Creating a better experience

VHT client CPS Energy was named the top-rated residential natural gas utility by JD Power & Associates. The utilities were rated on customer satisfaction in six areas (billing and payment, price, corporate citizenship, communications, customer service, and field service).

Congrats to CPS Energy on such a great honor!

Huh? …You may be thinking that the title of this entry makes no sense. Why should you care about former customers who packed up and took their business elsewhere. Forget them. Right? While it’s true that you may be distant cousins at this point in the relationship, there’s still a relationship that exists nonetheless. Therefore, be aware of how you treat customers in those final moments as they terminate their service.  It can leave a powerful and memorable impression of your brand on them. Here are some different examples that demonstrate what I’m talking about…

A few years ago I made the switch to high speed internet at home. A few weeks after I made the switch, I called my dial up ISP to cancel service. The process I went through was so horrible that I’ll never speak well of the company ever again. Here’s what happened: When I called, there was a menu option for disconnecting your service. When I pressed it, I was put on indefinite hold. The first time I waited 20 minutes, then hung up. A couple days later I called again and waited another 30 minutes and hung up. The third time I called, I pressed the option for customer service. I waited about a minute before speaking with a rep. I politely explained that I no longer needed their services and kindly asked for them to disconnect the account. The rep indicated that she could not perform this task and that she would transfer me to the proper group. After transferring me, I waited on hold for 20 minutes before finally saying, “screw this!” and I hung up in a fit of anger. I’ll spare you some additional details and skip to the part where I finally get through to the proper representative.  She proceeds through this “customer save” script that I have no patience for. When the purpose of the call is finally clear, she indicates that the only way to terminate service is to write a letter expressing my intentions, sign it and mail it to the Billing department. How aggravating. I was furious.  The bitter irony is that I had no beef with this company. They had treated me well over the years. If anyone needed an ISP for dial up or web hosting services, I would have gladly recommended them. But not now. No way.

Here is another example, but with a slight twist.

Satellite radio is awesome and my wife and I have enjoyed it in our cars for years. I had also activated the capability built into the A/V receiver in my living room, so in total I was paying for 3 radios.  Looking for areas to save money, my wife and I agreed that we barely use the satellite radio in the living room and it wasn’t worth paying for anymore. I called them up and told them that I was a very happy customer, but that I wanted to terminate service on 1 of my 3 radios. When they asked for a reason, I told them, “we just don’t use it.”  Well…whether you use something or not makes absolutely no difference to these people. They’ve been hounding me for weeks. I get junk mail everyday and at least one phone call every week. Every time they call, I explain to them that… “I still use two radios everyday. I’m still a customer. Can you please back off already”? The positive perception I once had of this company is fading faster than a satellite signal when driving into a tunnel.

Word of mouth is still the best and most important form of advertising, and if you’re not nice to your former customers, they may have A LOT to say about it.  Review your disconnect and “save” processes carefully. Heck… try them for yourself. And if you aren’t fired up and ticked-off by the end of it all…..tell ‘em you were “just kidding.” 

Every store I go to these days seems to have gotten on board with the same cliche, and from a customer service standpoint, it has gotten a little aggravating. Why are checkout clerks trained to ask, “Did you find everything ok?” right at the point where you’re done shopping and ready to get the heck out of the store? It doesn’t make sense. After all, why would I even be in the checkout line unless I found everything ok?

One time, I really didn’t find everything ok. As I was paying for a shopping cart full of items, one was missing because they flat-out just didn’t have it.  Then… like some kind of customer service clairvoyant,  the clerk asked, “Did you find everything ok?” To which I smiled and said, “No, actually I didn’t. How did you know?”  The young girl behind the cash register looked at me with surprise. Apparently it had been a very long time since any customer didn’t find everything ok.  Stunned, silent and not properly trained what to say or do next, I let her off the hook before the moment became too horribly awkward and said, “It’s ok, you guys don’t carry such-and-such…” Completely relieved, the color came back to the girls face and she appeared youthful again before saying… “Oh, ok.”

The steady sound of scanning beeps placed me into a light trance. As I drifted in my thoughts, I began wondering what the poor girl was trained to do in these situations. Why would management place her in such a position? Let’s be realistic. Was the girl supposed to stop the checkout process, abandon her post and go find the item for me if indeed they actually had it? Or, what if she were to say, “Sir, it’s in aisle 23,” was I supposed to go run and get it or something? I could not find any scenario that made sense to either the store or the customer. The whole process was inconvenient and inefficient – for everyone.

Why do managers create customer service processes that help nobody? The original motivation may have been customer focused; however, in practice the process is an operational failure that has more chance at increasing customer dissatisfaction and confusion, rather than the opposite, intended effect.

Every customer service process needs to be tested thoroughly before being put into practice.  The case of “Did you find everything ok?” is clearly a customer service idea that was not thoroughly tested before being mandated. Are you testing and trying out all of the processes that you decide to put in place for your customers? Some of them may be so poor that they are the precise reason why you are losing market share.

If you are an executive, you may feel entitled to shortcut your own company’s processes in order to get faster, better service for yourself. By doing so, you short circuit any chance of discovering real hard-core customer service issues within your company. Take the time and follow the process. Be your company’s own customer. Find all of the little nuisances that add up to a lot in a customer’s mind and spearhead the necessary changes. Invite others to do the same and watch your business slowly transform into a truly customer-focused organization.

The 2010 Avaya Sales Conference is coming up this fall — Oct. 11-15, to be exact — in Nashville, TN. We’re going to be there; are you?