My decision to join the Sunday Times Wine Club some years ago was fuelled in equal part by laziness and greed. I enjoy a glass of wine – especially red wine and even more especially good, red wine. But, I do not enjoy having to carry the bottles (I daren’t put ‘cases’ there, even if it is true) back from the shops.
The combination of decent wines, home delivery and a special introductory offer at that time proved irresistible! And I have to say that their customer service, on the odd occasion when I have not been satisfied, has been pretty much exemplary. I have also taken advantage of a couple of their so-called ‘wine plans’ – most recently to try some Spanish wines – which provide regular deliveries of mixed cases, and a good introduction to a new region. But, I was reaching a point where something different was in order.
Generally I use the website to place orders and have done so successfully throughout my membership. But, on one occasion recently, I was unable to get the website to recognise a voucher that I had to use. I was forced to use the phone to contact them! I say ‘forced’, but it has always been a pleasant and enjoyable experience in the past. There was a longer delay than normal before the phone was answered, and my heart began to sink, but once through my order was handled quickly an efficiently.
Whilst on the phone, I took the opportunity to cancel my wine plan subscription. The adviser asked why I was leaving and tried to retain my business – without being pushy about it. I was left with the feeling of an efficiently executed process and confidence that everything had been done. As an aside, also a professional recognition of good practice in capturing reasons for defection! Happy, I thought that would be the end of the story.
Imagine my surprise when I received a letter a little while later. A letter signed by a senior wine buyer (fascinating choice of job role to author such a letter) expressing his regret that I had decided to cancel and reminding me of all the other ways that I could continue to buy from them. Enclosed with the letter was a card folder with a cartoon on the front, including the words “wish you were here” and a person holding a glass of wine. Inside was a voucher for £10 as an additional incentive – in their words “to nudge me” back in their direction.
The tone of the letter and the lightness of touch hint at a thoroughly well thought-through customer journey and a deep attention to detail. The voucher, a random act of generosity, suggests a genuine desire to retain my business.
Well done Laithwaites (who are the organisation behind the Sunday Times branding)! Now, have you sorted out that website glitch on processing vouchers yet?
One of the core Best Service Is No Serviceprinciples 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!
My heart sank as I entered the check-in hall at Luton airport – a massive queue for the Dortmund flight desks. Not sure why I was surprised as I have had this experience before, but I was. Also a bit angry at the anticipated waste of time. And waste of time it almost was.
Standing in the queue, brain in neutral, I was idly thinking that I hadn’t looked at Twitter for several days, and I pulled out my phone to check the latest messages. Somehow, the trivial nature of Twitter content seemed a soothing prospect.
Naturally, my frustration with standing in the queue led to a tweet: “easyJet check-in queue not moving at all”. To be completely truthful, it took two tweets as the predictive text on my phone managed to put ‘doping’ instead of ‘moving’ the first time. I later discovered that the input language was set to German – I guess we will never know if it was my mistake, or over-eagerness by a super-intelligent phone, as I stood queuing for a flight to Germany!
I felt no better having sent the message and so resorted to talking to those around me, who were equally unhappy at the mystifying delay. I finally checked in after a one hour wait and the rest of the journey was completed perfectly satisfactorily.
At some point, it occurred to me that I had heard someone from easyJet was active on Twitter and so the next morning, with a few minutes to spare before a meeting, I opened up my laptop and logged back in.
Sure enough, there was a reply from @easyJetCare: “easyJetCare @imptwo I will pass your feedback on to Liz our airport manager for Luton. Usually they move pretty quickly. Hope you had a good flight ^PH”.
A Wow! moment. Direct customer engagement from easyJet, I was genuinely impressed. I had to test how far this would go and so responded: “imptwo @easyJetCare thanks for replying – others around me were unhappy with the 1 hour wait too. It’s raining here – can u fix that too? ”.
Again a reply – in a couple of hours: “easyJetCare@imptwoI will follow up, it is essential that you are informed about your delays. I wish I could fix the rain but I’m not that good ^PH”. This exchange now had a real human feel about it, and, curiously, just getting a response did make me feel better.
Nothing had actually changed and I am pretty sure the experience will be repeated. And the defence that a low-prices means low standards only goes so far; there are minimum standards of treatment and respect to which everyone is entitled.
But, a simple human contact (albeit technology-mediated), tempered with a little humour and I am prepared to forgive – which I guess makes me the very epitome of a loyal easyJet customer. Do you think I should worry about myself?
What it does demonstrate is the powerful principle that delivering a service of any kind is a person-to-person transaction, and don’t ever forget it when designing customer experiences. Now, if only easyJet were to send me a “you said, we did” message to let me know what has changed as a result of my feedback, that would be a great end to the story ….
Have you ever struggled with technology? Software crashed, got error messages that make no sense? Didn’t know which button to press next?
Well, it seems it may not be all your fault. David Pogue (technology reviewer for the New York Times) has that story.
Many of us are guilty of not making our services easy to understand and simple to use. Intimidating and confusing IVR interactions, complex transactions and fragmented organisational structures all serve to frustrate customers.
Thank goodness not all customers try to express their feelings in song. But, it is no less important to listen out for customer feedback through all channels and touch points just because it comes in less entertaining wrappers!
As David Pogue rightly say, “simplicity sells” – a message none of us can afford to ignore.
Customer Managed Relationships put the customer in control. Like many of the theories of the last 5 years it builds on the potential that customers now have to tender for services they want, search the web for best deals and control who and how gets to see your personal information. If you want to read more about the theory, Alan Mitchell has been running a website called Right Side Up and the Buyer Centric Forum for a few years now. He spoke at a great Budd networking evening recently.
The point of this is that there is now a new service available from a company called fonolo in Canada that offers two things:
You can visually navigate a company’s IVR menu system to access the option you want before dialling. When you’re connected, the system will connect you. The menus have been transcribed by clever speech recognition and a bit of human intervention. That’s great and especially useful in the mobile phone world where listening to menus and pressing buttons are quite hard to do at the same time. Ok, not exactly CMR but perhaps the mapping of menu structure might help some companies to see how complex they make things for the customer and at least lead to simplification. For one, I know that most companies couldn’t tell you exactly what their menu structure actually looks like so that information is highly valuable!
The CMR application is the ability to track all your conversations with the company. With my ’stop doing dumb things to customers’ hat on, you should avoid the need for a long series of interactions by fixing issues first time or avoiding them at all. But reality for now means that a customer could find very useful the ability to have a history log of all their interactions, plus a recording of all the conversations.
Here’s a screenshot of the website in action. This is a highly innovative idea and a practical way of putting the customer in control.
What makes this application even more impressive is that the code is all open source and they are encouraging developers to extend the applications. There must be other great examples of CMR coming to life out there with Fast+Simple solutions for customers.
So the nice guy at Porsche who does know what’s wrong with the car has rung up and explained it properly. A coherent reason why the car is worn.
It says “Play in O/S/F rack end” and everyone has explained that to be a problem with the steering rack. It isn’t. It’s a problem with the track rod end where it meets the steering rack. The track rod takes a real bashing and knowing the roads where I live I’m not surprised its worn. Nothing wrong with the steering rack as I thought….
So sound explanation. I’ll book it in. That’s all it took
Interesting to write down a journey as it occurs. I’ll look back and see what my personal ethnography says about root causes…..
What do I feel about buying another….back to neutral. Still passionate about the brand, but would I go sell them to my friends. Not at this moment. one of the guys I persuaded to buy one has been on text as I write……
I can already see where it ends though…. you guessed it: “The Best Service is No Service”.
So the saga runs on with calls back and forth yesterday. In summary the service experience was great because they used it well to get me to really want to upgrade. Exciting stuff. I want to buy another car. So far so good.
But the old car has two faults it shouldn’t have and there’s only a 2 year warranty on it, not 3. They want me to pay, so I say no – that’s the crunch.
Read on…
Yesterday I got a call with the good news and the bad news. They’ll pay for the oil seal but not the worn steering rack. Of course I escalate. Obviously a well worn path to HQ and a nice gentleman who handles my rising frustration well. But using the words “failed part” isn’t going to get me to a point where I expect to pay for German engineering twice. I can’t get a coherent argument about why I should have to pay. All arguments lead back to its not covered by warranty any more. Ok but 2.5 years old.
So what’s the escalation process? There isn’t one. That’s it.
Hmmmm. I’ve mailed the dealer back to get them to pick it up and see what they will do. After all they want to sell me another car. And if they dont I wont buy another Porsche. And I’ll stop “selling” them – I’ve reached 3 from a target of 6 locally. Most of all I’ll feel a right plonker for paying insane amounts of money on a wonderful car that breaks.
As I said to the guy at HQ “this isn’t about the money, its the principle that the steering rack shouldn’t wear”. It angers me. To me this brand is engineering and reliability. No other car can do o-60 in 4.9 seconds, 25 to the gallon every week and be so damn fine to drive at any speed. My 21 year old Porsche doesn’t break. I read stories about how the Le Mans winning 917 was engineered. To say that it’s not their problem that a steering rack wears after 2.5 years is an insult to the brand. I don’t accept it.
And of course, there’s another problem. The resale offer on mine is mildly offensive so far. Let’s see where it goes next.
I really want to buy another one, but I’d be a double plonker to buy one if they don’t respect their own product. So far that’s what they seem to be saying the sales arguments about depreciation and engineering don’t really apply when it’s down to them.
Watch this space….. I have every faith that Porsche will come through.
Ok, I’ll own up – its a Porsche 911 2S that I’ve had since July 05 and now has 38k miles on it.
So did the service experience with my beloved car live up to the expectations set by the product and brand? Or did it dent the love of a petrolhead? Read on…..
Well, I’m left with complex emotions….. so let me look at it in terms of dissatisfiers (“dissat”) and the big satisfiers or “vsat”.
The vsat moments:
Being called ahead of the service booking to be offered a test drive in a 4S, including some time on an airfield. This changed my expectations from “will they screw up the car?” to “wow, I’m looking forward to that!”
Nothing was too much trouble for the dealership. From me being on conference calls to lifts to a client site, leaving bags, free coffee and kit kats etc. Everyone very smiley and helpful.
“Any chance I could test drive the 911 Turbo this afternoon when I come back to pick my car up” – no problem
And of course getting chance to see just how fast a 4 wheel drive 911 will go round a 90 degree corner in safety (very fast indeed) and what happens when the car starts to slide (beautiful….folllowed by very helpful electronics !)
So at this point it’s looking like a good day….
And of course this works a treat for them. The perfect sales opportunity. Done very well indeed. At the perfect time when I have to go in anyway – bear in mind this is in Swindon and I live in Kent.
The dissatisfiers:
After going to all that trouble, why wouldn’t someone have worked out in advance what my car is worth. OK it needs checking on the day but….. How else would you close the deal having created all that emotional desire? I got a call later with a “lowest price, but we may be able to do better”, but then there’s little chance for a serious close. But by then there are 2 other reasons for not buying to consider:
The lowest price offered is somewhat insulting. Compared to what anyone expects, that is always going to be a tricky problem. But compared to what cars are being sold at, there’s evidently more to it. “We’re not buying cars now til January” – yet their ad to buy cars is in the Sunday Times today. What they really mean is we’re not buying cars with your mileage – that’s pretty clear when you look on the website.
The service guys have found a rear main oil seal that has perished and a worn rack end on my steering. Strange that – the car feels great and there’s no oil leaks on the drive or need to top up. Now my daughters 7 year old Clio doesn’t have these kind of “wear” problems and I certainly don’t expect it from some ultra expensive German engineering.
And of course, this is where you find out that it’s only a 2 year warranty, not 3 as on most other cars. No one tried to sell on a warranty extension at the 2 year point. They want me to pay for faults in the car. Hmmmmm, this isn’t looking so good. At this point I find it a bit of a joke but I can feel a rumbling inside if they don’t cough up and fix these problems. A call is expected next week after they talk to the maufacturer.
But these faults reminded me why I set this blog going last week – why I felt trepidacious at the thought of the service visit.
My 21 year old Porsche has done 130k miles. At 63k miles the Porsche dealer in Kent said it wouldn’t do another 1000 miles on the clutch. It’s done rather more, thank you, and is still going strong.
A Boxster I owned had it engine seals done 3 times by the Kent dealer , all under warranty. There were some very red faces when I retold them the story they’d told me about redesigned parts and “impossible to happen again” after the second replacement. They obviously hadn’t remembered how many times they did it already.
And the final straw had been when the brake discs needed replacing at under 3 years – “worn out”. I challenged this and got Porsche GB to check the discs. “20% worn – no problem”. Then the Kent dealer insisted I should still pay for the new disks, eventually offering to charge only at cost. You can imagine where that conversation went.
So I sold the car and vowed not to touch Porsche again. Still fuming some months later, a Porsche mailer came through and I emailed the marketing director’s name on the bottom of it to say stop mailing me, as it reminded me how I ‘d been treated. To my complete surprise 15 minutes later my phone rang and it was the marketing director. He apologised for what had happened and said the mailings would stop. Wow, someone cared! It didnt make me rush out and buy another then but it meant Porsche weren’t on my “never again” list like Audi are (but that’s another story). That made me happy – when you’ve a brand loyalty you dont want it trashed by unscrupulous people.
So now what do I think is happening?
The oil seal is suspiciously like the previous rip off to my mind.
A worn steering rack is certainly not something you expect, let alone expect to pay for.
Given attitudes so far, I completely expect the dealer to sort both out either way whatever the warranty says. So I am discounting these things in my mind and thinking I will buy another. Of course that can switch easily
I’m left waiting to see what offer they come up with on my car and find out if I own a pup or a great investment…..
Interestingly, raising the emotional bar, by making me want a better still car, may backfire if my own car. The product I loved to bits one week ago could turn from a supercar to a depreciating lemon in the space of one visit.
So product versus the service? It started 1-0, now its 1-1. The service experience was great, helped by the sales experience. But doubts about the product have been planted. How the service experience finishes will be interesting as will the sales experience. But will it end product nil, experience nil or will it be 2-2 ?
I’ve had a lot of feedback about the HSBC and first direct credit card blog “1 contact vs 23 contacts“
When I tried to use the HSBC card on Tuesday night to buy some tube tickets for the Chief Customer Officers’ trip across town, as I suspected it wasn’t over yet. It didn’t work.
When I came to pay the bill for the excellent dinner at “Dans Le Noir” it bounced. Now if you saw the size of the bill you wouldn’t be surprised. I did wonder whether I’d bust my limit.
Wednesday I thought ‘one more try’ and tried to top up my Oyster card with it and it bounced.
The following day was a busy one and so on ThursdayI checked with our finance lady and it seemed ok. I called the number on my card to be answered very quickly by a lady of impeccable manners. Strangely she called me Peter before I had given her any details. Clearly they were on my case! The only marker she had was for ‘payment requested over the limit’. The helpful lady suggested that I probably hadn’t bust my limit but had probably bust the aggregate limit on my card.
I accepted the point and talked to finance to sort it out.
So far so good but something didn’t smell right. The first payment that was declined was only for £16. It wasn’t enough to break a limit. Whatever, life’s too short, move on.
Then Friday night I got a text from my colleague. “You’ll never believe it, but I’ve had a call from the HSBC fraud people asking for you to ring them”.
As per the last story, obviously they still had my colleague’s names and details attached to my card and were ringing him.
So I rang the number on the card on Saturday. And went through security. Card number, date of birth and any two consecutive letters from my favourite word. At least they stopped asking me for my postcode and then telling me it was wrong. But I havent given them a special word. “It could be your mothers maiden name” the helpful lady suggested. It was. I realised she obviously had the whole of my mothers maiden name on screen and that the lady a few days before had done the same thing with the same helpful suggestion. Is that security?
Nothing wrong with the balance. No flag on the account. Eventually I got transferred offshore to the fraud department. Just before I hung up after waiting 2 minutes 25 seconds on hold.
She asked had I tried to make a payment in Steam. Avoiding all jokes about trains, I didnt recognise it – but we moved on before I answered yes or no (afterward I remembered the beers late in the night in the Steam bar….). Had I tried to make a payment at Hilton. No, but I had stayed there this week. And not paid anything on my credit card. All cash. Had I paid anything on SE Trains earlier – yes.
OK, she would reinstate my card. It was just a fraud check she said, nothing to do with balances. I didn’t argue because I don’t want to go through 23 contacts again to get a new card.
So the questions that I am left with are: 1) Will they ever get me attached to my phone number and details, not my colleague? 2) Why did my card bounce for £16 when that wouldn’t break the limit? Was it in fact a fraud check? 3) Who tried to take money off my card at the Hilton? 4 ) Why was my card reinstated when there could have been a risk? It was my fault – I just wanted my card working and I need to find out what was going on at the Hilton. I think I know so I took the risk.
I got the outcome I wanted, my card working again. This time in only 7 contacts (me to finance, me to bank, me to finance, finance to me, bank to colleague, colleague to me, me to bank).
But shouldn’t the first 2 contacts have sorted it and left no questions open:
Bounce at the tube, be it fraud check or balance problem
Text or call to me (not my colleague)
I call the bank and we agree it’s real or they tell me I have a balance problem so I dont try and use the card to embarass myself in front of 15 of the top customer experience people in the country
A Wow! moment. Direct customer engagement from easyJet, I was genuinely impressed. I had to test how far this would go and so responded: “imptwo @easyJetCare thanks for replying – others around me were unhappy with the 1 hour wait too. It’s raining here – can u fix that too? 
”.
^PH”. This exchange now had a real human feel about it, and, curiously, just getting a response did make me feel better.
