Tuesday, June 29, 2010

That's More Like It!

I received another survey this morning, from Trendwatching, that is far more my style than the one I blogged about last week. (see below)

This survey was simple, easy and allowed me to provide some honest feedback, all with a simple email response.

Dear Lori,

We hope you enjoyed our latest briefing on MASS MINGLING. As we’re gearing up to bring you even more content and services this September, this is an excellent time to let us know what else you’d want from us.


To keep things simple, just reply to this email, answering the following:


1. What do you like about our monthly Trend Briefings? And what could we do better? [your answer]



2. What (if anything) would make you want to try our Premium Service? 
[your answer]



3. What other content / services would you be interested in? Trend Seminars? Company presentations? Consulting? Networking? Anything goes!
[your answer]


Thank you so much, we’ll do our utmost best to incorporate your suggestions,


Warmest,


Tim Pitts
Subscriber & Client Services
 trendwatching.com


You want my feedback? Just ask for it. What’s at the top of my mind regarding your service or product is most likely what is important for you to hear.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Quit Trying to Exceed and Just Make It Easy.

I read an illuminating piece in the Harvard Business Review today that promotes a new perspective in approaching customer service. The article, Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers, written by Matthew Dixon, Nicholas Freeman and Karen Toman, examines the impact on organizations and their customers when the emphasis is placed on over-the-top service. What they found is surprising.

The research, (conducted on more than 75,000 people), found that telling employees to provide over-the-top service generally produces little more than a state of confusion, and it doesn’t build customer loyalty. In addition, there is little correlation between satisfaction and loyalty. We tend to buy from a company because it delivers quality products, great value or a compelling brand. We leave, more often than not, because it fails to deliver on customer service. So, while customer service can do little to increase loyalty, it can do a great deal to undermine it. Customers are four times more likely to leave a service interaction disloyal than loyal.

When it comes to service, companies create loyal customers primarily by helping them solve their problems quickly and easily.
For example,

Don’t just resolve the issue, head off the next. For example, simply providing an in-person apartment “tutorial” (i.e. how to shut off the water, reset the garbage disposal, etc) can head off future calls.
Arm your people to address the emotional side of customer interactions. Are your front line people trained in interpersonal communication skills? (This includes maintenance - they get more “face time” than anybody else.) Are they aware of words that can trigger negative reactions, (can’t, won’t, policy), and how to turn negative statements into positive? For example, instead of, “I can’t fix your garbage disposal - I need to order a part.”, say, “This challenge is repairable, and we will be able to get the part needed by Thursday and repair it that same day.” Remember, it’s not so much what is said, as how it is said.
Use feedback from unhappy residents to reduce customer effort. In addition to working with the resident to solve the challenge, collect feedback that informs service improvements. Use the feedback to streamline and create ease of use.
In a self-serve world, is your website cutting it? Spend as much time making your website intuitive and functional as you do pretty. How easy is it to use your website and get what you need from a resident’s perspective? If they get stuck, is it easy to get help?
Empower your team to deliver a low-effort experience. Innovative companies have stopped measuring outdated metrics based on productivity and evaluate on the basis of short, direct customer interviews with customers, essentially asking them if the service they received met their needs. Others are evaluating, not based on call time, but on how many repeat calls are received.

Finally, the research revealed although most companies believe that customers overwhelmingly prefer live phone service to self-service, that customers are, in fact, indifferent. (This could be a result of frustration with past interactions, in my opinion). This is an important paradigm shift and innovative companies will build their organizations around self-service, with reducing customer effort at its core.

My opinion? While I love over-the-top service interactions, this concept is a far more concrete, tangible, consistent and teachable approach to delivering service excellence and provides a very easy barometer by which to gauge policy and effectiveness. It’s the little things that matter. How easy are you to do business with? How easy is it for a resident to get a request or complaint handled ? Teach your people to make it easy, base policy on ease of use, and loyalty will result.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Keep It Short

I received a request to complete a survey today regarding my experience for a one night hotel visit earlier this month. It was the second request I received, and I figured since they asked twice, I would go ahead and complete it. When I clicked the link, I was informed the survey would take me from 7 to 10 minutes to complete. I clicked back off.

If you want feedback, keep it short, and in context with the experience. I don’t have time to spend a quarter of an hour, or a coffee break, or the time it takes me to write this blog, to complete a survey regarding a one night visit. Now, if the survey took 3, or even 5 minutes or less to complete, or I was offered something in return for my time, I would have happily complied.

Keep it simple. Ask relevant questions that provide insight, and most of all, respect your customer's time by keeping it short.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Drive Your Plants Up The Wall




Trendcentral reported this week on new products to bring the outdoors in and I about flipped my lid over a new modular planter system called Woolly Pocket Wally. With this device you can create an indoor plant wall - just think about how cool this would look on that wall you don’t know what to do with in your office, or how easily you could spice up a model by hanging one of these in the kitchen and planting basil in it. (Get it, spice up?)
Prices start at $49, which is far cheaper than most art.

While you’re at the site, check out the garden systems designed for schools. Pretty fabulous.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Who Cleans Up The Mess?

A few weeks back it rained dirt in Denver. Really. Seems some dust storm in Arizona was the culprit, and the muddy rain left a pinkish brown coating of dirt on anything exposed to the elements. Yuck. Parked at the airport, the red toaster was covered, and all I could think was, “Ick, now I get to clean all this up when I get home. What a mess.”

The dirt rain seemed metaphorical somehow - after all, how many times do we leave messes for others to clean up? The sky dumps dirt, the clouds move on and we are left with no choice but to clean up after it. It happens with my kids and my dogs, and it happens often in workplaces all across the country. Every office seems to have at least one “dirt dumper” that refuses to be accountable and leaves mess after mess for others to clean up, oblivious and dismissive of the impact he or she has on co-workers.

Whether you are the kind of person that leaves your dirty dishes in the sink in the office, fails to follow through on customer problems, routinely misses deadlines (leaving your supervisor to cover for you...again), or has buyer’s remorse and dumps the candle that looked good 30 minutes ago in the cough and cold aisle at Target (OK, I admit it, I have done this), understand that somebody is going to clean up your mess. If they know you, they will resent you for it. If they love you, your behavior may cause bad feelings and strained relationships. All because you refuse to be accountable and responsible for yourself.

So the question is, who cleans up after you? Should they have to?