United Parcel First Class Service?

I have family in Australia, based all around Adelaide, and we still do small, oddball Xmas gifts. Modest, fairly trivial things such as Christmas Crackers (American readers, check the web to see what you are missing!) and in return I sent a Yosemite images DVD and, wait for it, Bear Poop (it’s a candy, actually) and an Alessi bottle opener (aren’t you glad you are NOT on my gift list?). The whole entourage was carefully packed and weighed in at under 2 pounds.

I head off to my local UPS store. The cost to ship, a little under $120!!!! I double checked, yup the price was ‘correct’. I declined. The parcel went US Mail for about $28.

It got me thinking though. I wondered how much a first class ticket is, surely it’s not as much (per pound) as that? So I checked, and on American Airlines it cost $12,395 and odd cents. So assuming a 200lb person, that’s $62 per pound roughly. My (slightly under) 2lb package was $120. So with a bit of rounding here and there, I conclude that UPS were intending to ship my package in first class.

Now I’ll bet you want to be on my Xmas list when I ship my packages.

Living Your Values

I’ve been a fan of Seth Godin’s blog for a long time. He speaks wisely and well.

But the point of this post is about living your values. Walking the Walk, and well as Talking the Talk.

I was fortunate to be involved in a (still closed) social network in support of Seth’s latest book “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” and there was, as you might expect, a local Bay Area group. We met at Apple’s HQ in Cupertino and chatted, ate pizza, chatted more. During the meeting the organizer said ‘I have a call from someone who can’t make it’.

Seth not only knew that this group was meeting (out of 5,000 participants in the network) but took the trouble to make sure he had the host’s number and called to congratulate and encourage us.

THAT is what living the values you espouse is all about.

Now, what does that mean for you? What will you DO differently?

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?????

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

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

Drinking Your Own Champagne

Starbucks & Peet’s – Compare & Contrast

We used to have this horrible expression ‘Eating your own dogfood“. I get what it is all about – do the people (marketers in my case) who develop and decide on product features ever use their own products? If they do, one would be driven to the conclusion (in the majority of cases) that they are very strange people indeed! So, I prefer the version in the title, but whatever we use as a phrase to describe it, it only works if marketers do indeed eat or drink of their product.

Where I grew up, in the North of England, I remember the wholesale destruction and rebuilding of the town where I spent my teenage years. The town centre was razed and built as a concrete monstrosity as were many of the Victorian era slums. I visited a friend in his mum’s shiny new place – a block of flats – and came away thinking ‘Would the guy who designed these actually want to live in them?’. 25 years later they were demolished as they had rapidly become the slums they were intended to replace – so much for the brave new world of our betters ‘knowing what we need’.

Back to my point, marketers (or architects!) need to build products and services that reflect the REAL needs and wants of customers, not those that THEY THINK they should have – or worse, deserve. I saw a quote from Steelcase’s CEO, James Hackett who asks in product planning pitches from his marketers ‘What customer insight drove this product feature’ (the articles in in Business Week) and goes on to describe the consternation that such a question caused at first.

I got here by my mind wandering – in the queue for coffee – to a ‘compare and contrast’ thought. I buy coffee from both Starbucks and from Peet’s regularly – and the experience is very, very different. It used to be simple: Peet’s had the best coffee. Starbucks had bathrooms, wireless, a place to sit – and Peet’s had none of these. Also the people (almost all of whom are FANTASTIC in either chain) are very different. More varied in Peet’s, a little edgier (for example, tattoos, piercings and interesting hair are widely evident in Peet’s, Starbucks much more ‘corporate’ though diverse). And Starbucks is all process and efficient flow through the store: Peet’s has an air of slight disorganization and chaos – but nice chaos. Finally, to go with the best coffee, Peet’s sells and grinds beans (I know Starbucks sell beans, but I get the impression that beans are about as important as the bears and the other stuff they clog the stores with) and you get the smell of cofee – none of that at Starbucks. I do hear that Starbucks has recognized the power of the smell of coffee and is working to reintroduce it!

Recently though, Peet’s started opening new stores that had bathrooms (only one mind you!), a limited amount of seating and a new layout. Which gets me to my point – eventually!

The new and refurbished stores have a long narrow format, with the counter on the right, stretching about 2/3 the length of the store. The line to buy goes down the left side of the store and people are called to be served by walking back towards the door. When they have given their order, they walk to the pickup which is at the BACK of the store and in doing so, they have to fight their way through the line that is waiting Oh, and to compound the problem, once the drink is collected, the sugar, milk, jackets, etc. are stored on a servery on the left wall – you guessed it, right by the head of the line! So now we have a huge scrum in the middle of the store and it creates absolute chaos.

The customers talk about – or more rightly ask ‘Why?’ whilst in line. A simple change that moves the waiting line to the right and then flows from the door to the pickup point (a la Starbucks!) would resolve the problem, but no, there is a sign and rope barrier to direct and corral any recalcitrant customer with a brain.

So back to our marketers; hopefully I’ve already established that the whole experience is important? And I’ve talked elsewhere about empowered employees in many posts here. So the customers know that the flow is braindead and inconvenient and, it turns out, so do the staff. My favorite server is Molly. I asked her one day why it was the way it was. She, and other staff, recognized the problem. But I didn’t get the impression that head office did! But why oh why don’t the staff (or manager!) take it upon themselves to ditch the system and move the line to the right? Go on Molly!

I did tell Molly that I was going to write about it in my blog; I promised to make her famous – but only on the proviso that she had to sign autographs! So, if you know your local Peet’s and there is Molly behind the counter, ask her for her autograph – she is a real superstar – and tell her I sent you!

In the meantime, I’ll wait for the new marketing manager (I see that Peet’s are advertising….) to make his or her mark. I wonder how long I will wait……..

{WOM, Brand, Customer Service, Product Management}

Technorati Tags: Brand, Customer Service, Marketing, Product, Product Management, User Experience, WOM

eFax Postscript

It turns out that eFax can actually cancel an account AND I discovered a credit on my credit card account – I assume for the two months it had left to run. Good job! But not enough to tempt me back….

{Product, Customer Service, WOM}

Brand, Customer Service, Product, User Experience, WOM

The eFax experience

I have been an eFax user for many years, and stuck with it even though it’s not a medium I use much nowadays – and more importantly nor do my clients. Email, Adobe’s PDF, messaging and devices like the Fujitsu Scansnap make fax – plus the fax spam that I get – a medium of the past.

As a smart marketer you would think that awareness of your products maturity or ‘ageing’ would be top of mind. You might do mid life enhancements or add services that keep the product relevant. Integrate it with other services or products perhaps?

Maybe it doesn’t look like that from the inside? Maybe eFax has a nice ‘annuity’ revenue from it’s existing base and it’s slow to recognize the problem I see? Maybe.

I stuck with eFax for the same reason many customers do with such services: – it was easier to just renew than to fill in complex forms about the spam, or to cancel for that odd time when I DID use fax. Then I got the price increase notice. Note to self ‘when you have a nice annuity revenue stream, don’t do anything to cause customers to question the service’.

So, being a good GTDer, I made myself a note to downgrade to free service, or to cancel. No urgency, just one of those fill in tasks to do when I was bored.

I was bored. I went onto the eFax web. No way could I find out how to cancel. Nothing in ‘My Account’. Nothing in FAQs (nobody will leave if you don’t tell them how, right?). Nothing.

eFax has one of these fancy ‘Talk to live operator’ facilities. I click the button. It opens a special window and i type in my question. Nothing. I get one with other tasks, type ‘Hello’ once in a while. 30 minutes later I give up.

But now I’m on a roll. This is reinforcing all the ‘ease of use’ issues that I had when starting up with eFax. But then you learn how to cope and they fade away. Now they are back – with a vengeance! There is a link to email sales, so I email them. “I wish to downgrade my account to the free version. If that is not available for any reason I wish to cancel. How do I achieve that?” The reply is “Customer Service don’t read these emails’ and an explanation of how to get help (the ones I had already tried).

My bad side was piqued I had to reply ‘Silly me! Fancy expecting sales to deal with a customer issue! Having sat on the end of your ‘talk to a live support person’ for over 30 minutes with no response, and no way to remove my credit card information from within my account it seems that customers cannot leave.”

No answer to date! Wouldn’t you read that as a red flag? I would. I did, every time I saw an email from a customer that looked even vaguely dischuffed (an English term – head for Google), I would leap in and regard it as a challenge to bring them back on board. Not Efax, no response was ever received. And even if it’s not a part of sales’ remit, wouldn’t you forward the email, or have someone call. As an aside, I ordered form Land’s End recently and pressed the ‘Call Me’ button and had a very smart and on the ball woman call me, literally within seconds. Compare and contrast.

I tried phoning and end up (many times) in auto response hell. I won’t go into how bad it is. Suffice it to say, it refers me back (after many branches) to the web site that I can’t make work.

Onwards! By now the bit was between my teeth. I had a hunch that the ‘talk to me’ may be to do with the fact that I was using Safari web browser on my Mac. I check the eFax web (the rest of the web appears to work fine, BTW) for a FAQ telling me to use Microsoft or some such – nothing. I download Firefox and install it on my Mac. I click ‘Talk to me’. Viola!

Progress, I get to ‘talk’ to someone at last. But my woes are not done yet. The person I’m talking to doesn’t ‘get’ my problem. They “cannot downgrade my account due to the architecture of their system”. Huh??? I should just get in touch when the annual agreement expires, and they will cancel it. The short version is that I was getting quite angry and told him to do whatever it took to cancel the account RIGHT NOW. There never was an attempt to understand WHY I was unhappy, if there was a way to fix it, if they could find a way to keep me.

So if I had stock in eFax, I would be ditching it very fast indeed. I’ll watch with fascination what happens. i do hope they wake up in time…..

{WOM, Bad Customer Service, Customer Service, Mac, Marketing, Product Management}

Technorati Tags: Bad Customer Service, Customer Service, Mac, Marketing, Product, Product Management, User Experience, WOM