Category: Customer service

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing Spotlight: Zappos (Part 1)

I’m excited to feature Zappos.com here as a company that truly embodies what employee-customer care is all about. I was fortunate to tour their headquarters office this summer and will share my impressions + what I’ve learned about the company since then, but first a little background.

The Zappos Brand: Legendary Customer Service

Zappos.com started in 1999 as an online shoe retailer and has expanded its product line to include clothing, accessories, and more. It has more than 1700 employees who serve 8 million+ customers, of whom 75% are repeat customers.

Zappos is aligned around one mission: to provide the best service possible. This reflects their ‘WOW philosophy’ where the goal is for every customer interaction to result in the customer saying “WOW!” (Check out this post from a customer who loves Zappos.)

My initial impressions of Zappos

WOW! also describes my initial reaction to the people I met and everything I observed during my tour there. The atmosphere I encountered in the company’s corporate office in Las Vegas appeared to be fun, funky, friendly, and frenetic. There were the popcorn machine and the peanut dispensers on the front desk in the lobby area … Christmas-in-July holiday decorations … the continuous video showcasing the fulfillment center’s state-of-the-art technology for sorting merchandise … and a steady stream of employees flowing through the office.

Renna, who works at the Help Desk (an in-house concierge service) gave me a tour of the place, carrying a flag with her (symbol of a tour-in-progress). The main office I visited is one of several buildings on the Zappos campus in Las Vegas, and it’s crowded with cubicles that are decorated to reflect both individual tastes and the employee’s respective departmental culture. Almost everyone works in a cubicle-type space – including the company president. The only staff members in traditional offices with doors are those in legal (confidentiality reasons) and IT (temperature control for sensitive equipment).

Zappos VIP Sybil Stershic  

Midway through the tour we stopped at corporate coach Dr. Vik’s office where my picture was taken and added to the gallery of VIP photos that line his office. I also visited the lunch room/kitchen area where lunch is provided free for all employees – all three shifts that work around the clock.

After my tour, I spent some time talking with Donavon Roberson, Help Desk Operations Manager, and Mark Guadagnoli, director of Zappos University (aka the ZU Keeper) to gain additional insight into their organization. When I asked Donavon about Zappos.com’s competition, his answer blew me away. Instead of naming other major online retailers, which is what I expected, he told me their competition is “Bad customer service.”

More to come

I’ll share more about how Zappos takes care of its employees in my next post, so stay tuned.

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing

Employee Engagement and Customer Focus

I found another study that demonstrates the strong link between employee engagement and the bottom line: this one from Watson Wyatt, a global consulting firm. (Note: earlier this year I wrote about similar results from research conducted by Wharton and Towers Perrin.)

Watson Wyatt’s 2007-2008 Global WorkAttitudes Report also examined the drivers of employee engagement across global regions and employee segments. Among its key findings:

“The drivers of employee engagement are similar around the world: effective communication, competitive compensation & benefits, a clear customer focus and confidence in the strategic direction & leadership of the organization.”

Among the “usual suspects” listed as key drivers of engagement – communication, compensation, and leadership – I was surprised to find customer focus. I have always believed that being customer-focused starts with being employee-focused (take care of employees and they’ll take care of customers) so finding customer focus as a driver of employee engagement is an interesting twist.

Here’s how it was explained in one of the report’s key findings:

“Customer-focus is a key driver of employee engagement across all regions. Organizations whose HR programs emphasize delivering superior customer service – including performance management related to excellent customer service and satisfaction – can expect to increase employee engagement and connect with key performance objectives.”

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Customer service

Happy National Customer Service Week!

Next week, October 6-12, 2008, we celebrate National Customer Service Week as a way to raise awareness of the importance of customer service and acknowledge those who provide it.

This ‘holiday’ is supported by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) – a not-for-profit professional association whose mission is to “lead customer service performance and professionalism … [and to be] the “touchstone for those whose focus is on the delivery or world-class experiences.” According to the ICS, National Customer Service Week is all about “recognition, reward, informing, team work, morale boosting, and fun.”

OK, this may be perceived as self-serving, public relations/promotion, but so what? I think it’s a great way to recognize customer service as the critical (and often under-appreciated) function it is in most organizations.

To honor National Customer Service Week, here’s what I suggest:

  • If you’re an employer – acknowledge everyone in your organization who does a great job of taking care of customers.
  • If you’re an employee – acknowledge your fellow co-workers who do a great job in taking care of you as an internal customer.
  • If you’re a customer – acknowledge those employees who take do a great job of taking care of you … i.e, in addition to continuing to do business with them, let them know you appreciate their efforts.

Please note: You can be creative in how you express your acknowledgment, but you don’t have to be extravagant about it. A simple and sincere “thank you for all you do” is a great way to show your appreciation.

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Customer service Marketing Training & Development

“Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic” That We Can All Learn

Every service provider is challenged with engaging employees and creating systems to deliver a positive customer experience, but none more so than those who work in healthcare. So what can be learned from the Mayo Clinic? This excerpt, from the book Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic by Leonard Berry and Kent Seltman, explains it best:

“Imagine what can be learned from an organization that serves customers who:

  1. arrive with some combination of illness or injury, pain uncertainty, and fear
  2. give up most of their freedoms if hospitalized
  3. need the service but dread it
  4. typically relinquish their privacy (and modesty) to clinicians they may be meeting for the first time.

“Mayo Clinic and other well-run healthcare organizations serve just these kinds of special customers who are called patients and still earn high praise and fierce loyalty from them. Yes, indeed, a successful healthcare organization offers important lessons for most business organizations.”

Inside Mayo Clinic

There’s quite a story behind the powerful and enduring brand that is the Mayo Clinic with its emphasis on patient-first care, medical research and education, an integrated approach to healthcare, and a strong partnership between physicians and administrators (an adversarial relationship in many hospitals). Co-authors Leonard Berry, Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Texas A&M (one of my mentors), and Kent Seltman, former Marketing Director at the Mayo Clinic, studied Mayo Clinic’s service culture through in-depth interviews and observing patient-clinician interactions.

Their book paints a fascinating picture of the history and culture of Mayo Clinic, including how it engineers its internal systems to support its patient-first mission. Best of all, the book contains great lessons on creating and managing a brand that has achieved incredible growth in a difficult and challenging industry while staying true to its core values. The story is even more amazing given ongoing medical technological advances and the financial and political pressures placed on the healthcare profession.

Listening to the Voice of the Customer

Berry and Seltman share numerous quotes and testimonials from patients, their families, doctors, nurses, administrators, and their families, to illustrate the Mayo Clinic story. (Some of the anecdotes brought me to tears.) Even with Mayo Clinic’s unique position in healthcare, the authors do a great job discussing lessons applicable to other service firms in the “Lessons for Managers” section throughout the book.

One of my favorite chapters describes how Mayo Clinic manages the different types of clues that positively impact the customer experience:

  • demonstrating competence to instill customer confidence – e.g., with a collaborative team approach to patient care and integrated & timely access to medical records.
  • influencing first impressions and expectations – such as the design of physical space to convey a sense of healing and calm to reduce the stress of patients and staff.
  • exceeding customer expectations – including extraordinary sensitivity to patients and their families.

I recommend Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic to all service management, marketing and branding professionals … and everyone who works in healthcare.

Caution: the only downside after reading this book is the possible dissatisfaction with most healthcare institutions. If my family or I need critical care, my first choice would be Mayo Clinic!

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing

“Punching In” Delivers Knock-Out Insight

For a fascinating look at life as a front-line employee in some well-known retail and service companies, read Punching In by Alex Frankel. Frankel spent two years working undercover as a frontline employee for UPS, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Gap, Starbucks, and Apple Store.

 

His adventure was prompted by his interest in discovering how these well known companies selected and trained employees and melded them into the corporate culture to deliver on the brand promise. Frankel’s experience provides insight into the hiring process (ranging from online psychological tests to The Container Store’s in-store group interviews) and the impact of formal as well as informal training and sharing of corporate values & norms.

Note to all who oversee their organizations’ orientation programs and/or are involved in trying to codify the employee and customer experience, including helping employees evolve into brand ambassadors – read this book and consider how your organization would have fared if Frankel wrote about you. (Better yet, ask your own employees … )

Punching In explores the human role in retail and service operations. Given my bias for positive employee-customer care, I loved one of the critical lessons Frankel learned from his frontline adventure:

” … I found that many of the best companies have not only realized that humans matter but have also moved ahead of competitors by finding, hiring, and training great people to work for them. People have become as much of a competitive weapon for many companies as the actual products they sell.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Customer service

Corporate Insensitivity Adds to Customer Grief

This is a plea for companies to be more sensitive to their customers’ situations. It’s about a frustrating and emotionally-laden personal experience resulting from a lack of corporate sensitivity that may not be deliberate, but nonetheless, there’s no excuse for it.

My beloved mother passed away a few months ago, and I’ve been handling her mail and bills until her estate is settled. What’s unbelievable is the direct mail I continue to get in my mother’s name from companies who have been contacted about the situation. Here’s what happened recently (within the span of one week) that sent me over the edge:

  • Even though we closed out my mother’s checking and savings accounts after her funeral (just over four months ago) to transfer the funds to an estate account, she continues to receive promotional offers from her credit union.
  • My family recently received an insurance check after submitting lengthy documentation about my mother’s illness and death. Get this: a few days later, we also got a notice from the same insurance company stating that her annual policy renewal would be cancelled for lack of payment.
  • Then there was the personal invitation to my mother to attend a financial education seminar from the financial services firm where we opened her estate account!

I thought ‘Relationship’ was CRM’s middle name

I just don’t understand – companies have customer data bases that they presumably update with new and closed account information. How long does it take to remove a customer name from the marketing list?

Companies have invested millions of dollars in CRM (customer relationship management) technology, so what’s the problem? Is it a bureaucratic issue based on organizations that are so complex and silo’d that the left hand doesn’t talk to the right hand or even know what it’s doing?

Regardless, the result is inefficient and wasteful. Sadly, it’s also perceived as a lack of sensitivity to consumers who are emotionally fragile.

I was so upset about this that I vented to my new blogging buddy, Becky Carroll, of CustomersRock! fame. Here’s her response:

It is more than unfortunate that the thoughtlessness of these businesses has thrown salt into the wound. Obviously, no one would do this intentionally.  However, in delicate situations, it is critical that a business flag the situation and make it work out with as little stress on the customer as possible.

I think these things happen due to silo thinking, and it happens too often!

 

(Thanks for listening, Becky).

Is it realistic for companies to know what their customers’ families are going through? Of course not. But in these situations – when company policy requires a death certificate to change a customer account – someone should have a clue!

Categories
Customer service Engagement

A True Story of Another Happy Employee

In my last post, a friend who’s spent most of her career in the nonprofit world shared her positive experience as a seasonal associate at the Village Square (Baltimore MD) Williams-Sonoma store. She’s not the only one surprised and delighted by the Williams-Sonoma retail culture there.

Here are excerpts from a letter that one of her co-workers, also a seasonal (part-time) associate, sent to the chain’s top management.

“For the last 21 years I have served in the Submarine Force and as a Naval Officer in the Cryptology community of the United States Navy. I pride myself on hard work, dedication to the mission, teamwork and integrity.  This December, however, I was shown the true meaning of the qualities above, when I took a Seasonal Job at one of your stores in Baltimore; specifically the store located at Village Square. I thought it might be fun to work in an environment that wasn’t classified, and since I have a passion for cooking I applied for a seasonal position. I wasn’t sure what to expect in the world of retail – renowned for high turnover, mediocre dedication and a demanding public – but I was eager to find out.

My experience was truly eye opening. Your store Manager Claudia and her team of full-time employees are nothing short of OUTSTANDING. I have a staff of over 130 people, and I attempted to evaluate this store from a manager’s perspective as I went about my daily tasks. Over and over and over — I was amazed at the teamwork, dedication and hard, hard, hard work these employees demonstrated. WOW!

This group is truly unique in that they understand and provide customer service – no matter what the circumstance.  Claudia’s attitude is that nothing is too big to handle or too small to pay attention to, and every single employee exemplifies this motto.

I was amazed that I could ask any full-time employee a question in any situation (store packed full of customers, a waiting line five deep) and I was ALWAYS greeted with a “No problem – how can I help?”

These employees ensure that the store is fully stocked, dishes washed, cash counted, floor swept, EVERYTHING in its correct place before they walk out the door every – single -night. I thought that maybe we could cheat a little after the mad rush of customers during the holidays – but it never happened.

Submarines, as you can imagine, are like fine tuned watches. Everything is routine and we can’t afford a mistake because it could mean the death of hundreds of men. I never thought I would work in an environment that had the same structure and system. I have to tell you — Claudia and her team exemplify the same characteristics.

I want to thank you for giving me such a great experience. I truly enjoyed myself – in fact – I looked forward to work and would always call to see if there were extra hours – it was that much fun!”

My reaction (to quote the author of this letter) is also “WOW!”

Categories
Customer service Engagement

A True Story of a Happy Employee

I wanted to share this e-mail from a friend who raved about her work as a “seasonal associate” for the Williams Sonoma store in Cross Keys/Village Square, Baltimore MD. My friend is a professional who has worked in the nonprofit field for many years; she is currently in-between jobs as a result of burn-out.

She wrote: “I’ve not worked so hard or so happily in a long, long time. Despite the [hectic] holiday season … the culture is relaxed and positive and always human. Store managers are able and caring coaches; they listen to employees, meet employees’ scheduling needs wherever possible, and — get this — they THANK US for our day’s work as we leave the store each evening!  And, it’s not proforma, it’s sincere. Internal and external — these folks get it and they LIVE it!”

So I asked my friend if the culture was a reflection of local store management or the organization’s corporate culture? She told me it’s both: “The customer service philosophy is a company-wide one with frequent visits by secret shoppers who issue detailed reports. The approach to staff is more individual and Claudia, the manager of Cross Keys, and her staff are extraordinarily dedicated to creating a warm and motivating culture.”

I’ll have more to share in my next post from another seasonal associate with a truly unique perspective. So stay tuned …

Categories
Customer service Marketing

Notes from the Past – What Lee Iacocca Said

Way back in fall 1996, I heard Lee Iacocca speak at Lehigh University, which is Lee’s alma mater and mine.

I recently came across my notes from his presentation in which I highlighted this quote:

“Technology has evened quality. Hardware is all the same. The difference is how you treat customers.”

It’s a relevant reminder that still resonates today. Technology may have changed how we work in allowing us to serve customers more expediently. But this doesn’t necessarily mean we serve them any better.

The key differentiator is ensuring a positive customer experience that includes a genuine ‘high touch’ component in a ‘high tech’ world of customer service.

I wish more companies would take Lee’s message to heart. “To speak to a live person, press 10 …” just doesn’t cut it.

Categories
Customer service Marketing Musings

Whatever Happened to the Friendly Skies?

I know the past few months have been bad on air travel weather-wise, but something else is happening. And it doesn’t bode well for the airline industry.

Check out these horror stories from Jill Stover (with comments, including mine) and Bob Hastings. Customer service continues to wane, while passengers are experiencing increasing hassles.

Jet Blue’s passenger bill of rights notwithstanding, customers are continually subject to poor customer service, not to mention the hassles of getting through airport security. Security issues continue to alter our air travel habits, resulting in changing carry-on policies and new fees.

I remember back around 1999-2000 when air traffic was at a peak and passengers were up in arms about poor service. The airlines responded by improving their customer service and the situation began improving … and then there was 9/11. Airport security changed, and little by little the “frills” (such as on-board meals, pillows, etc.) began to disappear.

It’s not too much to ask, is it?

Even with the changes, I wonder why airlines aren’t doing a better job with customer service. Yes, it’s becoming more of a hassle to travel these days, but there’s an opportunity for airline brands to stand out by recognizing these challenges and being more (not less) empathetic to customers:

This isn’t rocket surgery.

Summer vacation time is rapidly approaching. I’ve already heard from many friends & colleagues that they’re considering “drive-able” destinations to avoid flying anywhere. That works for leisure travel, but us business travelers don’t have that same flexibility.

The question is: will the skies ever be friendly again?