What’s the most basic service requirement a customer wants from their mobile phone company? An accurate bill? A call centre that answers the phone? No – making and receiving phone calls would be the most basic thing. And it’s become a challenge. The best service is no service has been taken too literally!
I’m old enough to remember when MF tone dialling replaced pulse tone dialling – what does that mean? The phone at the other end started ringing the millisecond you pressed the last digit on the phone. Oh how I wish I could get that on my mobile phone. Some days, working in Soho as we do, I just wish I could make a call after any length of delay. Or just receive a call rather than picking up delayed voicemails on the way home.
It’s not a problem of reception or signal strength, just network congestion. Too many customers doing too many things.
My dilemmas as a customer are simple: Buy out of the contract and move. Or not. I dont have a common sense option of being let out of contract to get a service that works where & when I work.
The dilemmas as a business are slightly different. At a customer by customer level: let the customer out of the contract so they can get service from someone else. Or keep them locked in and take the money. “Bad profits” as Don Peppers calls it. At an investment level: spend many millions ahead of the growth curve to give good access to the services sold. Or slow down products going to market so the network always works. Or keep selling services and don’t worry about it.
So let me sit in the CEO’s chair: What data would I need to answer the question and do the right thing, or at least optimise the outcome? If I am CEO what do I do?
The first issue would be “How will I judge my success?” : Revenue lost/not lost over the next 12 months? Lifetime value of a customer lost times the number of customers lost versus the investment costs in the network? Or just living our values and doing the right thing? With any of these criteria surely it should be an easy decision.
But what about shareholder expectations? Do they want the best answer for this quarter, for this year or the next 5 years? Do they want anything other than a financial or customer head count? Can they judge the future financial value of the change in a short term retention figure? Will they judge your dip in growth of customers, or your long term revenue prospects?
And what if you only run marketing, or only new sales, or only retentions, or only revenues or only service? How much do you need to optimise the overall success of the business vs your target or result?
These problems surface all over the business. The staff you talk to as a customer live with it everyday. They tell you so. People in store, in contact centres dealing with queries about network congestion which they cannot resolve. They become numb to it. There’s nothing they can do to change it.
Or is there?
As CEO or agent or silo head or customer, I can look on the customer forum and see that 83229 customers from 110078 have viewed a tech support entry called “calls go straight to voicemail”. Its the biggest issue. By far. And its been running from 2008 til now. And the manufacturer is getting a dirty name as their phone is being blamed.
Reading the original thread, I can see the problem explained “I have a 3g {phone} and am having some problems. The fault is intermitant but happens on a frequent basis. When people call me the call goes straight to voicemail. If they leave a message it can take up to 2 hrs to come through. Also text message are arriving upto the same period after people send them. Sometimes it can take upto 30 secs to connect a call. I have been speaking to second line support at {telco} but they have thus far no answer. I am on my 3rd {phone} and second sim card. I am begining to think I may not be destined for a {phone}. If this continues will they change the handset for a different model ?”
You don’t have to read many posts to realise that customers, collectively, have eliminated all the options and some have worked out its not the phone or the sim – there’s a problem of congestion on the network. Yet tons of resource is still going into swapping phones and sims out.
In fact looking at all the forums there’s only one bigger issue with 153k reads – “Network down”. In fact that runs since 2008.
So maybe the network investment deserves some attention?
But as CEO, or silo head, I need real data to size the problem. This is where our WOCAS processes come in. They can help size the problem, rate the impact problem, root cause the problem, investigate the commercial opportunities around it and put it into a prioritisation framework. And if acted on, track & communicate those actions, transparently. If management wants to do this we know how to do this.
At the moment this provider seems not to be seeing the most basic service problem and no amount of sticking plaster or great measurement system or recovery care service will help that. No amount of “score me” post call feedback is going to help them see it.
Only if they start to talk about the problem openly will staff feel optimism, the investment get to the top of the agenda and customers think differently of them.
If giffgaff ran this network – how would it look then? What data would be published about network performance? What would be done about it? How much more money would it generate by doing the right thing?
And that’s the issue that faces CEOs everywhere – there’s no hiding place in the social world. if you are not open and transparent you face two problems. Customers know anyway and have the tools to share that knowledge. Staff know and if they can’t do anything about it then how do they feel?
I’m off to search the other communities to see who has least congestion problems. Apart from the company that locked me in for a year when they had no network coverage 21 years ago ( thats about £50k of revenue they have missed out on so far ) and the one that didnt want to help me 2 years ago when my phone was stolen and I needed a new phone straight away.
Customers have long memories when it comes to “doing the right thing”. I have a memory of pressing a button and the phone ringing immediately at the other end. Have phones gone backward since 1976? Or from when they were invented: March 10th 1876?
Today I renewed my passport at Victoria. Nightmare or? Read on…
I was impressed. In fact I can’t remember when I was more impressed. It was better service than any such service I have had for quite a while. It had pretty much the least customer effort as it could have had.
It was a really impressive, well designed multi-channel journey.
Here’s the journey:
Passport coming up for renewal but don’t get many gaps when I don’t need it. Go to directgov and all the options are laid out in detail. Sometimes repetitive, rightly, of the major points.
The quickest method is to take it to a regional office, all the details are there including maps etc and instructions what do to do, what to take, how to do it.
I ring the 0300 number to make an appointment. The IVR isn’t too long winded and gives me the obvious option, I go straight through. He checks all the right conditions exist: – it is a renewal, I understand how it works, when to be where and what to bring with me, what it costs. And he gives me a code to bring. I think he asked me if I want a form and I say no I’ll down load one.
Without being asked, a letter comes through the post confirming the same information again and giving me the code to be sure. It had a leaflet with the same information about what to do as the website.
This weekend I hit the only snag. I go to the directgov site again to download the application form to go with my fresh, well new at least, photos. Can I find the renewal form? Lots of other forms but not that one and nowhere does it say it doesn’t exist on the site. The only option is for it to be posted to me.
There is however a feedback slot at the bottom of each page. It explains that they wont respond, but that the feedback is to improve what’s on the site. So I tell them, unsure of whether it will do any good. We hot foot it to a friendly post office on Sunday morning and persuade them to unlock the forms and hand one over. Well two in case I get it wrong !
This morning I go nice and early for my 930 for 945 appointment. Walking round from Victoria station, there are big signs sticking out so I can see immediately I’m going to the right place. Each different purpose has a different entrance.
I walk in and the first thing I see is “ You said, we did” posters about how feedback had changed things. I am v impressed – so simple but so good to see. I am greeted by smiling security ( ex guerkhas to a man) and have my coat and bag scanned simply.
Before I can get my coat on again a lady is asking what name ( so much nicer than what number ) and I’m given a ticket to go to the second floor. Before I can tweet my delight at “you said, we did” my number is called and I spend 2 mins at the counter whilst a genetleman ticks all the boxes on a form to say my paperwork is correct. He gives me a sheet of paper with a bar code and price and I walk to the cashier and pay my not inconsiderable £129 – £50ish more than standard renewal from memory. As per the website, the phone call, the letter he confirms it will be ready to collect in 4 hours.
This evening I go back to the separately marked exit and join a queue. Uh oh… but no, all they do is take receipts and hand over passports, so the whole thing took 6 minutes despite the queue.
So is this perfect? Not quite but heh its close enough. It’s all basic stuff but a wow to find someone doing the basics right.
It’s very simple and impressive and a great example of designing, delivering and reinforcing a “Best Service Is No Service” journey where knowledge and operations follow quite clearly a common path: I want to renew my passport”.
What could be better?
They could have picked up that I said I’d get a form off the site and told me on the call (and on the website) I need to go to a post office to get a renewal form. And why.
They could still come back later saying “you said, we did” when they fix this.
They could have asked for suggestions in person whilst I was there – I really hope they don’t spoil this experience by sending a rubbish feedback survey out afterwards.
They could charge me less for doing it all – but frankly the time saved and de-risking of lost documents was worth the extra £50 given that it was done so effortlessly.
The guy ticking the form and the lady handing over the passport could have been as cheerful as the security and cashiers – but heh, I don’t really need that.
Everything they did was simple, obvious, but evidently well thought through and done in a way to make it as fast and simple as possible. They had baked in the removal of error upstream in the process so errors would not occur on the visit and ruin the result or the experience. All of the information was consistent, whether on the website, phone, leaflet, form, in the building. They had a means to get feedback which was open to me, not a tick box, and it was evidently used.
So well done whoever you are – do step forward and take a bow at the Passport Office.
This complaint letter (click here to read) had me in stitches. Happily the guilty party has restored faith to the customer concerned after this letter went to the CEO. With many thanks to Angela for letting us publish her work of art!
5pm in an airport Sunday. Started work at 1.30 and in 3 hours work I have achieved very little.
a) Not started on real work tasks
b) Eventually downloaded all email attachments to prep a board meeting next week after some resends and an hour of waiting. Not had chance to read any.
c) Not booked car parking for next week – no log on ability on main screen and I know if I try to book it will reject me as my email address is already in use. So I have to book, fail, then log in and book again. (Gatwick)
d) Not printed air tickets for tomorrow (Easyjet) as access failed after trying my passwords. So tried for new password and but email hasn’t come so I suspect it was a site error rather than password error. Trying later shows this to be so. Tried tweeting them as no route through help to resolve.
e) Not entered supplementary details for another air ticket ( Easyjet) for next week so I can print them – why does France want my passport details, its not Spain or Portugal – looks like a lazy process for flying abroad.
f) Tried at airport and failed to make macbook connect with phone as bluetooth connection is failing.
g) So couldn’t connect to personal bank and pay bills and make Jan 31 tax payment.
h) Cant connect to business bank and make authorisations that have been waiting since Friday as it kicks me off half way through
i) Cant update to blog – saved text til later.
j) Cant update weekly work and comms tasks in work wiki
h) Cant download and read the research papers I need for tomorrow.
i) Cant get into Twitter, Linked In and Facebook to check and update
I did manage to renew my travel insurance – well done Multitrip – an actual low touch service. Fished out email from a month ago. Clicked on link which had my sign on & password below it. Copied password and entered site. Chose renew. Checked all cover features ( and could have selected/deselected each feature. Entered card details. Renewed. Choose to print papers or just leave online. Very little customer effort and really well thought through.
Contrast this process from first direct to pay my tax bill this evening when I got home ( and yes I’m a fan and dont like slagging them off but heh its been a long day…) I make the payment online, it insists I phone them to confirm after making payment on line. Fair enough but when I have to done so to confirm, they insist they ring me back tomorrow to do it again. I tell them thats dumb but if they insist if they do that then its after 1.30, on my mobile and with a good reason why. Two minutes later the same guy tries to get thro by mobile which has zilch signal at home. I call them again, pass security again and they say they still need to call me back again. They haven’t got my home number so I give it them. They phone me on it – so how secure is that. I go through security again and get no more info than on the first call. Talk about dumb. I gave the poor lady feedback. Directly.
I sometimes feel my internet time is at a premium between meetings, at airports, interrupting just being at home. At home in Kent, or in County Down, in the office, or through my mobile – I rarely get a fast service anymore ( and yes, all checked, it isn’t the laptop or software). Last week I travelled all the way from London to Bristol without getting any service fast enough to download the last minute papers for the meeting I was going to – its no better by mobile.
So here I am another 75 mins later. And still not started work.
I’d really love to pay more and get an internet service that works so all this would have been done ages ago. But there isn’t one.
Is it the internet’s fault? Has self service and outsourcing to customers gone too far? Or is self service just done very badly? Do we live too much of our lives on the internet? Probably all of the above.
The internet in our office building went down last week – a huge flurry of texts and emails and several companies had to send people home. Fast internet is now like electricity. You cant work without it.
So much customer effort, I’d gladly pay to avoid. How much is the value of an hour’s sleep? And how much money can a good company make by doing things simply for customers without customer effort.
So now to work – its 3 hours plus another 1.5 hours wasted and I’m now ready to start. Sunday, bloody Sunday…. U2?
This is a long detailed blog for people in the insurance industry – health warning: you’ll be bored otherwise. The messages are:
1) Customer effort, both physical and emotional, is in the detail of the journey, hence I’m sharing this as feedback not criticism.
2) It may be complex to do but marketing promise has to be met with operational detail that makes it simple for customers.
3) Sales and service go hand in hand when buying decisions are made.
4) In this category, you can’t make up for the price of the product with so-so service. And no one in this category offers Amazon like service.
5) Most of the customer effort is systematic to the company rather than the workforce.
Please share your thoughts & comments. I must see if we can do one of our self serve audits on this sector this quarter
Stardate 15111. Trying to give someone my insurance business through last week – multiple cars by 17th Jan. Should it be so hard?
I’m only fishing because NFU are incompetent at claims handling. 1 year later, a car park prang which witnesses reported is not resolved – the issue being a very poor lack of process. Made worse by duplicate, uncoordinated process with legal cover company DAS. So I don’t feel I should reward their excellent sales office by being loyal. Not after their initial quote was way over the odds – seemed like a try on, but was actually just poor details. It came down by 40% on asking. Still 40% over the price of a competitor quote.
I know Aviva have started doing multi car so I tried their site. There’s a discount, but no website process so I moved on. Too hard to do one car at a time.
Admiral are known for introducing multi car and have a website that handles multi car so I tried that. Entry was easy. Alas it didn’t work completely so I had to call earlier in the week. I got a handsome quote but the office was shutting at 9pm so he couldn’t close the deal. Good follow up email linking me back to my quote. But next day the website didn’t work again. So I called. I learned it doesn’t show you details of the quote anyway eg what the excess is. The agent couldnt access my quote because the last person hadnt logged out if it. Long hold whilst supervisor is asked to get other person out of it. No success. We give up – he cant do anything. They follow up by phone next day, I’m busy. I try website again – still doesnt work. I phone. Last agent didnt log out – I wait, I hang up. So I’m still looking. Can I bear ringing them again?
Stardate 14111. OK its Friday so I better sort it out. I mailed my concierge service the request on Weds as they have a great broker they rate – no contact centres they say. I call the broker contact – on voice mail. No response so I’d better start looking.
So I thought of people I know. LV have a good reputation for low contact rate and low customer effort inside the industry. I went to the website and there’s no multi-car function so rather than enter all the cars one at a time and then see if they could link them I phoned. Very short IVR routing, straight to the point. Very poor, long winded regulatory message to follow. Here’s the conversation:
“How can I help?” “Your web site doesnt seem to have a multi car function?”
“No but I can help – what car do you want to insure?” “As I said its multi car.”
“Sorry yes. We don’t do muti car. (Silence) “. I give up.
Very low effort. No business prevention officer. Speedy. Must get onto the next caller who may want to buy something. Doh !
Ok, next – Just tried the RAC site. No multi car process. Good FAQ showed me I can insure more than one car but one policy each. So that would be 4 quotes and 4 sets of paperwork. Looked for phone to call anyway but can’t find one.
OK, next – try the Meerkats – Comparethemarket.com – It will only take me into a single car quote and there’s no search function to see if they do anything else. Not so simples.
Ok, run out of people I know well, so I google “multi car insurance”. Looks like DirectLine and Moneysupermarket are the next stops. The Directline link page explains a discount but the site looks like a one car process. Ah well I’ll try. Start with the first car. Apart from not letting me say my phone number is a mobile ( it has to be day/evening/ talk type) the input is pretty slick. What’s different is they have a claim category for outstanding no fault claims which is handy. But then….What’s this you have to have a tracking device otherwise you cant get a quote. I give up. Haven’t even started on the other cars. Why didn’t you say that at the start!! Not so “direct” and no chance of carrying that route on.
Ok, next – Moneysupermarket from Google. The google link page explains multi car but has no facility for doing it!! I go to the car insurance page and start. Different – car first. No multi car process. I start but it tells me to enter a valid reg number – I have derrrr. I try again with capitals and spaces and it works. Scarily it tells me my car valuation – which is rubbishly low. 10 mins later and I’ve got the single quote done but there is no feature for multiquote in the process and all I get is back where I started – LV is the lowest quote. And I am really low energy now and not going to work though this for 3 more cars.
In this middlle of all this an Alex Vantwout of DAS calls to talk about the outstanding claim they’re just picking up after 6 months. He gets an ear bashing as he can’t hear feedback and it reminds me why I’m bothering to look around and not just defaulting to NFU.
Come on Peter – sort it now – busy weekend and week ahead so there wont be time to sort it out.
So on the saga ran in the car through the afternoon – whoops that reminds me, I forgot to try Saga. The broker goes through all the details by phone. Tries to reach me, the concierge tries to reach me. I eventually get back to them but they still dont have a quote but say they can get one Monday afternoon – but insurance runs out at noon Monday so I suggest earlier.
I tried Admiral again from the car. I guess & press 1, 1, to avoid endless messages and it works. The quote isn’t locked out this time and I get the answers to questions I wanted swiftly and a follow up email so I can conclude over the weekend if I want. Well handled Lisa Chapman. I ring my daughter as she’s used Admiral and she says they’re pretty good.
Stardate 17111.First thing this morning I need to resolve. I go to Lisa’s email from Admiral but there’s no web link to conclude on after all. I try and old link and the website doesn’t work again.Work, as in real work, needs to be done so I leave it til much later, as I know it’ll be hard yards on the phone – obviously their preferred channel as the number’s on the email twice..
Later I call the NFU sale office to give them the last chance to keep the business. In a meeting and wont be out for an hour – that’ll be too late. But he does call straight back, we compare and email, he rings back. Reading my earlier text, I’m wondering why I let them try again. It’s the thought of more paperwork for a new supplier. Just shows how much a good sales person could do in the branch network. And how much the thought of hanging on to a call centre can put you off. They tried, called back and couldn’t get near the Admiral price. The broker didn’t ring back this morning. The di is cast.
I try the Admiral quote and the website still doesn’t work, so I call, press 1,1 and guess what – the quotes not been logged out and he has to get help to access it. Groooan. I hang on and it’s sorted mercifully quickly. Prad goes over the details again as I glaze over to a welsh accent heavy enough to give Indian call centres a good name. We complete and he sets me up for the possible customer survey.
Job done? I doubt it and wait to see how well the paperwork rattles through the system next.
All I wanted was a “best service is no service” renewal or purchase for some high value business. I was quite happy to do the work myself. Nobody could do that.
Dealing with paperwork is never easy. My kitchen is usually full of it on every surface. And none of it is work related as I don’t use paper beyond a day book.
So why do companies send me paper? No doubt they have their reasons but if they want to do business with me why don’t they change? It can’t be more efficient for them and it sure slows things down. Great if they want to say ’the cheque is in the post”, not if they want to sell me something or keep me as a customer. Dealing with paperwork is too much effort for me – so it must be for them.
Take the example in the picture. This is me trying to cancel some policies and buy some new ones. You can see errors and the history of their processes on the receiving end of this chopped down forest – so presumably the signatories and front line staff can see the corresponding problems at their end? Nahhh
How did it get this far? For example:
a) We can’t cancel the policy unless you put it in writing. But I’ve passed security, you’re recording the call and you’re putting my money back into my same bank account from where it came. We’ll send you the forms.
b) We’ll need the original policy from 15 years ago. Why? You were happily taking my money for 15 years so presumably you have a copy and know what you’re providing. I haven’t got it. You’ll need the XYZ form. Have you got it online. No, yes, maybe.
c) Why can’t you upgrade me to a policy that matches the internet new customer offer – which is why I want to cancel? No, you have to cancel and start over. Starting over means a 20 minute interview and then loads of paper ….. I don’t want the paper – you have to have it. Can you email it. I don’t have email.
d) I’ll just stop the direct debits then I won’t need to do your paperwork. But we wont give you your money back. Great, I’ll have to follow your process but I wont do business with you anymore.
e) What would you do if I gave you feedback to help you improve your process…..? You can guess the answer.
Not to mention, the same letters sent twice, the same forms with different contents, the endless explanations that are incomprehensible. And endless compliance statementy stuff that has no relevance to anything I’m trying to do. The final straw is the checklist that I’m asked to send to show I’ve read all their bits, enclosed all the bits.
There’s a clue here folks – when you need your customer to checklist your work…..maybe the customer effort is becoming silly and the business prevention officer has gone too far. Anyone from Friends Provident want some free consulting?
What does it say about a bank when the easiest and least “customer-effort” transaction is closing an account? I’ll leave you to ponder what the right answer to that question should be, and limit myself to telling you the story.
Despite the evidence to the contrary, I continue to believe that companies do actually take notice of the world around them and try to learn from the best of their competitors / peers. I guess that makes me a “glass half full” kind of person. Even so, I should not have been surprised by my recent experience with a UK online bank.
Like everyone else, I am keen to find any kind of reasonable return from my (admittedly modest) savings. This has been tough over the last couple of years with low rates of interest. Like many others, I have been tempted by the special 12 months bonus rate offers and opened such an account in late 2009.
The bank in question was then a new venture from a well-established UK financial institution, perhaps best known for it’s insurance products. When they decided to create an entirely online banking arm, I am sure they studied the existing providers. After all, Internet banking is hardly a new phenomenon any more.
But, if they did study competitors or best practice, they were not good students because the result was an all-too typically appalling customer experience. The initial account opening process was not too awful, although my memory is of too many things arriving in the post in a rather disjointed fashion. But I cannot be sure that is an entirely fair assessment as I am aware how much negative overlay might have been added by later, worse interactions.
I have only needed to transact on the account three times (it is, after all, for savings) – twice to transfer money in and, a few days ago, to transfer some out. Because of the infrequency of use, I could not remember all of the relevant security information to gain access. I was okay with remembering two of the needed three pieces of information – unique customer ID, online password and PIN – but could never remember all three.
The fail-safe security design meant that the account was blocked after three failed attempts … an action about which I have very mixed feelings. I can understand that it is a good thing to limit the vulnerability of accounts to being ‘hacked’ – and applaud that. But, at the same time, the risk has to be balanced with how the experience is managed for valid but forgetful customers.
Other organisations providing secure commercial online transactions have long ago figured out how to help customers recover their security information via self-service. This not only allows the customer to complete the interactions quickly and efficiently, it also reduces the workload on customer services staff. Indeed Amazon has had this cracked for about ten years now. (As a n aside, I am not sure that ‘cracked’ is a good choice of word in this context …)
But, in the case of this bank, no such luck. Hope was raised initially with a ‘Forgotten your password?’ hyperlink, but dashed when clicking this link only produced this onscreen message:
“Please contact our Customer Services Team for assistance on 0845 xxx xxxx (our opening hours are: Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri 08:00-18:00 Wed 10:00-18:00).”
Now, that was doubly frustrating. Not only could I not help myself, but I could not get help at all at that time (Saturday afternoon). And they all have a nice lie-in on Wednesdays! Actually, given the way I felt at that point, I could understand that their agents are probably exhausted and stressed-out having to deal with irate customers all day. So much for making banking accessible 24 x 7 on the Internet.
By Monday morning, my anger had escalated to the extent that I had decided not to transfer some money any more, but rather to transfer all of the money and close the account (but you knew that was coming already, didn’t you?). I mentally steeled myself for the inevitable conversation with the customer retentions team and dialled. Only three options on the IVR (good!), of which one was to close an account. After choosing that option, and while I waited to be answered, I mused on the possible reasons why the closure option had such prominence. Part of me hoped it was in order to get defecting customers to the specialist recovery team as quickly as possible, but my suspicion was that the decision was more prosaic – it was simply happening a lot.
Still, I anticipated some attempt to retain my business; even if only to offer me the current ‘special deal’ for new customers. But no. Nothing. Not even a question as to why I wanted to close the account. In fact, the whole call – from dialling, through holding on for a reply, to having confirmation of the balance being transferred and the date it would get to the bank – took less time than it has taken you to read this blog post! Super efficient, but a super-wasted opportunity to hear my perspective on the dumb things being done by this company to their customers.
It seems very little judging by my experiences in the past week of moving my broadband and trying to fly out of Gatwick.
1) Both provide little to no information in advance of the journey or anything specifically useful via the website for the journey. A lack of publishing and sharing of knowledge with customers is at the root of the problem.
2) Getting to someone who can help you is then very hard and isn’t part of their process.
3) Suggesting someone else can fix it is part of their approach, so that the problem goes to someone else.
4) Having the obvious FAQs at point of need, is not something that’s available.
5) Managing the resolution easily has no structure, no triage.
6) After the problem, all appears to be very well done. Must be an expensive way to work.
If you’re interested why, then read on – its a bit boring – as detail often is.
Let’s take the airline first:
Gatwick departures board not available online all day so you can’t see the real situation and decide to stay home or not. Airline’s site shows half a dozen cancellations and a general warning. Nothing specific on my destination. Can’t get through by phone, not surprisingly. Nothing on twitter, except customers irate about the fact the website is still pushing Xmas offers and providing no data.
Departures screen shows delays back though the day. Self serve check-in is not working anymore so I must join the queue. I could see 150 people trying to get to 3 desks in a tidy crawl. Later discover this was only the part I could see and it was much longer. One lady has a clipboard and is besieged. I find out there is an intention to fly. So I join the queue and move a few metres in an hour. I give in and go home.
Appears to me that the snow isn’t the problem – ticketing passengers is broken. Obviously more desks would help, but failing that do 2 things. FAQs on white boards or flip charts – show us what you’re checking on your clipboard. Make it relevant to the outcomes. For example If you’re waiting for Belfast then a) if you are prebooked we have enough capacity once you get through the queue b) if you are not pre-booked you wont get out today so go home or get a hotel via desk xyz and c ) we are expecting all flights to go. And put this on your website – the whole queue is trying to find out anything via laptops and mobiles.
Secondly simply triage the queue by walking down it and checking for relevance and outcome – many people could have been sent home according to destination and seats/numbers. Many were probably in the wrong queue judging by the number who talked to each other and left. Many would have had certainty that it was the right thing to do.
Saying “the airport isn’t giving us slots” isn’t useful. If the airline and the airport haven’t worked out a plan, then it may be the only answer. But scenario planning should have taken place and the scenario be planned so that capacity is known and decisions, made in advance, enacted so there is clarity.
I get home and check the departures board and airline on the web – no information so I don’t know if the flight ever went. Brilliantly simple claim procedure for the ticket just using one screen and the booking reference. Let’s see if the money comes through as efficiently. Pity they cant be as efficient in the other things they do.
Customer effort? A wasted day.
What about the broadband journey then?
An order placed and MAC code provided. A welcome call about 10 days before to take payment details and tell me what was happening – a specific date but very general about the process. On asking apparently I need do nothing. They’ll send me a router but I ask them not to as I have one – they say you might as well as its free.
The router arrives in a plain box a few days later and goes in the cellar. I dont think I had any email confirmation – at least I have no memory of one despite several references to email later . A search now, shows I don’t have one. I suspect it was sent to their new email address that they gave me and I dont want/need/use.
By the day of swap over I’m already sceptical. An absence of expectation from a lack of information.
When I come home, the phone still works. Alas the broadband doesn’t. I have an idea and look in the plain box that the router came in – there is in fact a letter. No expectations but at least the account id, password etc is there. and lots of web addresses to check things on if any problem. But no phone number in case you don’t have broadband access to check things with.
I chill for the weekend and get by on my iphone checking all the obvious things on the website – but there’s nothing for “my service hasn’t cut over” so on Monday I phone the broadband number on the site. The IVR option 3 for faults is advertised on the site and the IVR is very simple. ( Later I get bored with it telling me I may have to wait up to 10 minutes and there’s a big queue – regardless of whether there is or there isn’t).
Eventually I get through to be told I’m through to the wrong broadband and am transferred. My phone battery dies before I get through. Later I start over and speak to someone who explains its due provisioning today – I retort that to me, it was due provisioning Friday. They don’t seem fussed. It’ll be done today.
Later I get a text to say its been done. It still doesn’t work. No response from a Twitter escalation.
It still doesn’t work Tuesday morning so I call again. Same number but I get a travel firm – redial and it goes through fine – weird. ( Later I have this again twice but to wrong routes within the company these times). This time they check and it will definitely be provisioned by noon and I’ll get a text. I get a text but no working service by noon.
In the afternoon I call again and get someone who checks and says the order hasn’t gone through but he’s getting it done whilst I’m on the phone. I ask if I’ll need to do anything else. He says no that the router is preconfigured with passwords etc. The first I know of it. So he stays with me whilst I swap out the router and reconnect everything. Still no service but he says it will be in the next half hour.
No service a few hours later.
I call again and they say there’s a fault and it’s been reported to BT. I say there can’t be a fault because it hasn’t been provisioned yet. How can BT check something that isn’t provisioned. He says that’s tech support’s process and that’s that. I ask for escalation – he says there isn’t anyone. I cut off and immediately dial again to talk to someone else who goes through the same excuses. I ask what the SLA is with BT for faults even if there were one – you guessed, 5 working days. Escalation – there isn’t one.
I cut off and escalate with a little help from my friends.
The chief exec’s office call within 10 minutes and an engineer 10 mins later. And the engineer’s boss ten mins later. The engineer does some triage, finding out the story so far, runs a line test and says the line is dead and there’s a BT physical problem which I challenge because nothing physical had been touched until the router was swapped. I agree to change the line filter and dismantle the wall socket and he phone’s me back. No change. I’m not willing to give in and he listens and we swap the router back to my old one and he repeats the line test – heh presto there is no BT fault. “You’ve got a faulty router, we can send you another one”. Hmmm Xmas post. We try to configure my router and whilst he’s helpful, we can’t do it. Later I manage to crack the router config using my iPhone to get a website that helps. And it works first time.
The new router is in the bin, as will the second one be if they send it by Xmas post.
Customer effort? I lost 5 days working and several hours of my time.
All avoidable by some really simple stuff around setting expectations, being transparent and sharing set up processes, providing information that’s specifically relevant to the scenarios ( eg what you will have to do, how to troubleshoot etc) and doing proper triage from the outset. Will I be surprised if I get problems with the billing? You can imagine the start date for service wont have been updated ….
And when they call for a netpromoter score I’ll refer them to this blog post.
Couldn’t resist posting this one. Something inspirational as an antidote to student rioters who lost the plot and politicians who don’t understand doing what you say you’ll do.
This is a great one for anyone stuck in snow in Scotland, for anyone thinking of visiting Scotland and for bikers everywhere. Don’t try this on a Boris bike! Thanks to @euan for intro
The first song is Wax and Wires by Loch Lomond, and the second is A Little Piece by the Jezabels
It must be the cold weather. I’m churning a lot of my regular domestic suppliers, many of whom I’ve been with for a very long time.
Why? With all the snow, I’ve some spare laptop time which I never usually have. I have just enough time to put in the customer effort required. And with some that’s considerable.
So who are the losers and why?
EDF, 20 years – For over estimating bills and then being hard to deal with. See an earlier blog on customer effort with all the details of how they generated churn.
Friends Provident, 15 years – For not sharing risk in an insurance product and being so painful to deal with – both to try and buy from and to try and cancel with. I resorted to cancelling my direct debit rather than go through their cancellation process. If anyone at FP wants a full blog on the numerous dumb contacts, do get in touch.
BT, 30+ years – For overselling BTVision and damaging the already weak broadband service back to the world of the 1990s. And then requiring me to lock into a further contract. My replacement will be no better, but to get any progress BT wanted me to lock in to new a term contract rather than doing what they could to provide the service I was paying for.
Southern Counties Fuels have just been added to the list ( 6.5 years) – for making an exceptional £150 charge if you want fuel in the next 3 weeks before Xmas. Blatant exploitation of the cold spell. In addition they over charged on the last bill. After years of faultless low effort business, it smells like they must have had a change of management?
All are trying for “bad profits”, as Don Peppers would call them. The policy decisions may be made far from the front line, but it’s clear to those people on the front line that these are not policies that customers appreciate.
But the effort in moving supplier results in lethargy and policy makers rely on it. I shouldn’t be so lethargic or else I encourage companies to keep doing dumb things to customers.
#humap what if 360 reviews said "how I feel as a result of working with u" rather than "what I think of u"08:01:25 PM February 02, 2012from web
don't you just hate turning up the airport early for a flight that doesn't exist.... And apols to those I'm missing today due to deadlines08:57:52 AM February 02, 2012from web
#moutiers anyone any ideas how to get from the station at 1815 on saturday to les menuires. Buses and car hire stop at 18.0011:02:30 PM February 01, 2012from web
