Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Which organization is likely to go out of its way for customers, a for-profit business in a very competitive marketplace, or a government bureaucracy charged with catching bad guys?
It depends.
It depends on the individual employees who are interacting with customers. It’s about the people, not the institution.
Read a story in today’s newsletter that shows how close enough for government work can sometimes be closer than you might think … as long as an individual person takes the initiative to look out for the customer.
Posted in Brand Harmony, Customer Encounters, Wisdom from everyday life | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
In our current marketplace, trust is not enough to win you customers. You have many trustworthy competitors.
However, the slightest chink in your “trust-armour” can lose you customers. Here’s an example:
I have been a loyal customer of Orbitz for a number of years, creating a near-reflexive habit of going to orbitz.com when I need to book travel. Each time I use Orbitz I am offered the chance to click a box and purchase travel insurance, which I never do.
I noticed three travel insurance charges on my credit card bill, related to three international reservations I had booked. When I called Orbitz they said it was too late to remove these charges since the travel dates had passed. “But I never selected travel insurance” did not seem to be a plausible objection to them.
With the agent on the phone I walked through a couple of “mock” reservations, and learned that for international reservations travel insurance is pre-selected, and you need to opt-out if you don’t want it.
What a bait and switch. For years I’ve been given the choice on Orbitz whether I want travel insurance, and then they sneak it in when I book international tickets. My brand impression of Orbitz changed immeditately. It went from “hassle-free/always-works/I-can-count-on-them” to “I better keep my eyes open from now on because they will try to take money from me when I am not looking.” We went from a We relationship to a definite Us & Them relationship.
Don’t ever be tempted to sneak something by your valuable customers. For about $100 Orbitz lost most of the trust I had in them. Making money in this way is a great example of “bad profits.”
Posted in We relationships | 8 Comments »
Monday, August 17th, 2009
(My usual caveat: This is not a customer service story. It is a relationship-building-encounter-missed-opportunity story. Much more interesting. Bad customer service stories have become boring.)
I had just arrived in San Antonio the evening before a speech, flying back to the states from overseas. I walked down the beautiful San Antonio Riverwalk and found a restaurant for dinner. The waiter brought the obligatory bowl of salsa and basket of chips.
“Is it possible to get a few corn tortillas instead of the chips?” I asked. “I don’t want to eat anything fried, but I’d love to have something to eat with the salsa.” My body clock was still wound 8 time zones ahead, and I could sense that any food that had been fried in oil would cause an immediate and significant increase in the effects of jet lag.
“Hmmm,” the waiter said, pondering his options. “I have to ask the cooks for the tortillas, and I’ll probably have to charge you for them.”
“Do what you can,” I answered.
A few minutes later he brought me two soft corn tortillas, and asked, “Have you decided what you like to order?”
What a missed opportunity.
I told him something very specific about me – that I didn’t want to eat fried food. This was a gift I handed to him on a silver platter – a tip-laden, relationship-building-encounter-possibility, wrapped-with-a-bow present that he completely missed.
The fact that I didn’t want to eat fried food represented 1% of 1% of 1% of the totality of Steve Yastrow. It was a small detail … but an important detail.
What if the interaction had gone like this:
“Is it possible to get a few corn tortillas instead of the chips? I don’t want to eat anything fried, but I’d love to have something to eat with the salsa.”
“You don’t want to eat fried foods? I’ll check if I can get any tortillas for you. Would you like me look at the menu you with you so we can find choices that aren’t fried for an appetizer and your entrée?”
It’s a world of difference.
As I wrote above, don’t confuse this with a story about customer service. That’s so 2005. This is a story about how easy it is to show a customer you understand some unique detail about them, and then to honor that unique detail, with very little effort. The result if you do this? By focusing on a little detail (a “spice” as we refer to them at Yastrow & Company) your customer thinks, “Wow. They understand me.”
We share 99.5% of our DNA with all of the other 7 billion human beings on earth. What makes us special are the fine details that exist in the last ½%. In cooking, the spices that make up the smallest portion of the volume of a dish add the most to the dish’s flavor and personality. It is the same with people.
So, don’t make the mistake my waiter made. If a customer lets you in on a secret detail of his or her life, look at it as a gift, not an inconvenient challenge to your corporate policies.
Posted in Customer Encounters | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Last week on tompeters.com, Steve explored a new concept that we are living in a post-customer service age. He continues the theme this week with his newsletter, The Post-Customer Service Age: A Cinderella Story. He asks us to ignore the bad customer service stories and focus on beating the best customer service-oriented companies through relationship building encounters. A tale with a moral, indeed.
Posted in Customer Encounters, We relationships | No Comments »
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Here’s a recent post I did on tompeters.com, claiming that customer service is not enough to differentiate a company. Do you agree?
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Today’s issue of my newsletter is called Moments with Presence.
The basic idea: Your customers live half a million minutes each year, and remember only a few of them. Will they remember the moments they share with you?
Please share your comments!
Posted in Customer Encounters | 2 Comments »
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