It's so often big organizations that let us down on customer service, isn't it. Because their policies are too rigid to fit every circumstance, usually. So, if they don't allow the frontline to practise common sense, use some discretion, we, as non-standard customers not fitting the policy, don't exist and don't get served. I'm thinking of the recent case of the Bank of America customer who was born with no arms, but found himself standing in front of a cashier who said that no, without a thumb print, he couldn't cash the cheque he wanted to cash. Because that's the policy.

Bill Taylor, in his Practically Radical blog, over at Harvard, says that the lesson here is that size, as a strategy in itself, is no longer enough. Companies get big because it's a sign of success and it gives them the muscle, the clout, to carry on getting bigger - their buying power increases, economies of scale kick in, suppliers offer them favourable prices, competitors can't match their marketing power, blah, blah, blah.

But, says Taylor, if you haven't figured out how to harness the smarts of the loads of people that work with you, then you are part of the ranks of 'big and stupid' companies. And your days are numbered because you aren't close enough to the customer.

Taylor doesn't explicitly say this, but when you get really big, you have enough critical mass in terms of brain power to be able to do the 'wisdom of crowds' thing - as long as you simplify, streamline, strip out bureaucracy, keep people close to reality so they aren't cushioned from the world by your very size, then bigger and smarter is what you become.

Only very few big companies do that. Most remain big and dumb. But, they don't care. Because they think they are big and strong and the odd customer here and there who doesn't fit their 'customer service policy' doesn't matter. Yeah, right.

"Pete Carril, the Hall of Fame basketball coach, has a trademark expression that sums up the relationship between size and success. 'The strong take from the weak,' he likes to say, 'but the smart take from the strong.' If you can figure out, as Jack Welch did, how to add to your company's muscles without atrophying its brain, then maybe you're not too big to succeed. But most big-company leaders, who don't share Welch's fervor for staying close to customers, better figure out how to make their organizations smarter — or they will keep getting weaker." - Bill Taylor

Labels: 'It's against our policy', bad customer service

From Tom Peters' blog...

"Airline service"—I've called it the ultimate oxymoron for years and years and then more years. Well, that was before I met Kingfisher Air on a roundtrip to Mumbai last week. First there were the "butlers," I guess you'd call them, that carried our bags on and off the plane for those of us lucky enough to be in business class."

Peters goes onto say how the attendant in business class walked down the aisle asking passengers if they needed their glasses cleaned before leaving the plane.

Here's the post.

Labels: Airline customer service, Kingfisher Airlines, Tom Peters

Nice post from Joanna Higgins here on Six Services That Drive Customers Crazy. Here's a preview of what she calls the 'repeat offenders':

1. The ‘home delivery’ service that struggles to deliver to your home, between the hours of 6am and 8pm, requires the promise of your firstborn before it can re-direct a parcel to your workplace and whose ‘network’ of depots exist each in a separate galaxy. If your parcel finds its way to one of these depots, pack a change of socks,and don’t forget to write.

2. Air miles. Surely the most glorious proof of loyalty a customer can demonstrate. But try redeeming any of your 90,000 air miles and you’ll find that the next available flight is four years hence, leaving PoDunk airport at 3am, has more legs than a centipede and lands you at your destination 24 hours later than were you to row yourself across. By this time, the last cabbie in the world has clocked off for the night.

3. Voice activated train timetables. You say tomato, it hears banana.

More here .

Labels: customer service funny, what customers hate

With a bit of imagination, any commodity service can be turned into a distinctive customer experience. Even ATM cash withdrawals...

From The BBC today:

A cash machine operator has introduced Cockney rhyming slang to a number of its ATMs in east London.

People using Bank Machine's ATMs can opt to have their prompts and options given to them in rhyming slang.

As a result they will be asked to enter their Huckleberry Finn, rather than their Pin, and will have to select how much sausage and mash (cash) they want.

The rhyming slang prompts will be available from five cash machines in east London for three months.

Other rhyming slang prompts people can expect include a speckled hen (£10), while the machine may inform users that it is contacting their rattle and tank, rather than bank.

Ron Delnevo, managing director of Bank Machine, said: "We wanted to introduce something fun and of local interest to our London machines.

"Whilst we expect some residents will visit the machine to just have a butcher's (look), most will be genuinely pleased as this is the first time a financial services provider will have recognised the Cockney language in such a manner."

The ATMs displaying prompts in Cockney are all free to use, although the majority of the group's cash machines charge a £1.50 fee.

Labels: ATM customer experience, distinctive customer experience

Peter Fisk's new book, Customer Genius, was published in May. Peter has been writing his 'Genius' series of books and publishing them so fast, I missed this one. They are always readable, illuminating, full of anecdotes and well-researched insight.

I notice the Xerox snowmobile story is in this book. I think Peter and I were at the same CREDO conference in Paris where a guy from Xerox told the story, as I've been re-telling it over the years, too.

It's one of those possibly mythical stories that pass around a company to illustrate 'how we do things around here.' If you don't have any customer-focussed stories circulating virally in your organization, almost spontaneously, then you are in trouble, because you probably don't have a customer-focussed culture.

Here's the story:

Xerox Scandinavia ran a promotion to deliver a new copier to any customer in the Stockholm postcode area within 24 hours of the order being received, or the copier would be free.

An order came in by fax from a house that, by a fluke, was halfway up a mountain around the edge of the city, but still with a Stockholm postcode. And it was snowing heavily. The despatcher hired a snowmobile and set off with a colleague. Halfway up, the terrain got too steep for the snowmobile. So, they got off and walked.

Fifteen minutes after the deadline expired, they knocked on the door of the customer, presented him - to his surprise - with a free photocopier, and walked off, desolate, into the snow, to find their snowmobile and go home.

A week later one of the biggest orders they had received for corporate photocopiers came through their fax machine, from the same customer. He had been so impressed with their diligence and efforts that he switched his company's photocopier contract to Xerox.

Now, I love that story. But, it allegedly took place in the early 90s. Have you ever tried cancelling one of those watertight corporate photocopier contracts at one week's notice and switching to another supplier? In the early 90s a photocopier contract was like a pair of handcuffs.

That doesn't matter, though. The point is that at Xerox they tell that story - That's the way they want to behave. Peter's book is full of great stories and sharp insights and analysis for turning your organization into an outside-in company.

There's a link to Peter's website over there on the left under 'People I Like'. It's worth a visit. I always learn stuff from Peter.

Labels: Customer Genius, outside-in company, Peter Fisk, Xerox

I have been switching our hosting, and the hosting for Leadership Hubs that we run for clients, to Rackspace, because their customer service is so good.

I first noticed that Rackspace was 'different' about four years ago, I think, when I was looking on their site and a virtual advisor popped up and asked if they could help. I know that's common now but it wasn't then. And it was a real person. When I said I was just looking, they said "Cool. Sorry to bother you. Let me know if I can help at any stage", or something like that and disappeared.

It stuck in my memory.

Every encounter I've had so far with them their people have surprised me with how fast, responsive, helpful, surprising they are. Fanatical about service, they say, and they are. Oh, we had one blip I think, but it was a minor one and you can forgive them when they're that good 99% of the time. I'm a fan. Unashamedly.

Anyway, I only mention it because The Motley Fool just ran a nice piece on how the genius of Rackspace comes down to their fanatical customer support, and how its led to them growing their customer base and having a 'doozy of a quarter' when their competitors are struggling. Who says amazing customer sevice doesn't generate money? Here's the Motley Fool article.

Labels: amazing customer service, fanatical about service, Motley Fool, Rackspace

I must have had my crystal ball turned on without noticing. I'm working on an article on Zappos for a new customer service magazine I'm editor of, and noticed that Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay)'s vision for his company is to become THE service company on the net - expanding from shoes to sell anything. That puts them firmly in Amazon's territory, I wrote, as Amazon has the same strategy - broadening out from books to selling just about anything. I now have to re-write the piece to take into account the fact that Amazon has just bought Zappos. Smart move Jeff - buy the competition while you still can.

Amazon's great service is based on 'the best service is no service' - eliminating stupid contacts with customers (most customer service department contact is because something didn't work or went wrong) and anticipating how the customer thinks, buys, uses the site, to head off and avoid those kinds of contacts. They do it very well.

Zappos' customer service is next-generation. It uses its contact centre to build loyalty. It WANTS customer contact, and even has its call centre number on every page whereas most web retailers, including Amazon, don't want you calling them. Zappos puts the human back into customer service. Anyway, here's Amazon founder Jeff Bezos explaining why he bought Zappos:

Labels: Amazon, Jeff Bezos, online customer service, Tony Hsieh, Zappos