Making an Impact
In this issue:
Experience or Expense?
This is the section where I share with you the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the customer experience, the impact everyone can have on it - in either direction, and the resulting impact on image, reputation, brand, customer relationships, your whole organisation and your bottom line. We have all been customers at some point, and we all give customer experiences to others, whether it's in work or out of it - so our neighbours, friends and relations can all be viewed as our customers too.
I have a growing list of just such experiences which I am looking forward to sharing and in some cases, venting! You'll see that I do rather get on my soapbox about some of these!
What's in a Promise?
Some of you maybe remember from 2008 that I talked in a newsletter about my car insurance company and their apparent indifference to customer loyalty. Well thanks to the same company, they've provided me with another aspect of the customer experience to talk to you about in this newsletter!
Renewing my car insurance is a task I dread every year, as it is never straightforward, unless you're prepared to pay top dollar for your insurance and accept the renewal quote they give you, despite your jaw hitting the floor when you see the renewal price, which is as much as a mini-break to the Bahamas!
I had to renew again recently and duly received my renewal quote. Sure enough, a Caribbean Cruise would have looked cheap in comparison. It's not like I have a turbo charged, rocket fuelled car that sounds like it belongs at Silverstone rather than on the roads either, then I could understand it. However, for a 2 litre saloon, which is a few years old too, and the driver (that's me!) hardly being a 'just passed their test boy racer' either, it was not a price I was prepared to pay, and indeed, quite an increase on the previous year – for no apparent reason.
When I rang and was put through to the renewal department, I explained, as I did last year when they hiked up the premiums dramatically, that I wasn't happy with the quote, and asked why it had increased so much again on the previous year. The chap didn't really know, so when I asked what sort of a discount they could give me, he said that this year the quoted price was the final price, as they had had all their discretionary powers taken away from them.
I had already had a couple of better quotes from competitors, and when I told him this, he said that I was welcome to cancel with them and take up that quote, but he couldn't do anything about the premium. I asked to be put through to the cancellations department, as last year I had been told exactly the same thing, and then miraculously they were able to start me again as a new customer and give me a worthwhile discount.
When I spoke to another chap there, it transpired that the goal posts had indeed moved, and not in favour of the customer either! Sure enough they said they had nowhere to go on the price, and that the system wouldn't let them re-enter my name as a new customer to get the discount either. I decided to push the point a little, as in all my years of being with the same company, they had always been able to give me a discount of some description. I thought it was just a question of finding out at what stage of the process they were prepared to do this again.
I had already asked about any multi-product and 'new customer' discounts, so decided to go down another route and asked if there were any manager discounts. I had to give a bit of a speech as to how unhappy I was, and emphasise all the years I had been a customer, and asked if they were really happy if I cancelled.
Well speech over, and I think he realised I was serious – as indeed I was. I was seriously considering cancelling, as one of their competitors seemed very comparable in terms of benefits and was slightly cheaper too. However, to avoid giving myself the hassle of having to switch companies, I thought I'd give them a shot at keeping me.
Having realised I was serious, he then did indeed say that he might be able to do something about the premium. Great I thought, I'm getting somewhere! However he then revealed that this would have to be in the form of store vouchers.
I said I wasn't happy with that and could I have a cash cheque instead, so it was indeed a discount off the premium. He said he would have to talk to his manager. Having put me on hold for a good few minutes, he came back and said that would be fine, and he would make sure I received a cheque and not vouchers.
As the discount would bring it to around the same cost as the competitor I was considering switching to, I decided to renew with my existing company. Before parting with the premium, I confirmed again that it was going to be a cheque and not vouchers, and that I wouldn't want to renew if they could only send vouchers and not a cheque. He assured me it would be a cheque.
He also promised that he would email the department in question to make sure, and that he personally would ring me back within the hour to confirm it had gone through. He also told me that the cheque (although he did have a slip of the tongue at this point and said 'vouchers' which made me slightly doubtful), would be with me 28 days after my insurance renewal date. He also said he would put a note on my account to that effect, stressing a cheque and not vouchers. He repeated several times that he had done that and promised to ring me within the hour.
Well, more than two hours later, and I had heard nothing, so I rang again. I gave the chap who answered the name of the colleague I had spoken to, but as is always the case, the chances of you speaking to the same person twice are negligible. I had to run through the whole scenario again with this chap to explain what had happened, and more importantly, what had been promised to me.
This new chap said he didn't know why his colleague hadn't rung me back, but having looked on the system, could see the record of my call and the promise of a cheque and not vouchers. He promised that he would personally contact the department and make sure the cheque was dispatched, and that either he or the department concerned would ring me within 24 hours to confirm it had all gone through. I explained I had already been let down by one of his colleagues, and checked again that he would make sure I was contacted about this.
His tone became one of annoyance that I had felt the need to confirm the promise with him again, but clearly I did from past experience!
Disappointingly however, three days passed and I had heard nothing, so braced myself to brave ringing again. This time a lady answered. I had to go through the whole scenario for a third time. She too confirmed that she could see the promise in my notes, and also couldn't understand why the second person hadn't rung me back.
Unlike her two colleagues, she went as far as to apologise for the inconvenience, and even said that she didn't operate like that, understood my frustration, and assured me she would ring back in one to two days when she had received a reply from the department issuing the cheque. She emphasised that I was dealing with her now which would make all the difference. She assured me too that I would definitely be receiving a cheque and not vouchers, and that it would be with me 30 days after the renewal date, not 28. She went out of her way to additionally assure me that this would indeed happen as she would make sure it did.
Well, sadly I wasn't very surprised when one week, then two weeks elapsed and nothing. I wondered with disappointment why not one of those people had kept their promise and rung me back, if only just to let me know what was happening or explain why there was a delay if that was the case. However I decided not to subject myself to the hassle of ringing again, as the 30 days would soon be up, and I was bound to receive my cheque..….wasn't I?!
By the time six weeks had elapsed, I gave up hope. I was then too busy with other things and thought I'd give it a bit longer before trying again.
Nearly three months passed when out of the blue a letter arrived from the insurance company. Fantastic I thought, better late than never, here was my cheque. I opened the envelope and to my huge annoyance – they had sent store vouchers!
Well now I felt more than annoyed, I felt conned. Whether I had been or it was a system error, the net result was that I felt I had been strung along and promised something that wasn't going to be delivered, merely in order to persuade me to renew. After 30 days too, you are unable to cancel your policy without losing your premium, so I couldn't even switch to their competitor now.
Of course, this could have indeed been a simple error, and my cheque would also be arriving soon. However, I now had no confidence in the company, and felt I couldn't trust anything they were telling me, so I rang again. Another lady answered, and of course I had to repeat the whole situation for a fourth time, including the arrival of the vouchers and the feeling of being duped into renewing. However this time I asked to be put straight through to a manager. She could hear that I wasn't happy and asked me to hold.
After about ten minutes, she came back to me and said she had explained it all to her manager and was going to put me through to him so he could resolve it. I heard the on-hold music play, and after another ten minutes had elapsed, I was still listening to it. I started to think I had been waiting rather a long time, and had a strong suspicion that I had been lost in the system, and would have to ring yet again!
When I did get through again, a different lady answered, so I had to explain everything for a fifth time. She too looked at the notes and, disappointingly, confirmed that a cheque had not been dispatched from the original request – just the vouchers, but that the manager had indeed now authorized a cheque without having to speak to me.
The hours I had already spent trying to get what I had been promised in the first place had now far outweighed the monetary value of the discount, but for me it was the principal too. The organisation had also wasted four times more time, effort and money than they needed to, had they kept their promise in the first place, time when they could have been dealing with four other customers and getting four times more customer satisfaction, good referrals and business. What a waste all round these empty promises had been.
Amazingly too, three days later, the cheque arrived, so it wasn't at all difficult for that promise to have been kept. It was the four employees, and maybe others behind the scenes too, who had made it so - and perhaps even the technology too.
Clearly something was very wrong from both a staff attitude/ operating point of view and a system efficiency stand point, if it was only possible for a manager stepping in at the 11th hour to keep the promise that their teams clearly had the authority to make, and avoid a customer self combusting with annoyance and frustration, resulting in lost trust, credibility, business and poor referrals.
What are you promising your customers for the New Year, and how sure are you that those promises have substance, will be kept first or even second time, and are not hollow or only half full? Are all the checks, systems, information and training in place to ensure that what you're promising doesn't back fire and leave you delivering empty promises, and your customers feeling empty about your organisation too?
Observation Post
Sixth Sense?
Why is it when in casual conversation you talk about a specific household appliance having been very reliable, never broken down, what a great make it is and how you couldn't manage without it, does it then break down within a couple of days?!
My sparkly, top of the range, not very old double gas oven expired between Christmas and New Year, having spoken about it in adoring terms at a friend's house, whilst we were waiting for her oven to heat up.
It's happened before when I've talked about my car too in the same way, and two days later it developed an electrical fault. The same thing has happened in the past with my central heating system too!
Is this just coincidence or do we have a sixth sense about appliances, and are picking up some sort of electrical vibes from them to tell us when they are about to expire, so they are therefore in our thoughts and we talk about them? (Small theory of mine!)
Or is this just me?!!
Making Your Mark
Promising the World?
Make a list of all the promises you made to your customers during a specific time span in 2009, or list the major strategic ones that you made for all of 2009. How many of those did you not keep or were only able to partially keep? What could you have done to have kept more of those and improve your customers' experience of your organisation?
Now make a list of all the promises you have made or are about to make to customers for the next, say, three to six months. At the end of each of the forthcoming months, score yourself/ your team out of ten as to how much you have kept that promise, or progressed towards keeping it if it is more long term.
At each of those end of month reflection points, determine what very specific things you could do in the next month to ensure as much progress as possible, and ensure that the score keeps heading for ten and doesn't stall, or indeed drop, in order to keep improving the customer experience.
It's so easy to lose sight of progress on promises and only realise late in the day that you should have, and wanted to keep more of them, or make more progress than you have managed to do. By keeping this check going, you have a better chance of not disappointing customers or yourself, and ensuring your trust and credibility levels with customers are still on track too.
Speaking Events
I speak at a range of different corporate conferences, both all-staff and management, on the customer experience and Whole Organisation Marketing - helping all your people live and deliver your customer experience and brand promise, and promote/ celebrate your organisation through everything they do. The emphasis is on improving the whole customer experience, referrals, reputation, your brand, effectiveness, the amount of customers and partners you keep and attract, and your bottom line success.
I also speak at industry and professional body conferences and events. For example, I have spoken for the Institute of Customer Service, the Institute of Sales and Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Housing.
See the showreel on my website from one of these events.
If you would like to know more about these or the other types of events and conferences I speak at, or indeed have one you would like me to speak at, then do get in touch. If you would like to find out more about the workshops and development sessions I run for organisations, which include ones to develop individuals and teams to improve the customer experience, then just give me a ring or drop me a line. You can see a summary of my workshops on my website too.
Thanks for reading, I hope you found it useful and thought provoking. If we haven't spoken or met already, I hope we get to do so in the not too distant future. If we have, then I look forward to chatting to you again.
See you next time.
Mob: 07787 573539
carolyn@carolyndallaway.com
www.carolyndallaway.com
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