We are REALLY sorry, now about that hard sell?

Some weeks ago I received the attached message and new credit card form Citicards:

I was not happy to hear that my personal data may have been compromised, but at least I live in a State that requires that a company tell me when such an event happens. In too many places that is still not the case and such an event can be quietly forgotten, more than six years after California became the first state to require such disclosure.

As usual, I’m required to activate the card by phone. I call and my home number is recognized and the activation proceeds smoothly. Till I get the message ‘Please hold for a representative.’ Oh, oh. It’s a cunning move as I can’t drop the call just in case the activation isn’t completed properly.

Turns out that there isn’t a problem with activation, but Citicard – in their misguided wisdom – want to do the hard sell on me. I’m pressured for additional services that I neither want or need. This in response to a major cock up in their systems and processes. Who on earth thought that ANY message other than a contrite apology for all the hassle that comes a credit card number change was a good idea?

Is that how you would treat your customer? I hope not. If one of my clients is ever in that situation my advice is to apologize, be contrite and ask what the company can do to make amends. Not to apply the high pressure sales tactics, with not so much as a ‘by your leave.’

And to add insult to injury, I can no longer download transactions from my Citicard account into Quicken which I use for my business and personal finances. 12 weeks later, I still can’t. ‘Customer Service’ tells me that they don’t know when it will be fixed.

Hey it’s only three months, for a feature that I’ve come to depend on. Fortunately, this is not a card I use a lot, so the volume of transactions can be hand entered, but it is a pain. And each time I have to do that for a monthly reconciliation, I’m reminded about the abysmal customer experience that Citicard makes me go through.

Compare and contrast with the customer experience at my other credit card – American Express – they have invariably done the right thing.

Citibank can send me as much marketing bumf and encouragement to spend. It won’t make me use their card, except when I have no alternative. Oh, and the last statement came with a notification that my APR is now 29+%!!!

Definitely feel like a valued customer!

So, how do YOU treat your customer when something bad happens? Do you go out of your way to make amends? And to make sure that each interaction thereafter reinforces the positives – and doesn’t keep rubbing salt in the sore wound?

Are you SURE?

It’s the Experience……

… that counts.

I was in Las Vegas for a client this week and they had booked the team into the Luxor (the Mandalay Bay where the trade show was, was full). As it happens I was driving – via the Mojave desert and a few days of photography on the way down, and Yosemite for more pictures on the way back (you can see the results at www.brearleyphoto.com) and so chose my arrival to coincide with a morning drive through the Mojave National Preserve. Big Mistake!

I got to the hotel at 12:05 and the line was huge – much worse than airline checkin. It took over 40 minutes to get checked in, and as I get to the head of the line, the usher pointed me to a clerk. I stood there for over three minutes whilst Amy completely ignored me and typed on the terminal. I get that she was completing something for the previous guest, but no greeting, no smile, no ‘I’m sorry, this is going to take me a moment’, I stood there, ignored whilst the people after me who were ushered to other clerks departed for their rooms. Eventually Amy turned to me. ‘I was busy’ was all I got.

It really is all about the people and their attitude to customers. It took four days and some exceptional experiences – such as the maintenance guy who fixed the internet and TV to appease some of the memory of checkin. Las Vegas is supposed to be ALL about the experience.

So I eventually get to my room, quite nice, roomy – but clearly not set up for a business traveller. The workable table has no power outlet within reach and when I power up my MacBook there is not a wireless to be seen. Hmmm. No Cat 5 cable or connector to be found. Hmmm. As part of the checkin conversation, I had mention that I needed an internet connection, surely that hadn’t been ignored too? I checked the directory in the room. No mention of internet. I call guest services. “There is a cable in the armoir, just pull it out and connect.”

There isn’t anything obvious, but I swivel the TV and root around and eventually, amongst the rats nest of wires, find a cat 5. I pull and get a six foot length of cable, and I find a connector box back there too, not connected to anything.

I connect everything and move my notebook to the small table by the bathroom where the cable will – just – reach if it is stretched across the room about a foot off the floor, and there is a power outlet close enough.

But eventually I get it all connected:

What a mess! I can’t get in and out of the room (or bathroom) without stepping over the cable. And the connection stops after 20 mins. The roaming maintenance guy I talk to offers to help and we quickly discover why the connector box was not connected – it’s faulty. We connect without the box – viola! He gets it replaced. He has restored some of my faith in the Luxor.

Can you give your customers away?

It’s funny how things come in waves. I talked a little while ago about Nordstrom’s attitude to customers when it sold off Faconnable. What impressed me was they wrote and asked me if they could transfer my information with the sale. I remain blown away by that.

So far this year I have had two similar, but not as well executed, examples. In the first, our long time CPA / tax preparer retired (rather suddenly and unexpectedly) due to ill health. The surprise letter also told us that ‘your records and information have been transferred to….’ and named an individual I had never heard of. I “could, of course, choose another preparer if you so wish.” I was also told that we would get a call from the nominated person to introduce themselves. That didn’t happen. What did happen was that the standard tax prep pack arrived.

I was furious. Was I a commodity to be handed around as someone wished? This of all relationships was the most personal and close to home – my entire financial data and life – was simply passed on to someone I didn’t know – and I was told after the event.

The second was that Broadway Ford, of whom I have written many times (most recently here), are going out of business after 70 years. One of the reasons I stuck with them – through not always smooth car issues – was that it was a small, family owned dealer. I got a (very) strangely written form letter – it didn’t say so, but I got the impression that they were being obliged to close down by Ford – which said that there were two alternative Ford dealers close by. One is more convenient than the other, but neither are well situated for me. Maybe it’s time for an independent who is convenient.

So I was very surprised to start getting mail from the inconvenient dealer within days. It hasn’t let up, so far about six of them. No call, no personal connection, no attempt to build a relationship. I’m just a commodity to be handed around. Why don’t US automakers get that service is the differentiator. My previous car, a Jaguar then also owned by Ford, had service that was just as bad.

And it’s sad, I spent the last week driving a Ford Explorer to and from Las Vegas. What a great car! I can see why people love them – and at 20c per mile on a rental (plus gas of course!) it was a great deal. I got over 19 mpg on the 1600 mile trip including highways and driving slowly and exploring around national parks on the way there and the way back. So the cars are impressive, the service not!

So, the lessons? Back to basics it seems to me.

Number ONE – the Golden Rules

Number TWO – execution is all. This is where I judge how well the policies are delivered to me, as the customer or user.

Execution is hard! Get the policy right, then execute, execute, execute.

P.S. Today, two weeks after Broadway closed it’s doors, I got a letter from them, advising me that my Ford is due for its 50,000 mile service and to bring it to them for service.

Ermmmm. Whoops! Ford, don’t you know you closed down that dealership?????

How do YOU treat YOUR trapped customers?

Since I set up in business on my own, I’ve had an office at my photographic studio. When I moved in, there was no phone or internet service, so I scouted around. In short, I went with Comcast, they had a deal on, $21 for six months and $45 thereafter (more on THAT later), which was much better than paying for a phone line plus DSL.

We had some installation issues (the installer turned up with no ladder – it wasn’t clear how they thought they would reach the existing wires on the poles to make the connection – but I laughed) and eventually the service was installed. A couple of glitches – isn’t it interesting how we have such low expectations that a couple of glitches are expected – and I’m working.

Lately though – at the one year anniversary interestingly, I’ve been getting drop outs and no internet. One day I had had no connection for over an hour. I called Comcast. No system problems they said. I still couldn’t connect, whilst talking to the support rep. ‘I can ’see’ your device’ she said. ‘Nope, I can’t get anything’. They insisted there was no problem, but I couldn’t get out. They suggested that I swap the cable from the wall to the modem ‘end for end’. I asked how that could possibly help – no answer.

I was getting frustrated, and asked what the options were. ‘We can send out a technician.’ Progress! Friday morning or afternoon (this is Tuesday). We established that really was the earliest – three days is very poor in my view. And I was due to be in Yosemite making pictures, so Monday it would have to be. We book for a 9-11AM slot.

I’m in a very happy frame of mind on Monday (Yosemite in winter is absolutely stunning), arrive at 8 to make sure that I have everything covered. I connect – the internet is working! I work away whilst waiting for the tech. I’ve cancelled my lunch appointment just in case.

By 12:30 no one has arrived. I call Comcast. I wend my way through the voicemail (the one that insists on requiring the phone number we do not posses as an identifier) and get to a technician. I enquire where the technician is. ‘What are the last 4 of your social?’ ‘Why do you need that?’ I ask. ‘I can’t release any account information without it’. ‘I don’t want any account information, I just want to know where the tech is that should have been here between 9-11.’

We go on with nonsensical security questions (not that security is nonsensical, but that it’s needed for such a query). We get through that (by this time I have been on the phone for over 10 minutes), to be told that the call was cancelled. I asked ‘By whom’. You, I’m told.

I bit my tongue and didn’t point out that I’d hardly be calling if I had cancelled the visit. I can hear Barbara ‘breeeeeath.’ I ask what the options are, ‘Is your internet connection working?’ I advise that it is. ‘Then there is no problem.’ I point out that I’m having consistent intermittent problems, which is why the etch was coming in the first place. I can send a tech, but you will be charged if he can’t find a problem.

By now ‘m fuming, no apology, no sign of sympathy. Just ‘it’s working now and if someone comes out we want money.’ More money – it turns out the $45 price tag is only available if you also take cable TV service. There is no way to get the advertised $45 service alone. But i gritted my teeth and stuck with it.

And here’s the point, I’m sure Comcast have me in that ’satisfied customer’ column on the tick sheet – after all I’m still a customer am I not? I am, but not because I’m delighted. Because the switching costs and alternatives are too hard, or expensive, or both. Or maybe I just know, deep down, that going to AT&T would not be any different. How sad.

Market pressure, you say. True. Sorta. I have Comcast at home and am resisting the HD upgrade (a jump I HAVE to make next year, the analogue services go away), but Copmcast want an additional $25 just to be able to receive HD (about a 22% increase on the monthly bill). So, I’m actively looking at going with satellite when we do move. So Comcast, you might have a tick in your customer column, but I won’t upgrade my TV service, I won’t take internet services from you at home, and, and……

To my learning point for you, dear reader. How many of your customers are with you because they are delighted? And how many of them are trapped because the alternatives are few and poor?
You may say you don’t care, you still have them. And I would argue two things: One, you WANT delighted customers talking about you, your products and services, that’s what builds sustainable business. Two, what happens when a viable, or just a little more attractive alternative comes along? They (customers) bolt, that’s what happens and you will NEVER get them back.

Which category are you in? Which do you want to be in?

Exceptional Customer Focus

I tried out Filemaker’s new personal database, Bento, and am not only delighted with the $49 product, but also the service and support.

All this in spite of some really, really horrible messups that would usually be reported here in much stronger terms.

The story:

I downloaded the preview version and was impressed enough to start on a household inventory (actually, I was sold the moment I could manage all my x years history in iCal – deleting only up to the start of 2006 and having it work perfectly – all from within Bento itself). The product is largely self evident (that is, you don’t need a user manual) and the forums and feedback was excellent to product requests, enhancement suggestions and cries for help. TSGal deserves a huge pat on the back for her work there (and a bonus!).

There were some howlers – the ‘Buy Now’ link resolved to a ‘page not found’ error. A killer for the marketing guy in me, even though this was beta software. There are still some of those (read on) in the released product.

I made a couple of suggestions and had questions (from TSGal) to clarify and feedback that my requests had been passed to the development team. Wow, a response! Score 1.

The initial release is announced and I sign up. Filemaker incurred my wrath for stupid (that is information that MAY be valuable to them, but that i should not be OBLIGED to disclose in order to buy) mandatory questions on the order form. For example, this is a personal purchase but the form would not let me proceed without entering a company (as an aside, MacWorld got a repeat of last years silly inputs to its sign up form again – this time the check in crew had a sense of humor and laughed at my company – MYOB). So I wrote ‘This is not a mandatory field’ in the company slot, and sure enough I was allowed to spend money.

I think there computer has a wry sense of humor though. My purchase completed, I scanned my email for the unlock key. Sure enough, it arrives. I enter my name, as requested, and my software key – carefully cut and pasted to ensure accuracy. Nothing. The unlock button stays stubbornly grey. I continue to use Bento in ‘Try’ mode.

I read the forums, sure enough I’m not the only one with problems. I carefully follow all the suggestions – the cause seems to be that those of us who used the preview version, then installed the trial to unlock were struggling. But that IS what we have to do. So I download the trial again, make sure I delete the old installation and install again (at least on a Mac this stuff is trivial and simple). Same result.

I read the forums, make an entry saying that I’ve done all that is suggested, and still had the problem. More suggestions, try them, comment on the forum. TSGal is there, with good suggestions. None of which worked for me. ‘Send me a private message with a number, dates and times our support can contact you’ says TSGal. Are they kidding? They’ll call me? I respond, and sure enough a great tech support person called me.

Turns out that the unlock mechanism didn’t want my name (I tried all the suggestions: use lower case throughout, use two spaces between first and last name, etc., etc.) at all. For some reason – that is still not clear – the registration mechanism wants the Company details, not my name. This is a bit of a surprise, as it’s supposed to be an optional field. So my software is now registered to ‘This is not a mandatory field’. Who says computers don’t have a sense of humor.

I’m a delighted customer. Really.

The lesson here is that our expectation is not for perfection (especially in beta software), but how a company reacts to correct a problem. Filemaker’s people were exemplary. They replied to posts on the forum, they took the problem and owned it, they called me (I still can’t believe that) and they laughed and treated me as a human whilst solving the problem. The support lady who called me said she would report the problems to the dev team. I believe her.

What an organization – represented by extraordinary people.

Apple, Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Mac, Marketing, Product, Service, User Experience, WOM

Respect!

I’ve been an admirer and customer of Nordstrom for many years and have always loved the service.

I’ve bought Faconnable clothes there and at the Faconnable flagship store in New York. I’d always suspected a strong connection between the two, as the receipts form the NY store (which is exclusively Faconnable) carried the Nordstrom name.

Nordstrom take their data about me and my privacy seriously it seems. Today I got an envelope containing a card and a prepaid (with a real stamp on it), addressed envelope.

The card explained that Nordstrom is selling it’s stake in Faconnable and that they want explicit permission (or not) for Faconnable to be able to send material to me. Only with this explicit permission will they transfer my details to Faconnable.

Why? Because ‘we respect the privacy of your personal information’

There are a few companies that could learn from Nordstrom. They are living the values that they espouse – even when there is little chance of it ever becoming public that such a transfer of data happened.

Well done Nordstrom!

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Service, User Experience, WOM

With good grace….

Happy New Year (singular, I am after all, a Brit. and we celebrate the singular not the plural!)

Subway has some great commercials around, and as part of my sensible eating regime (It IS a New Year) I have been walking from my office to the local Subway and back and buying the ‘Sub of the Day’. This is clearly a teaser, $2.99, to which they hope I add – chips, a drink, cookies, etc. to make the total sale significantly higher than the $2.99 starting point.

I understand the logic, there is an average value sale – that is higher than the teaser price – that the store needs to achieve in order to be viable. I emphasize that it’s an average value sale.

I make the point forcibly because there will always be some, for financial reasons perhaps, or for health reasons who do NOT add on items that would increase the sale closer to, or beyond, that magical average figure. I’m one. I decided that the amount of food in the small sandwich of the day was sufficient, I’m avoiding salt – so no chips – and I prefer coffee or tea. Once in a while – guilt perhaps – I’ll have a cookie, but they are not that great.

But here’s the rub. I don’t think I’m imagining the looks and surliness that results, I assume, from being a ‘minimum buyer’. So the risk is that I become a zero buyer; that is, I’ll seek out an alternative where I don’t feel the discomfort.

And the lesson? If you are going to offer a loss leader of any kind, by all means upsell if you can. But if you can’t, offer the item with a smile, with good grace and entice them back for more. I might just order Subway for my meetings rather than pizza. But only if I’m comfortable.

Brand, Customer Service, Marketing, Service, User Experience

KQED the last word?

It’s interesting how much I enjoy the programming of NPR and how much I abhor the commercial / process side of what has become a large, impersonal, disconnected corporation.

I keep ‘making allowances’ and finding excuses on KQED’s behalf, and then they work extra hard to show that they are totally disconnected. This is my last, last, last post on the KQED topic.

So, my last word? Just after I got the last communication from KQED (which said to check my credit card statement for a refund, despite the fact that a check was included), I got another letter. This one (received at the end of November) said, in part and paraphrased, ‘Thank you for your pledge of February 23rd……. due to a problem charging your credit card….’

I rolled my eyes, sighed and then burst out laughing – laughing in that belly laugh way that happens just once in a while.

The letter writer’s title? “Total Quality Control Coordinator.”

Back to sighing and shaking my head.

Bad Customer Service, Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Media, media, User Experience, WOM

Discount or not?

Peet’s has a great system for its coffee card; when you put at least $20 credit on it, you get a $1 discount. Not much, but a token that, at least for me, is a good way of saying ‘Thanks’.

However, adding credit at the same time as buying coffee seems fraught! I’m not sure whether it is basic arithmetic skills (or lack thereof) or some problem of the processes. Let me elucidate; I usually discover that I need to add credit to my card when it is short of the amount to pay for my coffee. Seems straightforward, but it never is. For example, I’m short, say $2.35; I’ll say “please add another $30 as well”.

Simple? Apparently not. I have had all variations: they add $30, then take the $2.35 from the card: they give me two credit card slips, one for $30 and one for $2.35: I get a credit card slip for the total of $30 plus the items I bought – so what happened to the amount that was on the card before they tried to charge it (“We put it back on the card”). And so on.

It seems simple to me to do what is requested, but I admit to having grown up in a corner store – and we worked the counter with the rest of the family – and so, doing the change equation in my head was a basic skill. And doing it under pressure of an awkward customer too!

But I gave in. So this time I bought my coffee and then, separately, added $20 to my card. “So you’ve added $21?” I ask. “No”, he says, “you only get the discount if you add money when buying coffee.”

Huh??????

Give him his due, he did immediately give me the card for $1 off my next purchase.

But what a weird and wonderful system………….

And, in case you think I’m picking on Peet’s, I’ve had most of the problems with my Starbucks card too. Including, this week, when I was told there was no credit on the card. I NEVER carry a zero value card, so I know it’s wrong. But what can I do? The manager said “Register the card.” I asked if she had tried – I have and gave up. I was registering it as there were free iTunes for doing so – so I was very motivated. But the web form would not accept the data it was asking for….. No matter what I did.

She assured me that if I called “they” would help me and were very good. I haven’t done so, but will report back when I have plucked up the calm to go through this!

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Product Management, Service, User Experience

Merrill Lynch and security…….

I have had this love hate relationship with Merrill for some years. I went to them after a long and arduous search to find an advisor and money manager who seemed capable, professional and we wanted to work with. We met, and liked Len in the San Francisco office and we gradually built a portfolio that made sense for me, and met every six months or so to check in, chat and see how we were doing against plan.

Of course, it would have been nice if Merrill, as a global player, could manage my UK assets as well as my US ones – but no I had to be treated as a separate client in each country and to meet their minimum asset requirements in each. Now I’m not rich, but a absolutely get Charles Schwab’s advertising that talks to helping people who have “only $100K”. I’m sure that they are targeting Merrill – as I have heard that refrain a number of times over the years.

Back to Len. He was the epitome of an advisor. He cared, he gave advice that was right for me – or at least I always felt so. Then one day I get a letter that as part of a Merrill rationalization I wouldn’t have a personal advisor anymore, I could call an 800 number to transact my business. Inertia is the saviour of many businesses, and that’s true in this case. It has just been too much hassle to move things, but maybe it is time. I haven’t transacted any stock business with Merrill since Len as they didn’t talk to me for a couple of years. Then they woke up, I could have an ‘account review’, by phone of course. I did, and on both occasions it was just a hard sell for Merrill funds – despite (as I pointed out) the poor ratings that they get from most sources. No assessment of the stocks I held – whether they were still relevant, the mix of assets, etc, etc. Just ‘we recommend this fund’.

More recently I got bored with sending checks between accounts and wanted to do electronic transfers. ML’s web has always been hard to traverse and their electronic access been convoluted in my view, so I didn’t use it (one of the very few financial relationships I have that isn’t managed via the web and/or Quicken), but hey the sent me a letter saying that I could do this so I called the guy. I had to fill in paper forms, send a check for the account that I wanted to link to. All of which I did (grudgingly, Paypal can sign me up and verify my account without any of this paper going back and forth). Nothing. I call, and Brian was very good – the duplicate paperwork was shipped overnight with a return, pre-paid, courier envelope. I get an acknowledgement that the paperwork is in place and I STILL have to call to activate the link!

So I do, I have a 10 digit account code that bears no relation to anything else (not my account code, not anything….), I complain that it’s not memorable. Oh your browser will store it, so you don’t need to remember it, I’m told. Very secure! Then the password. Six characters. Not at least six, but exactly six. I’m pretty good at using passwords, not writing them down etc. I use a mechanism that enables me to remember HOW to get to the password, rather than trying to remember the word itself. That’s hard when you are constrained to exactly six characters.

So, the bottom line is, there is a lot of friction in doing business with ML. And it is not friction that makes me feel like the security has a benefit for me. My frustration is increased and I continue to do more business with others – most of my stock trades are through Ameritrade and I use Amex and Paypal more and more. And the more I do, the more I like them.

Brand, Customer Service, Marketing, Product Management