The Budd Blog

Posted by: ianmapp | 11.03.2010

One of our ‘truths’ is that customers and staff that interact directly with customers already know a lot about issues and problems … and often how to solve them. Listening to their stories is often inspiring. The following was inspired by a customer advisor on a recent client engagement.

View from the front

We the unheeded, doing the unneeded.

Showing the unknowing.

Too much pressing, too many stressing.

The unneeded our undoing.

Talk more, rest less.

Always collecting, something new to show,

never reflecting, learning from what we know.

The knowing unheeded, bright new world unweeded.

Doing the unneeded, defection speeded.

They talk, I squeeze.

They talk, I breeze.

I talk, they freeze.

I talk – on their knees!

I hear them, they are my feed.

I hear them, know what they need.

Now is the time to hear me speak.

Now is the time to heed the call.

Now is the time to follow my lead.

I’m undoing the unneeding, starting now.

 

               

Voice of the Customer, agent experience, culture, customer experience, feedback, listening, process improvement, reduction in contacts | No Comments

Posted by: Peter Massey | 13.01.2010

Have you noticed these things during all the snow disruption?

1) Company websites are referred to in phone messages and by the media: “for the latest information, go to our website at ….”
2) The company websites don’t have any information
3) If they do it’s often wrong

The brand damage accrues……

Some examples:
Look at these examples of BAA and flybe’s sites at lunchtime Friday Dec 18th. I was due to pick up my girlfriend at Gatwick in the afternoon, after it had had severe snow disruption in the morning and many flights were still being cancelled. Not a dicky bird about it. No fast publishing capability. No information.

 

On Weds 23rd I tried to get to London by train. Southeastern’s call centre said trains were running. A timed IVR message at 12.30pm announced normal services resumed on all routes. Its screens announced trains. The website showed trains. No trains ran from 8 till 2pm whilst I was there.  I went back at 6.30pm. The signs said no trains. The guy on the end of the platform message button said there were no trains. One came in and I went to London.

What becomes useful is the ability to see reality with your own eyes. I followed the various web snow forecasts on the 18th, 19th and 20th closely. Kent to Gatwick, central London and Gatwick again, with a partially closed A21. The forecasts were pretty random. The Highways site had a bit of data, but that didn’t stack up with what friends were saying about blocks and queues. What was brilliant was the ability to see the live video feeds at various parts of the road network. It might be saying snowing on the website but if the camera couldn’t see it, it wasn’t snowing. The Gatwick site has a live arrivals and departures board which if true, is pretty close to seeing reality. However the rail equivalents of live boards doesn’t work. I went for an 1150 train today showing “on time” on the site. It wasn’t. No trains had run for 3 hours they said and they weren’t sure when the next one would run. Shambles. It’s no wonder Southeastern cant run a service most days – it probably can’t tell its drivers where to be and when.

Best I go and update our news page then….

BAA, British Rail, flybe | No Comments

Posted by: Peter Massey | 13.01.2010

Here’s a great example of the small things in a customer experience that end up costing serious money. They’d cost very little to fix. Sent with love as the clients at M&S Money and first drect are top people and their past experiences have been excellent – but they threw away the sales benefit of all that great history at the crucial point.

I have travel insurance with M&S Money so I received a renewal notice by post. It feels a bit steep having gone up 50% in 2 years. But I haven’t got time to muck about. I’m going skiing so I need to act. I also need to get buildings and contents sorted before I go. And I have a quote in my hand from NFU for 2 of my cars that needs renewing before I go, so I may see what they can do on that before I make another call.

The M&S Money renewal notice is 6 pages of paper, much of it not relevant to me at this point. Some of it about Axa who underwrite. But nowhere does it say how to renew automatically online. Nowhere does it remind me that they did a great job on a claim last year – a fact I forgot until later. The number to ring is there on page 2 so I ring it.

The number is obviously the same number as for new sales as it tells you get the best price, 20% lower, by going on line. So I select option 3 for that, thinking it was a strange way of getting online. It just sends you to oblivion. I just checked the number again but  its closed and advises you still to go online to get a best quote (despite the fact the website is down).

So I go online obviously seeing no end of googled prompts to go somewhere other than the M&S Money site. I get a price which is 8% lower, not 20% lower. Hmmmm.

Since the price is steep and not the 20% lower, I do a quick check before buying from the M&S site. Meerkats brand awareness is in mind…… so I “go compare” at their site. Its very fast and I get a list within a minute. I don’t recognise any of the brands but they are a good 50% lower in cost for the same headline benefits. I check out the site of the most likely one, Multitrip, since there are no creds on the Meerkats site. It shows its underwritten by Axa – the same as M&SMoney.  I remember at this point that it was Axa who did a great job on the M&S claim. It has a detailed list of benefits and features which seem comprehensive. I check the 6 page letter and it doesn’t have a list.

I then check the quote on the Multitrip site – its fast and lower again than on Comparethemarket so I buy it direct from Multitrip. Job done. Note how the brand trust has travelled from M&S to Axa to Multitrip.

Meanwhile NFU phone and I renew the cars without getting an alternative quote from M&S Money. Or anyone. Why not? They’ve always been lowest on any quote Ive got by a country mile on old Land Rovers. The souped up Mini is reasonable at £400 ish and so I know Its not worth chasing a quote. NFU has no functionality on line.

Now for the home and contents. I go back to the M&S Money site to get a quote and get the attached quote screen – the service is not available. So I ring the number given. Eventually I get to choose an option 5, yes 5th of 6, to get a quote. And what a wall of recorded messages I hit. I went from amused to fed up to giving “fed up” feedback on the IVR when I eventually got through. And then guess what – the agent’s system is down too, so I’d wasted all that time listening to messages for no use at all. The poor agent got more feedback about updating sites with relevant messages. And how I wasnt going to get a quote from M&S Money later, no thanks.

Now people at first direct may be laughing…. but don’t. I got transferred through to insurance sales after a routine transaction earlier in the week from a train. I would have asked for travel, car and home quotes. But the recorded “business prevention” message was so long that I just told the agent I didn’t have time for this that the message had so turned me off that I didnt want any quotes.

OK this stuff is hard to get right. But its not rocket science. Its attention to detail. Its inexpensive to fix. As one client said this week – “the brand IS the customer experience”.

Compare the market, Marks and Spencers, NFU, first direct, multitrip | No Comments

Posted by: susanc | 9.11.2009

If you’ve got competing demands for constrained budget how do you decide which ‘horse-to-back’? 

Case study findings show that having great agents who listen to customers in order to determine appropriate interventions in real-time can deliver equivalent business outcomes to that of more costly change programmes but the payback from empowering your people is quicker and it requires little or no capex to get started.

‘Up close and personal” can be downloaded free from BuddLife at www.budd.uk.com

Uncategorized, WOCAS, frontline agents | No Comments

Posted by: Peter Massey | 5.11.2009

Our business bank account is interesting. There’s usually sufficient balance to keep the bank manager in bonuses and the cheques roll in from well known household names. We’ve never been overdrawn on our business account. Yet nearly every month my HSBC business card gets stopped. Usually at an awkward time like paying for a client’s lunch.  So why do they do it? The rules of course….

The company credit cards have an aggregate and an individual maximum and eventually you may hit one of them. Particularly if business is doing well. But you’re not allowed to  pay any money off mid month to keep the card useful. Against the rules. So it’s useless til month end. 

More business  = more spend = more for the bank you’d think.

So why do they cut you off from doing more business? Because the “product” can’t cope with any flexing. Ah well….. But after regular and irritating calls to the call centres it was time to do something. 

Irritating because they wont talk to our finance person. Irritating because you get ID&V-ed again after transfer. Irritating because security questions like what was the last transaction on the account mean nothing to the average MD of a  SME  company. Irritating because they also cut you off frequently for security checks…… all basic stuff really, but no one is thinking about customer effort they create from these policies and product rules.

So I called the sales call centre to find there was no real alternative. I tried it again for somebody who was bovvered.. Same answer. I tried the man on the end of the newsletter. Lo, there was an answer – a commercial card that you can pay down mid month. So we ordered that. You can guess what happened next…..

Yes, they cut the existing card off. Why because the new one had been sent out. Where? To my PA. I’ll see the new one some day when the post is working again…… dumb things, dumb things, dumb things…… 

What’s the collective name for a bunch of dumb things….. answers on a postcard please (but not til after the postal strike)

HSBC, dumb things | 1 Comment

Posted by: Peter Massey | 2.11.2009

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands . 

Take a look at HEMA’s product page.

You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch. Don’t click on any of the items in the picture, just wait and see what happens. 

This company has a sense of humour!

HEMA, fun | No Comments

Posted by: ianmapp | 15.10.2009

For many companies, customer complaints are an irritation – they would rather not get them and they handle them grudgingly. There is no effort in getting complaints, they seem to arise naturally from everyday operations and find their way to you; and dealing with the ‘noise’ they create is considered a necessary chore, and simply part of doing business.

But, is that enough? The vast majority (90+%) of dissatisfied customers do not complain – they are the silent majority. How do you incorporate their voice into your business strategy? And what is the impact of focusing on complainants and trying to convert them to be loyal customers – whilst ignoring the others who do not engage with the company?

A new article on Budd Life this month explores these issues and offers guidance on how to engage successfully with this disengaged part of your customer base. It concludes as follows:

“ Wholehearted and sincere customer care is an absolute priority for all organisations in today’s hyper-connected, and hyper-competitive, world. You must care, and you must treat dissatisfaction seriously, because it hits both the top and bottom line.  ….

Customer retention may well be critical to survival, and excellence in maintaining loyalty may be a significant competitive differentiator. If so, the quiet voices of the silent majority customers who are dissatisfied with their experience but do not complain are the key to success.”

Let’s hear it for from the silent majority!

Customer satisfaction, Strategy, Voice of the Customer, brilliant basics, complaint, customer experience, dumb things, feedback, success factors | No Comments

Posted by: ianmapp | 15.10.2009

One of the core Best Service Is No Service principles is that a company should be proactive in its dealings with customers – taking the initiative as a strategy to prevent problems and unnecessary contacts; thus improving the customer experience.

Well, it happened to me today and I have to say I was very, very impressed – not least because it was totally unexpected.

I am currently spending a lot of time on a client site and using taxis regularly to travel between hotel, airport and two client office locations. A taxi had been booked to take me from the hotel to the office that is my ‘base’ in the morning and another one to return me back to the hotel at the end of the day.

Due to the schedule of meetings, I changed the morning journey to drop me (and two colleagues) at the other office. Whilst we were still en-route, the taxi firm(Edinburgh City Private Hire) called to check whether they should alter the return journey to be a pickup from the second office.

Wow!

Simple, but powerful.

Common sense and obvious you might say, but certainly not a common experience. This kind of joined-up thinking is all too rare – so well done to them.  If you find yourself in Edinburgh, I recommend you call 0131 477 4000 when you need a taxi – and tell them a happy customer sent you.

Now, if they only had online bookings – they could deflect a whole lot of calls to self-service!

brilliant basics, customer experience, customer experience design, fast+simple, good things, taxis, the best service is no service | No Comments

Posted by: ianmapp | 18.09.2009

We talk a lot about the customer experience, but relatively little about the employee (or agent) experience. This is tightly wrapped up with that of the customer since often the two interact directly with each other.

More than simply sterile discussions and weasel words about employee engagement, a genuine shift of responsibility and leadership to the frontline employees leads to improved employee satisfaction – which will in turn be reflected in the levels of customer satisfaction. Dealing with an employee that can actually take responsibility for problems and get them solved is a refreshing experience!

Middle and senior management are often loathe to give up their power and perceived control – but wake up, those days are gone and there is a fundamental shift in the operating model and the way successful organisations are managing themselves.

Budd has long been a proponent of this culture of trust, through its WOCAS (What Our Customers Are Saying) processes and tools. So, it was good to read this article by Louise Druce at MyCustomer.com. Okay, it is only an introductory piece, trailing an event later in the year, but is a useful two minute introduction to the topic.

WOCAS, agent experience, customer experience, fast+simple | No Comments

Posted by: Sue Cooke | 11.09.2009

Everyone in the contact centre would agree that wiki/ intranet is an exceptionally useful tool, but there are still boulders to trip over.
A call centre I visited recently had a lovely intranet wiki very easy to use until THEYYYY changed it! What followed was soul destroying to see, previously nicely ironed out brows became knitted, heart rendering sobs, desperate sighs and irritated customers asked to hold for a minute or 2,3,4 utter confusion, frustration, well complete chaos really.
The cause as always was simple; of course the business told the users they were changing the wiki and they even very generously gave them a quick 5 minutes off the phone to demonstrate the changes but what they failed to understand was that people learn at different speeds so some bright sparks got it, but those of us who take longer to learn or learn by use didn’t get it and had to struggle in front of the customer, how embarrassing and unnecessary. I will let you sum up the effect on the brand and reputation of that business!

wikis | No Comments