The US may have changed its spending perspective, while other countries are resuming spending. Another article on the popular youth clothing store Abercrombie and Fitch offers a perspective that suggests the US may spend differently for the foreseeable long-term. Abercrombie and Fitch is one of the only retail stores that has not drastically cut their prices in the current market. Why? Apparently, this store is marketed overseas in Europe as a luxury American brand. The retailer doesn’t want to cut costs here and risk losing its image (and profits) overseas. However, it was suggested that the retailer may lose its image on US soil because “cool” is now associated with value. I repeat, “cool” is now associated with value. I thought the latter was worth repeating because it suggests that the recovery in the US at least isn’t going to be similar to more recent economic downturns, but may more resemble the recovery following the Great Depression, which shifted the perspective of that generation forever (think about your parents or grandparents who save everything).

How have you adapted your business to fit with this current, potentially long-term, perspective that “value” is trendy? I’ll go even further to add, that savings and “back to basics” (think the new Allstate commercial) are also part of that value. Abercrombie and Fitch is hoping they won’t have to change and can simply ride out the recession (they have a solid cash reserve and still report growing sales in Europe), but is such a steadfast approach appropriate for small businesses in the US, or even large ones for that matter? I think it goes back to knowing your customer and having a plan in place that will alert you to possible “red flags” that you may need to make more significant changes to keep your business viable. Ignoring or avoiding the situation and signs won’t make them disappear. Often we ignore and avoid them anyway because we aren’t sure what to do about them. Having expert assistance to give you back a sense of control, as opposed to the current “wait and see” approach, may make all the difference in how your business comes out of this recession.

I recently attended a conference that discussed the pros and cons of technology to my work. A consistent topic of discussion was how virtual communications such as e-mail and social networking help or hinder face-to-face communication. People had varying opinions, but it was clear that people didn’t expect these virtual forms of communication to become less popular or cease to be used. What was clear was that people needed to remain conscious of their choices regarding the use of technology.

Then I saw an article on CNN about a guy who was laid off from AIG and used his social networking skills to start his own company to help people find jobs. Intrigued, I wasn’t sure what made this new job site better than a site like Monster or TheLadders. This site is designed around social networking. For example, he has a Facebook page inviting people to his Pink Slip Party where employers and employees can network together about everything job related. This seems like a point in favor of using virtual communications.

Then I saw another article on CNN where a recent University graduate used all of the communication resources the Internet has to offer to try and find a job (hiring new graduates is down about 20% from last year). He ended up with such a diffuse approach he got no return. He ended up focusing his search, tailoring his cover letters, and holding practice interviews to land a job. In this case using social networking does not seem to be as effective. Now what do we do?

If you own a business or manage projects, technology is likely one of the most cost-effective ways to market and evaluate your business, but you have to use the technology consciously. Just like email can lead to spam, social networking sites can lead to people posting everything from what they ate for breakfast to truly interesting stories and insights. Think about your social network as having different constituents in it. For example, Facebook is where I mostly connect with friends. They are more likely to care about what state I’m in, what I saw on my morning bike ride, or how I feel about the weather. Linked in and twitter are reserved for business contacts (and friends). I use these sites to communicate information that is more useful, such as links to new blogs like this one, information about interesting books or articles I’ve read, or updates on conferences I’m attending. So choose your social networking mediums carefully, and develop a strategy for how you use them. They can create great value for very little money, but the effort is still needed to keep you from becoming a social network spammer.

]]> http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=39 http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?p=32 http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?p=32#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:03:46 +0000 VONHOUSER http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?p=32

“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.

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.

]]> http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=25 http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?p=20 http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?p=20#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:33:51 +0000 VONHOUSER http://01ec89a.netsolhost.com/blog/?p=20 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.

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.

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?

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.