I ran across a post the other day from Carol Roth wrote as a guest blogger at Smart Blogs about how some Customer Loyalty programs fail. Leading a new era of customer engagement with customer loyalty 3.0 is an awesome post that I agree with 100%. While I was reading her story about feeling like a fool when using a “VIP Member” card, I was taken back to my own experiences, the ones which end with me hanging up the phone or walking to my car asking “Where the HELL did Customer Service go?”
Loyalty programs, as Carol wrote about, can and should be data gold mines. The only problem is that message usually does not get passed down to the front line “customer facing” people in the organization. You will instantly know the difference when you are speaking with a Customer Service Representative who really understands the company mission and gets the meaning of Customer Service. If this sounds like jibberish, I would suggest buying something at Nordstrom or Williams Sonoma and then return it, or stand around looking confused and watch the magic when one of their employees steps up and asks if they can help you.
If management is not customer centric, the front line will not be either. Servicing the customer is not really hard, but it does take finesse and to really understand the concept of “service” you will need passion.
Customer loyalty programs are built on the foundation of solid customer service. Great customer service will give people a reason to return to that store and continue purchasing products. When the front line employees don’t make “loyal” customers feel special, you fail. You might as well take the money you are spending on the loyalty program software, analysis, maintenance and just hand $5 bills to customers when they leave and HOPE that brings them back.
I have dealt with a few horrendous customer service departments recently. Ashley Furniture for instance, sold me an “extended warranty” on a couch I bought 4 years ago, we purchased it because the sales person told us “this will cover anything that happens to your couch … ANYTHING!” So I find a small tear, report it to the warranty company (which is a whole other subject at another time) and I am notified “oh we don’t cover that type of damage.” I explain the warranty was sold as “everything” … I was then informed I would need to take it up with Ashley (My favorite is when I get bounced around without anyone saying “I’ll handle this!”). I email Ashley, and their response is “our stores are individually owned – you need to discuss this issue with the owners” … So its more like “Yes, I know its our name on the building, but its not really us, kinda, in a way like, well you know – Its Bob’s Furniture store but he pays us to put our name on the building!” So, 4 years later, I am NOW told the warranty really does not cover “everything” there is nothing we can do.
Customer service is a balancing act and needs to be managed by someone who really cares about doing the right thing. Sometimes that means the company has to take the hit and fix what is broken (perception or product), sometimes the customer needs to understand the issue is with the user, not the product. The important thing is everyone needs to feel as if the customer service representative has solved the issue.
Customer service boiled down to its purest form is the heartbeat of any company. When you, as an employee, make it your mission to promise every customer will leave happy, you will see those “VIP Members” over and over again … and get this … they will still return EVEN if your product is more expensive (within reason of course)!
If you are a business owner and you do not review customer complaints, shame on you! Take the time to find out where your business fails to exceed expectations and fix it. Customer service training is easy when you have the right team in place. If you hire bodies to fill spots, that is what you will get. If you want a passionate and empowered workforce focused on the company and making the customer feel like a rock star – you will have the revenue to cover the costs of making the customer happy.
I spent 3 years training and mentoring repair technicians on the simplicity of customer service. The one perception I found to be the largest obstacle to overcome was the technicians’ sense of empowerment to make a decision on how to satisfy the customer. Trust those you hire to make the right decision, give them guidelines and talk to them. Ask them “What If … “ questions to verify they know how to represent your company when speaking to the customers.
There are many tools online to help business owners find what the social public is saying about your company. Google Analytics is good for keywords being used to find your website and also lets you know who has a link to your site from theirs, it will also give you a nice snapshot of where online visitors are located. Social Mention is a very good aggregation site that reports on social media mentions on your company name or any keyword you search for. One of the sections I like is on the top left of the results screen. Social Mention gives an overview on Strength, Sentiment, Passion and Reach. The other site I use is IceRocket, which is a pretty solid blog search tool. This site can also search the Web and Twitter, but I find its blog index pretty slick.
These are only three tools to help you manage your online reputation. Check them out, click around, find what tool serves you the best and dig into it. The fun starts when you reach out to the bloggers and social media users who enjoy your product – and yes, you will find many of them too.
