Independent Thinking » Customer Service

Your Customers Are Not Morons

Daria Steigman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:02:29 +0000

This should be obvious, right?

[Insert BIG SIGH here.]

There’s a lot of talk these days about “empowered consumers” and what this means for companies. It’s an issue for pricing and sales, and for what consumers want and expect from the brands we interact with.

We have more information than ever a mouse click, search term, or social scroll away.

There’s a big gap between the empowered consumer and many sales and customer service teams.

Case in point. I was shopping around the other day for information on Internet service providers. Mine has been very reliable–but the price has gone up astronomically. So here’s how the conversations went.

1. Existing provider said they felt my pain. Customer service agent put me on hold for a couple of minutes while he (maybe) went off to see if he could give me a different service or a better price point on this one. Came back and spouted a company line about having only one speed of service and that I was paying the standard rate for that. I told him I was going to cancel. Said he would be sorry to see me go.

The rate I was paying was $7 over the highest rate listed on the company’s Web site. The base rate was 40% lower than what I was paying.

2. Prospective company’s sales guy wants to know what I’m paying now. Not relevant, I reply, I want to know what options you offer. Sales guy asked what provider I have now. (Nice try, same answer.) Then he starts talking about bundled new services–which I say is not what I’m asking about either. Finally, he quotes me a price.

The price he quotes me is 25% higher than the rate listed on the company’s Web site. And it’s for completely unbundled service–and I already have one service through this company.

They must think we’re morons.

Clearly, companies have a long way to go in understanding how the Internet–let alone social platforms–impacts the business/customer relationship.

Photo by macinate (Flickr).

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Are Your Customers Feeling the Love?

Daria Steigman — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:48:57 +0000

We talk a lot about connecting with customers (and clients, prospects, and so forth)–but are they feeling the love? In other words, are they connecting with us?

These are not the same thing.

What a Two-Way Connection Looks Like

I’ve always highly valued my University of Chicago education. And I’m the second generation to earn a degree there (my mom was first), and then my brother followed me. But other than sending me an alumni magazine, the only time I ever heard from the university was when they wanted money.

(Except for the awesome local U of C Entrepreneurs Group, but I’ve always viewed that more as a business group than a university group.)

Now, thanks to, UChicagoAlumni, I feel connected to the institution.

It’s not about a Twitter feed. It’s Tracey Swanson (the voice of UChicagoAlumni), who gets that talking to people (conversation), listening to them (he honored my request to change how he identified my affiliation with the university when retweeting me), and valuing what they’re doing (he shares the occasional blog post from here with his audience) are critical in forging a two-way connection.

What are you doing to ensure your customers are engaged with you?

Photo by Worthy FM (Flickr).

4 Lessons From the Shakespeare Theatre About Valuing Customers

Daria Steigman — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:04:16 +0000

I’ve talked before about how brand loyalty isn’t eroding (we’re just saving our loyalty for where we feel valued). Today I’m doing to share four lessons from an organization that just doesn’t get it: The Shakespeare Theatre.

Lesson #1: People are more likely to donate if they feel connected to you.

In 20 years, the Shakespeare Theatre only called me to ask for money. No one called just to find out how I liked my subscription, whether I had any concerns, or even just to say “thank you.” They never held a subscriber-only Q&A with cast members (at least they never invited me), or sent t-shirts, mugs, or even bookmarks to mark milestones (e.g., 10-year subscriber!), or any of the little things that say “we appreciate your business.”

Lesson #2: People are more likely to donate if they feel their donation matters.

The organizations that get donations from me year after year are the ones where I understand where my money’s going and that it’s getting good bang for the buck. Feeding America, for example, states upfront that “your gift makes a big impact–every dollar you donate helps provide 8 meals to families struggling with hunger.” The Shakespeare Theatre’s individual contributions page lists as a reason, “The incomparable Michael Kahn.” Huh? That would be like me setting up a foundation and listing “Daria Steigman’s running it!” as a reason to give.

Lesson #3: You need a CRM system that codes for quirkiness.

This year, I transferred my tickets to the friends who have been using most of the tickets over the last 2-3 years. (They’re good seats. We wanted to keep them “in house.”) I’ll probably go to one play, maybe two. But since the account is no longer in my name, the Shakespeare Theatre called me three times in rapid succession to ask about renewing. The first time I explained that I’d transferred the tickets. The second time I explained it again. The third time I told them to stop calling. “This season?” they asked. “No. Forever.”

Lesson #4: There’s a difference between subscribers and people who subscribe.

The first one is about numbers and dollars. The other is about, well, people. Savvy organizations know that the best way to guarantee the first is to truly value the second.

Photo by Mark Hillary (Flickr).

The Problem with Form Letters

Daria Steigman — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:04:42 +0000

Is personalization really that hard?

I received the following letter the other day:

Dear Valued [name of organization] Member,

Please excuse this form letter, but it is an inexpensive way for us to let you know that your membership is up for renewal. We wanted to be sure you have the opportunity to receive all the benefits of membership without interruption…

Excuse me, but if you really wanted to save time and money you could have sent an e-mail.

Form letters are lazy. Form letters without a hint of personalization send the message that you can’t be bothered to actually talk to people.

This is how you value me?

My friend Shonali Burke had a great blog post the other day about bad business pitches. At least those are from strangers.

The organizations you do business with should at least know your name.

What do form letters say to you?

Photo by Alan O’Rourke (Flickr).

From Apology to Enchantment

Daria Steigman — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:09:25 +0000

There are very few Soup Nazis in business.

In other words, most of us have to provide good customer service to be sucessful. You can screw up and recover–companies do it all the time. But how many use the opening to move from apology to enchantment?

Stubhub did this the other day.

The online ticket seller’s Web site went down for a few hours, leaving sellers unable to sell. I knew the site was having glitches, but I had not realized the extent of the problem. But Stubhub did.

A couple of days later, unprompted, I received an email from Stubhub that showed me they understand their customers:

On Friday, our Web site experienced periodic downtime due to database issues, which continued into the late afternoon Pacific time. We worked as quickly as possible to fix the problem and restored functionality Friday evening.

We know you depend on our site–and that you need it to be up and running without problems like this. We also know you can list your tickets elsewhere. We need to do better to keep your business.

But they didn’t stop there:

To express our gratitude for your patience, we’ve added a FanCode to your StubHub account. Your [$30] FanCode is valid for one year, so you can use it anytime between now and September 13, 2012… We’re really sorry for the frustration and confusion that Friday’s Web site issues caused you. We take this seriously and are continually working to make our site experience better. We hope you’ll accept our apologies.

I have no idea whether the glitch cost me money. Neither does Stubhub. But rather than try to figure it out (or wait for me to ask the question), the company shifted the conversation from frustration to enchantment.

What’s Your Sweet Spot?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:04:44 +0000

I was watching Restaurant Impossible the other day. It’s a show about a chef who works to help turn around failing businesses.

In two days.

This is reality TV, so one presumes the producers vet and select restaurants where the business issues are so blatant that a few tweaks (and a decor redesign) can make a big difference. And that’s the point: the difference between failure and success often boils down to whether or not you understand your core business.

You have to know your sweet spot.

In the episode I watched, Irvine asked the two owners of the Off Street Cafe to name the five bestselling items on their very lengthy menu. Each correctly identified only two. Because they didn’t understand what their customers wanted, they were wasting money on inventory that was used infrequently (or, perhaps, not at all). And even frozen food has a limited shelf life.

The restaurant also had major service issues that were driving customers away.

You need to know what your business does best–and you need to know what your clients, customers, and prospects believe you do best. And what they need (i.e, the market landscape). If you don’t have the data to back up what you’re doing, you’re pretty much throwing your money away.

Do you know your sweet spot?

Photo by Shauna Young Dessert Tables (Flickr).

Why Upselling is Unnecessary

Daria Steigman — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:54:45 +0000

Upselling is a really dumb strategy. Instead of pressuring people into buying something they don’t want (and often don’t need), why not just wow them?

If you do customer service right, your customers will buy more. Maybe not this visit, but they’ll come back. And they’ll tell their friends too (word of mouth marketing anyone?).

I was in my local Best Buy the other day for help with a quirky computer problem. Alec, the Geek Squad guy, fiddled with the settings for a little while and succeeded in stopping my system from asking for an imaginary security code every time I tried to log into a public wifi network.

While talking with Alec, I noticed a flyer for one of Geek Squad’s services: home wifi set-up. Not only does it includes the hardware, but they also throw in several months of tech support. My parents are looking at (finally) getting wifi; until I saw this, I thought I was going to set it up for them. Now I have a better Plan A.

Just by wowing me with kindness, they’ve sold me on something bigger without “upselling.” Plus I’m sharing my story.

Photo by hortulus (Flickr).

Is Your Business Responsive?

Daria Steigman — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:05:57 +0000

When I moved into my condo, it took me a couple of months to find a tile guy to replace my kitchen floor. The job was “too small,” one contractor flat out said to me.

When I was writing articles for an insurance company, two brokers and one attorney (the company’s contacts) kept agreeing to phone interviews and blowing me off. “They’re hard to nail down when they’re busy,” sighed my client.

When a friend was looking for a company to build a fence, one contractor showed up nearly an hour late (with no “heads up” call) just to write an estimate.

When another friend was looking for a handyman, she waited two weeks for a callback because the guy came highly recommended. She hired someone else.

Hubspot recently pointed to data from Harvard Business Review that found:

Companies that try to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly 7 times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers as firms that try to contact prospects even an hour later. Yet only 37 percent of companies respond to queries within an hour.”

While not everyone needs to have a 60-minute window, every business has to be responsive.

Customers have choices. I wonder how many of the folks my friends and I contacted are still in business today.

Is your business responsive?

Photo by Darwin Bell (Flickr).

3 Ways to Strengthen Customer Experience Online

Daria Steigman — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:05:30 +0000

I heard Linda Ireland speak last week about how to strengthen the customer experience on social media platforms. A key point she made during the MarketingProfs Webinar is that customers are demanding–to be heard, authenticity, speed, support, interaction, reaction–and you’d better be ready to meet their needs.

Ireland also walked through 10 tips for connecting more effectively with your customers. My top three takeaways:

1. Know which platforms work best when. A blog can be a great way to connect with prospects or to educate existing customers with ongoing or evolving needs, but it’s probably not the best platform for addressing customer service issues. The more you understand where your customers are in their buying cycle and how they interact, the more proactively you can plan where you should be engaging with them.

2. Customer experience is about what happens AND how customers feel. Ireland’s point: you (the business) impact both.

3. Focus on your customers, not your competitors. Ireland glossed over this at the end of her presentation, but I think it’s the most important takeaway. Too many companies are so busy worrying about what the competition is doing that they forget why customers interact with their brand in the first place. Don’t imitate. Instead, create your own customer experience.

What’s your top tip for strengthening the customer experience online?

Photo by lulu (Flickr).

How To Build a Thriving Corporate Culture

Daria Steigman — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:59:44 +0000

Zappos has nothing on the Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Just watch The Parking Lot Movie, a funny, fascinating documentary that debuted at SXSW 2010. It has everything: class-ism, culture, hiring people you trust, empowering your employees, “corporate” culture, and building your tribe.

Seriously: Find it. Watch it. It’s an instructive look at a lot of workplace concepts we talk about a lot but don’t see much in action.

Photo Credit: Attendant Corey Gross with Parking Gates, by Jon-Philip Sheridan and Alexandra Miller.