Adapting To The Customer

Adapting to the customer sounds hard. It doesn’t have to be. Small changes can make a big difference. I recently noticed this detail in an experience I had ordering Five Guys take out and using the web site to do it.

The order experience includes a question for me. The kind of question that builds customer confidence and rapport with the brand. The experience achieves this with the device of a cleverly written preference question. “Are you an expert user?” If you think you are – skip the suggestions for future online take out ordering.

They followed 3 simple rules to make my interaction better with them and show me they are willing to adapt to me throughout the process to make me happy as a customer.

1) Rule One: Ask me a question.

In this case, it was actually an upsell ‘ “May we suggest…” but it provides an option to remove suggestions in the future.

2) Rule Two: Listen to my response

It makes you feel good about opting out. You can opt out because YOU are an expert user and don’t need to be reminded to add fries to your order.

3) Rule Three: Retain. Keep the information for later, when I come back – don’t show me the upgrade to a beverage option.

Follow these steps 1) Listen 2) Rule 3) Retain and continue to collect and build on that customer information. That’s the future of any business that wants to remain relevant.

Well done Five Guys! Quality food coupled with quality experiences will keep the customers coming back every time. It’s really no surprise that a company with such great product would extend its ‘awesomeness’ by making this effort to adapt to customer needs.

Recovering Gracefully

We all make mistakes. Every retail web site team should have come to that conclusion by now and spent a few resources on the message and information they show a customer when this happens. 404 pages have been notoriously machine friendly but confusing and scary to humans. I ran across two nice examples of companies that were thougtful about the information provided to someone browsing their web content. These are valiant attempts to recover gracefully and admit what is true. We all make mistakes.

Using an on brand and eco approach, Gaiam addresses the 404 page with light hearted humor. They then immeditaely present the customer with 2 contact options to resolve the issue. This reinforces the trust with the company. It also turns what could have be negative into a positive interaction and chance to surprise and delight the customer when it could have taken a turn for the worse.

Columbia uses their brand in the 404 error page as well. It shows that a bit of thought and some empathy for the customer were part of the process at the company.

The 404 page is a great example of an opportunity to do something small and make a large impact. When you think about the customer experience across many parts of your company, many of these types of opportunities present themselves. That is why it needs to be part of the company culture to seek out those opportunities and excel at customer delight. Understand all parts of the flow and tune each step along the way.

Comical Customer Service-So Bad it’s Funny

I don’t want to be specific about where this happened, but it should not happen at a company that is well known for such “amazing customer experience”.

It’s not easy, I know. And sometimes, you just get a situation where everything continues to go wrong, so much so that at some point you have to start laughing about it. Now that it’s at a stopping point, I wanted to share it with you dear readers.

I purchased a new consumer product on New Year’s Day. It was a very exciting purchase that I felt was going to enable me to stay organized and stylish now that I was leaving the house for work. I went to the store and made the purchase. They made it pretty difficult though because of a new process that had just been put in place. I went to the store with my cash in hand hoping to just give it to someone to get my new product, but I had to work pretty hard to get someone to let me buy it.

2 weeks later a new accessory becomes available for my product. I decide to go on my birthday and get this new accessory. They don’t have any and nobody can answer my questions, but they have a number system before you can talk to anyone so I got to spend an hour of my birthday sitting around waiting to be told I can’t be helped. I’m a customer that just had to pretty much wrastle an employee to the ground to buy the product and then when I wanted to keep giving them money for my shiny new product, they still weren’t interested.

I was told the only way to get what I needed was to call someone and they could help.

I knew it would be an experience that would require much patience so I waited a week and a half to make that call. Today was the day. I was also reminded today that sometimes things really just were meant to be comically bad from beginning to end.

After two specialists and one hour and twelve minutes I got the information I needed.

Great customer experience and it’s not quite over yet, but it’s definitely reached the comical stage. So I’m laughing and meditating on what universal lesson I should be walking away with from this situation. I’m sure that will reveal itself when it needs to be known.

Hold Music

If you work for a global company and you call HR, should you really be hearing ‘Silent Night’ on the hold music? Ah, the overlooked details in life, it’s staggering.

Bank Customer Service – A Comparison

When you leave the country, it’s a really good idea to tell the bank so you have money when you get there. We have two accounts and to make sure we could use either, I called both banks.

Wells Fargo was first on the list.

I got through the phone tree pretty quickly and was able to get help. I had both a debit card and a credit card there that I wanted to authorize. The teller was able to take care of all it in one fell swoop.

Now for the USBank experience.

Again, got through the phone tree pretty quickly. They didn’t make me enter an account # to speak with someone which was great. I always like it when companies don’t make it hard for me because at the time I was multi-tasking and taking my new baked lamp chops out of the oven so I really didn’t have the digits to punch in the numbers.

The disappointing part was that the accounts are not tied together. So I gave all the info to the teller for my debit card and when I asked if she could also flag my credit card, she had to transfer me. I was transferred and no info came with me. I had to repeat all the same info for this second teller. Annoying for the customer and costly for the bank.

The other dirty little VISA secret is that you pay 3% for every transaction because there is a conversion that needs to happen. Really? Isn’t it all digital? It costs them 3% of the cost of my transaction to do the math? Sure does pay to be the bank.

Web Sites Gone Wrong

I have to write about this web site redesign, because it is an example of the worst I have ever seen. I understand the dynamics of these situations as I’ve been part of many of them in my past life as a consultant.

There is a quick serve restaurant by the name of Noodles and Company. I had admired them for a very long time for two reasons, 1) open and complete access to nutritional info regarding the restaurant menu and 2) one of the most elegant web site to find that information.

This has been one of my favorite web sites for a matter of years. Recently, that all changed.

Pre Redesign Noodles and Company Web Site

Now I can imagine the internal dialogue. ‘Our web site is so outdated, we need to jazz it up, make it an experience’. I’m almost certain this directive did not come from an expressed customer need but rather a marketing executive with a new idea or perhaps a new hire coming in to ‘really push the online Noodles and Company web presence’.

LINK UPDATED: March 30, 2011

Web Site after Redesign (warning, this web site DID play music automatically, without asking you-but the wayback machine version does not do that)

Well, that’s where the problems began……..they were bored with the very functional, very on brand, very easy to use web site they used to have. They wanted a web site that’s main purpose (information gathering) was hidden amongst fun adventures that ‘engage a customer with the brand’.

Dear Noodles and Company, I’m your customer, your marketing team was wrong!!!

So, instead of passively sitting by I used the new web site ‘Noodleville’ to contact the Mayor of Noodle town. (no, I’m not kidding)

I received a prompt response, I’ll give em that. The response engaged me in further questions, ‘did I find the information I was looking for?’. Yes, but on the way to finding that information, I was blasted by the web site’s automagic music blast and the spinning and motion sickness from watching the town buzz by each time I chose a different navigation item.

I was also told that they wanted the web site to be more of an experience and they were disappointed that it was not satisfactory for me. It wasn’t satisfactory for me as I don’t want to play with my Noodles and Company web site, I want to find information, usually quickly as I’m heading out with people to lunch or some similar situation.

I responded to the questions, telling the mayor of Noodletown that this was really an unacceptable reply to my concern. I explained that I work in this industry and I am a very regular customer and well, the new web site wasn’t good enough. I begged them to go back, luckily I still have the Way Back Machine.

Lesson of the day….

Just because you think it’s a good idea inside the organization, it doesn’t mean it is……. the last time I heard from the Mayor, I was assured the my feedback was appreciated and would be passed on to the marketing team. Unfortunately, I’m very doubtful they will listen to me. I’m sure they are in love with their new online experience meanwhile customers like me have to make different choices about where to eat because frankly, they’ve made the information gathering just that much harder and it’s not worth it to me. If I want that one dish I know the info on, I’ll go there, but if it’s something else, I won’t patronize them. I can’t support that kind of navel gazing web site design. It’s the principle of the thing. Maybe they will surprise me and come up with some way to meet needs of customers like me and have their experience. Here’s hoping.

Customer Service Doesn’t Have To Suck

It’s about hiring good people. It’s about the people doing their job caring, just a little bit, about the customer and their perspective.

I just had a shockingly good customer experience because someone cared.

I am still trying to get money back from my 2006 flexible spending account. Yes, I know, we are halfway to 2008! This is my issue with the big healthcare company that shall remain nameless. I know why they have this issue. Their data is mind numbingly hard to access. This health care company does not believe in technology.

So I already head into the umpteenth issue on my reimbursement fax (I could go on and on about how I hate the fax machine–stupid interim technology—) knowing that this is going to be a frustrating experience because of the fact that they really mess with their employees ability to help customers by not paying attention to the technology that provides the employees tools.

What happens next is about the fact that someone cared & the fact that I took a deep breath before calling and decided I was going to be pleasant with whoever I encountered. The gentleman that took the call from me was treated with respect and patience. I know what he is dealing with on his end, I have to be patient. The call took awhile, but he resolved it. All of it. He ended the call by saying, “your claim should be processed in a day or so. Is there anything else I can help you with?”.

I just responded by saying, “nothing else now, thank you, you’ve made my day.”

Be nice, be patient and encounter someone that cares. = Positive encounters with most humans.

Back on the Air

The spam evilbots attacked my blog’s home and it had to take a little mini break. My awesome techie support (my husband) got me back up and running just in time for my big trip to San Fransisco. I’m heading to the Adaptive Path Managing User Experience conference and several of my co-workers are going as well. This is a special treat as I work remotely so seeing them and learning about ways to improve our craft is a double bonus. I’m still packing now, sometimes it takes way too long to pack.

I’m staying at the Sir Francis Drake hotel in downtown San Fransisco. This is neat because when I go to California for work trips I usually spend my time in the Valley. This will be a nice week in the city by the bay.

Stay tuned.

Reminder for the day (week, month, year…..)

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this is something that should be remembered.

From Cluetrain Manifesto

“
You are human

‘Scary isn’t it? Good. You ought to be scared. That’s a realistic reaction. You want comfort? Invent your own. Exhilaration and joy are also in order. But face the facts: the tracks end at the edge of the jungle.”
“

A Sea Change

I love my job. I view my job as something that is a personal project that I want very much to succeed at. The stakes are higher for me. One thing I like about my job is that it challenges me to make sense of how the internet communication space is changing. It is a constant evolution and I am so amazed by it. So, the point of all that, you ask? The point dear reader is that is what made me realize the sea change. Because I have a good job at a smart company I am encouraged to explore and understand new ideas that will make us better. I recently picked up a few books. I try to limit the number I get because I can only consume so much content. I just happened to look down at my desk today and the books that I saw made me see a new picture when they were grouped together.

A new picture that told a familiar story. It’s still all about people. People + conversations=content, community, authenticity.

I haven’t read thru all of these yet. I’ll let you know what I think after I finish my studies. The beginning of Naked Conversations says it’s a continuation of Cluetrain and I had a very enlightening experience with that after re-reading it recently.