read the whole story here: Customer Service Experience : Are Your Employees Missing The Big Picture?.

Getting Customer Feedback: Are You Asking the Right People?

Our land line phones were out of service for more than a day recently, a frankly shocking and distressing event.  Oddly, the VOIP still worked, and so did the Internet, intermittently.
There are two business people working in this house, and it's the other guy's job to deal with this kind of thing.  So he called the phone company on his VOIP line, to request service on my business land line. [Still with me?]

About a week later, I got a call on the now-functional business line for a post-service survey.  I said "you need to talk to the guy who handled this" and offered his number.  Survey company says "no, for validity of our survey we need to talk to the person at this number".  I explained.  They dug in.  Net result, they preferred not to get feedback rather than call the person who dealt with the problem. 

Please note this is a real business number that I pay real business rates for. So this survey would have been evaluating the business support or perhaps SME support, but not residential phone support. So how can this make any sense?

I found this whole thing rather baffling, but worse, it clearly invalidates their results in my view.  In an effort to ensure rigor, they have created tremendous sampling bias. Their validity process is invalid.  And both this big company and their research agency should know better! 

But now you know better, dear reader, and will not make this bush-league mistake. 

 

Being Friendly to New Segments without Alienating the Old Segments

At an HMV store on the weekend, I observed that the only area where the sound level was tolerable was right beside the cashiers. 

[I've noticed this same phenomenon in Blockbuster.  The cashiers want to hear the music, so they turn it up louder, and anyone without a hearing problem in the rest of the store can't think for the noise. Regardless of what tunes they are playing]

The sound level meant I was kind of disinclined to browse for long, so my spouse and I got what we were looking for and left.  We did not buy several more CDs, as we sometimes do when in the small independent music dealers.  So these lost sales had nothing to do with free downloads or piracy -- they had to do with a hostile customer experience that didn't encourage browsing or impulse buying.

Near Christmas, I had this inspiration that I would buy my beloved some NEW music, and went looking -- in the same HMV --  for bands I know are current, but I'm not too familiar with.  There was simply no way to know which albums were "good" albums.  There's no "star" system to help me.  And of course no staff who could help me. I gave up and got him a Hilary Radley scarf and some cool toys from The Source instead.

Here's the thing:

I appreciate that I'm not part of the youthful heavy purchaser segment that HMV wants to attract and hold.  But if they were less hostile to other segments, they could probably expand their sales, without alienating their core target. 

For example, I noticed a collection near the checkout that my parents would probably enjoy, and it was inexpensive. Dad's fairly hard of hearing, but I'm certain he still would have found the store too loud to be in for long.   

I also don't know all the fine points of how to use HMV.  For example, I'm just supposed to know, [there's no sign telling me] how I can get to hear a CD I want to try.  I guess I could be a doofus and ask... [not!]

Regardless of your age, you are supposed to know a lot about what you are looking for before you get into the store.   The online experience is frankly much better.  I can hear samples of the music, the site will give me "if you liked this, you might also like this" suggestions.  There's no line-up.  Searching is easy.  And yet it's not quite as much fun as coming home with a new cellophane wrapped CD. 

What's the point?

Be careful about appealing ONLY to your core customer and turning off everyone else.  You'll lose sales.  You can find a middle ground if you look for it.

How to respond to customer enquiries: Shell Helps

About a week ago, I became irritated by an oil fuel delivery truck that was idling for about 15 minutes outside my window, emitting greenhouse gases and whatnot.  So I wrote a quick e-mail to the offending company.  Their response was impressive (see below).  Here's what I liked:

Cafe, Coffee Place, Coffee House: Names and their meanings

As new categories emerge, we need new names.  I was thinking about this in connection with places like Starbucks.  What the heck do we call these places, if we don't say "a place like Starbucks?"  I wondered what phrase most people would use, which took me of course to Google. And also to  Answers.com, the outfit that supplies Google results pages with links to definitions of terms. 

Categories are important because they provide insight into mental maps people have of the world.  To see what I mean, come with me while we look at the coffee results...

Dell's Small Business Excellence Award Spotlights Customer Experience

Dell is again running their Small Business Excellence Award for innovative use of technology.   What I love about this is that improving the customer experience is one of their criteria for winning: 

Entrant will be required 1) to demonstrate how the company has used technology to improve customer experience. They must show how they've driven a significant change within their company and/or developed a competitive advantage by delivering superior customer value and experience (50% of score); 2) to describe how they have made the customer "number one." Customer testimonials can be used as examples of how the customer's experience has improved over time (50% of score)

The award is offered in partnership with the National Federation of Independent Business in the US, and RBC Royal Bank  in Canada. For information on other countries, check the Dell home page for the country.

Deadline for entries is February 24.  The $30,000 prize is certainly worth the effort to apply.  Even better is the chance to spend time talking with Michael Dell. 

Thanks to Notebook News for bringing this to my attention.

Do Consumers want Control, or Help? Or both?

A recent New York Times article, Agencies Look Beyond Focus Groups to Spot Trends, reported emerging trends as spotted by major advertising agencies JWT and DDB.  [Related post here]

JWT: Consumers Want Control

"Consumers increasingly expect to call the shots," JWT said in a forecast for 2006. "They demand more personal control, yet all too often find it doesn't give them the satisfaction they seek. In 2006, people will be seeking to further extend the boundaries of personal control in their retail and other transactions."

DDB: Consumers want Help

"We've heard a lot about the 'empowered consumer' and 'masters of the youniverse,' " the agency said. "We believe, however, that marketers are in danger of missing signs for a very different set of consumer needs: to be led and be given authoritative rules and guidelines."

You're Both Right

Are Focus Groups Really Obsolete? Or Just One Tool out of Many?

Focus groups are being declared useless or obsolete all over the place these days.  They aren't really obsolete or useless -- what is happening is that the focus group is simply taking its place as one tool among many to understand customers and trends. 

The latest article was in the New York Times, Agencies Look Beyond Focus Groups to Spot Trends.

Leading advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett and DDB are trying new approaches to gathering trend indicators. For example, the article reports that Leo Burnett recently surveyed taxi drivers in ten Asian cities to get their views on effects of rapid economic development. 

Eva Steensig, a sociologist at DDB spoke about their new strategy of collecting market intelligence from their employees' observations worldwide, a program they call SignBank.  I thought that was also a really interesting idea, and a great way to leverage the insights of your staff at all levels.  But then she said this:

"Focus groups confirm what you already know... Talking about toilet paper for two hours in a room doesn't really help."

The author went on to say this:

The problem, Ms. Steensig said, is that most consumers are not experts on their own consumption patterns. They have other things to worry about - their families, or the weather. So in focus groups they are easily led and rarely come up with the kinds of original insights that a marketer needs to stay ahead.

Is surveying taxi drivers better than a focus group?

Things to Do in the Office on Holiday Week

When I worked in an big company, I used to look forward to Christmas week as a time to catch up, clean up, and do a few interesting things that had been put off for months. 

Here's something to check out [quite legitimately, by the way -- they all relate to customer experience.]

Is your website focused on you, or on your customers?
Run your website through FutureNow's WeWe Calculator to find out how your web site language stacks up. For even more fun, compare with competitors.

This is basic, isn't it?  But it is surprising how often this basic rule is broken -- we need to talk to customers where they live, about issues that matter to them.  It's everybody's station, WIIFM:  What's In It For Me?

Doing Communication Right ... and Not So Right

Right:  CCH - Wolters Kluwer
I received a letter last week from CCH explaining their decision to rebrand around the global Wolters Kluwer name.  They told me that e-mails are changing, so I can still get in touch with key contacts there.  Nicely done.  Many organizations would not have gone to the trouble.  This approach really supports the brand positioning as an expert organization that can get ALL the details right. 

Not so Right:  Two Municipalities Suing Citizens for Libel

The Globe and Mail reported this morning that two Ontario municipalities are suing citizens who complained a bit too publicly.  Canada's chief defender of free speech tends to be Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, who said this:

"The issue is the propriety of a government in a democracy suing a citizen for defamation arising out of criticisms that citizen may make of government conduct. . . . Legal actions of this kind are incompatible with a viable right to free speech."

Susan Abbott says,

"You don't manage your reputation by taking your detractors to court -- you mediate, you hire public relations specialists if you need to, and you try to address the actual issue that caused the problem in the first place. Suing your citizens can only make you look mean-spirited and vindictive, even when the citizens are acting like jerks."

Doing it Wrong, then Right:  Rogers de-fuses PR Implosion

One of Rogers' cell phone customers has been battling the company for some time now over a $12,000 bill incurred when she went travelling for a month and her phone was stolen.  She claims their fraud detection software (some kind of neural network likely) would have red-flagged the activity, but that they didn't try to find her becuase her credit rating was good, and they felt confident of being able to collect. 

A slight miscalculation on the part of the company:  the customer in question is a law professor.  [Oops]. By the time this story hit the front page of the largest national newspaper on Saturday, it was also revealed that terrorists had cloned at least one executive telephone number before the company had converted to GSM security. 

The next day, we learn that legendary entrepreneur and executive Ted Rogers, one of the wealthiest people in the country, has personally apologized and wiped out the debt.  He has also promised to have tea at the customer's house, no doubt so she can berate him in person.

Good recovery, but how unnecessary. 

Is it a relationship or just a Rolodex? How do you define a relationship with a customer? Or a donor? Or a 'friend of the family'?

 

How I got into the wrong category in someone's contact database 
This week brought a new request for fundraising support from a nearby naturopathic college.   I get e-mails, phone calls, and even follow-up calls from these guys.  They clearly think I have a relationship with them. 

Here's our history together:  about 2 1/2 years ago this college asked us to submit a proposal on a research project.  Since the proposal involved several different research elements with some specialized audiences, I asked another firm to co-present.  This type of proposal involves several full days of work, including background research on the industry, structuring the problem, designing and costing an approach. 

We lost the bid, and were advised by fax of this news.  [Not exactly a classy approach, but that's the RFP process for you].  When I called to follow-up and learn what factors influenced the decision, I was told that this information was not public and that no one would talk to me. 

But somehow, we made it on to a list of supporters, and they continue to think I might cut them a cheque.  Of course this is non-sense, right?  But we're all guilty.

Who's in YOUR Contact Database?
When I was assembling my Christmas greetings list this week, I realized there are quite a few names in my contact database for people who I don't know very well.  A handful, I'm not even sure how we met.  Some of these people probably don't know who I am either. 
When it comes right down to it, probably only a third of this contact list would be someone I could actually pen a personal note of greetings to.  Another group don't really require a greeting of this type, because I talk to them all the time.  And that leaves a whole list of people with a dubious connection. 

What the heck are they doing on my contact list???

Defining what constitutes a customer relationship
It's complicated enough doing this as an individual or a small company, but much more difficult for my clients.  Businesses usually try to define a relationship in terms of how much business a given customer brings to them, relative to other customers.  Not a very customer-centric approach, but very common.  Some try to define customer relationship based on what share of the  customer's total business they have (share of wallet).  Future potential may be a consideration.  Other segment characteristics, such as life-stage, may be a consideration.  The whole effort is around designing business rules that can help define who is who, and who gets what kind of contact.

If you read the literature for the CRM technology firms, they make this process sound straightforward.  But the process of defining the business rules is usually a tough one.  Just last week, someone at a client firm told me that a model they have been refining for two years "doesn't really have buy in yet".  The reason it's tough to define rules for what contitutes a relationship is that it relates DIRECTLY to strategy. 

Business-to-business sales models often talk about leads versus opportunites, or suspects versus prospects, or qualified versus unqualified prospects.  In the words of that famous sales trainer Steve Schiffman, opportunities without a next step amount to  "bupkis".

Another category that I often think about is what I call "friend of the family".  This is a person or organization that may not be a customer, but is positively disposed towards helping you, perhaps due to some past relationship, or perhaps along the lines of a cross-referral relationship.

I have a lot of people I think of as "friends of the family", and I count myself as one of these for many people and businesses.  They aren't clients, and I don't expect them to be, but I think highly of them and would like to help them succeed. 

What does it all mean?
Don't assume that anyone else in your organization defines "customer relationship" the same way you do, unless you've actually talked about it at length and agreed on definitions.  And then created the business rules to make those definitions work operationally. 

The "One-Sheet-of-Paper Test"
Actually getting clarity around this type of question can be a powerful driver of improved business results.  You need a definition you can put on one sheet of paper, and explain to anyone who asks. 

Even better is if everyone in the organization can explain it to anyone who asks. 

Fortunately, it is a lot easier to help other people to address this kind of issue than to solve your own.  [Shoemakers children and all that]  We'd be happy to help you.  And if you've got ideas for me, I'm all ears. 

Dialogues from the Service Edge: Consultant X gets his own page

We recently started running occassional pieces from a colleague of mine who is doing some extended first hand research as a part-time employee in a high-end food emporium.  After hearing his stories over coffee, I encouraged X (who prefers to remain anon) to write them up. X has taken the plunge, and has his own space for his latest story, here.

The latest tale involves a customer getting a bit too close to the help, and even moving behind the counter... worth a read, and I'm sure every word is true. 

My take on this is that the kind of training we offer staff deals with a relatively small range of behavior and preferences.  X has earned his grey hairs, and I presume has a repertoire of skills to deal with most of what comes up in a typical day.  But as he told me recently, "The young ones take some of the abuse pretty hard".

In any event, if you are looking for a smile today, read the lastest rather steamy installment of X's adventures Acknowledged on Entry.

 

How to Respond to Service Problems: How Typepad Builds Loyalty

Typepad, the provider of the platform that this blog is written on, must have a high percentage of raving fans (aka high net promoter score).  I'm one of them.   

When performance slipped for an extended period recently, here's what Typepad did:

• Apologized
• Accepted responsibility
• Provided a minimum 15 day refund/subscription extension to everyone
• Offered customers the option of asking for more compensation, if they felt this was not sufficient

This is amazing.  I've reproduced their communication at the end, which should win an award.  I'd love to know what the response data looks like for this -- but I'm guessing most people were happy with the offered two weeks. Or perhaps, like me, they just didn't get around to making a decision before the deadline.  [If you know how the data breaks down, send me a confidential e-mail!]

Key Learning
1) You're not fooling your customers when you pretend everything is fine.   They know better.  About two days before this message came out, I had a pleasant reply to my support enquiry telling me that my pages were slow to load because I had too much text formatting in them.  D'oh?  I didn't buy that for a second, actually, and thought I was being fed a load of you-know-what.

2) Coming clean in an authentic way can win you tremendous points.  As I re-read their message, it does trumpet the company a lot -- but it more than makes up for it with the refund. 

3) Suck it up and pay up.  Without the refund, this would not have worked.

4) Don't expect this to work twice. People expect slick technology to work well first time and every time.  Nobody cares about the company's problems. 

Subscriber Reaction
A quick search on Technorati reveals that this move did indeed inspire devotion, but also some other interesting reactions.  Here are some of the remarks I found:

Actions like this one renew my faith in the people who make up the often faceless corporations that tend to get away with more than any individual would in the same situation. Thank you Barak Berkowitz for making my week a little brighter. [Theoblogia]

i asked for the 45 days and told them that i'm leaving typepad when my billing cycle ends next june unless some serious changes are made. i already have a wordpress blog set up for the foodie stuff and i'd be more than happy to set up another one to host my main blog. wordpress is also free. mmmm free  [a comment posted on The Long Cut]

Genius. And a far cry from the way companies such as Sony have handled recent difficulties... Of course, an apology like the one offered by Typepad only goes so far. If problems persist, then consumers will likely decide that being respected isn't the only thing they require from a blog hosting company. [On Message]

I would say that the extent of the offer to customers will exceed everyone's expectations. It certainly exceeded mine. [Neville Hobson's blog]

That's fair as far as I'm concerned, and I have little interest in "gaming" a service that is so openly showing respect for me.   To Typepad, I express my deepest appreciation... It's also  a classic example an "operational" decision that generates positive word-of-mouth or CGM. [Consumer Generated Media]

My Conclusion?  I think this represents a high-water-mark in good service recovery. 

The Hall-of-Fame Communication

Dear Susan,  

Two weeks ago I wrote you to explain the problems that some of our users experienced last month and what we were doing to fix them. Today I want to tell you about the work we've done and our plans to compensate you for the inconvenience and frustration we may have caused you.

The progress we've made

Over the last two weeks we have made great strides. As we recently posted on Mena's Corner, we have made a number of significant technical changes. We have upgraded hardware throughout the service, we are about to finish installation of a new enterprise-grade data storage device and the move to our new data center is nearly complete. All of this has led to improved performance.

We are not yet perfect. One incident on Tuesday November 8th between approximately 9:00 am and noon Pacific Time caused limited access to the TypePad application. Even with that problem the performance of TypePad, as reported by our customers, our internal systems and the independent Keynote monitoring service, has improved greatly over the last 12 days.

While we are not done with our work, and there is always the chance of outages on any web service, we believe that the worst performance is behind us, and it is now time to focus on how we can make these problems up to you.

Compensation for this less than stellar performance

We are all aware that you pay for TypePad and expect to receive superior service and performance in return. At times last month, we did not provide that type of experience to all our customers and apologies are not good enough.

We also know that some customers have been more heavily impacted than others. If you often use the service on weekdays between 7:00 am and 1:00 pm Pacific Time you may have experienced one or even many periods when you had problems with TypePad's speed and responsiveness. If you use the service at other times, you may not have experienced any problems at all. After wrestling with these facts and wanting to be fair to all our users we have decided that the only option is to allow you to choose how Six Apart should compensate you.

By default, you will receive a credit for 15 free days of TypePad service. To get this credit you don't have to do anything; we will just credit your account.

That said, we recognize that customers have had different experiences with the service, so we want to give you the opportunity to choose more, or even less compensation. If you click the link below, you'll get a screen that offers you the following choices:

• While the performance issues caused me some inconvenience I mainly found the service acceptable last month.
  Give me 15 free days of TypePad.

• The performance issues made it very difficult for me to use the service on multiple occasions during the month.
  Give me 30 free days of TypePad.

• The performance issues affected me greatly, making my experience unacceptable for most of the month.
  Give me 45 free days of TypePad.

• I really wasn't affected and feel I got the great service I paid for last month.
  Thank you for the offer, but please don't credit my account.

 

Make your choice now.

If you want to elect for more or less compensation you have until Sunday, November 27th to go to the web address above. By Monday December 5th we will apply either 15 free days or your stated compensation preference to your account. If you are billed monthly, you will notice a gap in charges to your credit card for the number of days you select. If you are billed annually, we will extend your billing cycle by the number of days you select.

The future

I must say that one of the most rewarding aspects of these last three frustrating weeks have been the emails I have received from many of you. A large number of the messages I received were very kind and supportive, and some of you were understandably angry, but you all expressed that you just wanted the service you loved back. Rest assured that we are working night and day to do just that and more.

We are committed to making the service faster and more reliable than it has ever been. With our new data center we now have room to add the capacity we will need to continue our growth while improving performance and adding often requested features.

We will soon roll out a new release of TypePad that will include more controls for comment and TrackBack spam as well more performance improvements. By year end we will do even more to improve TypePad and add the features you have asked for. We are excited to get back to building a great product for you.

Thank you for your patience over the past several weeks and I hope you accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience we may have caused you.

Sincerely,

Barak Berkowitz
Chairman and CEO
Six Apart, Ltd.
[email protected]

The makers of of TypePad, LiveJournal and Movable Type.

PS: As always, we appreciate and value your feedback. Feel free to reply to this message, file a support ticket in TypePad, or email me at [email protected]. We will continue to update status.sixapart.com to keep informed of the status of the service and to provide advance notice of scheduled maintenance.

 

 

Checking Out: Trends in Self-Service Technology

NCR/Teradata has released results of research conducted for them on acceptance of self-serve checkout technology. 

Canadians are pretty keen, with a quarter saying they are interested in this option.  A familiar pattern emerges in what people expect to gain for this trade-off in taking on some of the work:

• having a choice in how they check out
• speed of checkout
• shorter lines
• control
• privacy

Those surveyed are also interested in having greater access to price-checking kiosks, kiosks for additional product information, and kiosks for pre-ordering deli items to be prepared while they shop elsewhere in the store.

Canadian study:  http://www.ncr.com/media_information/2005/jul/pr073105.htm
US study: http://www.ncr.com/en/media_information/2004/oct/pr100704.htm

Copies of additional white-papers on this topic are available at: http://www.ncr.com/en/products/hardware/sa_selfchk.htm

It is worth noting that speed and convenience, not price, was what drove adoption of self-serve gas pumping.  And the same thing for automated banking in all its forms. 

Making this work as a retailer is still going to entail thinking through where customers will feel uncertainty or risk, as well as providing friendly education and inducements to trial. 

Every time I look at these kiosks in Loblaws, I wonder what will happen when I can't find the right code for miniature artichokes.  So I guess I'm part of the 25% who is interested, but hasn't yet taken the leap.

Consultant X Undercover Discovers the Truth about Multi-Tasking: "As if I've Got the Time"

Consultant X is conducting a long term ethnography project (of sorts) in an upscale food emporium.  Read the first installment here).  This week, he shares some insights that seriously relate to our work in managing customer experience effectively, and poses a challenge to the experts: what should he say to customers?  ~SA

As if I've Got the Time
Counter work, it turns out, involves much more multi-tasking than appears to the customer. In a typical transaction, you are first in public relations as you greet the customer, secondly in operations as you prepare the product, thirdly in sales as you attempt to up-sell or suggest another purchase, fourthly in accounting as you key-punch in the sale -- back to operations to package the product – then back to public relations to bid the customer farewell.

Now in recent developments, the marketing department has shown up and wants in on the action. There are a number of improvement programs out there that attempt to strengthen brand image by influencing the “customer experience” at the point of sale.

If the above point of sale sequence were constant and predictable, you might make a case for inserting a marketing message or striking up a dialogue with the customer at a pre-determined point in the sequence.

But it’s rare that the sequence remains intact. Customers just aren’t that accommodating -- when you are greeting them they are ordering, when you are preparing their order they are wandering around the store, when you are key-punching data into the system, they are ordering something else, (then changing their minds), when you move to checkout, they immediately give you their credit card before knowing the total. Not really with the program, are they?

However exit polls show that some kind of dialogue with customer leads to significantly better impressions of the store and its employees. Now let’s suppose for a moment that you are a shop owner, and one of your competitive advantages is the high quality of your product. And you want to experiment with the concept of leaving a good impression through greater engagement with the customer… How would you do it?

Here's the Reader Challenge
Here’s a challenge; you suggest a line or two for me to say to customers, and when during their visit I should say it.

(Post it in Comments below, and hey -- try not to embarrass me too much!). 

I’ll try out your line, and report back to you in future Fridays.  Kind of a Robo-Server thing. Although we don’t have exit polls, I will be able to tell you what the immediate reactions were to your lines, and you can estimate the future value from there.

Go ahead, post one now.

Next week we look at the surprising details customers are prepared to reveal about themselves – and what can we do with that information (?)

Picture Credit
www.capergreen.com/G-ServiceStyle.html

Qualitative Research Conference 2005: Beverly Hills Diary

I'm here in Beverly Hills at the Qualitative Research Consultant's Conference.  Beverly Hills is not a location I ever aspired to visit, frankly, and I wouldn't be here this year if I wasn't a speaker, but now that I am here, I thought I would share some informal observational research with you.

The Beverly Hilton is an impressive hotel, which is just finishing up a major reno.  I had friendly efficient service from the front desk staff, who advised me they were upgrading my room to one with a balcony.   

TIP: telling your customers when you are doing something extra for them is a good way to make them feel special.  I wasn't told why, and really don't need to know why.  Just make me feel special when you can.

The room is very nice, with soft caramel and corn-silk colors.  A fluffy snuggly bed.  A hug flat screen plasma TV on one wall (corner of which visible in picture).  A 13" flat screen LCD TV in the bathroom.  Some interesting design features generally, and lovely furniture.  There are real drawers in the bathroom that you can stash all your little jars in.  Real wood hangers with proper full-sized hooks.

So far, all good.  But check out the desk.  It looks really nice.  But the desk is about 4" too high for comfortable work at a computer.  The desk chair (gorgeous, really) has a very limited height adjustment.  So I had to add a pillow.  I haven't found the phone directory yet, which is my usual choice to solve this problem. 

So as you can see in the picture, the computer is on the little side-bar table, which is SLIGHTLY shorter, but still quite uncomfortable.  I'm already getting stiff in the neck, and several days of this may truly warrant a massage. If I was a regular to LA, I would be looking for a different hotel for this reason alone.  When clients' exec assistants book me into hotels, I often ask them if the hotel has a decent desk. (Of course, they have no idea about desks.  But they do know if their boss likes the place, so that's my proxy.)

Tip: try the stuff, sample the experience yourself.  I mean REALLY try it.  Try working at the desk, try sitting in the chair, go through the account opening process.  Just do it.  Don't even think about launching a change to your customers without at least sampling the thing yourself.  Of course I would like you to hire me to research it fully.  But I would still suggest you do a little beta testing of your own. 

Judi's Deli
If you're visiting Beverly Hills in the near future:  try Judi's deli near Belmont and Wilshire.  Friendly, fast, and they make a great breakfast sandwich.  You can browse USA Today while the plastic surgeons drop in for coffee and bagels.

In Other News: looking for new PDA
I would have more pictures for you, but I'm holding out for a PDA that has a reasonable camera, plus built in WI-FI, and flash memory. Basically, a cross between a PALM ZIRE 72 and a Life Drive.  (Meanwhile, I don't always like trotting out the digital camera.)  If you hear of this device, please let me know.

My tech guy Charles tells me that corporate buyers won't buy anything with a built-in digital camera, which is resulting in a shift in the marketplace.

A New Feature:  Consultant Undercover
One of my associates has decided to re-enter the real world now and again, when he isn't too busy with projects.  Over the summer, he ran a crew for Habitat for Humanity.  Now he's working a few days a week in an upscale food market.  His initial observations on retailing have been pretty interesting.  We'll be running the occasional article starting later this week.  Stay tuned.

Service Recovery: Speed of Response is Critical to Success

I had an annoying incident at the video store this morning.  We've all been there, so I won't bore you with the details. 
I was ticked off having to start my week in a bad mood, however, so used the online contact point to send an e-mail with my complaint.  That was less than four hours ago.

I just got this lovely e-mail response from the area manager responsible for this particular store, and didn't she do a good job with this?  It put a smile back on my face.
AND, they probably saved me as a customer.

Ms. Abbott,

Please accept my sincere apologies for your experience this morning at our Sunnybrook location.  Your email was forwarded to me, as I am the new Area Manager responsible for that location, effective today.

I want to assure you that your feedback has been taken very seriously, and I will be visiting the Store Manager this week to discuss the level of customer service in the Store, and ensure that there is a plan of action to improve it.  We have already scheduled a meeting together and this will be the first item on our agenda.

I would be happy to offer you a couple of free New Release rentals on your Rogers Video account if you feel this would be something of value to you.  I don't want to presume, but I would really like to do something to demonstrate our appreciation of your business.  Please let me know how you would feel about this.

Thank you again for your timely feedback, and please know that it will be used to follow up with the staff who created a negative start to your week, and to ensure that all our customers at Sunnybrook feel valued in the future.

With sincere apologies,

Jane Doe
Area Manager - Area 5
Rogers Video

Speed of Response Essential

Service recovery best practices have been researched many times.  One of the most important factors always turns out to be SPEED OF RESPONSE. 

For a complex problem, maybe one that needs investigation, it is still very important to acknowledge the issue, even if there is no resolution yet. 

Depending on the issue, frequent telephone calls to keep the customer informed are appropriate.  Certainly, the customer should always be clear about when they can expect to hear something from you.

If there have actually been emotions running high, or hostile words exchanged, you will have an additional problem to fix.  For some reason (haven't seen any research on this yet), even after a problem is fixed, complaining customers are often reluctant to return.  The negative emotions are now wedded to the source.  It's not rational, but it is often true. 

If you see it once, it's a pattern

It's important to remember that very few people actually complain.  (This has also been researched).  A good rule of thumb is that it's less than 10% for consumers, and less than 25% for businesses.  And sometimes much less than this. 

I learned a bit of wisdom from a sales trainer once, that totally applies to this issue:  "If you see it once, it's a pattern". 

So every complaint that you hear about as a manager represents many that you didn't hear about. 

I suspect the same thing holds true for compliments -- if you have staff that receive formal compliments, these are probably not isolated either.  They are probably winning fans for the business every day.  So do something nice for them.

And if you are hearing neither complaints nor compliments, then you have a challenge in fixing your cusotmer feedback mechanisms. 

Why Mobile Phones Succeeded -- and the Next Two Billion

Marko Ahtisaari, currently director of design strategy at Nokia, deconstructs the reasons for rapid deployment and adoption of cell-phones in his article Blogging Over Las Vegas. 

1. It's an object with a social function tied to a service
2. Service providers subsidized the product to trade-off for customer relationships, preventing users from seeing the true cost of the elements, and rapidly speeding up adoption
3. The shift from a collective shared object -- the family phone -- to a personal object that becomes an extension of the self

The rest of this interesting article explores the challenges of the future.  The one that got my attention is that we have not planned for how to disconnect in an era of "always on, always accessible".  Maybe there's an opportunity there.

I am off to the Appreciative Inquiry event with David Cooperrider, and will report in on learnings on Thursday. 

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Putting People First for bringing this to my attention.  A very interesting blog, don't go there if you only have five minutes.

Are you Losing Sales? Your Call is Important to Us Revisited

I have just booked a holiday online using my Gold Travel Visa points. Which actually proved to be relatively painless, (not what I was expecting) because there is now an online link via Sabre.  Hotel and airfare for a week in Paris pretty much cleaned out my account, but I'm happy. 

However, the bank lost a sale of travel medical insurance that they COULD HAVE HAD.  I pressed the button requesting a quote.  They did indeed e-mail me a quote, on a Sunday, with a notice that I had only 24 hours to say yes, providing me the 800 number.  When I called on Monday, I was advised of "longer than usual wait times" and asked to hold for "10 minutes or more".  Tried again later, and it was worse. 

So I sent an e-mail saying "I don't have time to wait on hold, but I would like to buy the travel medical.  Please call me if you need further information". Well, a confirmation invoice has just arrived, and there's no travel medical on it. 

Just a few days ago, I tried to call the same organization to get a hold-funds removed from a personal cheque I'd deposited.  Forget that I had more than enough in other accounts to cover the cheque.  Forget that I have been a customer for about 20 years.  They put a hold on my cheque, because ... well, that's the procedure. 

However, I did think I could get them to take it off if I called.  Guess what?  "Longer than usual wait times, please hold for TWENTY MINUTES".  Get a grip.  I'd rather eat dirt. 

Customer Experience Design De-mystified: The Carnegie Public Library in Pittsburgh

The Carnegie Public Library in Pittsburgh wanted to update their user experience.  The old library was out of date, confusing and intimidating for users.  The new library has an integrated multi-channel experience that users are raving about.  Find out what they did and how they did it here. 

The presentation provides a clear illustration of the kinds of tools available to use to rethink the user experience, and the principles involved.  Even better, it is a delight to read, has wonderful graphic illustrations, and will get your creative juices flowing. 

The presentation comes from Marc Rettig and Aradhana Goel's presentation at
Adaptive Path's User Experience Week 2005 in Washington, D.C. 

A few of the gems inside this presentation:

• When tested, library users preferred the term "Customer Services" with the s, to "Customer Service".  Customer Services sounded to them like a place they could get help with many things, whereas Customer Service is a place you go when you have a problem
  

• Using user-centred language meant changing "Reference Desk" to "Ask a Librarian".  The online and offline experiences have been mapped to be as similar as possible, so "Ask a Librarian" is a button on the web site, as well as a sign in the physical space. 

• Signage used to be stuck on top and on the sides of desks.  It was quickly hidden by other people in the library.  And it was hard for users to tell which information was important, and which trivial.  (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

This is one of the best presentations I've seen in ages, and only wish I was actually AT the conference, which is going on my wish list for next year.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Gavin McGovern at Play with the Machine for bringing this to my attention.

Teaching Customers: Football Classes

When the CFL realized their fan base was aging, they decided to take action.  One of their most interesting steps has been offering classes in football to women, called Football 101. 
For a reasonable fee ($35 - $60 depending on the team), women get up to four hours of education in football which includes meeting the players, touring the locker room, trying on equipment, getting a team playbook, learning what all the terminology means, refreshments, and tickets to a future game.

Not only has this been successful in attracting fans, it builds strong fans who feel connected with the players that they have met. 

There are plenty of businesses where the intimidation factor is huge, from opera to rock climbing.  By helping customers become part of the in-the-know group, you can build a better experience and loyalty. 

Innovation: What you gain by moving up the experience chain

If you worry about adding to costs when you enhance the customer experience, there's a chart in the current BusinessWeek that might give you some comfort:

• Coffee as a commodity has a value of about $.01 - .02 per cup
• Ground coffee in the grocery store has a value of about $.05 -.25 per cup
• Adding service, a la Dunkin Donuts or Tim Hortons gets you up to $.75 - $1.50 per cup
• Adding experience, a la Starbucks, gets you up to $2.00 - 5.00 per cup

I think we are all sick of the ubiquitous Starbucks example, so I welcome other examples in comments.  However, the point here is simple:  the value of the service you deliver increases exponentially when you bring in experience components.

What the heck is an experience component, you ask?

It's what happens inside your customer: 

• Emotional benefits, like feeling happy, content, relaxed, comfortable
• Psychological benefits, like feeling successful or confident
• Sensory benefits, like taste, smell, and a soft place to sit
• Rational benefits, like convenience or a better interest rate

The brilliant Starbucks strategy to create the "third place" is clearly only part of the story.  Because some people already had a third place:  it was their local coffee shop, their Tim Horton's, or their diner.  That part wasn't as new as everyone says, although we didn't have a good label for it before.

The new thing, the brilliant thing, was designing a third place for people who can afford a $5.00 cup of coffee on a regular basis.  And that was indeed brilliant.

So instead of trying to cut a few pennies from your per-unit costs, consider trying to add to the experience in a way that engages all the benefits: rational, emotional, psychological and sensory. 

You will reap the margins of robber-barons if you do it right.

Trends in Customer Experience: is it a Field? A Movement?

Kyle Coolbroth thinks we are part of a movement.  Gosh I sure hope so.  Kyle shares my belief that managing the customer experience has really become the essence of marketing; is in fact changing the practice of marketing quite fundamentally because it is very operationally intensive.  You actually have to change the experience, not just the messaging. 

Kyle discussed some of these ideas in a recent podcast available on his blog, The Experience Journal.  The attached blog post highlights some of the more interesting sites on this topic, including this blog (heh, heh, thanks Kyle!)

If, like me, you're still crossing the chasm on podcasting -- click here for a simple explanation and great graphic)

Some of the more interesting points made:

• Customer Experience is about what you do, not what you say you do.

• If you want word-of-mouth, bring a more holistic approach to your brand, so that people have a reason to share word of mouth.  Don't create artificial events that create short-term buzz -- build a relationship with the brand experience. 

• In a 2005 study on marketing receptivity, Yankelovich found that 70% of consumers say they are interested in products that enable them to block out advertising. 

(As I have been saying for some time, the trend towards spam in every communication channel is simply an opportunity for someone to create and sell blocking technology.)

• But, Yankelovich also found interest in advertising as a form of entertainment is actually increasing.

401k Latte Company

 

About halfway through the Experience Journal podcast they interview Peter McClellan about his financial advisory firm, 401k Latte company.  Inspired by Seth Godin's Purple Cow approach to making yourself stand out from the competition, Peter meets people at public events and offers them a free latte from his backpack. This is just a tactic of course, but expresses his core brand value about the need for feeling comfortable with your financial advisor.  Peter says:

It is an invitation to have an open, informative, friendly conversation about you, your retirement plan choices, and your financial future over a warm cup of delicious coffee.

He has supported his mission with a new office environment designed to capture the comfort of a coffee shop, lacking the sterility and serious feel that characterizes the financial advisory business. 

Peter says his existing customers like the new look and the new expression of the core values they already were experiencing from their advisor.  Peter knows this because he talked to a lot of the customers individually, he tested logo designs with them, he put together a questionnaire, and took anything but a small business approach to this change:

"We didn't just do this and hope it worked.  We talked to a lot of clients ahead of time."

And yes, his clients like the new image and the new company name.  It's all about creating that take-away, that feeling of well-being when they leave".  (Just like that Peak-End rule we told you about).

Customer Experience and Pets: Are you Pet-Centric?

Is your business pet friendly?  It should be, and here's why: 

1. It's a big business and growing bigger all the time
2. People don't think of their animal companions as instinct-driven foreign species -- they think of them as permanent children.  Owners believe "pets are people too", and many refer to themselves as the "mommy" or "daddy" of the pet
3. If you're not pet-friendly, you're missing opportunities

According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, 63% of American households owned at least one pet in 2005.   Total industry expenditures are expected to approach $36 Billion this year. By way of comparison, that's bigger than toys, which were $21 Billion in 2003. 
Canadian statistics are similar, with 53% of urban households owning pets in 2001, with spending on food and veterinary services alone accounting for $3 Billion in annual spending. 

Pet friendly accommodations can be found nearly anywhere now.  Extra goodies included by some hotels include doggie pillows, gift packages at check-in, doggie treats at turn-down time, and  spa services such as massage.   

You don't have to be in the pet products business to see an impact on your business from pets.  Pet-families make many purchase decisions based on the presence of a pet, from furniture to fragrance. 

Pet owners are mainly in that sweet spot of high-consumption households with children, and adults ranging from 35 - 54. Because dog ownership tends to be a bigger responsibility and generally more expensive, dog owners tend to be a bit more well to do than cat owners. (NPD)

Pets are part of the family, and they have their picture in the family gallery to prove it. 

"This perception of the pet as family translates into “parental” behaviour for many pet owners: seven in ten (69%) pet owners allow their pets to sleep on their beds and six in ten have their pet’s pictures in their wallets or on display with other family photos. Almost all pet owners (98%) admit to talking to their pets."

Pets travel with the family more than in the past, and some airlines are leveraging this to advantage.  Both Midwest and United have special programs that earn frequent flyer miles for pet travel.  Midwest attributes the new program with creating a 25% increase in pet travel in it's first year, and expects to double it in the second year.

What to do

Any business should consider including images of family pets in any advertising targeted at families.

If you have any kind of a store-front operation, including a bank, take a cue from Starbucks and ensure you have a doggy rest area complete with bowl of water outside your store, as well as a place to tie up pets. 

Want to run a community event? Then consider getting your local humane society to set up an adoption event in your parking lot or front entrance. 

In short, start thinking about pets as part of your customer's family -- if you wouldn't ignore their children, don't ignore their pet.

Acknowledgements: 
Hy Mariampolski's article in QRCA Views, Spring 2005 "Arf, Arf! Meow, Meow! The Pet Market is Growing by Leaps and Bounds" (members only) got me thinking.

Canadian statistics came from the NPD Paws and Claws syndicated research study for 2001, available online from University of Guelph.

Handling Complaints Effectively: Give People Justice, But Watch Out for the Rocky Shoals of Embarassment

A lot of research has been done on the topic of complaint handling.  Having an unhappy customer in the first place has a lot to do with what the customer was expecting. 

I got a necklace and earrings as a Christmas gift from my beloved, and the clasp on the necklace recently broke.  I know it was not an expensive item, as necklaces go, but I had only worn it three, perhaps four times.  So I thought perhaps the store would fix it, replace it, or something. 

A dissatisfied consumer will consider their options:

• Seek redress for the problem i.e. complain to the company
• Complain to others -- negative word of mouth
• Vote with their feet -- change suppliers

Individual factors have a lot to do with who complains and who doesn't, but most people don't complain, and only about 5% of complaints ever get beyond the front line.   If people think their complaint is likely to be successful, they are more likely to complain.

Expectations Rising
When I took the necklace in, the nice clerk raised my expectations considerably, and asked to keep the necklace so she could talk to the owner, and told me she was confident they would either replace the necklace or repair it for me.  She wasn't sure they could replace it with an identical necklace (no problem, I said).

She called back later and crashed me on to the shores of disappointment, by telling me approximately this:

• The necklace was several months old (but I only wore it a few times, I protested)
• The necklace is out of stock, so they could not replace it (but what about something similar -- that would be fine...)
  
• They are not jewellers, and do not repair jewellery, however they were confident the necklace could be repaired by a jeweller, so I should come by and pick it up
• She was personally sorry to have to tell me this

I was disappointed with this, and said I wished to talk to the owner myself.  Naturally, she could not give out the number, but promised to pass the message along.

Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, Interactional Justice

People expect a fair outcome from a complaint (distributive justice).  They expect not to have to jump through a lot of procedural hoops to make the complaint (such as returning the item in the original packaging); that's procedural justice.  And they want to be treated fairly throughout the process by the people involved (interactional justice).

When I got a call the next day from a second store clerk, I started experiencing some injustice.  The second clerk basically implied that I had been wearing the necklace for months, that the store was a small business just trying to survive, and that they couldn't exchange things months after their purchase. 

As the conversation went on, I was lumped in with all sorts of people who try to exchange things months after they have been wearing them, because they want something different. 

She then suggested several times that she should take the necklace to her friend, the jeweller Zack, and he would fix it for me, she was sure it would not be too expensive.  (thanks, but no thanks).

When I reviewed all the details (yet again - only wore it a few times), I said I still wanted the opportunity to talk to the owner.  But the owner was now out of town, and did not have time to speak with me.  (Okay, I confess, this really ticked me off, and I suggested the owner just didn't want to talk to an unhappy customer)  On and on this horrid conversation went, to the point where I was actually starting to get upset and lose my cool. 

The second clerk told me that when the owner heard the full circumstances, that she now understood I wasn't trying to "scam" the store, she was also confident that the owner would do something to rectify things.  They would be in touch. 

Meanwhile, my small problem, and probably a $10 repair bill was starting to grow horns and expand into an ugly lump of discomfort.  And in making my point, I started feeling like I was abusing these young women working in the store.  Now we are all unhappy, and getting unhappier by the minute.

Service Recovery Effort

Later that same day, the owner left me a voice-message.  She said she could no longer return the necklace to the manufacturer, and their policy was two week replacement only (first I'd heard of that...perhaps a training issue with the clerks?), and closed off by saying she was hoping I would continue to be a customer.

Is it Cognitive Consistency, or Just The Embarassment Factor

I was glad to have had the call from the owner.  I think she should have thrown me a small treat of some sort, like a discount on next purchase.  But here's the big problem.  Now I'm embarassed at making a fuss out of something small, and getting upset, and I don't even want to go in to pick up the necklace. 

This is not at all unusual for people.  The biggest problem in retaining a customer after things get ugly is that there is no happy feeling anymore.  Let me give you another example, this time of a resort.

My friend and loyal reader, R.B., told me that he thought a resort we have both enjoyed --  a premium priced lodge in Northern Ontario, had gone downhill.  After his last stay, he sent a letter outlining his unhappiness to the resort.  They never replied.

Now, he says he feels he can't go back.  "I would have gone back if they'd only replied to my letter", he says.  There aren't that many nice lodges in the wilderness, so now he's got a problem.  I am in total sympathy with this. 

My law firm sends out a survey every time you conduct any real business with them.  But knowing how dependent we are on a lawyer when we really need them, who can respond honestly to such a thing unless it's anonymous?  And as I discovered recently, it's not anonymous.  (I gave them high ratings on everything, but indicated in my comments that they should not bill me six minutes for sending me a follow-up e-mail asking if they can invoice me, and then call it client correspondence.  How sorry I was that I said that, triggering a series of phone calls and hand-wringing. What on earth was I thinking?)

Doing it Right
Service recovery is really an art.  It needs to be fast, it needs to be fair (probably more than fair, actually), it needs to come with a smile, and it needs to leave the relationship intact or better. 

When service recovery is done well, people who experience it are more loyal than people who have never had a problem, never complained.  This has been well documented in reams of research, and is a secret weapon for the firms that do it well. 

Speaking personally, I have put in extra unbilled days on lots of client projects to ensure that the final outcome met or exceeded the client's expectations, even when this was well beyond our contractual commitment.  But I doubt I'll ever get the chance to respond to a complaint, because I suspect clients to vote with their feet as their opening response. (all input welcome on that subject, what's your experience?)

Wish Me Luck
Here's my plan.  I'm going to drop by the store later today and pick up the offending necklace, and take it to a jeweller down the street.  I'm hoping to hit the store when it's busy enough that I can avoid a reprise of the entire conversation wherein they try to convince of their point of view.   And I'm hoping the jeweller doesn't give me a lecture about how the thing is too cheap to be worth fixing.  If he does, I'm using the "senitmental value" gambit.  I might even wear the matching earrings (which I really love) into the shop in an expression of goodwill.   

Cross your fingers for me, okay?

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Andy Hayward at stock.xchng for the great picture
Thanks to Tom at True Talk for the inspiration for this post
And to R.B. for sharing such interesting conversations with me
 

Design Watch: Dutch Boy Ready to Roll

This is too cool -- a paint can with the roller-tray built in.  Plus an easy-to-reseal lid.  Dutch Boy does it again.  (They were the ones who introduced the easy-pour, screw-top paint container.  Why the rest of the industry hasn't copied it, we'll never understand.)

Diving deep into customer needs can take you to these kinds of places -- making an unpleasant job less unpleasant, and at the same time defining your brand as one that really gets the customer experience. 

Getting the Peaks and Valleys of Customer Experience Right

If you can't fix anything else about your customer's experience, make sure the end of it is as positive as you can make it.  Because... when we evaluate our memory of an experience, we are biased towards remembering the end, and the peak (either positive or negative). 

I found this out because I've been reading a lot about the work of Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winning Psychologist, who studies cognitive illusions.  These are not like the visual illusions you may have seen.  Cognitive illusions are mistakes of judgement, not perception.  Kahneman studies illusions to understand the wiring, as it were, of our decision-making processes.   

Kahneman and his colleagues studied a number of situations, such as painful medical procedures, which were evaluated by patients as less unpleasant if the end of the procedure was less unpleasant than the preceeding part. 

For a more everyday example, consider children's dentists, who often give a treat out at the end of a visit -- they figured out a successful strategy to manage the memory of the event.

In a few days, I'll be headed to Algonquin Park for a week of canoeing and listening to loons. I wish it were going to be two weeks.  But I can take comfort in knowing that my evaluation of the holiday will be heavily influenced by the peak event (good or bad) and the end of the trip.  Duration of the trip, according to Kahneman, doesn't count for that much. 

There are some other things Dr. Kahneman has figured out that we are going to plop down on the desk and poke around here over the next few posts, but this one is huge, don't you think? 

So here are a few questions to think about:

• What are you doing to ensure that the end of an interaction is as positive as possible?  Are you wrapping things up in pretty tissue and sticking a gold seal on them?  Are you telling your customer what a wise choice they have made? 
• If we could meter your customers from beginning to middle to end of their experience, would there be a nice peak somewhere ... a positive peak? 
• When you are handling complaints, are you making sure to offset that negative peak with something more positive? 

We've become rather sloppy in the management end of the business community; we aren't doing a great job of extracting and using the best learning from academic research, instead relying on personal intuition and traditional management practices.   It's time we marketers and managers grew up, and started getting a little help from the behavioral sciences, instead of thinking we learned it all in Psychology 101.   

Branded Customer Experience and Retail Banking: Holy Grail or Empty Vessel?

Branded Customer Experience is a phrase you can expect to hear a lot in the next few years:  it's the new Holy Grail of services marketing.  There are a few branded customer experiences in services out there, but not many.  Ritz-Carlton and Starbucks come quickly to mind.  Avis may be a contender.   SouthWest Airlines is in the club.

Some industries, notably retail financial services, are struggling with a long term battle against commoditization.  Branding is clearly the solution of choice, having worked so well in the packaged goods industry.  But the packaged goods leaders have not stopped at branding, and are starting to focus on customer experience. 

Producing a customer experience that is distinctive in a service industry, where human beings must deliver the distinctiveness, is generally thought to be closely tied to organizational culture and values.  If you want to change the customer experience, you have to change the organizational culture.

Here's where things get tricky in financial services.  Most of the major companies in this industry have built value for shareholders through investing in technologies to streamline operations, and manage customer profitability. 

Deep diving into customer experience to look for ways to build emotional connections has always played second fiddle to analytic initiatives designed to optimize the pricing on bundled service plans, or reduce the time spent handling individual customer transactions, and other initiatives of that nature.  And let's be honest -- this type of thing has paid off hugely in managing creeping operational costs .

Investments in data warehousing and CRM have improved direct marketing effectiveness and relationship management, but haven't touched customer experience design issues, which remain almost unchanged from a decade ago. 

Until retail banks work at developing more of an emotional bond with their customers, the idea of 'branded customer experience' is an empty vessel. 

The strength of these organizations in analytical risk management and operational excellence actually works against them when it comes to designing exciting and innovative customer experiences that resonate on an emotional level; there's really very little interest in making the fundamental mental shift necessary to mobilize around this objective. 

To see why, you need to look at the culture at the top of these organizations, where marketing has none of the status that it has in consumer-goods industries.  The senior executives of large financial services firms generally cut their teeth on corporate or institutional banking, as deal-makers of the first order. 

A common view of retail banking is that its chief purpose is to gather the low-cost deposits necessary to fund the deals, and provide predicatable returns to support the stock price. But the retail business itself is not exciting enough to hold the attention of a deal-making executive for long. 

And this represents a huge difference between the financial services industry and packaged goods, where you need to be excited about the opportunities presented by household cleaning, cheese products, and feminine hygiene.   

A second difference, and not to be underestimated in either financial services or telecommunications is the presence of annuity income.  These aren't real annuities of course, but revenue from activities that happened months or years ago.  If you are in consumer goods, you cannot count on a single nickel of revenue to come your way unless you sell something.  You need to be nimble if you want to stay alive.  In businesses that have continuing "rental" income, the worry is always that you will do something to damage the golden goose.  It tends to make the cultures relatively risk averse.

I've really written this post for my colleague, Taimour, to support an ongoing conversation we've been having about the meaning of branded customer experience. 
Well Taimour, I've depressed even myself with this explanation.   

Are there bright spots on the horizon?  Yes, absolutely.  Brave and clever middle-level executives that are on a mission to change things.  We need to give them all the help we can, becuase they have a big hill to climb. 

Designing Customers Experiences: the next big thing

Having ranted on for some time now about the importance of customer experience, and the role of design in same, I felt quite joyous at the latest issue of Fast Company, which is all about design. 
If you aren't a regular reader, you should pick this one up.  The "Proctoids" anecdote alone is worth the cover price.  [What P&G would do with Altoids if it acquired the brand] 

My prediction is that this anecdote replaces the "glove story" in John Kotter's "Heart of Change" book as the favored anecdote to make a point about change. 

Designing a customer experience means going deep into what is happening now, how people feel before, during and after.  It means looking for emotional connections, not just rational ones.  It means adding things in that might not "make sense" in any classical business sense.

I'm beginning to hear the phrase "branded customer experience" a lot more these days.  Well, there are a few of them out there, but not many.  Ritz-Carlton.  Starbucks.  Disney, of course, the experience granddaddy.  Probably quite a few universities and private schools have a branded customer experience -- Harvard, Oxford, Queen's, Eton ... no doubt there are many more there. 

It's a small club -- there's still time to be a charter member.  What are we waiting for?

Marketing to VIPs in Developing Markets

Our post of last week on serving VIPs in Nigeria continues to attract discussion.  Further questions were posted from a customer service manager for a Kenyan land line company, and additional commentary has been provided by an executive of NCR - Teradata, as well as Kyle Coolbroth, author of  the Experience Journal.

Picture source

Multi-channel integration for better customer experience: is it technology, organization silo problems, or both?

How long have we heard talk of multi-channel integration, and seen so little evidence of it?

Asaf Buchner, writing on a  Jupiter Research Blog  reports on the 2005 Net Finance conference.   Most multi-channel integration efforts are at the level of consistent look and feel across off-line and online.  But better efforts are starting to emerge, according to Mr. Buchner:

The few banks that were able to achieve a true integration offer a superior customer experience, allowing a client to start a dialog with the bank in one channel and continue it in another (e.g. start an application online and continue it from the same point off-line). In the following months, I will investigate the success of banks like Wachovia and Wells Fargo that were able to overcome technological barriers and break silos in the organization to fully integrate their marketing channels.

It's been a long time coming, hasn't it? 

The internal organizational barriers are real.  It's not just that people won't work together -- it's that most of our organizations are set up to encourage and reward other kinds of behavior.  Employees doing the right thing for customers are often doing it in spite of, not because of the organization. 

I had often wondered if there was just a paucity of innovative thinking from customer experience marketers in financial institutions.  However I'm learning this is not the case at all. 
The technology barriers have been real -- compounded by the data barriers.   

A really clever fellow from IBM Global Services, educated me on this topic at a roundtable sponsored by the Access Group in early March.   There are actually lots of good and innovative ideas out there -- but either the technology or the data are a barrier.  Or both. 

Not necessarily that the tech solution doesn't exist.  But few firms have the capabilities that Asaf Buchner is writing about.  (Yet).

What's your perspective?

Designing your processes for customers, not for organization convenience

The saga of my custom drapes continues.   And it's a good illustration of how some businesses organize their processes for the convenience of the organization, not the customers. 

I ordered these beauties in early March, advised they would take 4 - 6 weeks.  I called at 6 weeks (no one called me) and was told "definitely by end of April", and promised a call if anything changed.   
When the end of the month (and 8 weeks) had come and gone with no further contact from the store, I called again. 

This time, it took three calls over three days to get the status of this order, because the people in the store don't have this information and have to call head office.  They do not give out the number of head office.  And head office is only available before 5 pm on weekdays.  And could I call back tomorrow when my salesperson is in, because she isn't working today? 

Today I learned "they will definitely be on the truck on Friday".  And while they had me on the phone, would I please provide my credit card for the balance of the purchase price?  HUH?

It gets better.  The installer will not book an appointment until the drapes have been paid for, even though they have not actually arrived. (And with their rate of on-time performance, can you blame the guy?) 

So I can't schedule anything unless I'm prepared to pay in advance.   But the installer works for you, right? I asked.  Yes, but he has nothing to do with invoicing. 

This is a pretty amazing scenario when you consider the cost of floor to ceiling silk draperies, fully lined, with fancy sheers to boot  (I'm hopeful the yellow silk and the palm trees will cheer me up during the grey winter days next year).

This is a system organized for the company, not the customer.   It lacks basic communication standards that are readily obtainable on a $50 order from LL Bean, for example.   

I'll let you know if the plaster survives the installation. 

Managing VIP and High Value Customers in Third World Countries

There was an interesting question posed today on CRM Guru (free registration required):
Sarwi Rahaman, who works in the call centre for a telecom company in Nigeria asks about handling the VIP customers, "not your average Joe on the street":

1. How do we handle/manage our highest spend subscribers?

2. How do we grow their spend? Or increase their ARPU?

There were a number of good responses to this question, but most seemed focused on sales and call routing.  No one addressed service recovery.  (Amazing, since the last interaction is a powerful influencer over loyalty, especially if it is a problem interaction)

Here's what I added:

I have looked at customer segmentation in other third world countries, and have found that the top tier frequently accounts for a disproportionate percentage of profitability -- much more so than in countries with established middle class.

So the primary goal has to be retention. This group is going to be highly networked among each other, and a reputation for fantastic service will travel quickly among the group.

All of the points mentioned earlier are good ones, but I would add a couple:

1) Do some qualitative research with this group to find out more about their needs and wants. (This can be tricky -- I have found receptions in high-end hotels work well for locations in situations like yours)

2) Provide clear guidelines for service recovery situations. This is probably more critical operationally than anything else you might do. Problems need to be handled by seasoned trouble-shooters. Don't wait for these customers to escalate -- if the first person can't solve the issue, send it immediately to the troubleshooter team. Plan to call daily or more often until problems are resolved. This will win you great loyalty, more than any discount or special promotion.

I know I am always pushing for research.  In a situation like this, the average employee has no understanding at all of the world these customers live in.  Doing research is totally critical in these circumstances. 

And it will pay off -- by showing you places you can leapfrog the competition by providing exceptional value.

More on Nigerian telecom here, including some wonderful and evocative photos of telephone street vendors. 

How to make customers apostles for you: Return calls

I have to extend major kudos to Six Apart, the fine people who brought you Movable Type and Typepad blog authoring software. 

I have sent them three online help tickets in the time I have been using Typepad.  They have never failed to respond within 24 hours with a helpful, usually personalized response. 

This bears repeating:  Helpful, Personalized.  It's a small company, but I'm already an apostle, and just keep becoming a bigger fan.  They are making me feel like a customer, not an intrusion.  I like their tone.  Actually, I feel like I like them. 

And they are delivering this service for about $98 USD annually.  Gets you thinking, doesn't it?

Way to go!

Up close and personal with customers: how to innovate

A terrific article by Mark Kingdon in ClickZ, called "What's Your Analysis to Emotion Ratio?"
Kingdon argues that you need to get out in front of the mirror and interact deeply with your potential customers to really go beyond conventional thinking in development of new products or new advertising.

Many tools analyze customers, but do we really understand them? From what I see, in most cases we don't. We observe customers from a distance, through two-way mirrors or in black-and-white PowerPoint presentations. Where's the empathy? Where's the emotion?

Kingdon shares a great idea to generate out-of-the-box thinking about customers:  buy abandoned suitcases from the airport, and try to build a profile of the person who owned it.  Where were they going, what were they doing, what do they care about, etc. 

Here are his top tips for innovative customer-focused thinking, with a few notations from yours truly:

Security Breach Hits HSBC: Will Doing the Right Thing Pay Off?

Oh, Oh -- another major privacy breach, this time at HSBC, involving a reported 180,000 cardholders.   Here's the CNN version of the story: Security Breach Hits HSBC's MasterCard Credit Cards - Apr. 14, 2005.

  Although HSBC so far appears to be the only financial institution to disclose that it is alerting cardholders of the incident, credit cards issued by other banks also could be vulnerable. Under current rules, however, banks aren't necessarily required to alert their cardholders to the potential fraud.

Good for HSBC for talking to their customers.   And remarkable that disclosure is not required, isn't it? 
The question is, will HSBC be rewarded by customers for doing the right thing here?  Add your perspective, all predictions welcome.

Stop Fighting the Customer: Puretracks Launches Kiosks

Puretracks, an online music download service, has recently launched free-standing kiosks that will burn a CD  for you of tunes you select.  Just like at home, but you don't need your computer with you to do it.  Future functionality improvements planned will include direct-to-player digital downloads through on-board ports.   You can read a more detailed article at Business Edge (no sub rqd). 

This is, in an odd sort of way, a long-tail idea.  Some of the locations for the kiosks are record stores.  The kiosk will permit them to add selection in specific categories and change the focus of their floor inventory. 

I bet it works.  People will keep buying music; they just don't want to buy it the way the music industry wants to sell it.  Thank goodness that's changing.

Customer Communication: How Clear is it Really?

How often have you read a "Dear Customer" letter from a company and been unable to distill the critical essence from it?  I'm guessing fairly often, regardless of whether it's a new product offering or a recall notice.

In my Miss Marple fashion, I'd like to illustrate with something happening outside my window.  They are digging up my street, taking jack-hammers to the sidewalks, and there are guys with shovels standing in holes up to their shoulders on my neighbor's front lawn.  Other guys with yellow spray paint have put mysterious arrows and lines all over the place.   

Many of the neighbors have expressed surprise, saying they had no idea this going to happen.   

My spouse has been somewhat dismissive of these folks as just not paying attention -- he of course was right on top of this when we got the letter from the city six weeks ago, and has contracted for additional work with the crew.   I asked him to find me the original letter.

Here's what the notice said:

Dear Sir/Madam,
For your information, pavement and/or sidewalk reconstruction has been proposed for your street in the near future.  Prior to this work, the City of Toronto has awarded Contract No.04D1-517WS to The State Group Inc. for the replacement of substandard water services.

Now here's a letter that would have communicated what was really going to happen:

Dear Sir/Madam.
For your information, we will be replacing the sub-standard water-lines up to the edge of your property line sometime in April.  In many cases, this will entail removing the sidewalk and digging into the boulevard.  We will make reasonable efforts to respect any landscaping you may have installed on city property.  Temporary water pipes will be strung along the street. There will be disruptions to street access and on-street parking during the project.

So before you sign off on that letter to customers that is filled with corporate speak, give yourself a reality check.  Does it really communicate the important facts?

 

Reading the Luggage Tag: Nuts and Bolts of Customer Experience

I had a pleasant conversation yesterday with a senior executive at Rogen, the people who train execs to communicate and give winning presentations.  This is someone who travels extensively, and has experienced the full spectrum of travel joys and sorrows -- a veteran road warrior.  He had recently stayed at the boutique hotel chain W,  in New York. 
Here's what he told me, in the tones we usually reserve for religious experiences:

Within less than a day of checking in, everyone I met there knew my name.  I finally asked the bellman how he did this?  He told me he had been trained to look for and covertly read names on luggage tags.

The story gained more ground for me when I learned that the Manager also learned names and spoke to guests on a frequent basis.  What a friendly thing, and would make you feel at home in a big city! 

Why is it that some companies are able to achieve these startling service results, while others struggle?   

Well first, they have established behavioral service standards.  These are things that say clearly, "use the customers' name at every opportunity".   This stuff has to be granular, and crystal clear.

Then you have to actually train people in how to achieve the standard.  Senior executives often underestimate the need for this type of training, assuming that having the standard is enough.  It isn't.  We all need tips and tricks and help.  And committing time and $$ for training reinforces that you think your standards are important.

You also need management practices and systems that reinforce the standards in every way.  It's no good saying "do what I say, not what I do".  Every level in the company needs to reinforce the importance of behavioral standards.

Treating your employees well is another pre-requisite to good service.  (Incredible that we need to see proof of this, isn't it?  "Is there really a linkage between employee engagement and customer loyalty?  i.e. Do we really have to be nice to people to make money in this business?")

The bottom line is -- if you don't think you need to be civilized to your staff, why should they treat customers any better?   The fact that many do, even in the middle of long-standing labour disputes, is a tribute to the employees, not the skills of management.

And yet we do ask the loyalty question.  My own view is that service quality represents the margin of preference when you have choices. 

By way of example, I spent about 50+ nights in one city over about a year, where there were four convenient hotels to choose from.  I tried them all.  The first one I weeded out  did not have enough dining variety close by.  One of the others had too small a lobby area, and there was no place to relax at night.  The difference between the last two was largely service.  A few staff members learned my name in one of the hotels, and I kept going back.  When you spend that much time away from home, it is nice when someone remembers you.  Here's the hotel.

Customer service is a nuts-and-bolts game.  It takes a clear definition of what the experience is supposed to look like, and reinforcement from every angle you can think of. 

And then you get the kind of experience that can impress a polished executive like my acquaintance from Rogen, and make him want to tell a dozen or so of his friends.  And you can't buy that kind of ad any other way.

The Social Context: Mysterious Underpinning to Everything

There are people who think they can just change an organization culture as easily as you might upgrade your wardrobe.  I'm not one of them, actually.  I'm still trying to figure out why no one in my city seems to respect the red lights anymore.

I've had a couple of things tucked away gathering dust that seemed to shed light on this, but they're not all that well connected. Maybe you can figure it out...

First datum:  Michael Adams, Fire and Ice, USA and Canada
It's doubtful that anyone in America cares as much about our cultural differences as we do, chronic navel-gazers that we are here in Canada, but Michael Adams is a big thinking researcher who has studied this quite a bit.  He wrote a great article for Vue, called Sex and Fire: religion, homosexuality and authority in Canada and the United States. 

Adams says that religion is the effect, not the cause.  Religion, in this case, refers to the massive difference in church attendance between Canadians and Americans.  Adams says this is about attitudes toward authority, not religion, per se.
Adams says this about family values:

when a Republican says he or she believes in family values, while it is not implausible to assume that this person is intolerant of homosexuality and opposed to gay marriage, it is wrong to read intolerance as the essential meaning of the statement. 

Family values are actually about "responsibility, fidelity, moral rectitutde and other goods".  We largely did not understand that where I live.

Adams believes that "orientation to authority is the 'X Factor' which drives both ... religion and attitudes toward homosexuality."

Second Straw in the Wind - a letter to the editor about four dead Mounties
We recently had a situation near Edmonton where four of our RCMP were shot by a single bad guy.  The last time something this big happened the date was 18-something.   I like to read the letters to the editor as a barometer of sorts, and there was one letter about this incident from a Canadian born law-enforcement officer from Illinois, who said this:

Each time [I visit] I have noticed a little more of an erosion of the high respect for social order for which Canada is known.  ...If I have learned one thing in almost 20 years of policing, it is that even minor breaches of the peace ultimately erode the fabric of society.  (Globe and Mail letters, March 12, 2005)

You might not know this, but the Canadian equivalent of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has always been felt to be "Peace, order and good government".

Third Straw in the Wind -- Official Apologies
The same day, a federal official who was jailed for taking bribes (not a very Canadian thing to do - we deplore graft) made this apology for his acts:

"I deeply regret the embarassment and aggravation which have come about as a result of my actions"

If I get this right, it is not the essential wrong nature of the actions, but the inconvenience caused to the perpetrator that are being discussed here.  (Ref. Globe and Mail March 12, 2005). 

What Does It All Mean?
Community and social order doesn't seem to be as important to us here as it once was.  This might look like a little ripple on the water, but I don't think so.  I think the waves are coming, perhaps slowly, but we'd best pay attention.

Consumers need signals to tell us what's happening: the "you are here" of experience management

When something is a new process or procedure, has a lot of lag time, or is complicated, it doesn't take much to create uncertainty in the mind of your customer.  Here's an example.

I love my no-frills, free-chequing Bizsmart account, but the rate on their savings component is appallingly low.  After dithering for months, losing the applications in the pile of on the filing cabinets, throwing them out, and finally reprinting them off the web, I finally moved forward to apply for an account at ING Direct.

I waded through the forms, copied all my paperwork, and stuffed some cheques into the envelope per the required procedure.  This was almost two weeks ago, and I had heard nothing.  I knew the cheques had cleared, and wondered what was happening, so I finally gave them a call last night. 

Here's what amazed me:  if I had never made that call, my account would have stayed in limbo indefinitely.   Let's just review step 4 in their instructions:

Once ING DIRECT receives the Enrollment Form, the Authorized Individuals Form, the Business Banking Resolution Form (if applicable), the cheques, and copies of the documentation noted above for the type of business specified, the account will be opened. To transact on this account, each Authorized Individual
must call us at 1-800-ING DIRECT (1-800-464-3473) to set up his/her unique PIN and Password once the cheques have cleared.

I remember at the time thinking, "okay, they are going to send me something, and then I have to call them."   I was wrong about the part where they send me something.  It didn't say that, I just assumed that.  (D'oh)  Of course, the instructions had gone in the mail with the forms.

It's a pretty good process, and the instructions are pretty clear, but not really clear enough.  Some important signals felt like they were missing for me, signals to let me know what's happening and where we all are in the process.  In this case, a signal that it's my turn to throw the ball. 

Contrast this with L.L.Bean.  I waited close to two months for a fleece sweater, and then sent it back for a different size, which was also backordered and took about six weeks to arrive.  In that time, I received at least a dozen communications from LL.Bean letting me know where things stood.  Result: no vague worries. 

Some small grain of uncertainty has now already colored my heretofore flawless relationship with my newest bank.   How unnecessary.

We all have a lot of things in our lives to deal with.  Redundancy in communication is critical.  Remember that lame joke, the punch line of which is "I told you 25 years ago that I loved you.  If anything changes, I'll let you know".  Not a good model for managing customer experience. 

The New Marketing Order: How to be Chosen

Pamela Parker, writing in ClickZ,  The New Marketing Order: How to be Chosen, makes an important point about control:

It all comes down to control. People want control over how they're marketed to, and they're clamoring to get it. Witness 158 telephone numbers registered per second on the Do-Not-Call registry, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Witness consumer anger over spam, resulting in the most punitive anti-spam law yet. Witness the incredible success of a "pull" medium, search, over which consumers have control. To accommodate new expectations, marketers must change strategy. Ignore consumers' collective desire at your peril.

Now that we have the tools to give us more control, we're not going to surrender it willingly.   More interesting dynamics at work in the world of customer experience.

Choice and the Role of Advice: How Advisors Change the Customer Experience

I've been thinking a lot about choice lately, and this morning I awoke with this graph in my head. 
We are often overwhelmed by choice, because we live in a wealthy society.  And as your willingness to spend increases, so does the range of choice you have.  But then something strange happens -- when your expenditure gets large enough, the role of advisors starts to come into play. And the advisors can reduce complexity and choice.

This is easier to see using some examples.  Let's start with the most obvious: investing money.

Investing Money

Those who don't have much to invest we actually call savers.  And the options for savers are really fairly limited.  If you have less than $500 to invest, you are limited mainly to savings accounts, and savings bonds.  With a little more money, your options spike dramatically, becuase you can now afford mutual funds.  With still more, you can invest in a huge range of securities: bonds, equities and other financial instruments.  With still more, you could consider things like real estate, or direct ownership of a company.  One can imagine that the investment options available to Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump or Bill Gates are virtually limitless. 

Something interesting happens along the way, however.  Most people pick up some kind of financial advisor. 

In the beginning, this individual can actually make things worse, by telling you about choices you didn't know you had -- like thousands of  mutual funds.   But as the money you are spending, on both the investment and the advisor, increases -- the role of advice is to radically reduce the number of choices that need to be made.   The advisor weeds out all the poor choices for you, and only asks you to choose among good options. 

This scenario plays out in many kinds of services. 

Interior Decorating
I had to shop for new drapes recently, and was expecting it to be a daunting task.  I deliberately chose to start with a single store that carried a wide range of goods, BB Bargoons.  My plan was not to overwhelm myself with decisions, and try to find a workable solution in this one store if possible. 

While I was there,  a woman came in with her decorator.  They had already been to at least one other store, judging by the swatches of fabric.  Together they reviewed a lot of fabrics.  The decorator kept coming up with new ideas and suggestions.  I could see the client becoming overwhelmed with the choices, until I actually heard her say "I don't really know what I want anymore". 

Many people who hire interior decorators leave the majority of the choices to the decorator.  They outsource all of the choice-making. 

Eating Out
The same dimensions appear to be part of the eating out experience too, although they manifest themselves differently.

At the low end, there are many possibilities, but little real variety: McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and their competitors.  As you go up the quality/cost dimension, you have many more choices.  There are still chains, like Swiss Chalet and Pizza Hut,  But there are also independent bistros.  By the time you get to a Kelsey's, East Side Mario's or Shopsy's type of operation, the menu may have 80 or more items on it. 

But then you pass through that level, and something changes. 
When you get to fine dining, there are likely not quite as many choices, because the chef is making some of those choices for you.   The menu changes daily, as the availability of prime ingredients changes.  The serving staff can also assist you in making choices.

The number of items on the menu shrinks. Although the wine list may be overwhelming, there is now a sommelier who can choose for you, if you wish and you are prepared to pay the cost. 

And a select group of high-end dining experiences offer virtually no choice at all, with the chef and their staff taking as their mission giving you a memorable dining experience. 

Here's one:  if you dine at Susur, the menu is not set until 5:30 pm every day.  Eigensinn Farm, one of the stars on the global dining scene, serves a seven course meal to only 12 people each night.

What Does it all Mean?
The preponderance of choices facing us every day actually makes more room for the role of trusted advisors in many forms. 

An automated advisor doesn't actually add much to the cost.  Consider how Amazon shows you other books you might like.   It is cross-selling, of course, but it is also a kind of advice. 

Part of the role of brands is clearly to help thin out the choice-making.  You can get any kind of computer you want from Dell, so why confuse yourself with other suppliers?

If you are offering more choices to your customers, you need to also help them make wise choices, and reduce the tension and stress that accompanies too much choice.   

Selling the Box: How Soft-Sell Works in Retail

Thanks to  Mark Askey at Just Looking  for their addition to the Blockbuster comments of a few weeks ago.   

Retail salespeople need to remember that the biggest thing they sell the customer, is the company they work are working for.  I call this Selling the Box.    A good retail sales person sells the benefits of working with his company as well as the benefits of the products.   Sometimes this is done more obviously, like when you talk about the return policy or your money back guarantee. But sometimes it is the subtle things like creating an environment of helpfulness without being pushy that bring the customer back for more.   Or actually knowing enough about the products to help the customer feel more satisfied that they are making the right decision.

How very true that is.  When you think about the stories you have told friends about your retail experiences, they probably fall into one of two categories: 

1. What a horrible experience I had at store XYZ
2. What a helpful experience I had at store XYZ

Sell the box!

Complexity and Choice

Our chief mission when designing and managing the customer experience is now really about reducing complexity without reducing choice and without eroding value. 

That should keep us all busy for a while.

Can I help you find something?

All the focus on CRM might make you think that the behavior of sales staff doesn't matter much.  You couldn't be more mistaken.  Small things can make a big difference in the retail customer experience: like whether someone offers to help you, and how that offer is delivered.   

The rising threat of DVD-by-mail services such as this one has Blockbuster working hard on customer experience these days.  And they are doing more than changing their late fee policy. They are trying some things to improve the store-front experience as well.

Customer Centric Organization?

This article from Marketing Profs makes some interesting points about roles and organization structure: Defining Roles of the Product Management Team.  But I really wonder how companies will become customer centric if the focus continues to be on Product Management instead of Segment Management.  Many of the challenges service organizations have today is that they borrowed the product structure from packaged goods companies without revisiting it. 

I would argue that companies such as telcos and FIs really must have segment managers if they are going to avoid silo-driven thinking.

Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?

The telco world has two kinds of firms in it these days:  the ones that have been around for decades and have engineering in their DNA, and the ones that are newcomers and have marketing in their DNA.  Those with engineering DNA sometimes struggle to provide a n integrated customer experience, and Bell Canada is no exception.

If you have ever tried to figure out how to configure the nodes for your Business ISP service, understand your toll-free number billing, or questioned why a small business is getting FOUR statements every month, plus bonus statements quarterly, there is good news on the horizaon.  Smart marketers like Marianna Ciocio are thinking about SMEs, and this is real cause for hope.

Because she is thinking some very interesting and insightful thoughts.

Ms. Ciocio spoke to an event earlier this week on B2B research and marketing to SME customers.   This is someone who is observing carefully, and listening to customers.  Let me share a few of these observations with you.

SME customers struggle with the integration of telecom.  They don't have specialized technical staff to deal with it like those enterprise customers do: they're on their own.  They're not always sure how to put the pieces together.  And they find it frustrating to deal with multiple suppliers.  (You are your own systems integrator)  IT and telecomm are becoming almost indistinguishable, but the model to put them smoothly together is not yet clear.  Should telco's provide servers?  Should they lease you a PC? 

Funny isn't it -- when we were all talking about convergence, we didn't clearly see the strategy mish-mash that would be faced by enterprises attempting to develop a coherent market position. 

A long-term focus on customer acquisition has made retention and loyalty a poor cousin.  (I can certainly vouch for this, every time I call to find out why I can't get the discount being offered to acquire new high speed customers.) 

Market segmentation has tended to be based on internal spend -- how much is the customer spending with Bell every year.  (Doesn't this sound so much like financial services?)    There is a need to move towards more behavior based segments and targeting, looking at the whole value delivery system.   And not just at a point in time, but throughout the business life cycle.

Good questions are being asked.  Like, when in the life of a business does the need emerge for basic service?  Is it before you register the company name?  When you find an office?  Before or after the domain name?  And when does the need emerge for additional telcom and other services?  What are the life events in the business that trigger these needs? 

The history of the company as an engineering company is something of a burden for them culturally -- in the past, they generally had the product in mind -- or even built -- before they started the research.  Now they are trying to look out at the behaviors involved in running a business, interacting with suppliers, interacting with technology, and the problems people have.   

They are starting to look for areas of opportunity in the customers, not in the technology. 

The cultural history is not unique by any means -- there are many examples of relatively introverted companies, especially where there has been a strong regulatory framework in place.  The benefits in these industries have been incredible stability and reliability.  Let's face it, when you pick up a land line and there is no dial tone, you look out the window to see what disaster has befallen.  Because it sure isn't some sort of re-boot situation.   

Like other complex service businesses, this firm is also challenged by the need to work effectively across functional and business line silos, and the organization is not really designed to make that easy.  (Did I mention the similarities to financial services?) 

So don't expect change to happen overnight.  But there are some smart committed individuals over there that would like to make things better.  And here's to them.  Because we all need telecom.