Service Untitled

A lot of companies spend a lot of money on surveying their customers. These companies are doing the right thing (surveying your customers is great), but chances are, there is a group that they’re forgetting to survey: their service providers.

Employees, especially frontline service providers, know a lot about your customers. They are on the phones every day and as a result, have a tremendous amount of experience working with your customers and understanding their experiences. The employees know what customers are calling about, what they think causes the issues, and what customers complain about. If you’re surveying your customers, you probably know a lot of this already, but employees always have a unique, and interesting, perspective.

Surveying your service providers also has the additional effect of making employees feel like their opinions are valued (which is hopefully true). You (as a management team or as a company) taking the time to ask about their opinions, experiences, and insights makes them feel like they have a voice and that their suggestions and comments will hopefully be implemented, or at least considered.

So what do you ask your employees? I always recommend asking them a mix of specific and broad questions. The specific questions are ones where your want their opinion about how to deal with a particular problem or challenge you’re facing. The broad questions are so they can provide you with their feedback and ideas about other possible issues you might not be aware of (or might not realize how important they are). You have to word the questions so they don’t threaten anyone or make it seem like you’re trying to catch someone in any type of trap.

Sometimes it’s helpful to have the surveys conducted anonymously (if you choose to do a written / online survey) or by a third party (anonymous or not, if you choose to do them as interviews). It all depends on what type of information you’re looking for and how your company is setup. It can be a bit awkward for employees to give honest feedback to managers or supervisors (or to a third party if they know the feedback won’t be anonymous).

Some companies do this more regularly. They run the program as more of a job satisfaction and quality evaluation. If you systemize the process and do it consistently across departments and teams, it won’t be as intimating. All too often, “reviews” or “evaluations” have this negative connotation that imply something is wrong. You should work hard to avoid or eliminate that association. The goal of surveys, evaluations, interviews, etc. (of customers or of employees) is to get feedback - feedback that you can use to improve.

This is the second part of a four part interview with Christoph Guttentag, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Duke University.

In this part of the interview, we discuss the expectations that come along with the $75 application fee and how the early decision program plays into the application process at Duke.

Click the link to read on. Part one of the interview is available here.
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Earlier this afternoon I was in the mood to indulge myself with something I knew isn’t good for me. To cure my craving, I visited a Chick-fil-A not too far from where I happened to be at the time. It isn’t the one that is very close to my house (that one is in a mall), but a standalone Chick-fil-A, much like a traditional McDonald’s or Burger King.

After navigating my way to the appropriate line at the drive through (I went in the wrong entrance, not Chick-fil-A’s fault), I saw a new way of handling the drive through process for fast food restaurants.

Chick-fil-A still had the same line that stretches around the restaurant 16 times with 1000 cars in it, but they made more productive use of that line. There were essentially “stations” with various people about every 20 or 30 feet. They were as follows:

• When I first pulled up, a man welcomed me and gave me a printed menu that was very thorough (I knew what I wanted, but it definitely explained everything).
• You pulled up about 20 feet and another person, this time with a small clipboard, showed you another menu (this one had pictures) and asked you what you wanted. You gave him your order, he wrote it down, and then he handed you a small white piece of paper with your order on it.
• The next station was where I gave a lady with a two-way radio my white sheet of paper. She called in the order and told me how much it’d cost. I was then instructed to pull up to the window.
• At the window, you pay and you get your food. It’s all ready for you (none of the scrambling they do at McDonalds) and based on your space in line, they obviously know how much you owe and what you’re getting.

The result is a much faster process than the typical method utilized by fast food companies (you know, the one with the speaker and illuminated menu). It’s also a better experience - there’s no yelling, you’re kept fairly busy the entire time, and there’s little wait time. Chick-fil-A got me through the line in about 5 or 6 minutes, probably a third of the time it would have taken McDonalds. As a result of that, they’re not only making their customers happier, but serving more customers.

The most important aspect of this example is that it is yet another illustration of how there is always room for improvement - even in processes that seem to be perfected, and at the very least, have been around for a long time.

For more reading on Chick-fil-A, see this post.

You read the title correctly. My most recent interview is not with an executive at a technology company nor with a leader at an organization particularly know for its customer service. It’s with a leader from academia.

Christoph Guttentag, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Duke University runs the admissions department at one of the nation’s leading universities. The challenges that Duke has encountered and overcome are almost identical to the type of challenges that any sort of technology, retail, or consumer company has experienced and tried to work through.

The point of this interview in particular is to not only inform you about the fascinating process behind college admissions, but also to show that all types of organizations, large and small, for profit and not for profit, experience and hopefully, overcome, the same type of challenges.

In the first part of this four part interview, Christoph and I discuss his professional background and how Duke manages the more than 20,000 applications it receives on a yearly basis.

This interview is one worth reading. Christoph is an extremely interesting guy with an equally interesting job. Click the link to read on.

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On Friday, I wrote about what it means to have a customer-focused strategy. Today, I was asked to broaden the scope a bit and talk about what it means just to be customer-focused. I defined customer-focused strategy as:

Most simply, I would define “customer-focused strategy” as a view on business that puts customers at the center of business decisions.

That, along with several of the other examples and ideas I mentioned in the post on Friday, capture the essence of what I would call customer-focus. But what makes a customer-focused company? It’s a term we hear periodically and can’t think of any sort of successful company that wouldn’t like to describe itself as customer-focused, but what does it actually mean? And most importantly, when is it actually put into practice?

Customer-focus is quite literally and quite obviously, focusing on the customer. That means thinking about them when decisions are made, policies are implemented, and employees are trained. It spans across the whole business and is a cultural thing as much as it is anything else. Customer-focused businesses think about what they can do to make customers happy (as opposed to get the most money out of them, signup the most accounts, etc.) all the time and think about how they can make the customer experience better.

The best companies actually put that view into practice, though. It’s pretty easy to talk about (and to want), but it’s difficult to actually do it. I’d say that customer-focus and customer-focused strategy go hand in hand. The companies that are customer-focused (the ones that actually do it, instead of just say it) are already depending on a customer-focused strategy. If they’re doing it well, they’re most likely seeing that strategy work for them in all areas (happy employees, happy customers, financial success).

How do you define customer-focus? Do you think I’m pretty close or totally off?

Earlier this morning, Glenn from AllBusiness CS sent an email to several customer service bloggers (including me) asking us to define “customer-focused strategy.” It’s an interesting prompt and one worth talking about.

Most simply, I would define “customer-focused strategy” as a view on business that puts customers at the center of business decisions. It’s a long term view and not a short term goal or phase. Essentially, all decisions revolve around the ever important question of “how does this affect our customers?” Companies that make customer focus a part of their competitive strategy (I think of companies like Nordstrom, The Ritz Carlton, etc.) value the customer experience above almost all aspects of the business. They also are likely to adopt the view that shareholder value will follow customer satisfaction (as opposed to always trying to appease Wall Street or other investors).

I think the most important aspect of what makes up “customer-focused strategy” is the thinking of making decisions with the betterment of the customer and the customer experience in mind. In practice, that means having the flexible return or cancellation policy, empowering employees to take ownership over issues, and rewarding employees who provide great service and continue to make the experience better for individual customers and the majority of customers.

Companies with a “customer-focused strategy” are constantly, and actively, seeking ways to improve their customer service. They have people whose sole responsibility is improving the customer experience, they are hiring consultants, looking at themselves from different perspectives, encouraging customer feedback, and making use of that feedback. They respond to the good and bad and make sure that opinions are voiced and are taken to heart.

I’d actually like to argue that “customer-focused strategy” is more about implementation than actual strategy. It’s as much as a cultural aspect of any particular business as it is a strategic aspect. If it’s reduced to a buzzword used solely among the upper echelons of management, it won’t be effective. If “customer-focused strategy” is something that a particular company lives and breathes, if a company is constantly asking itself “how does this affect our customers?”, then they’re onto something great. And that something will likely result in success.

I spent over an hour and several phone calls today trying to find a place that could embroider a logo and two lines of text on a polo shirt for a reasonable amount of money. After several phone calls, several quotes, and an hour or so, I decided I’d stop wasting my time and just pay the money. In the process, though, I learned a few things that I can pass onto you.

Explain the process.
I’m not sure about the average customer, but I knew essentially nothing about embroidery. I (stupidly) assumed you could bring in your logo on a flash drive, tell them what you wanted, and leave with a shirt in 15 minutes. I was totally wrong. They need the logo, they have to digitize it (a process that they charge you like $40 - $80 for), and then they need a few days to actually embroider the shirt. Some companies buy the shirts for you, others won’t. The point is the process isn’t super straight forward and none of the companies I talked to explained it on their web site. They assumed I knew a lot more about the process than I did. Never underestimate the value of a “dumbed down” page on your web site that explains what you do and how it all works.

Communicate expected times.
As mentioned above, the process of digitizing a logo is a bit tedious and also the most expensive part of the process (at least when you only need a couple of items embroidered). There was no set fee at any of the companies I called for digitizing. Instead, I had to email the logo to each one of them and wait for a quote. At one company, the guy called me back after a few minutes, at another, the lady emailed me after a few hours, and with others, I still haven’t heard from them almost a full day later. When you ask a potential customer to spend time to send you information required to produce a quote, be sure to communicate how long it’ll take to get that quote.

My two generic collared shirts ended up costing about $60 each, between the actual shirt, the embroidery fee, and then the “setup fee” for the embroidery. For my $120, I’ll get my two shirts and now I’ll know about the process of embroidery. Maybe it was worth it after all.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Embroidery

I talk a lot about technology and about how to use technology to improve the customer service experience. What I don’t talk a lot about (and I should talk more about) is providing customer service in person - physically interacting with and talking to customers in person, issues relating to the design and flow of stores and businesses, etc. This is different from what I usually write and consult about, but also very interesting to me and very relevant to many companies (I don’t write about things I don’t find to be interesting).

A lot of companies that do provide service in the physical world (as opposed to online or over the phone) often neglect something they can almost always use to their advantage: signs and signage. No matter what business you’re in, signs and signage can always be helpful. They direct customers, answer questions, clarify points, address issues, and so on.

Well placed and effectively written signs make it so your employees don’t have to answer the same questions all the time (where is the bathroom?) and just as importantly, make it so your customers don’t have to ask in the first place. Like with anything, though, you as a store or business manager need to keep some things in mind when ordering, placing, or deciding whether or not to use signs.

Don’t overdo it.
As someone who has gone “sign crazy” when setting things up before, take my advice when I say it is not necessary to have a huge number of signs. There will always be people who will not read your signs, no matter how many you have or how effective they are. You want your signs to stand out and be useful. You don’t want your signs to detract from the aesthetic appeal of your business location, annoy the customer, or most importantly, overwhelm the customer.

Keep it simple.
Signs should be simple and should convey simple information. Where’s the bathroom, where do I need to go for a refund, who do I see about a job opening, etc. are all great things for signs to answer. They shouldn’t have too many words on them and the copy should be simple (”Bathrooms” with an arrow instead of “Bathrooms to the Left”).

Make them look nice.
It’s worth it to pay (or find) someone to design nice looking signs. Signs that are designed by someone with a background in design (especially graphic design) tend to look better and say more with less.

All of these are simple things (just like the signs themselves) that you can keep in mind as you design, order, and setup your signs. If your signs are effective, your customers won’t ask those same four or five questions nearly as many times. And your employees will stop looking for the exit sign.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Signs, Stores

Yesterday’s post was about a company that used technology to their advantage. Today’s post is about a company that doesn’t.

I received a letter from the said company that addressed me by name on the address label, but had a generic greeting in the actual letter (like Dear Friend). It’s obvious that they had my name in their database, but they decided not to use it in the actual letter. The company missed out on a great (and simple) opportunity to personalize the experience. The letter they sent tried to have a personal and friendly tone, but that’s difficult to do when the letter is addressed to the generic “friend.”

When you have someone’s name, use it in as many places as possible. The front page of the user section on your web site should say “Hi -Name-”, the emails you send should address the customer by name, the bills and invoices should have the customer’s name on them, etc. You don’t want to obnoxious, but the line between obnoxious and personal is usually pretty clear (it always depends on the situation, of course).

You should especially make it a point to use the customer’s name when you send out a mailing asking for information or asking a customer to buy something. A majority of software programs that design or send mailings have features built into them that allow you to put the customer’s name right on the letter, as well as the envelope or label (Microsoft Word has a feature to do it). It definitely is not complicated, it isn’t expensive, and it doesn’t take up much extra time. It shows the customer that you at least put some effort into personalizing the letter they’re received.

This relates to “use my name, especially if you have it,” which I wrote about back in November.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Mailings, Personalize, Technology

People who know me know that I hate paper. I think an excess of paper is an excess of waste and that documents and information stored on a computer are much easier to manage (and harder to lose) than the paper equivalents. I’ve also had bad handwriting since I learned how to write and out of necessity, have been able to type fairly quickly since before I was even a teenager (before that, I could get along).

As a result of my dislike of paper, I’ve always encouraged companies to digitize as many records and documents as possible. Put them online as forms to fill out, scan them, etc. Not only does this save trees and space in back rooms that would ordinarily be record rooms, it ensures sanity. Documents that are scanned in, tagged, cross referenced, and searchable through fairly advanced computer systems are a lot more manageable (and flexible) than the plethora of documents located in some filing cabinet somewhere in the basement.

I had to go to a company today and hand in a form. I was surprised, but also impressed when the lady processing my form put it through a document scanner and got out a stamp that said “scanned” and placed it in a box. She explained to me that they keep the paper records for a month in case there are any problems, but after that, they destroy them. She also explained that they not only do they save space by not having to store all of documents, but people throughout the company (with proper access, of course) are able to look at the documents right away - there’s no need to come to the records room, find them, and pull them out.

Remember my post about The College Board on Friday? They utilize document scanning as well. The essays that the millions of test takers do every couple of weeks for the SAT? They are scanned in and read by readers throughout the country. It’s infinitely more efficient than sending the essays to readers or than bringing everyone together to read the essays. Duke University (which I wrote about not that long ago as well) is investing in document scanning to make their admissions process more manageable. Both of these organizations have to deal with a lot of paper, so document scanning makes a lot of sense. Educational institutions, hospitals, HR departments, law firms, etc. all deal with a lot of paper and can benefit from document scanning.

Digitized documents are already the future to some extent. It isn’t a mysterious technology, it is realistic and necessary technology. And any technology that makes a previously drawn out process simpler, easier, and more efficient, ends up leading to better service. If document scanning makes it so organizations don’t lose my forms, have less trouble making use of those forms, etc., then it means better service.