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Archive for the 'customer experience' Category
Posted by: Katie | 5.04.2012
Posted by: admin | 16.03.2012
…perhaps they’d do something like this.
Spot on giffgaff!
Posted by: admin | 16.03.2012
…perhaps they may have responded to this tweet in a different way.
You can imagine the scenario. You’ve gone away on holiday or on business and you’ve either forgotten or didn’t know that you get charged for downloading data when you are abroad. Even more likely nowadays with the ubiquitous nature of “all you can eat data” as part of the standard contract. When you get your next bill…well, you know the rest.
Maybe our brewing friends with the great strapline will have seen this as an opportunity to show what thoroughly decent people they are by refunding the roaming charges. At the same time using Twitter to reach people like me who aren’t T-Mobile customers now, but might be next time we’re looking for a new contract. OK, so maybe it costs £100 or £200 (but probably much less) and you can’t do that every time. But how much new business might that bring for a simple and cheap piece of marketing? How much goodwill through Twitter “word of mouth” might that bring?
An opportunity missed.
Posted by: admin | 9.03.2012
There’s been a lot of talk about mobile payments recently and the competition is hotting up.
In mid February Barclays launched their free Pingit app in the UK. Pingit enables Barclays current account holders with a smartphone to transfer up to £300 to friends, family and small businesses, by using the near field communication functionality built into their mobile device. They can also receive funds too, as can non-Barclays account holders. That means no more fumbling for the £10 you borrowed from your friend in the pub – now your smartphone can sort that out.
In January this year Visa announced that Samsung, LG and Research In Motion will use their payWave mobile application for point-of-sale payments. Then there’s Google Wallet. Google have teamed up with MasterCard using PayPass contactless technology.
So what’s in it for the customer? OK, there’s the convenience of not having to swipe a card or use chip and pin, but what about mobile payment security, accuracy of billing and charges? Who will deal with the inevitable demand that this new technology will generate? You guessed it, the good old contact centre. How long before we have the banks blaming the mobile phone manufacturers and vice versa for mishaps? I hope some serious thought has been put into the customer experience design. Great having whizzy technology in my local shop, but what if I don’t undertsand or agree with my statement?
Will these be services that in 5 years time we won’t remember how we ever lived without them? Or, will good old fashioned customer frustration, data security fears and infrastructure costs, particularly for retailers, slow down the take up or even thwart them in their tracks?
Posted by: admin | 6.03.2012
Most people know that First Direct are the kings of service in retail banking. They’ve topped polls from CoolBrands to thisismoney.co.uk, from Moneywise to MoneySavingExpert.com. Even more impressive is that they beat the likes of John Lewis to win the Which? 2011 best customer service in Britain award. No mean feat for a bank. Contrast that with Santander who are consistently rated as one of the worst on the high street. More complaints than anyone else and horror stories over lost funds and ISA transfers. So how comes they gained a million customers last year? How comes we don’t all just up sticks and move to First Direct? Someone once told me that it’s easier to get divorced than change your bank account. I’m not sure if they were joking. I can’t vouch for the divorce but I do know I’ve been on the verge of changing the bank account I’ve had since leaving school but just couldn’t face the hassle of ensuring that all my direct debits transferred correctly. Years of poor service had conditioned me to expect something to go wrong. So I backed out.
Similarly, I’m pretty sure I could get a better deal on my gas and electricity but the effort to churn is just too great. This is such a big problem in the utility industry that the regulator even has a name for it – “sticky customers”. Sticky customers is one reason that the big 6 utilities serve 99% of the domestic gas and electricity market, making it very difficult for the newer entrants to get any market penetration despite their service being the best in the industry. Why would the utilities want to spend money improving the customer experience when they have a near captive audience? Why would they simplify their tariffs when it’s in their interest to make them as confusing as possible to prevent direct comparison? Why when one reduces their prices do the others follow? Not surprising that most of us don’t trust them.
Of course there are number of considerations to take into account at the time of purchase or churn. Price, choice, performance, brand, aspiration and barriers to churn for example. What about service? Is it really a consideration? Have we become so immune to poor service that it’s no longer a consideration in the buying process? I can’t believe that. Is it really that difficult to move or is the perceived difficulty creating this inertia. I can remember when it was impossible to switch mobile networks and retain the same number. Number portability regulations from Ofcom resolved that and now people move freely from one network to the other chasing the best deal. But do they chase the best service?
What do you think?
Posted by: Katie | 5.03.2012
As Virgin Money finally managed to enter the UK High Street banking market we wonder if this will bring an improvement for customers?
There newest TV advert proclaims “40 years of better. Now in a bank” and I want to know if this is correct? Have virgin really revolutionised the industries they are currently in and improved in for us, the customers?
They state on there website that “Virgin has a history of entering markets to improve things for customers” but is this true? Thinking about Virgin Atlantic, Media and Trains, have they become market leaders or just competitors?
Time will tell but it will be very interesting to see how it plays out. Add the fact that, for a number of years, Virgin and Tesco’s have been in competition to crack the high street banking market it could be a very different industry in a few years time.
We will certainly be paying close attention to the effect, if any, that this increased competition has on customer experience. Let’s face it, when dealing with many high street banks, it can’t get much worse.
Posted by: admin | 29.02.2012
For the last couple of years I’ve made a point of buying most of my meat from the local butcher and fruit and veg from the greengrocer, who happens to be located next door. Very cosy and reminds me of when I was a kid and my mum would do her shopping on a daily basis, visiting the local shops. The butcher has clear differentiation over the local out of town supermarket and their big brand, local presence convenience stores. The meat is better quality, he knows his onions (no, that’s the greengrocer) and the service and banter is excellent. The greengrocer is much the same and it’s great to deal with an expert or make that special order that he’ll pick up fresh from the market the following day. Having said that, parking is ridiculously hard, they’re both more expensive than the supermarket and I can’t buy a loaf from either of them. But, those are minor irritations and I’m a loyal customer, partly (and this will become important shortly) because they both just happen to be cyclists. That brings me on to bikes.
I’ve recently started the hunt for a new bike. Since starting cycling a little over a year ago I’ve been completely swept away by all the jargon on groupsets, frame materials, lightweight wheels and finishing kit. The fact that I’m carrying more than my fair share of timber should discount any consideration of “weight weenie” bikes, but the marketing men have got me and I know that if I get that new bike it’ll make going up those dreaded hills a little bit easier. Everyone who knows anything about bikes, including the butcher and the greengrocer, has told me my current steed is fine and that it’s not the bike it’s the engine i.e. my heart, lungs and legs that matter. But I don’t care, I want that new bike. So, I have a mind boggling choice – racing, audax, touring, carbon, titanium, steel, Shimano, Campagnolo, SRAM – the list of variables and decisions goes on and on. I love the idea of getting a custom made bike, so I start the discussion with a small but well known frame builder. The service is absolutely stunning – first class expertise, fantastic advice and great custom made bikes. Much like the butcher and greengrocer – experts in their field. I quickly realised that this is as much about talking about my dream bike as it is about riding it.
What do these three small businesses have in common? What really strikes me and what keeps me going back for more is the pride and passion that each of them shows in the quality of their products and service. It’s infectious. They know that their customers are their lifeblood. They live or die by what they sell and how they engage with their customers. They talk about cycling or football or something else I’m interested in, because they know me. We have a relationship. They truly care – not because the management team tell them to care, but because they know that’s the only way they can succeed in the face of fierce competition, whether that be from local competitors, the supermarkets or cycle superbrands. And, I want to talk to them, because it’s natural, a two way dialogue and they aren’t following a script or being marked on controlling the conversation so they can hit their metrics and move onto the next call. I feel a bit special. They take as long as it takes to make sure I’m happy. How refreshing when you’ve just tried to deal with your utility, telco or bank!
At Budd we’re passionate too. We’re passionate about building brilliant customer experiences. Using processes pioneered in great companies like Amazon (and the local butcher, greengrocer and frame builder) we help companies to really listen and act on what their people and customers know, underpinned by our experience in implementing Best Service Is No Service demand reduction and our “secret sauce” that we call “decisionflow”.
I’m interested to know your own best and worst experiences, whether that be with a global giant or the local sweet shop, so let me know what they are.
Posted by: Ian Morton | 27.02.2012
Waiting for the number 73 bus this morning at Victoria station I observed a fairly typical ‘getting to work’ experience, similar to what must happen every day somewhere in London. What it did though was make me think of how each of us in our day to day interactions can impact each other, irrespective of the roles that we play.
In this case it was the bus driver.
If you know Victoria bus station you can visualise the lines of buses, each sorted into their respective number, sometimes 3 or 4 bus’s in the same line, and the prospective passengers all queuing.
What should happen is that as one moves out the next one moves up, opens the doors, fills up and goes out. Simple!. Not so this morning, I’d just missed one bus, but no problem, there were 3 more ready to go. As expected the next bus pulls up, but instead of opening the door the driver starts making a phone call, then gets out his PC notebook and starts tapping away. Ah, I think obviously updating route information etc. very necessary. (at this point I was however thinking that the sunglasses on the driver were not really that important on a grey February morning).
Now time is a very funny thing, when waiting in a queue it stretches, so that 30 seconds to a minute becomes 10 minutes to 30.
Still the doors did not open and by now the queue was getting restless as time went into stretch and frustration mode.
Still phone calls continued with PC being updated. Officialdom stepped in in the form of a man in a yellow jacket, who appeared to be told it was none of his business, man in yellow jacket called an even more important man in yellow jacket who evidently had the authority. PC and phone were put away and doors opened.
Now the interesting thing was the behaviours of the passengers. From being robotic commuters they became angry commuters, with lots of mutterings and gestures. The driver ignored all, and stared straight ahead. which just made it worse.
In reality we had waited no more than 2 minutes, if that, but it seemed like ages. It was cold outside and it appeared that the driver was ignoring us at best and treating us with disdain at worst.
The message is a simple one. If you are delivering service you have to be aware of the impact of every action you take. This is especially important in a public facing role, where every action, gesture or facial expression can be mistaken for boredom, lack of concern or even antagonism towards your customers. Even when on the phone your tone can drive people’s behaviour, making it a pleasant interaction or frustrating experience
Two of the basic rules can eliminate the majority of problems of this type – always smile and always focus on your customer at all times.
So when your on your way to work tomorrow, smile and think of the other person. Help to make there day a pleasant one.
Posted by: Ian Morton | 27.02.2012
I’m starting a topic of conversation that I will be expanding upon over the next few months, which is ‘Has Customer Service got worse, not better over the last 10 years’.
To prove or disprove this I’m going to put forward my own experiences as examples of what’s good and what’s particularly bad and would love to hear from you as well, all examples or just thoughts on the matter are most welcome.
I’d like to find out what are the true notable exceptions of good service and try to understand how we need to truly and consistently define ‘good’.
I also want to share bad service, stuff that we accept on a day to day basis, but that really should not exist, the really frustrating silly stuff.
I think it’s an inescapable fact that despite the proliferation of ‘life changing technology’ such as the mobile phone, iPhone, laptops, self-service web sites, etc., the channels we have to support service delivery are generally far more complex, and when they don’t work, are far more frustrating for the customer to handle.
I want to be able to share recognition of whats good (and what’s not so good) in this new world of multi channel and ‘social’.
Service Providers, from retail to utilities, with financial services in between have been trying to ‘educate’ customers that self-service is better, that we can find everything we want on the web site, that we don’t need to talk to anyone on the help desk. But is it the reality that they are looking for cheaper, cost effective options to handle the same service queries and problems rather than eliminate the causes of poor service. Being driven by the financials rather than service experience?
Some of these developments have definitely made life both easier for the customer and cheaper for the business, but how many service providers or web sites can you include in this group.
My feeling is that they are in the low % overall. And this is what I want to prove or disprove with your help.
Let me share a recent frustrating example;
I bank with HSBC and they have recently changed their security process that enables access to on line banking.
Previously you had to enter account and pin codes, simple to use, but maybe not very secure. The benefit being my wife and I could easily access the account at any time as long as we had WiFi access.
Now we have a little security card that provides a different ‘live’ pin code every time you want to access the account. Very secure, but two problems.
We have been given only one security card even though we have a joint account (probably only works on one but not clear in supporting ‘blurb’ that came through with it), and I don’t want to carry it around with me in case I lose it.
Result is that I no longer use the on-line service when I am away from home and only use the service in the evenings or at weekends.
This then causes another problem. I frequently transfer money abroad and normally do this online. Unfortunately HSBC (and probably all other banks to be fair) only allow me to do this online between 8am and 3.30pm Monday to Friday. So it’s just another hassle of remembering to take the security card, which I don’t want to do, then remembering to do the transaction within the set time frames. And to top it all off they charge me a whopping £9 for each electronic transfer after I’ve done all the work! Why?
It’s small stuff but really frustrating. It’s hurdles in the way of smooth service and ease of use. Surely with a little thought and awareness it’s also totally unnecessary.
My impression is that the ‘control’ arm of HSBC has overridden the ‘experience’ arm, or at least convinced them it’s better to make it harder to access your account at any time.
Maybe some of the money spent on the TV advertising could have been spent in re-thinking the processes around the customer experience, or at least showing that they have thought about it.
Please let me have your thoughts and examples of good and bad, from the straightforward to the complexand maybe we can come up with some standards that represent best practice.
Posted by: Peter Massey | 14.10.2011
An outstanding dumb moment this morning from BMI, flight BD081 
On Weds I flew out to Belfast from Heathrow in row 6. I was only allowed to check in on a middle seat even though there the plane was half empty. As it turned out the window seat next to me was empty and I moved into it once the door closed. I tweeted about why do I need to be made to feel third class, presumably for buying cheap tickets, when there are plenty of seats.
It also reminded me that I don’t like the arbitrary number of cheap seats vs full price economy they display on their website. I’m used to Easyjet and Flybe where its just once price. Yes the price moves up nearer the time, but the whole plane moves up together. The BMI booking shows you you can still book more expensive seats in economy – i.e. they just dont want to sell you the lower price. It riles. Nearly as much as how much money BA are wasting to advertise their USP – being older than anyone else… – do you get that ad? I don’t. Surely a case of an old badge on old clothes.
So now it’s v early Friday morning going back. Same thing at check in, only middle seats allowed. I get row 7. Plane still half full. There’s 3 of us in row 7, ABC and nobody in row 6.
It takes a while to board as the lady on the aisle has to get up for me and then we both have to get up for the guy in the window seat. Why have none of the traditional airlines read the paper that says boarding by letter rather than number is way faster. A & F first, B & E second, C&D last. Families can board together. No one has adopted it.
Now to the dumb stuff. There’s 3 of us stuffed in 7ABC and I need to work. After take off I move forward to an empty row 6. I am approached by the stewardess to tell me I shouldn’t have moved.
“But it’s empty and that one’s full”. Ah but I have crossed an invisible barrier into the front of the plane…..
“The seats are the same, there’s no curtain and, I sat here on the way out”.
“Yes but you’re now in premium economy”.
“Let common sense apply – surely?”
“Well I’ll have to check” …as the steward comes forward. He doesn’t look at me or talk to me, only to his stewardess.
She relays to me that “he’s not happy” as it could be that a passenger in the back could be a premium customer and could see me go forward and could be offended. Presumably premium customers are trained to see the invisible curtain and invisible difference in the seats and know that it moves from Wednesday to Friday!!
Generously, after admonishment, I am allowed to sit and work.
No wonder the Flybe flights are full and the BMI ones half empty.
A classic dumb thing. I wonder if I’ll get told off if I ask to take their photo? OK back to work…
