Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on February 8, 2010 under Customer Moments, Resolving Conflict | 
Boy, Toyota has sure had a run of back luck recently. Accelerators that stick and brakes that don’t work. A bad combination.
So how are they handling the situation?
Check out the video commercial about how Toyota is focusing on customer cars FIRST. “To restore your faith in our company.”
- They aren’t hiding from the issue
- No excuses are being made
- They outline what they are doing to fix the problem
- Every employee and dealer is involved
- Number One Goal – Restoring Trust
I applaud Toyota’s approach to a bad situation and feel confident that they will find a solution to the immediate problem and in the long run, they will continue the relationships with their customers and will probably gain new customers because of how they handle a crisis.
Do you have a crisis management plan for your organization? With Real Time Reviews a number one trend for 2010, you need to be ready to respond to online comments and concerns from customers. Jonathon Bernstein offers 10 suggestions for using SEO in a Crisis situation. Communication is key.
Customer-focused communication, like Toyota is using in their ads is the best.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 29, 2010 under Connecting Moments, Customer Moments, Resolving Conflict, social media |
There is nothing worse than silence. Whoever said “no news is good news” or ”silence is golden” must have been the parent of a new born because as an entrepreneur and the mother of a college student – there is nothing worse than NO NEWS.
It’s Friday. The end of the work week. I should be wrapping things up – preparing for a girly weekend with my middle schooler, but no. Why?
SILENCE.
On a personal front, my son is facing the consequences of his actions today and I’m awaiting news. His phone is turned off – probably to avoid my text messages – and the silence is killing me. So I focus on work. Except, guess what?? SILENCE.
I am presenting a series of four workshops on Social Media scheduled to begin February 10 and follow for three additional Wednesdays. I’m very excited about the events and have receive great feedback from potential attendees.
Using the social media I so strongly believe in – I set up registration for all four classes on Events Bot. It was a fairly simple process and even included HTML code for spreading the word and creating cutsie REGISTER NOW boxes. Except here’s the rub. Sign up for my class and get charged an unexplainable shipping and handling fee of $19.80. What needs to ship? Who are we going to handle?
So I contacted the help desk. The email gave me no answers.
I sent another message to the help desk. Nada.
So I sent a message to the abuse email. Nothing.
I changed my account and paid for premium service thinking that maybe there was a glitch in the free service. I got a lovely canned welcome email. It included another customer service address to contact. So I sent them a message. No return message.
This is my first time using their service and could have been a long and mutually beneficial relationship as I am now using their premium service. But no communication isn’t sitting well with me. I see from the reports that a really good number of people are clicking on the events. If only 10% of them purchased, my classes would have been filled yesterday. So how many are getting to the invoice – seeing an additional $20 charge and cancelling out on their reservation?
Silence from Events Bot is not helping my business or theirs.
I was reading a recent post by Drew McLellan on follow up and the importance of being available and touching base and being responsive to your customers. HA.
How true is that?
So once again, I’m hoping social media will work for one of two things:
1. You might know of a different event site I can go to and set up my events – please share and quickly.
2. Events Bot has a Google alert set up for their name – will see this and finally give me an answer.
Cuz here’s the deal. I’m new. This is my first time. It could very well be my fault. In fact, I’m sure it is. I’ve probably clicked something I shouldn’t have. But TELL ME.
As for my son? Prayers.
Okay. don’t be silent – help me out here. Anyone have advice for me? Thanks a bunch!
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 26, 2010 under Attitude, Customer Moments, Resolving Conflict |
I love conversations with Leslie Ungar. You know her. I talk about her often. That’s because she always has some interesting little tidbit to share that speaks volumes. Today it was the retelling of something Bruce Nordstrom (Grandson of Nordstrom’s founder) had to say when visiting Northeast Ohio a while back.
Someone asked him if people took advantage of Nordstrom’s famous return policy. You’ll all heard the story about the customer who returned a tire to Nordstroms and they didn’t even sell tires. But the associate smiled and happily gave the customer a refund.
Well, first off, my Dad - another person who always had great stories to tell, said that there was a Nordstroms location that did in fact sell tires, but the point of the story is that Nordstroms takes their customer at face value and does whatever it takes to make them happy. (p.s. the tire return took place in an acquired store that had sold tires before being owned by Nordstroms)
So how did the founder’s grandson reply? “Yes. There are some people that take advantage.”
He went on to say that only about ten percent of their customers took advantage of Nordstroms policy to make customers happy. “You don’t make policy based on ten percent,” he was quoted as saying. “You make policies based on the 90%.”
I’ve often heard of the 80/20 rule. You know – the rule that says 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your revenue. That 20% of your employees generate 80% of the work. That 20% of the whiners take up 80% of your time.
But here, the rule is even stiffer. Make policies based on 90% of your customer’s needs. Nordstroms has been in business over 100 years and their customer philosophy has remained the same – regardless of the change in economics:
The company’s philosophy has remained unchanged for more than 100 years since its establishment by John W. Nordstrom in 1901: offer the customer the best possible service, selection, quality and value.
What else has remained the same for over 100 years?
Okay – let’s get back to your company policies. Do you make your policies based on the few that try to take advantage or the many that build your business? I can remember in school there would be obscure rules and the teacher would say “It is because of the actions of a few that we’ve had to change the rules.” Didn’t you want to punch “the few” in the nose for making it more difficult or less enjoyable for you?
Our customers feel the same way. Imagine a world where companies created a culture around the many. So look at your customer service policies. Are they based on the few that try to ruin it for the rest of us? Or have you positioned yourself like Nordstroms and created policies around the 90% of your customers who just want a good quality product/service at an affordable price?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 20, 2010 under Listening, Missed Moments, Resolving Conflict |
Have you ever lost a customer and didn’t know why?
I was talking with Business Coach and Professional Speaker Leslie Ungar of Electric Impulse Communications about customers. She shared a story with me that really helped put things in perspective.
As the economy takes its good old time recovering, the trickle down effect of lower revenues is hitting some of the smaller companies and as such, companies are cutting back some of their vendor/freelance relationships. Each time we loose a customer we have to access the situation.
Is there something I could have done differently?
Was it price?
Was it attitude?
Should I have said something different?
Should I have kissed him?
(That’s what Elizabeth Kitt – recent participant who was eliminated from ABC’s The Batchelor is asking herself today.)
Leslie used to show horses. She told me that at the end of a competition participants could approach the judges and ask for advice on what they could do differently next time to place or win in their category.
“I was always the first in line to ask a question,” Leslie told me. “I wanted to know why I didn’t win and what the judges thought I should have done differently.” Sometimes they would remember, or after refreshing their notes they might have a specific comment, but often it was a general bit of advice that they would share. She listened carefully each time to what they had to say.
“If one person told me something, I would listen but I might not make a change. I was listening for patterns that I couldn’t ignore. If I heard the same comment from different judges or multiple times then I knew that was an area I needed to address.”
She was looking for patterns.
We need to do the same thing with our customers. Of course that means we have to engage them in conversation – exit interviews – follow up surveys or phone calls to ask about the service and experience and then listen for patterns.
Customer complaints are another great place to look for patterns. Some times you just have a complainer – but often, if you listen closely enough, you’ll find out about an area of service you need to address because it impacts the customer’s experience.
Have you lost a customer lately? Do you know why? Has it been the first time you’ve heard the reason or has a pattern begun to emerge?
Listen carefully to those patterns you can’t ignore and then start to make some changes!
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on January 5, 2010 under Connecting Moments, Resolving Conflict, Websites, social media |
According to Trend Watching – one of the top ten trends for 2010 will be customers leaving tweets about your business. What will they say?
Real Time Reviews takes into account that people around the globe are jumping on the band wagon of telling anyone who will listen what they are doing right now. Whether they are using the status updates on LinkedIn, Facebook or tweeting away in 140 characters or less on Twitter – they are sharing their opinions.
Last year we asked “why would anyone care what I’m doing?”
This coming year we are going to be asking “what are people saying about us and what can we do about it?”
Gone are the days when a dissatisfied customer grumbled on the way out the door and maybe told 15 of their closest friends. Now they are on their mobile device sharing their bad experience with the world – or at least the hundreds of friends, family and various and sundry other folk that follow their updates.
Companies need to quickly get on board with reading what is being said about them on line – hopefully it is ALL GOOD – but on the off chance it isn’t, Twitter will become the fastest, easiest, most visible way for companies to “nip it in the bud” and show consumers they are on top of their customer service.
As more people are reviewing and contributing, the sheer mass of opinions will lead to a real-time stream of information, findable and viewable to all. In addition, online access and device convergence will allow more on-the-spot reviews. Twitter is the much-deserved poster child for real-time reviews: it has established itself as the real-time snapshot of what people are thinking/feeling/experiencing and yes, reviewing, around the world.
So what can you do?
- Make sure your company name, your name, your top product names are set up with Google Alerts so you receive an email the minute someone writes using those names
- For Twitter – consider the Twitter Beep for alerts about your company
- Twitter Alarm is another free tool
- FlitrBox offers a similar service
Any other suggestions or tools for keeping your finger on the pulse of what is being said about you on the Internet? Please share.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on December 18, 2009 under Customer Moments, Missed Moments, Resolving Conflict |
I’m struggling to regain my composure. I have just been made to feel more stupid than dirt and it isn’t a feeling I enjoy.
You may have read that I joined a gym recently - happy one week anniversary to me – and I’m using this TechnoGym thingie that keeps my workouts on a computer chip. I insert the handy-dandy thumb drive into each piece of equipment and it tells me the seat height, number of reps and weight I should lift. At the end of the session, I put my thumb drive into a main computer and it tells me how many pounds I lifted (15,680, thank you very much) and gives me more charts and graphs than I care to look at.
But what happens when you have to use one of the old fashion, non-computer pieces of equipment because the fancy stuff isn’t available? Well, that’s what happened to me yesterday and today. It isn’t a prob – I just used the regular equipment, but it messed up the computer thumb drive.
So today I decided to ask for help to fix the problem. The staff member shall remain nameless (but it sounds like TROY) lolly gagged his way across the gym in my direction, the tortoise could have beat him and still had time for a movie, and doesn’t make eye contact but mumbles something.
I hate mumblers.
I am already frustrated but I know it is human error, my human error - I just want a work around. Show me how to get credit for the sweat I just left all over the bike.
He put my thumb drive in the machine.
“You didn’t do the exercise.”
“Yes. I did. I already said that. I just did it on a different machine.”
“Well, it says here you didn’t do it.”
“Y..e..s..I know that. That is the problem. How do I get credit for it?”
“You can’t because you didn’t do the exercise.”
I am about to learn a new exercise called strangulation, but I take a deep breath. I decide to take a different tack. Because here’s the deal – if I don’t figure out how to get credit it won’t allow me to access my other workouts.
“How can I get out of this computer mode?”
“You can’t until you do the exercise.”
URG.
So, what did I do? I got on the Techno bike and RE-DID my exercise so the computer would feel better.
He came over and said. So did you figure it out?
AHHHHHHHH.
I felt like he thought I was stupid. I felt like the computer thought I was stupid and now my legs are like rubber because I did the exercise twice just to make the computer feel better. How stupid is that?
And guess what? I AM PAYING FOR THIS!
I am not a happy customer right now. I am not happy that I paid EXTRA for this computer support and I definitely don’t feel like I experienced good customer service. I limped out of there bordering between anger and tears over a stupid exercise.
How often do we follow the rules and policies to a tee and make our customers suffer the consequences? When we talk down to our customers, use company jargon, don’t listen carefully to the issue we run the risk of making our customers feel stupid. What customers wants to pay their HARD EARNED MONEY to feel stupid?
Not me.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on September 1, 2009 under Customer Moments, Greeting, Missed Moments, Resolving Conflict |
There is nothing that makes me angrier than being ignored. Well, there are a few things but as a CUSTOMER, being ignored is unforgivable. It’s rude. It makes me question my loyalty.
Yesterday I stopped by the local Wal-mart where I’d ordered photo prints via the Internet. The pictures were supposed to be completed by 5:30pm. I arrived at 6pm. As I entered the department I made eye contact with the single associate who was helping a woman make a camera purchase.
He didn’t greet me. He didn’t acknowledge my presence. He just continued to talk to the woman, leaning against the counter and answering her questions.
She was still in the decision-making process.
I watched as he unlocked the cabinet and retrieved different models.
THIRTEEN MINUTES LATER.
The woman walked away without purchasing and he asked me ”Picking up? Name?”
“Brown.”
He walked over to the counter, retrieved the package and handed it to me.
Our transaction took less than 20 SECONDS.
No apology.
No thanks.
No personality.
No relationship building.
Is it a training issue? Is it apathy? How hard is it to ask the first woman “Please excuse me for a minute?”
You may be thinking “It was Wal-mart – what else do you expect?”
But I’ve experienced this same scenario at a variety of businesses. We are failing to teach our sales associates how to manage more than one person at a time.
My ex-husband used to tell me that he believed asking to be excused was rude to the first person. Here’s why he is wrong:
- Customers understand that you have more than one customer in your life.
- Often customers appreciate the break in your interaction to think through all you’ve told them.
- Customers know that if they were the second person coming into the department – they’d like to be acknowledged rather than waiting indefinitely.
It isn’t rocket science. It is COMMON COURTESY.
Think about hosting a party. The doorbell rings with the first guest. You invite them in. Take their coat. Offer them a drink.
The doorbell rings again. Do you wait to answer the door until you’ve seated the first guest and fed them the first course?
No. Of course not. You say “Please excuse me for a minute” and you answer the door inviting in the next guest.
Target refers to their customers as GUESTS. Their training views customers as guests in your home. That’s what our customer are – they are guests to our business.
When you think of it that way – it is easy to see how simple it becomes to manage more than one customer at a time.
By asking to be excused – you can ask the second customer “how may I help you today?”
If the customer’s need requires a lengthy experience you can get them started and then return to the first customer.
However, you may find that the second customer only requires a 20 second pick up – like me.
One simple question – how many I help you – and you’ve taken care of a person satisfactorily and can return to the first customer.
Instead – you run the risk of ticking off all of the customers.
Think of it this way. The first customer isn’t blind – they can see you have more than one customer waiting. They become uncomfortable. Maybe even guilty for taking so much time to make a buying decision. Rather than be uncomfortable – they may say “thanks – I’ll need to think about it.” Now you’ve lost the first customer and ticked off the second.
Bonus.
What is your thought on handling more than one customer at a time. Do you agree with my ex-husband – that it is rude and you should focus your entire attention on the first person – or do you agree that managing more than one customer can be done effectively, smoothly and in such a way that you endear yourself to everyone that comes to visit your department/store?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on July 27, 2009 under General, Resolving Conflict |
In the August edition of Entrepreneur we are reminded of the Wendy’s customer who claimed she found a finger in her chili.
After an investigation insued, the truth came out – she had planted the offending digit, but as Entrepreneur reminds us – the damage had been done. Sales fell. Franchise owners suffered.
To-go coffee cups have been forever altered – either with hot warnings or with the additional of insulted hot pads encircling the cup after the woman was burned by her McDonald’s coffee and sued the behemouth franchisor.
And who can forget the Tylenol scare of 1982?
Through no fault of their own, these large household name companies suffered greatly in the media due to “customers” who weren’t playing fair.
Call me Pollyanna but I like to believe that customers are coming with a need and a desire to find a solution which hopefully we can provide. Each day we quietly and successfully help countless customers and that doesn’t make the news. But it is that one irate customer that can ruin our day and in worse case scenarios – ruin our reputation.
John Jantsch wrote a post recently asking if the Customer is Always Right. His short answer is “no” and suggests we reword that phrase to be “the RIGHT customer is always right.”
But what do we do when the wrong or bad customer has an impact on our business?
Web Word Slinger offers a great list of actions to take if someone writes bad things about your company on the Internet in the post There’s No Such Thing as Bad Press.
Not long ago I wrote about how one business owner used Twitter to combat bad press in his community.
Botttomline – when bad customers happen to good companies – you have to face the story head on – reach out to make it right if possible, share your side, offer examples of customers who have been satisfied – collect and publish testimonials and happy stories. Don’t be afraid to ask a customer, that gushes about how you changed their life, to put it in writing!
What ideas have you found word?
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on July 20, 2009 under Customer Moments, Resolving Conflict, making a difference |
Remember my friend Paul at Best Buy? I went back and purchased from him – we had a blast. The refrig and stove were due tomorrow.
I say were because a glitch came up in my order. Mostly my fault. I needed a drop in stove but wanted a shove in one (they are less expensive) and it caused communication challenges between the installer, the counter top guy, Best Buy and me.
In the end – I postponed that portion of the order – still getting the new refrig tomorrow - THREE door. Can’t wait. It’s like my kids feel about a new computer game.
ANYWAY – before cancelling the stove order for right now – there were many phone calls this morning and Paul said to me “there goes my great customer service.”
I said – no way. Why isn’t it bad customer service when the customer doesn’t end up with what they set out to get?
COMMUNICATION
Paul stayed on top of the order from the start:
- making phone calls,
- asking questions,
- questioning the answers, and
- keeping me informed along the way
There were reasons beyond Paul’s control that I have postponed the order – nothing to do with his service.
In fact, when a salesperson can help us navigate a challenge – THAT’s when we create a bond that goes on long after my wonderful refrigerator is installed.
My son overheard some of the conversations and when I hung up he said “Is that your friend, Paul?”
No – I told him, that was the sales person at Best Buy.
He said – and you feel comfortable calling him by his name? I said, yes.
I explained that when we first met, Paul started our experience by introducing himself. In fact, yes – I told him. That was my friend Paul on the phone. My NEW friend Paul.
Who am I going to see when I’m ready to order that stove?
You guessed it, Paul. Because even in the challenging times – he was on my side – doing his best work for me.
And THAT is great customer service.
Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on May 28, 2009 under Connecting Moments, Customer Moments, Resolving Conflict, social media |
Just read a post on Dennis Snow’s site in which he reminds us that social media now allows unhappy customers to tell millions about their bad service as it happens. In the past the negative word of mouth would extend to 7 or 9 or 15 people and now in a blink of a text our mistakes, mis-steps and ineffective service can be communicated round the world!
Dennis suggests that we train our front line employees to ask themselves:
“In every customer interaction you have, imagine the customer is going to immediately ‘tweet’ about their experience. What would they communicate instantly to all of their contacts about their interaction with you?”
How would that change your approach to building customer relationships? Should social media be added to your customer retention strategy? When we think of social media in general or rather Twitter in particular; we say “I don’t see the value” or “I don’t have time for that” or “How can it help my business?”
We dismiss Twitter as a silly thing the young people do to waste time and miss altogether the fact that it doesn’t matter if WE USE social media. Our customers DO! And very effectively.
Although customer service ENDS at the customer/sales associate interaction – it BEGINS with management. In this economy companies are down sizing. In some cases they are treating their employees like an expense item on their P&L rather than as the greatest asset in their arsenal. Bosses let employees know they should be grateful they have a job rather than encouraging, training and thanking them for hanging in there during the tough times.
Fewer employees are having to cover a greater number of tasks and all of this leads to declining customer service. In an age when customer service should be the number one focus; with increased competition and fewer spendable dollars, we should be doing everything we can to help customers spend with us!
Yet -if the employees who actually interact with customers are beaten down, feeling overworked and under valued – they aren’t going to see the need to do anything extra with each customer experience.
The combination of declining customer service and increased communication abilities through Twitter is a disaster waiting to happen.
As a manager – an owner – an entrepreneur – we need to recognize Twitter for the opportunity it is to create awareness and build customer retention.
Not long ago I talked about Ramon DeLeon - the owner of several pizza shops in Chicago and how he stays connected with his customers via Twitter and other social media venues. Through the use of Google Alerts and Twitter search plug-ins – you can stay connected and learn when people are talking about you. At the very least make sure you follow conversations about your business so that you can respond.
However, a more proactive customer retention strategy would be to actively engage your customers in conversation via social media. For more information about using social media to connect with customers, check out Becky Carroll’s post called Where Does Social Media fit in?
At the very least – go back to Dennis’ question and ask yourself – just what is the customer I’m talking with RIGHT NOW going to Tweet about this experience?
