Carson Research Consulting: Are you satisfied?

“Price isn’t the deciding factor anymore it’s [customer] service” was a statement made by someone “in the industry” in an article on CNN.com about customer service horror stories and consumers’ new technologically savvy approaches for getting good service. For example, one woman found a Comcast executive through Twitter and got her cable fixed almost instantly. Others have used blogs to share their customer service horror stories with millions of people instantly, which in some cases led to the resolution of their problem by the company under question.

I find this use of technology very intriguing, and it raises lots of questions for how businesses function. We’ve all heard about being cautious about what you put on social networking sites for public view, as the information may be seen by an employer. Now the tables are turned, in a sense, and people are using the social networking sites to track businesses. Are businesses going to have to be more cautious about their social networking? Will this be a new solution to outsourced customer service (think no more verbal communication just typing, which could translated through software applications)? At this point it seems like just asking questions and showing awareness that the way of doing customer service is changing is a good initial step.

It also seems like an issue of knowing your market and embracing technology. A smaller business looking to grow could really use the low cost and often free tools that technology has to offer, assuming their customer base has access to and is comfortable using such technology. They have the potential to market and grow their business very efficiently—not to mention be at the forefront of a complete reworking of how businesses handle customer service. But how does a business go about tackling such a task? It is a task that no doubt requires some general understanding of social networking technology for professional purposes, creativity, and, probably most critical—time. It may be as straightforward as starting out by creating a ‘customer service plan’ of sorts that outlines what you would like to see happen to your business’ customer service management. Such a plan may include not only handling the complaints through the use of social networking technologies, but also addressing the positives. Investing a few hours in creating such a plan will also provide clarity about areas of weakness that could require outside consulting, as well as clarify the potential scope and complexity of the task. Regardless of whether your style is merely being aware of technology’s influence or being at the forefront of using technology to handle customer service, be aware of the power of technology to make your customers happier.

In addition to a waning economy there is also a shift occurring that is requiring businesses to be as technologically savvy as possible. One example is what is happening to major newspapers. Recently I heard that 14 newspapers across the company are shutting their doors or turning to “digital” media outlets only. Another business sector being hit is video rental stores. The large chains like Blockbuster are certainly being hit by Netflix, which is taking over the once brick-and-mortar market. But what is happening to the small independent chains? Some of these business owners are prepared to do whatever it takes to maintain their niche market. For example, an article on CNN noted that one such store owner moved his shop to a more artsy district to be in closer proximity to the right customers. But what do you do if the customers aren’t even leaving their homes (due to such things as gas prices or inclement weather), as one store owner points out? It may go back to the issue of customer satisfaction and loyalty (see our White paper). Research has shown that it isn’t enough to have customers who are satisfied—they also need to be loyal, which may require having very satisfied customers, as research shows they are much more likely to remain loyal. So we want very satisfied and loyal customers, but still, how do we accomplish this if we don’t want to jump on the tech bandwagon and our customers aren’t leaving the house? It might involve some creativity. Businesses need to reach out. Getting involved in local neighborhood events to keep the company name actively in the public view or holding focus groups with current customers to see what gets them to leave the house are a couple of options. It also may be hard to admit that people are leaving the house; they’re just not coming to your store. Recognizing the problem will allow business owners to think proactively about a solution, which harkens back to the creativity aspect. For example, maybe you need to change your store hours to better accommodate when people are out. Smaller business may need to think creatively about how to use technology while simultaneously focusing on the fundamental…knowing your customers and giving them what they want.

GM is apparently not the only company with an identity crisis, as CNN reports that Dell is trying to respond to low earnings too. It seems that the company has run into trouble because they haven’t “diversified” into other product areas like leading competitors, so when their primary market of hardware sales dropped, so did Dell. This sounds like an issue of not knowing what your customers want, but it is suggested that Dell should take a hint based on its competitor’s approaches, which seem to be stylish (Apple) or affordable (Taiwan companies). OK so if we come up with something stylish and affordable that’ll sell right? Well, maybe. What isn’t being asked is why customers spend more for Apple but also apparently need affordable options from Taiwan. Could it be that other factors are involved? Like the reputation Apple has for excellent customer service? The author suggested that having a niche may lead to trouble in the future but then commended Apple for cornering the “innovative” niche. What happens if innovative goes out of style as people scale back and just want stuff that works (Taiwan’s market?)? Should Apple start diversifying too? It goes back to the customers. It isn’t about diversifying or maintaining a niche, it is about responding to what the market (i.e., your customers) want. Businesses may have gotten a bit lazy and stopped thinking beyond the present day’s stock prices when it seemed like the economy would keep going up and up. Regardless of the economic climate, it is about staying proactive and continually doing market research to determine if your customers are satisfied and obtaining what they need.

I recently ready an article about “mystery patients” in Modern Healthcare. Apparently some companies are hiring people to pose as patients in order to get a handle on customer satisfaction in a healthcare setting. The idea is modeled after “mystery shoppers” who show up in restaurants or other retail establishments, and provide reports on many aspects of the experience.

I’m wondering if this is a good idea in the healthcare sector. On the one hand, you could find out how long a person has to spend in the waiting room before they see a doctor. The problem is, this is just one person’s experience. If the office is backed up  because of an emergency, or especially slow that day, it can give you inaccurate information about patient wait times. And how many mystery shoppers do you really want to send through your office? A much better measure would be to ask each person you see “How long did you spend in the waiting room today?” Bingo! You have your answer! Also, many doctors’ offices have patients sign in as to what time they arrived. Just having the receptionist write what time they are called back to the examining room will prevent any over- or under-estimating by the patient. Why use a “mystery patient” when you have real patients in your office every day that you can talk to? And besides, asking real patients how long they had to wait, or whether they felt like the doctor listened to their concerns will make them feel like you care, and let them know these things are importnat to you.

Are all customers created equal?

Many businesses have a “one size fits all” approach to customer service. If the service is good, then customers will be satisfied with their experience, right?

But it’s not that simple. What works for one customer may not do the trick for another. Different customers value different aspects of a service.

Anderson, Pearo and Widener discuss the concept of service-dominated logic in their recent article, “Drivers of Service Satisfaction” published in The Journal of Service Research. The authors looked at different segments of airline passengers, to find out how gender, age, income and flying experience impacted their satisfaction with  flying.

Here are a few of the things that they learned but looking at a database of over 20,000 airline customers:

• While income did not have a big impact on how satisfied customers were, whether they were in first class or economy did. Those in first class had higher expectations, particularly for the comfort of their seat and the attentiveness of flight attendants.

• Younger people were harder to satisfy than older passengers and placed a higher value on personal space in the cabin

• Interactional aspects of the service, such as the contact with airline staff, were more important to women than to men.

• Experienced flyers and first class passengers were not as affected by whether the flight was timely or smooth, perhaps because they have had enough experience to know that a bumpy ride or a flight that’s a bit late is par for the course.

The lessen here is, don’t use a cookie cutter approach to improve your customer satisfaction. Think about your customer segments and find out what makes them happy.  With this knowledge you can target specific customers to improve their satisfaction.

It’s a no-brainer, don’t you think? That a company should try just a little harder to make their customers feel special? And I don’t mean “flowers and candy” special, just a little something thoughtful. The kind of every day little things partners do for each other (if they have a successful partnership).

As you may have noticed, the CRC website was hacked earlier this week. We had it back up and running within a couple of hours. Our website technician explained that the hackers had added popular keywords (mostly related to sex and prescription medicines) and then directed bots to keep hitting the site. It was a purely destructive act designed to shut down the site. What happens is, the site gets overloaded, and Network Solutions servers notice this overload, and shut the site down.

How nice would it have been if Network Solutions had a mechanism to alert me to this activity. Just a phone call or email (a phone call may be preferred, since host site shenanigans are involved) to say “hey, something is going on with your website that looks unusual”. I could check it out, and fix it quickly.

Little things mean a lot. I used to have two large German Shepherds, and although both were well-trained enough to allow people into the house to repair things, they looked very intimidating. When George, from CooperHVAC, would come to my house to work on the air conditioning, he often came right after his lunch. He would get an extra large french fry order and save some for the dogs. Of course, I continue to use Cooper because he did great work, but his thoughtfulness towards the two beasts made me feel especially loyal.

What little things could you be doing for your customers? Is there some contact, some bit of information, or some other little tidbit that you could give them that would make them feel valued?

A colleague of mine recently had a problem with her new Toshiba laptop. Actually, she had many problems lasting many months that resulted in the replacement of most of the components of the laptop before it would work properly. During her initial phone consultation with Toshiba’s help desk, she was told to restore the operating system. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever had to do this, but it basically involves wiping out your entire hard drive, re-installing Windows, and re-installing all of your OTHER software as well. It can take the better part of a day to return your computer to its original state.

But it’s worth itif it works, right? The problem was, restoring the system didn’t work. And every time she called Toshiba after that, they would tell her to restore the system again. She said to me, “Sure, that’s easiest for them, but it’s not easiest for me! Shouldn’t they be more concerned about making life easy for me, since I’m the customer?”

They should. Think carefully about whether or not you are unnecessarily wasting a customer’s time. For example, when you call a company to get help, you often have to give the automated system your name, address, or other information. Most of us understand that this information is needed. When customers get frustrated is when they have to repeat that information again if and when they reach a company representative. A study conducted by Aspect Software showed that customers who had to repeat their information were less likely to be satisfied with their customer service experience. This may seem like a small step, but making customers repeat their actions implies two things, 1) that you don’t have a streamlined system the feeds information from one customer interaction to the next , 2) that you don’t care about their time.

Repetition is frustrating for everyone. Doing the same thing, again and again, can make a person crazy. It’s a small thing you can do for your customers, acknowledge in some way the efforts they have already made, and don’t make them jump through the same hoops repeatedly, especially when they already know what’s on the other side.

Just the other day at the Baltimore Business Journal’s Best Places to Work Luncheon, I ran into a colleague who had recently moved. He had a horror story about Verizon. Just like many other people I have spoken to, and consistent with my own experience, Verizon delayed the connection of his new service, left him without service, and forced him to make literally more than a dozen calls to their customer service center.

Verizon suffers from the basic inability to pretend they care that you don’t have service (See, “If you don’t care, at least fake it”). Sometimes they give you a lackluster “I’m sorry”. Verizon regularly violates rule number one of addressing customer complaints, “Be accessible to your customers”. When people have to wait 30 minutes to speak to someone, they are in a bad mood and are less likely to purchase from you again, even before you have a chance to resolve their issue! Customers expect things to go wrong, so if you handle that first call well you can keep them, or even make them think better of you because you were able to be so helpful.

Unfortunately, over 30 percent of customers don’t get things resolved in the first call. And if you are a Verizon customer, you might never get things resolved. I didn’t, and now I’m with Cavalier.

A recent Fast Company blog talked about Wal-Mart’s practices, which often force other smaller companies out of business. Wal-Mart has a bad reputation for how it treats its vendors and its unfriendly behavior toward employees.

As a native of Arkansas, I remember the days when Sam Walton used to drive around in his beat-up old pick-up truck and they took the magazine Tiger Beat off the shelves because they thought it was too racy. I’ve seen small towns altered by the presence of Wal-Mart and watched as people slowly transitioned from visiting small (and not so small) neighborhood stores to shopping at Wal-Mart for everything from paper towels to groceries to car tires.

So I was surprised to read that Wal-Mart is further enhancing it’s newly minted green credentials by creating an environmentally efficient fleet of trucks. This and other articles about the greening of Wal-Mart made me wonder if this behemoth of backwards business practices was turning over a new leaf.

I recently visited a Wal-Mart on vacation and found that they have another innovative practice related to measuring customer satisfaction. I went to the checkout register to pay with my debit card on the electronic kiosk. Along with the pin pad, a question popped up: “Was the cashier friendly to you?” and below you could press “Yes” or “No”. While I wasn’t so sure about the value of the question (How much does cashier friendliness really impact your bottom line, and how reliable are different customers’ assessments of what friendly is?) I was impressed with the delivery. Here was an instant and effortless way to measure customer satisfaction. Not only would it take me just a second to tap the answer, but the cashier couldn’t see what I was answering. It made me wonder, “Is the question always the same? Or if I went through again would they ask me how clean the store was?” Either way, the possibilities are endless. With this method you can directly connect a customer’s purchasing behavior to their satisfaction. And imagine if grocery stores with frequent buyer cards used this method! The questions could be linked to a history of buying behaviors to see how purchasing connected to customer satisfaction and whether those who indicated lower customer satisfaction purchased less in the future. The possibilities are endless…

The other day I had the illuminating experience of dealing with two car rental companies in the same day. I had booked a Zipcar for a trip to Richmond to meet with a client. I needed a reliable car service that I could catch from the train station in Washington, D.C. and the Zipcar system is really an amazing one. Zipcar has cars located strategically close to public transportation systems in urban areas and college towns. The idea is that once you are a member of Zipcar, you use the online registration system to book the car, then just show up with your key card, get in, and drive away. So this particular morning I arrived at the train station in Springfield, Virginia and there was no Zipcar there.None. As it turned out I either reserved the car for the wrong day, or the reservation system malfunctioned. Either way, it was a very stressful experience. So imagine my surprise when I called customer service, and was told that I would be charged $3.50 to talk to a live person! This I was willing to do because without a Zipcar I couldn’t get to my meeting. But for $3.50 I would have expected a customer service representative who was at least sympathetic. It was obvious that the woman on the other end of the line could not have cared less that I was in a bind. And it occurred to me, even when the company can’t do anything to resolve your problem (I can understand that they can’t make a vehicle appear out of thin air) it really goes a long way to at least pretend to check on things and see if there’s a solution. It’s a good idea to appear sympathetic even if you feel confident that the customer’s harried state is due to their own misuse of the product or service. And the most unfortunate aspect of this overlooked strategy is it wouldn’t have cost Zipcar a dime.

So standing in the parking lot without a car, I thought, “I’ll call Enterprise, I doubt they can do anything, but it’s worth a phone call.” Why enterprise? They have a good reputation, and they are known for picking people up. But I figured there was no way they could get me in a car in time to make my meeting. When the assistant manager of the Enterprise office picked up the phone, I explained my situation, ending with a pathetic “there’s not any way you could help, is there?” He answered “we can pick you up in ten minutes; we’ll have you in a car in 25”.

I didn’t believe him, but said I would give it a shot. It helps when customers have low expectations, don’t you know? But the best part was, Enterprise fulfilled its promise, and I was on the road in time to make the meeting in Richmond. What’s the lesson here? Even if you can’t help the customer, pretend like you care. Even the offer of a small condolence prize (they could have offered to credit me the charge I received for the Zipcar I never drove) or just plain human sympathy can help. People often understand that things go wrong, but they don’t understand when the company doesn’t seem to care. And the lesson for Enterprise? When another company screws up their customer service, take advantage of it. The last thing the assistant manager said to me as I walked out the door at the end of the day after returning my car was “next time don’t use Zipcar, use us!” and I probably will.