We think of computer programs and other electronic equipment having a default — a setting that is standard unless you change it. But we don’t think of people having a default — what we do automatically when we don’t question if this action (or inaction) will help us achieve what we want.
customer complaints
At work are you more like a chorus line dancer or a soloist?
I’m not asking if you can high step or pirouette. I was struck by the metaphor of dancing style and work style while in my Jazzercise class.
I watched classmates who added their own flare to the instructor’s steps. Most of us follow his movements closely, but several gals kick higher or add some embellishment. It was fine for them to do their own thing as this class was just for one’s own enjoyment.
However, I thought, if we were performing as a group, these gals’ personal exaggerations would be out of place. It reminded me of the dancer in the “The Chorus Line” who was so used to being a soloist she had a difficult time dialing back her extra movements to fit into the chorus line.
In work, are you more of a chorus line dancer, knowing how not to make waves or stand out so the group works in union? Or are you more of a soloist, wanting to do your own thing and not really fitting in when forced to toe the line?
Are your coupons and sales backfiring?
Like many holiday shoppers, I was looking for the best deal. And judging by the 25-person line at checkout, so were many others, even on a weekday morning. But I wasn’t the only one who was disappointed by the store’s confusing come ons.
Do you honor what your employees’ promise?
Do you honor what your employees promise?
Like millions of other homeowners, I recently applied to refinance my mortgage at a lower rate. When a very low rate was advertised on my financial institution’s web site, I acted so I could lock in the rate.
Wednesday morning I began to complete the convenient online application. At one point the curser spun and spun. The site said it was processing and if I got tired of waiting to click a button and someone from would contact me. After 10 minutes I clicked.
Thursday when no one contacted me I went back on the site and picked up where I left off. When I reached that page, the curser spun. I called and left a message for one of the loan offers I’d dealt with before. Later that day she emailed me that a different loan officer would be in contact that day.
The next day with no contact, I called again. Neither loan officer I knew was available so I was asked if I’d like to speak to someone else in the dept. Sure. I talked to Bruce and explained the spinning curser and my concern about wanting to lock in the rate since it had now been 3 days. He said, “No problem. I’ll figure out what’s wrong with the web page and make sure you get the rate on the day you started this, as rates change on the weekend and this is Friday.”
Monday late afternoon, one of the loan officers called. She looked at the online application and found a minor error that I would have never found. She corrected it and the spinning curser disappeared and I could proceed. I mentioned locking in the low rate from last week, as this week’s rate was considerably higher. She said, “You can’t lock in last week’s rate since you didn’t complete the application until today.”
I was livid.
“I didn’t complete the application because your system wouldn’t let me. I called your colleague Thurs. and she said you’d call me back that day. When you didn’t, I called Friday and got Bruce. He said he’d lock in the rate for me.”
She replied, “Bruce is a temp. He can’t make those promises.”
I was even more livid.
“Bruce is a representative of your company so you have to honor his promises. How would I know he was a temp? Am I supposed to ask everyone with whom I interact if they are an employee or temp in order to know whether to believe what they tell me? That’s not a way to do business.”
She said she’d see what she could do.
When I didn’t hear from her for another week, I called the department head explaining the scenario. At first he didn’t want to honor the lower rate either, but eventually he gave in as my 20-year payment record with them is unblemished and I have a high credit score.
* Are you holding your customers accountable to pay more because your systems are not functioning?
* Are you not honoring what your employees promise your customers?
* Are your employees clear on what they can and can’t promise?
Like millions of other homeowners, I recently applied to refinance my mortgage at a lower rate. When a very low rate was advertised on my financial institution’s web site, I acted so I could lock in the rate.
Wednesday morning I began to complete the convenient online application. At one point the curser spun and spun. The site said it was processing and if I got tired of waiting to click a button and someone from would contact me. After 10 minutes I clicked.
Are your processes designed for your staff’s convenience or your customers’?
Are your processes designed for your staff’s convenience or your customers’?
I love my library. It’s steps away from me, just across an adjacent street. I order books online, then pop over and pick them up. So convenient.
But not everything in this newly rebuilt library is convenient — at least not for its patrons. There is a glaring problem where staff convenience won out over patron service.
I take responsibility for not making sure this type of thing would not happen when the new library was designed. They held numerous community meetings to hear what patrons wanted, and in the designers’ defense, they incorporated many cool, state-of-the art features.
Which makes this one decision a glaring one to me. How could this oversight happen with so many community members attending the design meetings?
What’s the problem I find so egregious?
The book return slot is at the back of the building and requires one to either walk down a narrow driveway or get out of their car to return books. Not that I’m endorsing laziness, but previously there was a drive-by drop bin (like a curbside postal box) that made it easy to return books. My library is on a busy street, so it would have made even more sense to put a book drop-off box on the street in a white-curbed zone so people could just pull over and drop off their books.
But now even pedestrians have to go through the library and out the other side to drop off books in the designated slot. If the library is closed, they have to walk down the narrow driveway to the drop-off slot, sharing the driveway with any cars doing the same.
I scratched my head about how the designers could be so clueless about customer service and convenience, so I finally asked the head librarian. “Help me understand the logic in having the drop-off slot at the back and without the car drop off capability? What am I missing?”
He shook his head and nodded. “This is asked a lot. It is for the library staff’s convenience. They don’t have to go out in the weather to retrieve the books as they did when we had the drive through drop box.”
Ah, so the staff doesn’t have to go out and roll in a cart twice a day, hundreds of patrons a week are inconvenienced? Does this make sense? It’s not as if the weather is torturous — it’s Northern California for goodness sake! The weather is moderate. The book bins are on wheels so it doesn’t take a lot of brawn to move them.
* Are your processes for the convenience of your staff or your customer?
* If for your staff, can you reengineer the process so it is works for both parties?
* Have you asked your customers how you can make all aspects of doing business with you easier? If so, do you take action on what they say?
* When was the last time you looked at your processes from the customer experience perspective?
I love my library. It’s steps away from me, just across an adjacent street. I order books online, then pop over and pick them up. So convenient.
But not everything in this newly rebuilt library is convenient — at least not for its patrons. There is a glaring problem where staff convenience won out over patron service.
Patience shows exemplary service
I needed to have a document not only notarized, but “medallion-ized,” which only the manager or assistant manager can do at my credit union. I called the manager to make sure he’d be there when I arrived and we set a time to meet.
I appeared at the appointed time only to learn he was at another branch! I didn’t know he served two branches and he didn’t mention where he’d be, thus the mix up. His assistant called him and he instructed me to see Elva, the assistant manager.
Elva was very helpful, but said she’d need to see a recent statement for the account, as she was attesting to the funds in the account. The manager hadn’t asked for a statement for another account I’d had “medallion-ized” a few weeks earlier. I was the beneficiary of the account, not the account holder, so I was a bit miffed as it meant I’d need to get it and return.
I returned a few days later. This time, Elva read the documents more carefully. She discovered I also needed my father’s death certificate, which of course I didn’t have. However, we wanted to verify this was really needed before I traipsed off once again.
So we called Franklin Templeton (where the account was held) and talked to the patient and courteous Stacy Base. Stacy confirmed that I did need the death certificate and helped us with some other details that were confusing. After assisting us in many areas, she connected us to a colleague who was an expert on other parts of our questions.
When I returned with the death certificate, Elva medallion-ized the document and I was done in moments.
I was impressed with not only Elva’s patience in helping me through the confusion and offering to call Franklin Templeton, but her willingness to do some hand holding along the way.
* If you are in two sites, do you communicate clearly where you’ll meet your client?
* Are your people willing to call a third party to help out a cutomer, or do they just tell the customer to call and get back to them?
* Do your people help with a little handholding to help a customer in a confusing situation?
I needed to have a document not only notarized, but “medallion-ized,” which only the manager or assistant manager can do at my credit union. I called the manager to make sure he’d be there when I arrived and we set a time to meet.
I appeared at the appointed time only to learn he was at another branch! I didn’t know he served two branches and he didn’t mention where he’d be, thus the mix up. His assistant called him and he instructed me to see Elva, the assistant manager.
Sensitive service from Prudential
Sensitive service from Prudential
My father died a few months ago and left us with a maze of assets to sort out. We found two life insurance policies with Prudential so filed the proper paperwork. Within a few days of receipt, Andrea, an amazing helpful claims representative, called all the beneficiaries to say she’d found another policy and would use the same documentation to pay it out, if she could just have our verbal agreement!
Wow!
I worked in the insurance industry decades ago and knew the kind of documentation that was usually required, often making people go through what seemed like unnecessary hoops. But Andrea and Prundential didn’t make us file an additional documents — which would have been tedious and time consuming since we are spread throughout the country.
Andrea understood that her job was to make our life easier, especially after a death.
Kudos to Andrea and Prudential for getting it right.
My father died a few months ago and left us with a maze of assets to sort out. We found two life insurance policies with Prudential so filed the proper paperwork. Within a few days of receipt, Andrea, an amazing helpful claims representative, called all the beneficiaries to say she’d found another policy and would use the same documentation to pay it out, if she could just have our verbal agreement!
Wow!
Lightning Source lightens my load
Lightning Source lightens my load
Lightning Source is a provider of short-run and print-on-demand book publishing for small publishers like me. I’d researched dozens of short-run printers for my latest books, and decided on Lightning Source because of the many benefits they offer and their reasonable prices. Little did I know they’d also set themselves apart by their stellar service.
After an initial hiccup of not hearing back for months from a sales rep, even with my repeated follow ups, I finally got into their system. Publishers upload our books’ contents and covers with ease. My questions were always cheerfully answered by my client services representative Joan Williams. I’m sure she must have encountered my basic questions thousands of times, but she never sounded irritated.
But Lightning Source’s service blew me away when I needed proofs of my two latest books (Remarkable Customer Service…And Disservice and Grow Your Key Talent) to be sent to me in Brunei. I needed them to show at an HR Summit in Singapore, which was the next stop on my speaking tour. I chose to have them sent to Brunei instead of Singapore as I’d be there for 7 days and thought if UPS missed by a day or two I was most likely to get it there.
Lightning Source’s staff went above and beyond for me. Usually it takes a week or so to get a new book into their system and for a proof copy to be generated. I uploaded the documents 10 days before I left for Brunei thinking that would be plenty of time. Unfortunately, I made some mistakes which weren’t caught by the Lightning Source staff until a few days later. I had to fix them and reload the documents. The clock was ticking. All the documents were successfully uploaded only the day before I left!
The cost for shipping a proof copy is a standard $30/book. Since I was sure it would be more cost effective for me to have both books sent together in one package, I asked if this could be done. It was not how Lightning Source usually did things — they usually shipped a proof as soon as it is off the press and my books may be printed a few days apart. I was asking for a modification to their SOP, which I know in my own business is often asking for disaster.
I was also sure it would cost way more than that to ship to Brunei via UPS, Lightning Source’s shipper. But Joan couldn’t determine how much. She tried asking the shipping department, but they couldn’t help. I talked to Joan’s boss, Leah Charlton, who determined the fee would be the same, even to Brunei. Wow! Really? With such short notice? Yes. She also figured out how to send them together so one didn’t take days longer than the other. She coordinated everything, making my life much easier!
The books arrived during my Brunei stay. They looked great. I displayed them and took orders at the HR conference. I couldn’t have done it without the fabulous service of Leah, Joan and the other Lightning Source staffers.
* Do your people answer the same question they’ve heard millions of times with patience and pleasantness?
* Are your people able to accommodate unusual requests with grace?
* Are they resourceful in finding ways to get what the customer wants without incurring outrageous costs for the customer or your organization?
Lightning Source is a provider of short-run and print-on-demand book publishing for small publishers like me. I’d researched dozens of short-run printers for my latest books, and decided on Lightning Source because of the many benefits they offer and their reasonable prices. Little did I know they’d also set themselves apart by their stellar service.
How do you celebrate those who’ve made you successful?
How do you celebrate those who’ve make you successful?
A friend has a license to teach a nationally branded form of exercise. He’s been doing it for 25 years, running a successful business of 10 classes/week with 50-100 students per session. It is lucrative for him and the license holder.
He shared that to commemorate his 25 years as one of their most successful licensees they sent him …
A key chain.
With their logo on it and a charm that says “25.”
Whoohoo. Don’t you think he feels valued? Special? Appreciated?
Not!
A key chain for 25 years of continuously helping their business succeed?
They are missing an opportunity to not only salute and make an example of one of their longest-term business partners, but a fabulous media opportunity as well.
But instead, they send him a $1.99 keychain.
And to show how clueless the license holder is, they send the same keychain to every licensee at 5-year increments, just with a different number charm on it. So he now has five of these cheap reminders of how little they value his contribution to their success.
One could argue that he is an independent businessman, not an employee. So he shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t make a lot of hoopla over his years of service.
To which I’d reply, “Really? I think we should celebrate the long-time support of anyone who has helped make us successful, whether they be an employee, customer, supplier, or licensee.
What are you doing to show you appreciate and value the people who helped make your business a success? I hope it’s more than a cheap key chain.
A friend has a license to teach a nationally branded form of exercise. He’s been doing it for 25 years, running a successful business of 10 classes/week with 50-100 students per session. It is lucrative for him and the license holder.
He shared that to commemorate his 25 years as one of their most successful licensees they sent him …
Free white paper
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