It's Never That Serious.......................

Just yesterday I had a very interesting discussion with a new acquaintance (let’s call her Jeanette) who works at the care centre of the country’s only power supply company. She was decrying top management country wide and appealing to them to work out the math and figure out what it takes to provide excellent and timely service.

She was lamenting about the fact that the ratio of technical people to the actual jobs on the ground is disproportionate and vertically skewed. The number of technical people sent out to fix lines, repair transformers, re-plug technical components to reverse outages and fix faults were significantly few in comparison to the daily job list. The ratio of technicians to jobs on the daily assignment sheet was on average 1:20, where one technician was expected to run around different locations working through the assigned list. The technicians when consulted, state quite candidly the stark improbability of completing the tasks within the shift period. Not to mention that during the assignment period, more jobs would pop up requiring attention based on urgency and prioritization, further distorting the list.

“Dialogue is absent.” She bemoaned. “The solutions are here with the people. We know exactly what needs to be done to improve service.”  She further contended. The management had recently proposed to increase the number of call center agents to better handle the increasing flood of customer complaints. “We do not need more agents, we need more foot soldiers running around handling customer issues. The calls will go down, the technicians will be more empowered as they will manage to complete tasks assigned and customers will be happy.” She shared the frustration felt by the call center team and technical team given the daily end of day reports on incomplete assignments.

Her sharing brings to light what many a corporate fail to take up – inward consultant and inwardly seeking solutions. Many invest in hiring consultants and carrying out all manner of ‘analyses’ and yet the solutions lie with the people. The staff on the ground who are in constant contact with the brand and its operations, who continually face the wrath of unhappy customers and who interact with the product or service processes intimately are best placed to advise on what to do to turn things around.

Right there are the ‘consultants’. Consult them. Consult them widely and constantly. Encourage ideas. Reward them even. Staff will be ready, willing and happy to suggest ways to improve operations and to increase efficiency. They will propose solutions for problems both real and anticipated. And if an environment where ideas are encouraged and acknowledged is created, then the motivation to resolve issues will be high. Man’s greatest need is the need to feel appreciated. The need to feel listened to, felt and heard. And if staff have an open channel to express ideas and provide recommendations for improvement, the service turnaround is guaranteed.

So back to Jeanette’s cry…….. If only management would take a walk on the proverbial shop floor and talk to the ‘people’ and spend some time listening, they would find out that what it actually takes to resolve their ever growing problems and increasing customer aversion to them with a call to end the monopoly, isn’t as complicated as they imagine. No earth shattering, bank breaking, organization restructuring solution is required. No. Not at all. Just more technicians. Simple…….

And just as with life, we need to embrace the philosophy that things are never that serious……… they’re just as simple as we make them.

Three Blind Mice - Are Your Customers Groping About In The Dark?

My colleague was hit by a motorbike on Ngong Road this past Thursday and we ended up at the nearest hospital to seek treatment.  I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and sanitary the hospital was. Everything was spick and span and thankfully it was devoid of the dreaded ‘hospital’ smell of carbolic.  I had previously thought this the domain of the bigger and more established facilities. It was refreshing to encounter elsewhere.

We were very well received and requested to fill out forms and have a seat. After about ten minutes a list of names was shouted out from the reception area, my colleague being one of them, and we all trudged after an intern who said ‘Follow Me!”. We were led like sheep through some corridors to a waiting area and ‘dumped’ there with no further instructions. And here began our ‘blind folded’ journey. I say blindfolded because what followed was  a blind process of moving from department to department not knowing what next and at various points having to listen out for one’s name being shouted by the person manning the next station.

We proceed from this first point which turned out to be a triage area to  another waiting bay, then called out  by a receptionist then back to another waiting bay, then called out by the cashier then to another  waiting bay, then called out by a nurse, then seen by the doctor, then to another waiting area, then called out by the pharmacist, then back to the cashier’s waiting area, then called out by the cashier, then back to the pharmacy, then with medication in our hands, back to the doctors station, then to a waiting bay, then back to the doctors station once again then back to a waiting bay, then called up by a nurse to a different room then discharged. Whew! Aren’t you fatigued after reading all this even having not been there? Now imagine the patient who is ill doing this circuit?

And to make matters worse, at none of these stations were we told the reason for waiting there or what to do next. After the first two blind stops, we wisened up and deliberately asked at each point “What do we do after this?” And “Where do we go from here? And “What is the direction to that place?” The officers  we interacted with all looked bothered by these questions. They were already in the ‘next-patient-let’s-get-over-with-this queue’ mode and our questions interrupted their flow.

Patient Journey, Customer Journey, Guest Journey, Journey Journey Journey ……………….. It’s a song we need to sing. For those in the service industry - medical facilities, restaurants, hotels, salons, banks, telcos and any other facility where the customer has to make more than one stop,  it is critical to advise and ensure they  know the next step in their journey. Where possible, provide an escort to that next station. The customers will love it.  Explain to customers exactly what they are doing, where they are going and what to expect next. And the icing on the cake would be to advise the customer the expected waiting time at each stop.

Customers are always hungry for information. Keep them as informed as possible. Let them know what’s happening to them. The ‘three blind mice’ type of treatment doesn’t work. It will take time to explain and the repetitive nature of explaining to each customer will tire out the explainer, but this is good customer service basic need.

The smoothness of the customer journey and managing the customer’s expectations will determine their return or otherwise and determine whether they refer others to the facility or otherwise. And every business requires customer referrals. Customers are the drivers of business. The mathematics is simple. Unhappy customers do not come back and do not refer their friends and family. Customers who get lost in the system are not happy customers. It therefore incumbent upon organizations to tailor their systems and processes to make the customer’s journey easier and to have a service code in place to explain explain explain to the customer the process.

I will not tire of preaching the good gospel of customer education, and I am recruiting followers. Do you suppose I should go back there and look for their customer service manager?

Stop Trying To Delight Your Customers!!!

STOP TRYING TO DELIGHT YOUR CUSTOMERS!!

So screams the headline of an article in Harvard Business Review that analysed the findings of a research study by The Customer Contact Council. It covered more than 75,000 customers on their service interactions across a wide range of industry sectors, where loyalty was defined as the customers’ intention to continue doing business with a company, increase their spending, or say good things about it/refrain from saying bad things. https://hbr.org

This goes completely against the grain of the good gospel of customer service where choir songs are sang about ‘providing delightful customer experiences’, ‘ going above and beyond the call of duty’ and ‘amazing and astounding  customers’. To be blatantly instructed to stop all this is to try and re-write the ten commandments of customer service and to re-wire the hard-wiring of customer service enthusiasts.

However………..

I’ve further examined this ‘alter’ call, and the underlying lesson being pushed is that customers thrive on order, structure, predictability and stability. Now this is familiar territory. Indeed customers thrive on predictability and being able to pre determine what their experiences are going to be. In the hospitality industry for example, one’s favourite restaurant is so because it makes their favourite steak in a certain way always. And the predictability of arriving and requesting the steak and having it placed on the table in the exact same way it always is, is what creates customer loyalty. And this loyalty will increase twentyfold if the favourite steak arrives and the server announces to the customer that it has been done up ‘just the way you like it’. When this customer makes a recommendation or referral to a friend – they know exactly what they are recommending. No surprises.

In the tangible goods and products industry, the consistent look and feel of one’s favourite bathing soap is what keeps them loyal to it year after year. The external packaging may change, but the size of it in their hands, the lathering effect, the smell of it, the feel of it on their skin, the absence of adverse reactions and the efficacy in cleaning is what pulls the shopper to the shop specific shelf year after year. When this customer recommends the bathing soap to friends and family – they know exactly what they are recommending. No surprises.

So…………

Efforts to ‘delight’ customers should be undertaken yes… but over and above delivering exactly what the customer expects. The restaurant for example, over and above providing the expected standard of steak, could provide personalized service that would delight the customer. The soap manufacturer could also, over and above maintaining the consistency of the bathing soap, band together another complimentary item as a free giveaway. These extras are welcome and the delight will be first and foremost from delivering on expectation and secondly from the additional throw-ins.

Customer service efforts therefore should invest largely in establishing systems, processes, procedures and guidelines to consistently deliver on the brand promise. Investment should also be placed on preventing and recovering from service failure, and turning around customer conflict situations to right wrongs and put in place preventive actions. Once and only once this is perfected and streamlined, should commencement work on ‘customer delight’ strategies be instituted.

After all – the intriguing research revealed that loyalty has a lot more to do with how well companies deliver on their basic, even plain-vanilla promises than on how dazzling the service experience might be. We all therefore need to get our priorities right….. right?

Customer Service Standards - Same Cast Different Scripts

I recently had an unfortunate experience with my bank where money was fraudulently withdrawn from my account. The withdrawer seemed to have quite some knowledge of the system for they withdrew the maximum daily allowable amount just shy of midnight and then withdrew the same maximum just after midnight. Shortly after which they attempted a point of sale transaction. As is the case nowadays, text notifications are sent when transactions are done and so I of course much to my shock and horror saw these on waking up, long after the deed had been done.

I called the emergency line indicated on the transaction texts and as this was about five am in the morning, spoke with a quite a sleepy but extremely helpful technical gentleman.  He did all of the following things: empathized deeply with the situation;  tried to explain what could have happened; asked me if I had collected my new chip and pin ATM card; explained why these are a safer option and urged me to get mine immediately; advised that he is blocking my card so that no further attempts could be made; requested that I go into the bank first thing in the morning and report my case; assisted to locate the  nearest bank branch to me; and commiserated with me on my unfortunate circumstance.

Now………. Ultimately when you look at his response, he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary or out of his job description. The technical functionality of what he was to do was done. However, as a result of the way in which he treated me and handled my case albeit over the telephone, left me feeling immediately better, heard, felt and cared for. He served to reassure me massively and I took down his name. Kennedy. I have written to the bank to commend him.

Fast forward into the morning after I arrived at the nearest bank branch as per Kennedy’s advice. My experience there left me quite frustrated and angry. At the bank I was just ‘another’ customer with ‘another’ problem. No empathy, no commiseration, nothing. I was asked to fill in a form, write a statement and wait for them to investigate. On asking how long this ‘investigation’ would take, I was duly informed in a very cursory manner that it on average takes fourty five working days. It was only upon raising my voice and indicating that asking a customer to wait fourty five working days for an investigation in a case where the customer is sleeping in their bed at night knowing that the money they have deposited in the bank whose responsibility is to safeguard it has disappeared as a result of a security lapse was not in order, did I get attention and was requested to check the following week. I took down the name of the person serving me. Her name was Lillian.

Further fast forward into mid-morning when I had now gone to my specific branch to pick up my chip and pin ATM card, still as per the good Kennedy’s advice. On speaking with the teller and explaining why I didn't have my old card to exchange to get the new one and that the branch where I had reported requested for a confirmatory call to authorize its release, he was suitably sympathetic. The nice young man behind the counter made my day: he made sympathetic noises; was suitably aghast that not only was it an attempt, but that the perpetrator succeeded in the withdrawal; empathized at how shocked I must have been; worried for me that I had been set back quite some financially; and comforted me that with the new chip and pin the risk was significantly less. He too served to reassure me massively. I took down his name. Samuel. I have also written to the bank to commend him.

My morning’s experiences served to emphasize the need for customer response standardization. I marveled at how within the same institution, Kennedy and Samuel were very customer centric. Although they did nothing to resolve the fact that my money had disappeared from my account, they were so pleasant to deal with, walked in the customer’s shoes and genuinely showed concern for me. Whereas Lillian, their colleague, handled me just like any other customer in her queue or perhaps, just another one of those customers alleging to be a victim of banking fraud……….

In terms of rank and seniority, Kennedy and Samuel were by far less senior than Lillian, but their customer handling skills were by far superior. I wonder if this experience lends itself to the notion that in organizations, the higher one is in the pecking order the less sensitive they are to customer situations? I am very afraid that this may be the norm and not an exception?

I challenge organizations out here, no matter the size or nature, to have a standardized format for customer responses. Customer’s love order and predictability. They do. And what makes a brand formidable, is that customers know what to expect and then proceed to expect it across all customer touch points.  

It is my intention to talk to the bank management and take them through my experience from a customer’s stand point emphasizing how in my service failure situation, Kennedy and Samuel, still had me smile and feel cared for. It is my hope that they will use this learning to convert the same cast different script situation into the same script different cast going forward. I hope it is not too much to hope for?

Failing to make good on a make good that is a make good for failure!

A former colleague and dear friend copied me on an email to a renowned baby diaper brand that had frustrated him beyond belief. He wanted wise counsel to know if he was truly justified to feel completely put off by the brand’s empty promises.

His story has the makings of the Nigerian soap operas popularly known in these parts as Afro Cinema and has the fine scripting of a dramatic Mexican telenovela. It pains me to not name and shame the brand for behooves a good investigative journalist to get a 360 degree view before exposing the perpetrators.

And so here’s how the story goes…………

My colleague – let’s call him B, attended a Baby fair about two weeks ago with his wife who is expecting and toured the various stall. They were impressed by the presentation and offer by the diaper brand, let’s call them Diaper and bought two big packs. They were very pleased to get an instant reward offer of a bib, a bag and two discount vouchers valid at any Nakumatt Supermarket outlet.

On their way home, they stopped at the supermarket and picked up four more packs of new born diapers and were thoroughly embarrassed at the till when the discount vouchers were declined.  Mr. B then expressed his disappointment on twitter and Diaper’s twitter handled referred him to a Customer Service desk out of the Country. As he didn’t have the time or patience to call out of country he found the feedback page of the Baby Fair organizers and emailed them.

 After two days he received a call from a representative who appreciated his feedback and apologized for the situation. She then proceeded to offer a make good gift and requested that he pick it up after two days. The same day in the afternoon he received another call from a sister company and a different person apologized for the same situation and went on to tell him that they wish to send an apology basket to and requested his home address. She also took the opportunity to advise that they have a home delivery service for diapers, and Mr. B who was pretty excited to hear this promptly let Mrs. B know.

He then sent a message to his first caller to let her know that yet another caller had called and that he would now not go to pick up the basket as caller two would have it delivered. Caller one thanked him and wished him a good day.  He also received a pleasant apology email from a different person representing the brand that took responsibility for the error and informed him that they had righted the voucher situation.

Let’s just say that this is where the excellent customer service took a nose dive!

Mr. B subsequently followed up on five different occasions and received varying feedback ranging from the contact person is on leave, is busy – please call back later, will call him back( and never did) and wasn’t available to take his call.

This got him thinking varied thoughts; one that the apology had been taken back; two that the offer of a gifts was to bamboozle him; three that they had taken a stance to ignore him until he goes away; four that they thought he was absolutely wasting their time; five that they thought he’s not patient enough for their taste; and lastly that they thought he’s nagging them and wished that he would just leave them alone!

He further inferred a couple of things: one that it was by far the worst apology he’s ever received; that their wish to ignore him until he went away was granted for he’d decided to leave the matter alone; that they would scour the market for another diaper provider; that if they’d rescinded their apology that was alright – he’d donate the diapers bought and look for a substitute; if he’d done something to warrant the mal treatment he’d apologize and still go away; and that he was duped by the nice apology until the real colours of the brand showed up after!

He took the time to let them know all this in the email that he roped me into.

Being the customer service enthusiast that I am, I marveled at this service failure wonder and also took the time to respond to the brand reps to let them know that this made fantastic fodder for a case study of a brand chasing away customers at top speed into the laps of their competitors. I also took to social media to let the brand and the world know that it is indeed quite the phenomenon for a make good to failure to materialize as a make good for a make good situation. This by any customer service standards is the rock bottom.

Mr. B and his wife felt embarrassed, frustrated, bruised, battered and trampled upon by the brand. How can a brand succeed in eliciting this level of emotional disengagement from a customer? At the very least the customer should feel disappointed right? Should a brand surely cause a customer embarrassment????

Let’s just say that after that email – someone miraculously appeared in Mr. B’s office with a gift hamper which he promptly turned down. It was never about the gift he emphasized. The regional headquarters has also immediately responded on Twitter requesting that they are really apologetic about the matter and would like to see what to do to resolve it. The local office also quickly got in touch to have a further conversation where the CEO himself has promised to have a meeting with his staff and get in touch with Mr. B.

The questions that abound as always are

• ·         Does it have to get this bad for brands to respond to customer needs?
• ·         Don’t brands appreciate the need to respond immediately to service failure to turn it around?
• ·         Does the customer need to be left with such an acrid taste in their mouths to then shout to feel heard?

What will it take for brands to realize that their biggest and most effective brand and marketing tool is the voice of a happy customer. And even more so the louder voice of a customer whose issue has been resolved and has been turned into a raving fan?

To all out there in the customer service fraternity – we have our work cut out for us!

For now, I wait to see what the ending to this Afro-Cinema/Mexican Soap will be so that we may pen in the script ending……………………

The Power of 'YES?'

This is not an inspi-motivational call to action to have you say YES we can or whatever other positive mantra goes with the thoughts that accompany such calls. Far from it………. It is a call to action to NOT say YES to customers.

A colleague who runs a very popular African restaurant at the new departure terminal at the airport shared yesterday about a South African gentleman who came into her restaurant early the previous morning. As he approached the counter, she greeted him and asked how she could serve him. His first exasperated exclamation was “Why can’t everyone be like you? How is it possible that two adjacent eating facilities can be so different?!”

On further enquiry, what had infuriated her customer was that at the neighbour’s eating house he’d first gone to, the person at the counter on his arrival there had looked up at him and said ‘YES?’

Now………….

Whilst this may not seem catastrophic, and many a person will think her customer, let’s call him Mr. Yes had overreacted, it actually represents a very big customer service no –no. I personally have such a pet peeve against being greeted/met/accosted/hit with the word YES. I have in fact taken to saying NO right back anytime a service provider behind a counter, booth or shop table says ‘YES?’ to me. What is ‘YES?’ What is the customer supposed to respond once you ask them ‘YES?’ For it is unfailingly used in questioning form.

Good customer service dictates that we must greet our customers as an opening line. Good morning/afternoon/evening or hello, or greetings, or hi, in as far as the prevailing circumstance orders and depending on the formality of the situation. It doesn’t matter what is going on or not going on, greeting the customer first we MUST.

I’ve analysed this ‘YES?’ that service providers are fond of saying on first contact and it directly translates to ‘What do you want?’ and in some instances it translates to ‘Next?’ especially where there exists a queue. Why would you want to greet your customers like this? Why would this be the first thing that comes out of your mouth to a customer and we know only too well that first impressions count and last forever?

I get so irked by this ‘YES?’ business that after I proceed to tell whoever’s assaulted me with it( ok I exaggerate, but isn’t that just what it is?) ‘NO’ in response to their ‘YES?’, I further proceed to deliver a quick lecture on the atrocity of their belting out ‘YES?’ to customers. And yes, my friends and family get quite annoyed with my insatiable need to deliver these lectures all the time and often implore me to let it be. But no – the customer service enthusiast in me refuses to sit still and let the YES sayers carry on.

And so back to Mr. Yes story. So delighted was he with the greeting and welcome he received, that he had one tiny cup of English tea that cost round about Kshs. 200/- and left my friend who was his waitstaff for the day a tip equivalent of Kshs. 5000/-

Fancy that? How about this incident as a true example of the power of greeting? It behooves us as service providers in whatever enterprise to inculcate a greeting culture in our establishments. If for nothing else, it is good manners and has the direct potential to contribute to the institution’s bottom line.

Yes go ahead and ditch the ‘YES?’ and greet the customer standing in front of you………. It pays J

Great Brands Thrive on Service Excellence

This article first appeared in Management Magazine September 2014- a Publication of Kenya Institute of Management 

Management and service experts alike have for a long time believed that customers define brands. But things have changed. According to Shep Hyken, customer service expert, business speaker and New York Times bestselling author “Customers may define your band, but employees are your brand.”

Powerful brands are so because they consistently keep their promises to their customers. And very simply put - that’s what customers like – unfailing consistency. That they will beyond any reasonable doubt find the same product they have always found or the same service they have always enjoyed in the same way every time.  That's what customers get emotionally attached to. The UK Intellectual Property Office, charged with keeping custody of brands’ rights, indicates that a brand is much more than a trade name, symbol or identity, but can also be a ‘promise of an experience’ that conveys to consumers a certain assurance as to the nature of the product or service they will receive and also the standards the supplier or manufacturer seeks to maintain. 

The common thread running throughout all these definitions and statements revolving around brands is that consistency and maintaining standards is the name of the game; service excellence consistency and service excellence standards – and there’s no doubt about that. It therefore follows that the all-important question to be answered  is  - What  would it take towards purposefully and intentionally creating a winning brand on service excellence, that would have an organization’s name associated with the value its customers derive from it consistently?

Formidable brands are created by people.

Brand promise delivery is through excellent customer service. A promise is made and customers’ expectations are raised, that the particular product or service will deliver on this promise. What’s relevant to a customer isn’t what the organization values about its products or services, but what the product or service can do to solve the customer’s problems. Understanding customer needs, anticipating their objections and exceeding their expectations are the key tenets around which exceptional service excellence revolves. Dynamic brands that have latched onto this formula think about their customers as the center of their focus and rally their product development and service enhancement teams around delivering first class experience. Many an organization has succumbed to the folly of reflecting  inwards to provide to customers  outputs based on what they think the customer wants or  needs to know, rather than packaging their givings as winning ‘solutions’

·         Emotional decision making 

“What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love”  This quote by Seth Godin - author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker  points directly at the  irrational thoughts that make brands what they are. Warm feelings towards brands are created by; the people that deliver the brand promise; actualization of the brand messaging that promises to provide the customer the solution for which the brand was created; and interaction with the values that the faces and hearts behind the brands epitomize. Winning brands get that way by decidedly worming and working their way into the hearts of their customers. They aim for the effect that when the brand name is mentioned, it evokes a feeling of friendship, warmth, value and partnership. The 2013 research ‘From Promotion to Emotion’ by The Corporate Executive Board Company reveals that despite our(customers) attempts to make purely rational decisions, we are primarily driven by emotional motivations. Dynamic brands have tapped into servicing these emotional needs with excellence.

·         Customer centric processes and systems 

A brand’s continuous improvement is dependent on customer feedback that directly feeds into innovation and dynamic structuring and restructuring of business procedures, policies and practices. Listening to the voice of the customer (VOC) and using the inputs to tweak operations is the secret ingredient to successfully delivering service that wows the recipient. Wow service produces great brands.

Apple-Apple Inc. - the world's most valuable brand in the Omnicom Group's "Best Global Brands" 2013 report declare “We are at our best when we deliver enriching experiences. What we tell our staff: Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome: Make sure customers are greeted by a friendly smile, Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs (ask closed and open-ended questions), Present a solution for the customer to take home today, Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns: By truly listening and acknowledging the needs of your customers, you make your business an oasis of encouragement, empowerment, and excitement. End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return: There is a direct correlation between how people feel when they leave your business and how likely they are to return or recommend the experience to someone else.”

Tucked into this philosophy is a clear customer focused system to listen, understand and act accordingly. The process for handling customers has clearly been outlined to staff who know the what, where, how, when and why enriching experiences need to be created. Walking in the customer’s shoes spurs system audits to observe the customer experience whilst interacting with the organization. If customer excellence temperatures are measured at each customer touch point in the customer journey as they engage with the brand, it is inevitable that enhancements will be made to optimise the experience.

Tied closely to this is the emphasis that international quality management systems place on the customer. The most popularly implemented 1SO 900:2008 Quality Management System has an entire chapter clause 5:2 dedicated to focusing the organization’s quality processes towards serving customer needs.

“Quality is never an accident, it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives”. William A. Foster