Standing Out From The Crowd

Today I’ve learned two important lessons:

1. Some habits are forced upon you and others are very hard to give up.

2. If you are doing something different from everyone else, you are either remarkable or just plain dumb.
 

If I’d knew that this morning, it would have completely changed my day…

Having lived my whole life in a tropical country, I find very difficult to remember to turn on the TV everyday to see the weather forecast before leaving to work.  In my mind, it should be enough to check it once a week.

(Matter of fact, I still have the habit of looking outside the window to “guess” the weather for the day).

Here in Chicago, the forecast was for a huge snowstorm, so unless one had a “life or death” kind of appointment, every wise person stayed at home and waited to see what Mother Nature would decide to throw our way. Well, I didn’t.  Nothing was said about a storm on the day before yesterday’s forecast, and my window guess told me that the snow outside didn’t appear to be that bad, so I ventured out and faced the road.

After driving for 15 minutes, I could already tell that it wasn’t going to be a fun trip. It was slick and slushy, not a single snowplow in sight, and the wind was starting to blow - HARD.  I could see many people turning back, but I am not one to give up easily, so I thought: “Everything will flow after I get to the highway…”

The highway came and the traffic slowed to almost a stop.  Still, not a single snowplower in sight.  The maximum velocity was about 15mph.  The road was extremely slippery and the only way to keep driving straight was to stay precisely on the tracks left by the car before you.

All that white around didn’t help alleviate my feeling of sleep deprivation and anxiety.  I had no idea how long it would take to get to work or if the storm would still go on for hours. Other cars started to stop in the curb or look for the exit to go back.  I kept thinking that everything would be all right if I just insisted for another ten miles and, in the end, I found myself turning back after 2.5 hours without even reaching half way to my office. 

Almost 5 hours after leaving my home, I was back.  I didn’t reach my destination and didn’t accomplish anything at all for first half of my day.  I went on a road trip to nowhere for no apparent reason.  On hindsight, I could have worked from the comfort of my home, attended to any meetings via conference call.  It might not be ideal, but would definitely be a better experience.

Like me in that story, customers sometimes are slow to react to a bad experience.  By pure habit, they hang on to a bad service for longer than anyone would consider possible.  But that’s an illusion!  If you ignore a customer experience problem until your customers start to leave, you may be waiting too long and now the damage may be irreversible, or just too expensive to fix.

Don’t make a habit of overlooking your customers’ complaints and suggestions.  If you ignore the signs around you, chances are that you’re going the wrong way.

By the way, tomorrow morning, before leaving, I plan to open my window, take a good look outside… and turn on the TV!

In my last post (”Welcome Back! Long Time, No See“), I commented on how face-to face interactions are being affected by the reliance on technology, subsequently missing real customer relationship development opportunities. After posting it, I realized that it wasn’t very fair. Technology and CRM tools can be useful for improving the Customer Experience in real world situations with creative implementation. So I decided to devote a few brain cells towards imagining some scenarios that could be implemented with today’s tools and technology.  Here is what I came up.

Grocery Stores:

After a busy day at the office, Beth (our imaginary customer) is driving home when she decides to stop by the store for some groceries.

On entering the store, she goes directly to the first available Customer Service Kiosk and, having forgotten her “Preferred Client” card, uses her index finger to log in. The system shows Beth her current shopping list with her son’s wish list, added earlier at home over the Internet. The system offers Beth some interesting new products fitted to her needs and a list of personalized coupons. She then prints out her shopping list and coupons, sorted by the store’s aisle layout so she won’t have to backtrack.

As she shops, a chip embedded in Beth’s cart stores her information and a wireless device indicates her location in the store.

Beth is speeding through her list until she notices that one item is out of stock. Of course, the list shows several recommended substitutions for the missing item, but Beth is not sure which to choose.  She decides to ask for help and presses a Customer Help button on her shopping cart. A nearby attendant, alerted by an automated text message on his two-way radio, approaches her.

“Good evening, Ms. Johnson, It is good to have you back!” says the attendant.
“Are you by any chance wondering about a substitution?”

“Oh yes, thank you!  I was looking for a dandruff shampoo for my husband, but his favorite brand is out of stock,” she tells him.

“Not a problem!” He swiftly picks up his hand computer and downloads her list and shopping history. “We have several other good brands, but I see here that your husband bought ACME shampoo the last time he was here. Was he happy with that purchase?”

“Yes, I think he said he still preferred the other one, but this brand was ok,” she says.

“If you like, I can get one for you. If not, I personally think this other brand here is very good. It’s a little more expensive, but it is more effective,” he adds.

“Oh, thanks! I will try that one,” Beth decides.

Satisfied with her choice, Beth walks towards the checkout and a small display on her cart indicates which cashier has the shortest line. At the checkout, the smiling cashier greets her with a “Hi Ms. Johnson, did you find everything you needed?” while quickly scanning her purchases. As the cashier thanks her, she adds, “Did you know that you can call us ahead of time and have your whole list ready for you by the time you arrive?”

She didn’t know that, but she is already considering doing that the next time she shops.

. . .

Forget all the Sci-Fi movies’ wildest predictions (although Minority Report has an interesting take on possible future customer experiences), the example here is imagined, but quite feasible with today’s technology. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is already doing something like it already. 

Are you? 

A few days ago, I was reading a Tom Vander Well’s blog post titled “When Customers are Co-Workers” on QAQnA.

The article reminded me of someone I met a few years ago. She worked in the research department of a big global company and after complaining to me once too often that no one valued her work, I offered her advice on customer experience tactics. I was rewarded with the retort, “I don’t need any of this, because I don’t deal with customers!”

Then it hit me… She didn’t understand her work as providing a service to several other departments in her company.  No wonder her co-workers didn’t respect her work; she never considered them her customers and her work reflected that.

The blog author suggests that you should think of co-workers as customers, but I will go even farther and say that you should think of everyone as your customer.

Think about it!  You are always providing some type of service to someone. Your boss, your co-workers, your friends, your wife, your kids - absolutely everyone - in one way or the other, expect something from you.  It doesn’t matter if you are more than happy to give them what they want. They often count on it; they frequently demand it and most of all they will resent it if you fail to meet their expectations. But if the service you provide is good enough for them the majority of the time, they will remain with you and will pay you back in your desired currency: friendship, love, trust or respect.

Customer experience tools can be applied to everything in your life. The lesson is pretty simple: If you really care for your customers and make a sincere effort to understand their expectations, they will love you for that and will be loyal to you while you are loyal to them.

I still remember the first time I witnessed a user testing session.  It was a simple project, the type we were recognized for our expertise and could almost consider effortless.  On this one though we were very enthusiastic about some cutting edge functionalities that would, supposedly, make the site at least twice as easier to use.  We entered the session confident, waiting for the user’s reaction and certain compliment.

Well, as you can imagine, the user didn’t even notice the new feature and, after obtaining the same results from all other participants, we ended the test concluding that we had failed and went back to the drawing board.

Two months, much stress, several extra tests, and an oversized budget later, we finally discovered the cause of the problem: users couldn’t understand the terms we used to label the new functions, so they were just ignoring them…  The reason it took us so long to realize this, was that we were so used to those terms that nobody considered it would be incomprehensible for a “newbie”.

In the end, we were able to fix the problem, but our relationship to the client (not to mention our self-confidence) was never the same again.  The most interesting part though is that we didn’t test the project earlier because the client was resolute not to spend his time and budget with tests before the site’s launch.

The whole problem could have been prevented by a simple user testing on an earlier stage of the project. 

In a way, it was a good thing.  Now I avoid being too self-confident or believing that something will work just because everyone in my group thinks so. And, most of all, now I insist on testing everything (or at least ask some newbie friend to give me a fresh perspective).

See below some more information on the subject:

• Beware of design fatigue on long projects
• We are barring many from the web 

“Orkut, Linkedin, Friendster, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Digg…”  The list grows bigger and bigger each day.  And I am not even close to covering all the other websites and e-commerce venues that offer some kind of social networking feature to improve sales and/or increase references.

With all the buzz around them, do social networking services work? Definitely.  Do they work for everyone? Definitely NOT!

As with all things Internet, what works for some sites may not necessarily work for yours.  Without careful analysis and planning, you may end up investing time and money in features that won’t add value to your product or that none of your customers will use.  Or even worse, you may find yourself basing major decisions on input from a very small percentage of customers that does not accurately represent the needs of a bigger target audience.

In his last column, ‘Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute’, Jakob Nielsen asserts that “In most online systems, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action”.

See the column’s full text here.

With so much talk around Web Usability, it is easy to forget that Usability is a much broader concept and can be applied to almost everything.
 
By definition, Usability is the easy with which people can employ a tool or human made object to achieve a particular goal. 

Lately, this definition has expanded to include the effectiveness and efficiency with which users can achieve tasks in a particular environment.

In other words, you are surrounded by usability examples.  Some as complex as the computer in front of you, some as simple as your coffee mug.  Everything around you can probably be measured for its usability. Most can still be improved.

Signal vs. Noise posted today a very interesting entry about Casino Usability.  Even considering all observed flaws to the posted information (check Hunter’s comment), the discussion itself already makes the point of how usability could and should be applied beyond the internet.

Maybe I am a pessimist, but I think many companies today focus all their efforts and budgets on projects that don’t solve their main problem. They wait too long to realize when they need specialized help. It’s like being concerned with making dinner while the house is on fire. You don’t call 911 until the whole house has burned down. Do you think the firemen can help you now?

If you work in a corporate marketing department with more than 1,000 customers, you probably spend your days looking for creative ways to obtain new customers and increase revenue. Doubtless, you’ve read at least one Customer Experience article lately and you agree that the best way to keep your customers is to improve customer interactions to meet their expectations. However, all your annual budget and goals are directed to acquire new customers, not retain current ones.

What most companies fail to understand is that the road to credibility and profit lies in devoting at least some of their investment and attention to Customer Experience. The numbers confirm this: It costs 10 times less to maintain a customer than to obtain a new one. It also costs 10 times more to recover one lost customer.

So now, all you have to do is get a holistic view of your customers, evaluate all their interaction points with your company, and implement a strategy that would be valid across all channels. Shift your perspective. It may sound overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.

There are two ways to get hold of the idea and change how you approach your business:

1. Step-by-Step
   • Improve the Customer Experience in small projects. Look for low hanging fruit
   • Constantly review and gradually expand the scope — as you measure results
2. Top-Down
   • Gather related data and numbers
   • Show the merits of customer-centricity to top management
   • Implement a company-wide Customer Experience strategy

Either way, you must realize that the fire is already burning. The market is changing. Customers are becoming more demanding and savvy. Companies are speeding up to adapt and you cannot risk being left behind. It’s a mindset change but it just takes the effort to look at things from a different angle. Refocus how you use your marketing budget. Think about how you’ll see a better return on your investment as you grow your business.

Don’t wait for others to make their move. Most of all, don’t wait for your customers to make their move! Call 911!

*Originally published in May 19, 2006 at http://www.voxinc.com/customer-retention-shift-your-perspective.htm

When I was a kid, I was the one who would dismantle mom’s new blender to see how it worked… Sometimes, I would even put it back together again. Then, I grew up and became a computer geek. No surprise there, but the point is: I am proud of knowing how electronic equipment works and for being able to assemble anything on my own. So, when I call some 1-800 number for technical support (especially Comcast’s), I really believe I have narrowed down all possibilities on my side of the line.

Unfortunately, there is where my trial by fire begins. Call Center people always talk as if I’d never seen a TV or a cable box before. Then they start to spit their meticulously scripted sentences to me from the beginning. Even if it is the fifth time I am calling that day! That’s when I get the feeling of being some kind of robotized, standardized, and minimalized audience. Not at all special, or worst: not any different from anyone else.

I can understand that they prepare themselves to deal with people that are even afraid of touching the TV, but 1-800 numbers should be able to identify the customer’s profile and offer different strokes for different folks. At least, they should be able to verify that it is not the first time someone is calling for the same reason and drop some lines off the script. A simple attitude change probably would be enough to gather the customer’s appreciation, a more effective support, and less time spent on the line for both sides.

“Not all customers are equal”. Everyone should already know that. I just hope it doesn’t take to long now, because I am still waiting on the line.

Several shocking security breaches, compromising the personal data of millions of customers, have been reported lately.
Below are just a few of the most flagrant cases:

- Chase trashes 2.6M customer files
- Second Lifers’ ‘first life’ hacked
- Wells Fargo leaks personal data
- AT&T deceptive on data theft

What amazes me about these breaches is not only the scope and impact of the leaks, but the way in which they occurred. Most of them have been caused by an improper use of data by employees (like the now infamous case of the US Department of Veteran Affairs). Others were caused by losing control of how personal data was handled by companies’ partners or vendors. Chase’s customer data was mistakenly thought to be trash and thrown out. Quite a treasure trove for identity thieves.

Although most corporate reactions to leaks have improved by becoming more forthcoming and transparent, the breaches are still a huge blow to costumers’ trust. How can anyone believe a website’s Privacy Policy or the company’s Safety Statement when such egregious security gaps abound.

Transparency is good, critical even, but is not enough. Sooner or later, companies will have to start taking security lapses seriously. And it better be sooner, because as the saying goes: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

I always understood that it can be difficult to please a customer, but I never gave much thought about why. Seth Godin has some curious insights though on that matter in two of his recent blog entries: What People Want and The Thing About the Wind.

My two cents to companies: Listen very carefully to your customers and understand them as if you were in their shoes. Without that, you may be catering to your customers’ every whim without ever giving them what they really want.