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Customers Tell Us What They Want but Are We Listening?

Whenever we write to our readers and clients or talk to them, they will respond. The same is true of our  customers and clients. Perhaps not right away or even directly to us. But they are talking and if we want to keep them as customers of our writings, products and services, we need to hear what they are saying. And more importantly, we need to respond. Here is what I mean.

First, when I built and launched this blog, I had three specific audiences in mind: 1) other marketing and communications professionals, 2) other bloggers, and 3) current and future clients. In order to build readership, therefore increasing sharing and learning as well as business development and growth, it is clear that I need to learn what those attracted to my blog want and need. To do this, my strategies are twofold: 1) read and respond to every comment, whether here at bizsolutionsplus or at the other blogs where I contribute, and attempt to engage my readers in further conversation to learn what they like and what they don't like, and 2) pay close attention to the numbers.

The first strategy is complex in that we need to listen carefully when in conversation and make every effort to understand what is being said to us not from our point of view but from the other person's point of view. This requires the ability to recognize that conversations do not have a center of focus in the form of a person. It is not about me or you, the conversation is about us, whether or not the us is two people or 200 people. So persons engaging in conversation need to interpret the words based on what the other person is saying or writing, not based on what we think we are hearing.

The second strategy is analytical and quantitative, so much easier to understand. Here are the numbers of syndication for my last 11 blog posts:

1. In Memorium: 164
2. Jobs Aren't The Problem, Education Is: 275
3. What Happens If You Call A Press Conference And Reporters Don't Show?: 303
4. Unlikely Heroes Among Us: 274
5. Tax the Internet, Or Not: 262
6. A Story Of Hope And Of Overcoming Personal Tragedy: 260
7. California Fires Rage On: 364
8. Surprise Clients And Shake Up Their Skepticism: 203
9. Do You Practice Happy?: 337
10. GM Passes Toyota... in China: 83
11. Turn Your Presentation Into A Conversation: 650

It is clear that my readers are most interested in "how-to" posts (Turn Your Presentation Into A Conversation) and not so interested in automobile manufacturers (GM Passes Toyota... in China). Based on my knowledge of daily readership averages and who they are, the other posts seem to engage my loyal readers but do not attract new ones. Therefore, if I want to reach out to new customers for my ideas and my business, I need to sprinkle in more "how-to" posts.

These strategies--engaging customers in conversation through social media as well as all our business's human touchpoints (i.e., call center, customer service, sales) and looking at sales numbers--tell us what our customers most want and need. If we want to grow our business and serve our customers, we need to listen from their points of view and respond. Are we doing that? Are the businesses you buy from listening to you? If your business listening to those who buy from you?

What's Your Beef with Customer Service?

I remain deeply buried under a pile of edits. Currently, I am revising my words on customer service. Here's a snippet. What are your thoughts?

Sales people are your primary customer contacts. That also holds true for your Customer Call Center, whether it is you the sole proprietor, or you the executive overseeing a large corporation. Every consumer touch point affects the brand image.

When a customer calls your business, the person who answers the telephone must treat the customer as if he or she is your company’s most important person at that moment. The caller must feel, upon hanging up, that you value his or her business and that you will do whatever it takes to make him or her happy. However, in many companies customer calls are all too often treated as unimportant. The customer who finds a way through a complicated, long, boring, and rude telephone maze often reaches a company rep who is difficult to communicate with and unable to solve the problem. That means more time on hold until another company rep comes on the line, asking the customer to go through the entire story again, before he or she can begin to address the issue, and maybe solve it.

Is this considerate customer service or relationship-building? Our reaction is usually “I’ll never buy anything again from that business!”

This leaves a huge gap for some savvy businessperson to fill. To a great extent, this book is dedicated to filling that gap. If you can build a business based on values, leading with the heart, and happiness, you will take market share away from more-established and more-profitable businesses who don’t really care or respect the customer after the sale has been made. Not caring about the customer as much as the sale will eventually lead any business to shrinking margins and a disappearing bottom line.

Treat customers in ways that convince them that you appreciate and enjoy their business. You’ll build a great Brand, increase sales and marketing opportunities, enhance customer trust and loyalty, and grow sales and margins.

Smart executives and entrepreneurs grab market share from businesses that outsource service overseas where language and cultures collide, use technology in place of human contact, and hire first-level service people who cannot solve a problem that is not written down in the service guide in front of them. More and more customers are seeking alternatives for their purchasing dollar.

Marketing departments are the key. They can conduct the research and gather intelligence to identify the gaps and fill those gaps. They can put the customer at the center of everything the business does. Marketing should be responsible for the strategy and the execution. The primary questions they must ask are:

1. What is the Brand image you want to build? How do you want customers to view your business?
2. How do you want that image communicated to customers?
3. How will that perception be reflected in every customer interaction with your company?

Forrester Research analyst Elana Anderson[i] tells us that when a strong connection between marketing and the contact center does not exist, too much is left to chance. "When customers have a bad experience on the phone, that's a bad reflection on the brand," she says.

Note: Check out Reaching the unreachable at Seth's blog. An interesting take on reaching customers.

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[i] Coauthor of the Forrester Research report Why Marketing Should Own the Contact Center.

Someone Please Answer the Phone

In May 2006, I switched my telephone service from AT&T to Comcast for cost-savings. So now our four  phone lines are equally divided between AT&T and Comcast. Problem is, one of the lines, mine, hasn't worked properly since the transfer.

Seems like an easy fix: The problem only exists when residents and businesses in Avon, Conn., try to call me. This includes the other three lines in our office, meaning people sitting in a hundred feet away either have to use their cell phones to call me, get up and walk to my office or send me an e-mail.

Here are the symptoms: Callers hear the line ringing, I don't. They get a recording saying I haven't set up my voicemail. I have. Results? One of my largest target audiences can't call me. And so the adventure began.

Many work tickets later, I decided to take on the roles of Comcast customer service and tech support. This after connecting with a Comcast and an AT&T tech support person who vowed not to let this go until it was fixed, which gave me hope. After three days of spending hours dealing with calling AT&T and Comcast, Kevin and Ray assure me that between the three of us, we have found the problem.

Apparently, AT&T has no record of Comcast asking them to release and switchover my phone. Of course, both companies blame the other. But as a customer, I don't care who is right. I just want my phone to work. Oh, I forgot to mention that since May I have been paying both companies for the service, although it doesn't work. So, when I get over this hurdle, which I began trying to clear nearly a year ago, I will need to go back into battle for compensation.

Is this anyway to run a business? Again, everyone has been very nice and polite and seemed interested in my problem but until I lucked into Ray at AT&T and Kevin at Comcast, and until I took the initiative to call AT&T, the problem remained a problem.

I keep asking myself: If I can find the number for AT&T, and within minutes be told why my phone isn't working properly, couldn't Comcast have done the same? I wonder why we as consumers find ourselves so often being under-served? Is it poor training? Too few customer service people? Some silly rule about if you can't fix the problem quickly move onto someone else?

This lack of customer service seems to pervade every industry. What's going on?

Update: April 9, 2007
The telephone works. After nearly a year, and thanks to two employees who not only took a ticket but follow-up to ensure my needs were me, my phone now works as it was meant to. Thank you Kevin (Comcast) and Ray (AT&T). It's still troubling, however, that unless we happen upon self-actuated and motivated employees, we are pretty much on our own.

Update: One hour later
You won't believe this: At least I don't. Denise in AT&T billing just hung up on me after I asked to speak to a supervisor. Apparently, she enjoyed arguing with me, and when I wanted that to stop, she hung up. All I want is to discuss the potential for some compensation, since I have been paying both AT&T and Comcast for the same phone, although only Comcast was servicing me. Denise wanted to insist that I was still get a dial tone from AT&T. Well, I get it. And that's the problem. I shouldn't have been getting AT&T service. Why doesn't she understand that? So here's the latest. I called back, asked for a supervisor, was politely and quickly transferred to one, and she is going to research my complaint and get back to me. See how easy that was, Denise. And the saga continues.

Final Resolution, April 10, 2007, 4:23 p.m.
Lisa, an AT&T supervisor, just called to let me know that while AT&T did nothing wrong technically, they were allowing us a credit on our next bill. (We have AT&T for our DSL and two phones.) Much appreciated. One year later, the phone works. Should this had taken so long? And while the phone not working was Comcast's fault, customer service at AT&T was challenging.

Seth Godin also had a recent less-than-great experience. Read about it at One way to dramatically lower customer complaints.

To be Business Smart, be People Focused

If you regularly read blogs, one theme that often creates a thread of connection is customer attention that is driven by values to be people focused. It works.

There is no lack of research and case studies that show us how good companies become great: They  focus their attention first and foremost on people. Ritz-Carlton is one such example. As a former travel writer and a frequent traveler no hotelier's brand stands out more. How did they get where they are today?

Their standards were set more than a century ago by founders Caesar Ritz and August Escoffier. Today, employees hear the hotel's story often and they are well trained in company values, called “Gold Standards.” The standards begin with “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen,” and continue with principles such as these:

• I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
• I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve the Ritz-Carlton experience.
• I immediately resolve guest problems.
• I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.
• I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.
• I am proud of my professional appearance, language, and behavior.

Employee training and rewards programs begin and end with these principals, which are discussed in daily “lineups”. These 15-minute sessions are held at the start of each employee shift, when managers reinforce company values and review service techniques. The Ritz-Carlton understands that meeting people's wants, needs and desires is the most important thing we can do.

Do each of meet those kinds of standards in our life and in our work?

Note: For another reason why good companies become great, check out Take a risk? at Seth's Blog.

Treat Customers Like Family

Sort of. Members of my family are pictured below. Like any family, sometimes we aren't connecting; our messages aren't sticking; and we aren't happy with each other. These photos tell a different story: the story that we live 99 percent of our lives. Harmony, respect, community, dignity and fun describe us best.

Earlier this week I wrote two posts very opposite in nature: The first was about community representing  the best of and in us; the second, was about members of our community struggling with values gone awry. As a positive person but a realist, I accept both stories as the realities of our time. But for our lives and business sakes, we need to focus on the best to be found in a community, such values as:

1. love
2. trust
3. credibility
4. kindness
5. sharing
6. fairness
7. respect
8. and dignity

In families and communities, these are things that bring us together. In business, especially in our sales and marketing efforts, these are the things that build solid and long-term relationships with our customers, our staffs and our vendors. Why wouldn't we focus on these values to grow our businesses?

In everything we do within sales and marketing, if the above values are inherent within ourselves, our brand, our collaterals and our customer service, our businesses will grow. Isn't that what we want and work so hard to achieve? Do we have time or room for behaving badly?

Smiles Sell

This morning I had to work extra hard to get my bank teller to smile. She finallydid and both of us felt better for it. Smiles cost so little, yet earn so much.

How much better would business people and their employees feel if they smiled? How much more would they sell? It seems like a no-brainer.

Who would you rather buy from?

What Have You Done with My Clothes?

Anyone who has had their luggage lost knows that particular problem predates that fateful September day in NYC, and that airline executives have done little to fix the problem and, in fact, seem to care little about our flying experiences—unless you can afford to fly First Class. (Although first-class cabins are full of frequent fliers who have been upgraded from coach and business travelers actually paying recently reduced first-class fares, the average flier’s perception is that wealth buys this perk, creating the us versus them feeling.)

So when airlines feature First Class seating areas, they actually worsen customer experiences, as most of us do not fly with the advantaged and are annoyed that First Class exists for what we believe are the privileged few.

Losing luggage and selling a few good experiences instead of ensuring everyone has a good experience screams “airlines don’t really care about us.”

The point I want to make by telling this story is not that the airline industry is run by fools or that it is greedy. The point is that like far too many businesses, the airlines simply follow a bad model and employ a failed business strategy and philosophy, one that seems entirely inward-looking instead of outward-looking. This causes them to read their Brand perception incorrectly and creates an impression with the general public, and within their own employee base, that they don’t care about creating positive experiences.

In doing some research, I found an AP article that reports airlines temporarily lost 30,000,000 (that’s right, million) pieces of luggage in 2005, of which 200,000 were never returned to their owners. SITA Inc., a company that provides technology to the industry, issued the report. And although this represents but 1 percent of the 3 billion bags that make their way through airports, it is a 0.3 percent increase over 2004. It also represents lots of very unhappy, frustrated and angry fliers, more than willing to spread bad words-of-mouth about the airline that lost their bags and the industry in general.

This hurts all brands within the industry and encourages people to look for other modes of travel, and, at the very least, to demonstrate absolutely no loyalty to any single airline. Furthermore, the lost luggage cost the airlines $2.5 billion. In an industry where businesses jump in and out of bankruptcy like they’re in a game of hopscotch, you would think that after all these years they would be getting better at doing their jobs and creating happy customers.

But you would have trouble convincing fliers of that -- and not just because your luggage may arrive at a different destination than you do. Not only do you have to worry about your baggage, you also must deal with airport congestion, less-than-convenient terminal configurations, increased transfers and connections, and tighter security. None of these issues leads you to look forward to flying.

The airlines and the Port Authorities who host them must find better ways to manage their responsibilities and, most important, grasp the concept that business success isn’t about executive pay, it is about creating a business that understands and meets the needs of its employees and its publics.

In Customer Service, Canada Trumps India

My repetitive stress syndrome is becoming so painful that I went entirely ergonomic this week -- keyboard, mouse and mouse pad -- but not without some difficulty.

Before you slam me for bias, I don't care if tech support lives on Mars, as long as my needs are met. In several years of chatting with my Indian friends, I am yet to hang up without feeling as if I just spent an hour in language hell.

Read the full story at MarketingProfs The Daily Fix.

For Our Sake, Just Ask

Jet Blue is a subject I wanted to avoid, but while everyone is offering advice and Jet Blue's CEO is pushing his face and words into every available nook and cranny, he just doesn't get it. So my patience has run out.

Why is it so difficult for businesses, especially airlines, to understand that it isn't about them, it is about us?

Creating Customer Rights from within is a failed and insulting policy blunder. Assuming we know what customers' wants and needs are from within is insane and stupid. Giving free tickets doesn't make amends. Failing to "just ask us" is paternalistic, maternalistic, egotistic and simplistic. It is bottom-line centristic, although it fails the bottom line miserably.

When will businesses understand that business strategies are not about the what? They aren't about our products, they aren't about our services, they aren't about our assumptions, they aren't about what executives think.

Business strategies and tactics are instead about meeting customers' wants and needs. Or at least they should be. And you can't possibly know what customers' wants and needs are unless you ask. And I am not talking about focus groups or narrowly designed market research, both good and necessary but not nearly as affective as providing a conduit for customers to talk with us whenever they wish.

Businesses sell customer experiences. It doesn't matter whether you own a hot dog stand or lead General Electric. Businesses succeed when they grow customers, and they succeed at the highest level when they sell great experiences resulting in loyal customers who are brand enthusiasts and brand ambassadors.

For Pete's sake (and all our sakes), ask customers what they want, what they need, and what they want other experiences to look like. Am I in never-never land? For the life of me, I cannot understand why every business doesn't stop talking about being customer-focused and start acting customer-focused. The solution: Ask!

Dell Says Talk to Us

I have been critical of Dell in the past, but recently reported that Michael Dell's return as CEO may mean a turnaround for this computer giant. Well, only a few weeks have passed and Michael Dell is already making a difference.

He began by talking with his employees, the best place to start. The message: We need to get back to doing what we do best, listening and responding to our customers. Now Dell wants to have a conversation with you, a two-way conversation. With the launch of Ideastorm and StudioDell (click to see and hear Michael Dell), the people have a voice.

For those of us urging big business to trust consumers and to give them a voice, this seems significant and could lead to other large corporations doing the same.

Here are the details in an e-mail I received from their Public Affairs Department. A disclaimer: I do not own or use any Dell products; Dell is but one of the companies that I report on.

Dear Lewis

Since our paths crossed in the blogosphere we have undertaken several new initiatives to foster the  direct connection between Dell and our customers. Because of our direct relationships with customers, Michael wanted to roll out some additional ways for customers to share their ideas directly with us and the entire community of Dell users around the world.

As a result, today we are introducing two new ways for customers to share ideas and experiences directly with peers and with us. Dell’s IdeaStorm and StudioDell were announced during a presentation by Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO, at a statewide education summit in Texas.

As Michael pointed out at the conference today, “We are at our best when we are hearing directly from our customers. We listen, learn and then improve and innovate based on what our customers want. It’s one of the real advantages of being a direct company.” He views both IdeaStorm and StudioDell as ways for customers to help shape Dell’s future.

That’s why I would like to invite you to get involved in these new online initiatives or simply drop by and check out some of the user-generated content. 

To offer you a little more background you can visit the Dell blog, where our post will go live at 1:30pm CST (Friday, Feb. 16).

I have also outlined a little more detail here.

Ideastorm: Ideastorm will be an online community that brings customers closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share ideas and interact with other customers and Dell managers and executives. You will have the opportunity to suggest new products or services you would like to see Dell develop or tell the world how you feel about major trends in technology and society. Dell’s commitment is to listen and to use the input and ideas from customers to improve our products and services, and the way we do business. You will be able to check back over time to see how Dell brings customer ideas to life.

StudioDell: StudioDell has been in existence for several weeks. Today we are adding a new video upload feature on StudioDell in the section called “Your Stories.” Similar to YouTube, you can submit videos showing how you are using Dell technology and services for whatever you love to do.  StudioDell has channels for consumers, small business and for IT professionals. We hope our customers will join to learn about technology tips and share their stories.

Thanks for the consideration and hope to hear or see you at IdeaStorm or StudioDell

thanks,
richard binhammer
Dell, Public Affairs