Best Practices

07/31/2016

The dangers of going all digital before your customers are ready.

When most people book airline travel, they do it on line.  But they have two options to obtain the boarding pass:
  1. They can print the boarding pass on their home or office printer.
  2. They can have the boarding pass sent to their smart phone.
 
According to Passenger Self Service, an on-line news site for self-service in travel, as of April 2016, 65% of airline passengers prefer a paper boarding pass over an electronic one.
 
13TICKETS-master768What would happen if an airline decided that it would no longer accept print-at-home boarding passes, and that everyone would have to go with the fully digital option?
 
Would some customers miss flights?  Maybe.
 
Would there suddenly be very long lines of very frustrated customers at that airline's customer service desk at the  airport?  Probably.
 
Would some of the affected customers defect to another airline for future flights? Most likely.
 
Imposing a fully-digital process on a customer base that's not fully ready for it can cause pain and problems for the business and its customers.  But that's what the  New York Yankees did at the start of the 2016 baseball season.
 
According to a June 12 New York Times article by Billy Witz, "When the Yankees announced that they were overhauling their ticketing system this season — introducing mobile ticketing and no longer accepting print-at-home tickets — they said it was to enhance the fan experience.
 
"But that has hardly been the case for the fans camped out at the Yankee Stadium customer service window before each game, having been unable to get into the ballpark because of a problem with the tickets on their phones or turned away at the gate with tickets they printed at home or at work."
 
Here's the point:
 
Know your customer.  Had the Yankees done some research on their fan base to understand the percentage of fans that were willing and able to go to an all-digital ticketing system, they would have realized that all fans were not ready.
 
Implement a transition plan.
Create a method to accommodate fans with varying digital appetites: For example, the Yankees could have taken a page from the play book of the many toll highways in and around New York: While transitioning to all-digital, some lanes still accepted cash.  Many of the those highways have since become "Cashless," but only after customers had adequate time to transition.
 
Going digital drives down business operating costs, so the ROI can be attractive.  But before jumping in 100%, it's critical to understand how the change will impact the customer experience, because frustrated customers can destroy that ROI pretty quickly.
 
When going digital, take time to understand your customers' appetite and ability to make the change with you, and execute accordingly.
 
Toll Plaza

Posted at 11:18 AM in Best Practices, Customer Experience, Technology | | Comments (0)

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03/25/2016

Did Disney design the Trader Joe's shopping experience?

The Disney Institute recently published a blog post titled "Exceptional Service Delivery - a Lesson from the Jungle Cruise."  The article referenced three key components that are necessary to create a superior customer service experience.  Those components are People, Place and Process.  
 
Just before reading that post, I happened to read another one from the Destination CRM that presented the findings of a Timken Group survey of customer experience across different industries.  One of the industries that consistently scored high was Supermarkets, and one of the Supermarkets listed was Trader Joe's.
 
As a frequent Trader Joe's shopper, I decided to test my experience at TJ's  against Disney's theory, to see if the experience validated the theory:
 
Trader Joes Wide Aisles and Farmers Market FeelThe Place
I remember the very first time I entered our Trader Joe's in Portland, Maine - the store felt different from other supermarkets - the aisles were wider and arranged diagonally, rather than the standard vertical, or perpendicular format; the shelving didn't seem as high as in the larger supermarket chains, so everything felt more "open" and this openness caused it to feel like a more social environment.  The walls were decorated with murals of local scenery painted by local artists.  It felt more like a friendly farmers market than a corporate food chain.  From Disney's "Place" criterion, Trader Joe's is very strong.
 
TJ PeopleThe People
On one particular shopping trip, I remember asking a woman in the frozen food aisle where I could find roasted almonds.  She didn't just give me the easy answer that I was looking for - the aisle number - she stopped what she was doing, and walked me across the store directly to the almonds, and showed me the various roasted varieties they carried.  Whenever I check out, I can't help but notice the gregarious nature of the cashiers - they ask a lot of questions - I don't mean the standard, "Did you find everything OK?" that I get at the local Hannaford, but more personalized, helpful questions like the one I was asked when I bought a can of coffee beans:  "Do you have a grinder for the beans?"  Trader Joe's also nails the "People" factor.
 

TJ's ProcessThe Process
While most businesses work on carefully orchestrated processes, we customers don't always notice them as such.  But on that first visit to Trader Joe's, I noticed the sign at the check out counter that directs me to place my full cart on the same side as cashier, while I wait on the other side.  Something TJ's does that other supermarkets don't - is empty your cart for you. That's another nuance to the Trader Joe's experience that makes TJ's an easier place to shop.
 
So, yes - my Trader Joe's experience validates the Disney Institute's theory that an exceptional delivery of service requires attention, if not uniqueness in the Place where the experience occurs, the People that deliver the service, and the Processes they use to deliver it.  Make all three remarkable, and you'll create a customer service experience that will likely draw customers back again and again.
 

Posted at 08:07 AM in Best Practices, Customer Experience, Retail Customer Experience | Permalink | Comments (2)

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05/20/2015

3 Reasons why you should qualify your customers carefully

If the shoe doesn't fit, should you  still  wear  it?

Too many businesses work too hard selling to customers that don't fit.
 
Every business has an ideal customer; a customer whose demographic and psycho-graphic profile make that customer an ideal fit for the company's offering.   And because we live in such a diverse world, not every customer will fit that profile. And if a customer doesn't fit, no amount of effort is likely to make that prospect a happy promoter of your brand. Just as its important for a business to size up and identify a customer's ability to fit into that profile, it's equally important for a business to identify those who don't.  And if the customer doesn't fit, don't sell to them.
 
Perfect ProfileEarly in my sales career, I was hell-bent on hitting my quota.  So rather than viewing each prospect through the lens of ideal customer profile, I viewed them through lens of potential revenue.  There were times when I worked extremely hard to sell my product to a prospect that didn't quite fit.  Sometimes I was successful, and other times, I was not.
 
The efficiency of selling, and the efficiency of any activity can be measured through   Return on Effort.  Return on Effort measures is the quantity of desired results you achieve, in proportion to the amount of effort you invest.   The objective is to achieve a lot of results through minimal effort.  If you work this way, you'll have more "effort in the tank" to achieve more results.  (Or, you may choose to invest that extra effort in refining your golf swing.)
 
Back in those early selling days, I was using too much effort twice.  First, since I was selling to prospects that were a poor fit, I had to invest more time and effort to convince the prospect to buy my solution.  In other words, my average sales cycle was longer than it should have been.  Instead of completing a sale from the first call to the signing of contract in 30 days, I'd be spending 60 to 90 days to achieve the same result.
 
Once the new customer began to use the product, it took more effort to keep the customer happy, since the product wasn't a perfect fit.  So I'd inevitably invest more time making more account management calls in attempt to appease the customer.  Time spent there was time that I couldn't be out selling to new customers, generating new revenue.
 
Since I was spending too much time selling and keeping customers that were not a good fit, my Return on Effort was low.  But that's not all that was low.  Since the product wasn't a perfect fit for the customer, I'd usually have to make a price concession to help the prospect justify the purchase.  And price concessions reduce profits.
 
Wasted effort selling the prospect, wasted effort managing the customer, and wasted profit are three good reasons to carefully select prospects that fit your ideal customer profile.  Have the discipline to  disqualify.  Don't invest your effort into selling to the first prospect you see; instead, invest that effort into finding more qualified prospects.
 
There's nothing like the comfort of a shoe that fits.
 
A well-fittinng shoe

Posted at 09:43 AM in Best Practices, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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05/08/2015

The best time to survey is immediately after the service.

We've all hear the saying that "Timing is everything."  Surveys are no exception.

Never can be better than lateBack on January 11, I had a medical procedure done at local hospital.  This week (I'm writing this on May ), I received a survey in the mail from the company that administered the procedure.  There were two pages of questions about my experience; good questions for a survey, but the problem was that four months later, I can't recall the details of the experience accurately enough to answer the questions.   I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
 
There are a three key reasons why untimely surveys can be a bad thing:
 
  1. Sending out a survey so late reduces the likelihood of receiving meaningful responses,  if any response at all.
  2. Sending out a survey so late says "We  didn't care enough to send this sooner; if we truly valued your opinion, we would have asked for it sooner."
  3. Sending out a survey so late indicates a poorly-managed organization.
 
The potential ill-will and potential damage to reputation that a late survey can cause, can exceed any advantage gained from stale feedback.  Sending a survey late can be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater! So if you're going to survey, deliver the survey within 48 hours of delivering  the service.  
 
Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater

Posted at 09:28 AM in Best Practices, Reputation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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04/27/2015

Use the Campsite Rule to deliver a better customer experience.

When I was growing up, my father would take the family camping for our summer vacations.  As soon as we arrived at our designated campsite, we'd set up the tent trailer for Mom, Dad and my Sisters, and the pup tent for my brother and me.  After a weekend or week's worth of camping activity within the area of ground that comprised our campsite, we'd pack up all of our camping gear, and get ready for the long drive home.  
 
The last thing we did before getting into the family station wagon was to clean up the campsite for the next group of campers.  This meant raking the site clean of leaves and pine needles, smoothing out any uneven areas of ground, and neatly staking any remaining firewood by the side of the fire pit.  We called this activity "The Campsite Rule."  Its purpose was to always leave the site a little bit neater than it was when we arrived.  "Always leave it in better condition than you found it. If everyone did this," my father explained," everyone would have a better camping experience."
 
Fridge dirtRecently, an appliance repairman came to our house to replace a part in the back of our refrigerator.  In the process, he had to pull the fridge away from the wall, and with it, lot of the dust, crumbs and detritus that  accumulated beneath and behind a refrigerator.  When he finished the work, he pushed the refrigerator back into place, but left the mess in full view on the floor.  The repairman had already left when I noticed this.  My first reaction was, "This guy violated the Campsite Rule."
 
This is in contrast to the place where I have my car's oil changed.  There,  they always vacuum the floor mats as part of the process.  Now, vacuuming the floor mats is completely removed from the mechanical process of changing the oil, but they do it anyway for one simple reason - it makes the vehicle neater than it was before I brought it in of the oil change.  In a word, they apply the "Campsite Rule."
 
Just as failing to clean up after yourself is an easy way to disappoint a customer, purposefully cleaning up beyond the scope of your work is an easy way to impress a customer. 
 
The point is this: Find ways to apply the Campsite Rule in your business, to delight your customers.
 
What small thing can you do  - something the customer will notice, that's also outside the core scope of your service - that the customer will appreciate?
 
If every vendor did this, every customer would have a better experience.
 
My father was right.
 
Campsite

Posted at 07:25 AM in Best Practices, Customer Experience | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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03/19/2015

How the invisible processes can kill the customer experience.

I almost didn't receive a FedEx package recently, because someone screwed up the shipping information.  The package was shipped to the correct address, but the recipient's name - mine - was  truncated.

The name appeared as "James Wa" instead of "James Watson."

I Fed ex label was a guest at the Omni Orlando in ChampionsGate, Florida.  The package was  to be held for me at the front desk.  For two consecutive days, each time I called the desk to ask if the package had arrived, I was told, "No - nothing has  arrived with your name on it."  But the package was there the entire time.

Techncially, they were correct.  My name wasn't on the package because the person entering the "Ship to" information typed the following 39 letters on the second line of the address:

"HOLD AT RECEPTION DESK FOR JAMES WATSON."

But only 35 of the 39 letters appeared on the shipping label when it printed.  That's right, the software  program that prints out the shipping labels will only print the first 35 letters.  In 99.9% of the cases, I'm sure that's not an issue.  But in my case, it was.  And that's the only case I cared about on this particular day.

So who's at fault here?  

  • Is it FED EX for limiting the number of characters in the label print program?
  • Is it the shipper, for not paying attention to the label that printed?
  • Is it the hotel receiving clerk, for not comparing the name on the label to the names of the registered guests at the hotel, and correcting / completing the spelling of my name?

An argument can be made for each of these, but regardless of who's at fault, there was a breakdown in a "back office" process that had caused me to not receive my "Next Day" package for 2 days.  And that caused me to think negatively about 3 companies involved:

  • The company whose products were promised to me for  the next day  - they couldn't get the label right.
  • The company that did the actual shipping -  they didn't deliver" in time."
  • The company that received the shipment (the Omni hotel) - they couldn't figure out the shipping label.

The Point  is This:

It's not only the front-office, customer-facing employees that impact the customer experience; it's also the back-office employees and processes that can impact the experience, the brand and the reputation.

So, what to do about it?

Carefully map out the entire customer journey, but when you do, include  behind the scenes processes that can impact the customer experience.  It can be something as remote and banal as the number of characters that print out in and address field that can hurt your brand and reputation.  It's these invisible factors that lurk beneath the surface that can really do damage.  Don't let them.

What back-office experience factors exist in your business?

What can you do to fortify them?

Front office is the tip of the experience iceberg
 

 

 

 

Posted at 05:31 AM in Best Practices, Customer Journey | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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01/09/2015

Why I love about Delta's one-question survey.

"Would you hire this person to work for you?"

That was the only question that I had to answer after a phone call with Delta Customer Service; that was the entire survey.  And it was a very good one for two reasons:

Delta didn't waste my time.    A one-question survey that can be answered with one word takes very little time; so little in fact, that I liked Delta more after completing the survey, because I flet they respected my time.  Long surveys can actually do more harm than good by alienating customers.  Show your customers some respect, by keeping your surveys short. Nobody likes a lenghty interrogation.

Customer interrogationThe challenge is getting enough quality insight from the customer to make the surey response beneficial to the business.  That's why it's important to ask a certain type of question...

Delta got a lot of value in return.  They asked me a very "pithy" question that drove right to the heart of the matter:  The quality of Customer Service is a function of the quality of the people delivering the service.  And if you ask me if I'd actually hire the person that served me, I can't hide behind a "nice guy" feel-good response.  I'm put in a position to give you an honest answer - or tell an outright lie (highly unlikey for most customers, especially when they're givng the answer by tapping a number on their telephone keypad).

Too many surveys ask light-weight questions like:

"Was the representative courteous?"  

"Please rate your experience on a scale of 1 to 5."  

Questions like that let the customer off easy; they skirt the real issue.  And the real issue is: Did the service experience leave the customer feeling like they're buying from a first-class company?   (Customers never stop buying from companies they consider to be first-class.)  

Don't hesitate to put your customers on the spot, because we customers don't mind telling you what we really think.  In fact, we prefer it. And so will you, because you'll have feedback that's more meaningful, and more useful.  And that's why you're doing the survey in the first place, isn't it?

 How many questions were on the last survey  you asked a customer to take their precious time to complete?
 
Do you ask pithy questions that elicit real answers that you can act on?
 
Eureka moment
Do your survey questions generate "Eureka" moments of insight?

Posted at 08:00 AM in Best Practices, Customer Service, Metrics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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12/30/2014

What's the best way to reduce the cost of customer retention?

 

“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with."  -  Sherrilyn Kenyon 

 

Too many companies spend too many resources trying to keep customers that they should never have sold to in the first place.    Many of those companies would be better-off shifting resources from trying to retain customers that are a poor fit, and use those resources to more carefully target and acquire customers that are a better fit for their offering.  These ideal customers value the offering more, and are therefore less likely to leave in the first place.

Square pegInvestors and strategists say  that one of the first things a start-up should do before going to market is define its value proposition and its ideal customer. And most ventures will do that.

But sales reps can be quick to ignore the ideal customer profile and sell to any prospect with an ability and willingness to pay.  An why shouldn't they?  A sale is a sale, a dollar is a dollar, and a commission is a commission, even if a sales rep sells a round hole to a square peg.

But here's the problem:  It takes time, money and effort to adjust a round hole to accomodate a square peg.  But if you only sell to round pegs, there's  no need to adjust the hole, and those resources are freed-up for more productive and profitable purposes - like sales and marketing intiatives to attract more round pegs). 

So how to solve the problem?

Re-focus your sales qualification from "Can we sell our product to this customer?" to "Should we sell our product to this customer?"  The traditional qualification process answers these four questions:

  1. Budget:  Does the prospect have funding avaialble?
  2. Authority:  Do we have access to the person with decision-making authority?
  3. Need:  Does the prospect have a need for our solution?
  4. Timing:  Does the prospect plan to buy now?

Adding a fifth criterion - Fit - will change the focus enough to assure that you're selling to the right customer:

     5.  Fit: Does the prospect match the criteria we've defined for our ideal customer?

By properly selecting each customer, you'll have happier customers and more advocates.  You'll also spend less on implementation, customer support and customer retention.  And that means more resources for attracting more of the right customers.

Why should you waste the effort driving square pegs into round holes, when a round peg is a better fit for your offering, and for your bottom line? 

Round pegs

Posted at 08:52 AM in Best Practices, Lead Qualification, Marketing Best Practices, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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12/24/2014

The Value of Asking Questions

Have you ever been to a party full of strangers?  Was it easier to have an enaging conversation with some people, and more awkward with others?  Who asked you more questions?  The easier people or the awkward people?  Asking questions - good, thought-provoking questions - trigger deeper, engaging conversations, even with total strangers.

Cocktail-party-_2502341bWhat works at a cocktail party also works in building customer relationships:

Asking people questions about them makes them more willing to spend time with you.

Asking people challenging questions causes them to think more deeply.  When people think more deeply, they become mentally stronger.

Asking questions leads to answers which lead to new ideas.

Asking questions leads to discussion which leads to new knowledge.

Be the person that builds better relationships, spends time wisely, causes people to think deeply, come up with new ideas, and creates knowledge.

Be the person that asks good questions.

  Students raising hands

Posted at 02:44 PM in Best Practices, Customer Knowledge, Reputation, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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12/02/2014

5 Reasons why 2-Way Reviews improve the Service Ecosystem

As customers, we're used to being asked to rate the companies we buy from.

But now,  companies  are beginning to rate the customers they sell to.  Sure, lots of CRM-savvy companies have  rated customers for loyalty-tracking, but they kept that information to themselves. What's different now is that companies like Uber, , are rating customers, and sharing those ratings with other service providers.  And the service providers then use ratings to decide if they want to sell to those customers, or NOT.

Rude customersAccording to a December 1 article in the New York Times,  "The rating systems are allowing businesses to formalize a longstanding practice: focusing on their best customers.

"The worst customers “demand too much, complain too much and cost too much,” said Christopher Muller, professor of hospitality management at Boston University.

"Beyond that, he said, bad clients make employees unhappy. Companies, he said, do better by spending time on their best and most profitable patrons. “It sounds draconian, but not all customers are created equal,” he said."

In the past, if a restaurant received too many (legitimate) negative reviews about its menu, it would likely respond by to the menu to delight more customers.  Similarly, if a customer finds that he or she is being denied service, because they've been rude to other service providers, the customer is more likely clean up his act, and become a better customer.   The result of these 2-way reviews is a greater population of good customers.

Here's where this can be a good  thing for everyone:

  1. If bad customers cost a company too much, then fewer bad customers can mean lower costs.
  2. If bad clients make employees unhappy, then fewer bad clients mean happier employees.
  3. Happier employees tend to be more engaged at work and invest more discretionary effort into delivering a better customer experience.
  4. A better customer experience is always good for the customer, right?
  5. A better cusutomer experience means fewer unhappy customers.

So there we have it - while the 2-way review may seem unconventional, in the end it can create a virtuous cycle that improves the service environment for everyone!

What other  benefits do you see, from 2-way reviews?

  Happy service ecosystem

Posted at 10:53 AM in Best Practices, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Employee Engagement, Employees First | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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