Customer Cost or Care?
I have been traveling to and from the UK
this past week.
Due to a canceled outbound flight/lost bag
situation, which took more than a week of
phone calls to four different service centers
to “resolve”, I have had an opportunity to
observe various businesses and their attitudes
and strategies for customer care.
It all starts with one executive decision.
There is a single, primary, strategic decision that
every company has to make with regard to how much
“care” their customer service staff provides.
It’s binary. Either:
1) You decide to provide customer service as a value
2) You decide to provide a necessary customer service “presence” at the lowest possible cost.
All subsequent decisions, staff behaviors, and customer experiences start with this one decision. Care or Cost?
What service do you get?
When you are face to face (or phone to phone) with a customer representative, ask yourself, is this person instructed, motivated, encouraged and authorized to actually help me? Or are they being instructed and paid to infuriate me by saying, “I can’t help you. I apologize for the inconvenience, can I do anything else to help you?”
If Azzarello Group were a big enough company that we couldn’t answer all phone calls personally, and you phoned one of my customer care centers with a problem, this is what would happen:
1. The issue would be logged as a “customer disappointment”, not as a “trouble ticket”. The phrase “trouble ticket” enrages me. It is an internal, information-free, and motivation-deprived name for a serious, real customer issue. Language matters.
2. But first you would be greeted with a recorded voice that says:
Thank you for calling Azzarello Group. You made a good decision to call. Relax, we intend to actually help you. Please bear with us for ONE list of choices so we can connect you directly to a human who can best help you. We will not make you to talk to a voice activated system and pretend it’s a benefit for you. If none of our standard choices address your problem, just stay on the line and someone will answer the phone to learn about what you need, and will do what it takes to help you.
3. My customer service representatives would be instructed to actually help. They would have the training to turn a customer disappointment into a customer happiness, and the authority and/or budget to do so.
4. They would be measured on the number of transitions to happy customers, not the number of closed “trouble tickets”. When you measure closed trouble tickets you just encourage your staff to be not-helpful, but more quickly.
Make sure Technology works!
Another thing that I feel very strongly about is that if you substitute technology for a person as in your service delivery and you want to provide actual, good service, three things need to happen.
1. It has to WORK!!! Don’t require flash plug-ins that not everybody has, or provide links that don’t go anywhere. Test the hell out of any technology that is used in lieu of a person and make sure it works 100% of the time. I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to use a website to provide feedback or report an issue instead of picking up the phone, and the online process doesn’t work! If you want people to use your online system instead of calling you, make sure your technology works!
2. Technology should never make humans feel stupid. First it should work, and it should work in a way that makes sense to a human. Every time I try to use a self check-out at a store, what I am instructed to do is incongruent in some way with what you actually need to do to get it to work. I always end up feeling stupid AND requiring a human to get involved. Actually watch what people struggle with, make it work well and easily, as expected, then people will use it. You will keep customers and you will save money.
3. Technology should never rob people of their humanity. Never make a person talk to a voice recognition system. Nothing is more infuriating than talking to a computer in the first place, then having it respond, “I’m sorry I didn’t’ get that …”. By the time your customer gets to a human, your automated greeting and routing has made them angry, even if they weren’t angry to begin with. I would never put one of these systems between my business and my customers. It breaks all rules of customer care, and it’s only real function is to cut cost. Back to the original primary decision. Which is your primary strategy? Care or Cost?
A tale of two customer Service Models
You can determine a company’s customer service strategy based on observing their behaviors and noting thier investment in: Motivation, Systems, Authorization and Training. It becomes pretty clear how they made that initial strategic decision: Care or Cost?
I will illustrate this using my recent experinece traveling on United, but being re-routed on Lufthansa, and losing my luggage as an example.
1. Motivation - Customer Service Strategies:
Care Decision: People believe it is their job to solve the customer problem
Cost Decision: People believe it is their job to close the “trouble ticket”
(Cost) On Day 2 in the UK of not having our luggage, the United baggage service rep said, We found the bag. It will be put on the first plane to London this morning. Once it is there, it will be routed according to the lost bag claim you filed and you will be called regarding delivery. From now on you should call the Lufthansa phone number associated with your lost bag claim. (i.e., Don’t call me again, “trouble ticket” closed.)
(Cost) On day 4 of not having luggage, we called the Lufthansa lost bag people who told us that the bag had been flown to Munich, and is scheduled on the flight from Munich to London to arrive at 16:55 at which time we will be phoned to so the bag can be “rushed to us”.
(Cost) At 18:00, after not receiving said phone call, we called the Lufthansa lost bag people again, who tell us that they have identified the bag and it is in San Francsico. Outright lying and making up information about flights to Munich was a new twist for me!
(Care!) Next: Finally thinking to call the United 1K baggage service vs. the standard phone number, I got someone on the phone who was actually motivated to solve the problem. It is a shame that United has made the actual “care” choice only apply to their top tier customers. But, the agent, Grace, apologized for the problem, took personal action, got a hold of our bag personally, re-tagged it and got it on the next flight to London – the one she said it was on. She called the next day to follow up, but once it was in London, it went into Lufthansa’s system.
2. Systems – Customer Service Strategy:
Care Decision: The systems are quipped to allow credits, upgrades, refunds, make outbound phone calls and allow the person to say “yes”.
Cost Decision: The systems are locked down to prevent any cost incursions no matter what the customer situation. No reason or business judgment can make a difference. The service person is only able to report, “the system won’t let me do that”.
(Cost) Once the bag was actually in London and needed to be delivered to us, the Lufthansa “Express Bag Delivery Service” was not able to call a US mobile phone number to arrange where to deliver our bag. So they simply didn’t call. When we called them, and tried to expedite they said “We’ll send a Telex to our depot“. A Telex??? Talk about technology investment. How about a pigeon? …. I digress.
We also learned that their system for their “same day delivery service”, only allowed them to, and I quote,“hopefully deliver the bag tomorrow”. As it turns out their system also did not allow them to update our contact phone number or the delivery address. So they ended up not calling, and ultimately delivered the bag to the place we were three days earlier.
(Care) This did NOT happen, but an example of a system that allowed for care might have an “harmed customer button”, (that may require a supervisor passcode) to get to a screen that would allow outbound phone calls to any phone number and the ability to route the task to a third party, actual “same day” delivery service.
3. Authorization & Training – Customer Service Strategy
Care Decision: People are trained to listen, think, and make judgment, expected and encouraged to actually solve problems. People are allowed to incur cost to solve a customer problem.
Cost Decision: People get fired for incurring cost to solve a customer problem. People are trained to only read what is on the screen and instructed to say “I am sorry for the inconvenience. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
(Cost) On my way home a week later (still without the bag, by the way) when I told the story to a United agent about being a 1K traveler whose weekend in the Lake District was ruined do to a cancelled flight, and a bag of being over a week late, and my husband is staying in the UK to collect the bag from where it was delivered to the wrong place said only, “my system will not allow me to upgrade you”. I think we all know that in this case the agent was using the “system” as an excuse for what was a training, authorization, and motivation issue.
(Care) I waited a bit closer to the flight time, and then went to the transfer desk inside security. I told my story again to another United Agent. I was at this point doing an experiment to determine how many United agents I would need to tell this story to, to find someone who even cared a little. Turns out to be three. Finally, Hema Amin, at the transfer desk in LHR heard this story and actually said:
That’s terrible. I’m so sorry your vacation was ruined. I can’t upgrade you myself, but I will call my supervisor to get a code to allow me to upgrade you. I told her that whatever happened from this point on that she was a star for being the first person to care at all, and that I greatly appreciated it. I did not embellish the story I told her, but she called her supervisor on her cell phone after not getting through on the desk phone, and told a story on my behalf including all the details I gave her and ending in “so things just went from bad to worse, and I think we should upgrade her”. She got the approval, and I am now typing this in business class, sipping a glass of champagne.
Cutting Costs without Cutting Quality of Service
I’m not suggesting that companies provide limitless service and don’t worry about cost at all. In the next post I will discuss ways to understand the value of keeping a customer and ways to cut the cost of customer service without cutting the care. It’s possible if you start with the strategic decision of providing care first, then cutting cost as a tactic, not as a strategy.
Heros and Villains
- Companies who made the Care decision: Zappos, Verizon, JCrew, Ritz Carlton
- Companies who made the Cost decision: AT&T, ATT&T, AT&T, Lufthansa, Comcast
What has your experience been? Leave a comment.
Tags: Customer service, lost luggge, Lufthansa
May 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Patty, with some exceptions, the “premium brands” tend to be the companies with the margins that allow for the overhead cost of the “care decision.” For that reason (assuming it’s valid) the cost/care decision must be aligned with your core business strategies
May 8th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Great blog on customer service. The airlines are an excellent example of an industry that has lost the care in customer care.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
WHAT a great story and response to the circumstance. You produced A WORLD CLASS RESULT to a world class lack of customer care. Thank you for not just “getting upset” but for doing something meaningful with the experience.
I have Tweeted a link to your blog – I think as many as possible should know.
With your permission – smiling – when I speak in two weeks on Customer Care, I will be using YOUR story and what can be learned from that experience.
U R the best!
May 8th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Great post! This reminds me of a classic anecdote from Paul Hawken’s book, “Growing a Business.” Hawken was running a garden tool mail order business when he caught wind of a customer whose order had been screwed up. The customer had called ‘customer service’ to have the mistake corrected. The service rep sorted everything out and sent a corrective order over to the warehouse, where the order would be shipped out.
Unfortunately the corrective order somehow fell through the cracks as it was being passed from service to shipping. The customer never got their replacement gear.
Hawken, discovering this, decided to empower all of the customer service reps so that they could solve customer problems from beginning to end. First he gave them small budgets so they could personally issue refunds whenever they felt it was appropriate. Second he *trained all of his CS people to personally ship gear from the warehouse*. When a call came in, the rep would take the call and then walk over to the warehouse to pick, package, and ship the replacement order themselves. As a result, Hawken’s famously high customer satisfaction rates went thermonuclear.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Patty:
The article is a great example of using a bad experience as a learning opportunity for all of us.
And, it is right on. You have a unique way of making choices very simple. Cost vs. Care.
It would be interesting if companies choosing ‘cost’ would estimate what that strategy is ‘costing’ them annually. That would be a great line item for a P&L.
I still think it would be interesting if you embellished this with the tweets/facebook comments and number of friends and followers that watched this unfold and commented (including their own negative experiences with the same provider); and shared it with the CEO of Lufthansa and possibly United. They could really benefit from these views, your article, and the fact that a significant number of people followed this incident as it unfolded, internationally. Yet, their own companies couldn’t track any of this.
All the best…hope you and Nick are well.
T
May 9th, 2009 at 3:05 am
Any company that outsources support to India is making the “cost” decision. No exceptions. Indian support is uniformly awful. Having been personally involved in delivering a support product, I can say this with authority.
The “cost” decision is short-sighted. It may save a little money, but the customer goodwill it sacrifices will, in the long run, lose the company far more revenue. I mean, think about how much money you spend on finding leads, qualifying them, closing the sale, supporting the sale, and then decide whether it’s worth saving a few bucks to lose that customer forever, and also generate a new source of ongoing negative referrals as a side effect.
May 10th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Hi Patty
Great story. Reminded me of my recent awful experience on Emirates. For years I’ve been flying Singapore Airlines and have always received superlative service. My recent economic woes prompted me to try and save some $$. I’d heard a lot about Emirates, their great service, etc. etc. The fare to India was several hundred dollars lower than Singapore, and so I switched very happily. I lived to regret my decision and will NEVER fly Emirates again. They don’t care for their customers. Here’s a simple example. They have a snack service in between the two meals they serve on the 16 hour flight from SFO to Dubai. Now get this, you have to choose between a small piece of candy, an apply, OR two cookies. I wanted two out of the three, but was flatly and quite rudely told I couldn’t have my choice!! Now, here I am, very, very hungry and having to deal with attendants who really don’t care. Nobody even came by to check if I was ok, or even to offer any leftovers. Well, the result is that I will never fly Emirates again. Customer service is very important to me and I’d rather pay the extra $$ to fly an airline that wants my business and respects it. So, for the cost of a cookie or candy, Emirates lost me as a customer, permanently. Go figure.
May 12th, 2009 at 8:18 am
As the markeing strap line says ….frustrating your customers cost..hundreds of dollars
lies and computer says No approach……in Mastercard Parlance …Priceless!
May 13th, 2009 at 4:11 am
Hi Patty
By the weekend you the bag and Nick should be in the same time zone hopefully.
As you know I have worked in Sales ALL of my 27 year acreer and no matter what product or business I have represented there is no such thing as a Unique product and therefore the only thing that can differenetiate you from your competition is the service you deliver in supplying and maintaining that relationship.
The skill is to select as you say the best long term relationship development and management service model that sustains the BRAND and the image….as you clearly demonstrate a BRAND can take millions of Dollars to build and seconds to tarnish.
The true differentiator in all business is service!
Its the TRUE test of what was sold in the first instance in my opinion and I got the extra yard and further bot in business and personal relationships to give the best SERVICE I can deliver based on the value of that relationship long term.
That doesnt mean the transaction at the time but I belive to TOTAL contract value in the lifetime of the partnership…at whatever level it stands.
Hope you come back soon and share the Lakes and all it can offer Summer is just around the corner I am told
See you soon
Andy
August 31st, 2009 at 2:08 pm
[...] Customer Cost or Care? Customer Value and the P&L Service or Torture? [...]
September 17th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Great story.
December 26th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
[...] Customer Cost or Care? [...]
December 27th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Patty,
Great post – I hope you have collected your belongings by now.
Regarding your comments on cost -vs- care – I think this actually goes beyond the “front line” service representatives and into the back end/R&D in most organizations – including one you are very familiar with. Taking “cost” as the primary consideration inevitably leads to customer disappointment – the “cost” vs “care” becomes woven into all levels of the organizational fabric. I currently deal with this every day, a decision made eons ago for “cost” when the customers clearly expect “care” – and it’s very difficult to back track. I’m curious if you’ve seen a reverse course taken by any company once they trundle down the “cost” driven route.
April 5th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
[...] This is a sequel to my last post on Customer Cost or Care. [...]
April 6th, 2010 at 9:37 am
your article help me a lot for my job.
June 8th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
[...] Do your customers believe you treat them well? Of course it helps if your company (or division or your group or you personally) actually has a vision and best practices to treat your customers well. I am not going to address today how to treat customers like human beings. There are textbook examples in management classes that cover techniques to address this. We all know that companies that take this seriously are few and far between. Who among us hasn’t been infuriated by endless phone trees when trying to troubleshoot our phone service, trying to find the contact information for our dish or cable service when it is down or getting a timely refund on an overpayment? (You know how fast a company will respond if you underpay.) For a great blog on the tone of customer service that companies set at the executive level, see this blog by Patty Azzarello on “Customer Cost or Care”. [...]
July 8th, 2011 at 6:12 am
[...] Do your customers believe you treat them well? Of course it helps if your company (or division or your group or you personally) actually has a vision and best practices to treat your customers well. I am not going to address today how to treat customers like human beings. There are textbook examples in management classes that cover techniques to address this. We all know that companies that take this seriously are few and far between. Who among us hasn’t been infuriated by endless phone trees when trying to troubleshoot our phone service, trying to find the contact information for our dish or cable service when it is down or getting a timely refund on an overpayment? (You know how fast a company will respond if you underpay.) For a great blog on the tone of customer service that companies set at the executive level, see this blog by Patty Azzarello on “Customer Cost or Care”. [...]