Sep 17
On September 10, 2012 GoDaddy, one of the world's largest web hosting companies experienced a technical glitch - websites they hosted could not be accessed including OilReset.com. Although a nuisance, the outage was solved a few hours later and chalked up to a glitch and in turn a learning experience of how to ensure it never happens again. Satisfied that my site was up and running again it was business as usual.
On the morning of September 15 I received an email from GoDaddy apologizing for the service disruption and offering me a free service to compensate for my lost productivity - great right? As a customer, this felt like the right thing to do but hang on a moment. The compensation was generically worded so it not only could be sent to me but to all customers, on top of this, it gave me a whole list of products I have never used that I could be compensated for.
I wasn't looking for compensation from GoDaddy and I was not very impressed with their generic compensation strategy. The lesson here for your business is very simple - not all customers are the same. I understand GoDaddy must have millions of customers but each of us is unique and has our own needs. In this situation, maybe a more crafted email message should have been sent to customers based on what subscription they had or better yet - just an apology would have sufficed for me. I realize this strategy may not have worked for all customers; hence the need for a more tailored approach to each customer.
Apr 21
For the most part, many retailers are participating in some sort of customer feedback program. This can range from a dedicated website for a customer to answer questions related to their purchase to a suggestion box on the checkout counter at a fast lube. Although the range of soliciting customer feedback is wide; it's very clear that information relating to a customers purchase and thoughts about the retailer can help to improve the overall business operation. What happens when the feedback is forced and in a manner in which the only answer provided is the highest ranking answer? Here is a real example of what my wife and I experienced when we purchased a new vehicle less than 1 year ago.
The process for purchasing the vehicle was no different than past experiences - we did our research, contacted a few dealerships, negotiated a price and signed the deal. When we picked up the vehicle and were walked through the features we were reminded by the customer experience manager and the sales person to fill out the customer satisfaction survey. The key to this request was "Make sure you give us perfect and if you are unable to please let us know how we can fix your concern prior to the survey". Hang on a second, this dealership also claimed the highest overall satisfaction scores nationally within their brand. Does this mean, that the #1 score they attained was a result of "fixing"? In the end, I filled out the customer satisfaction score honestly and gave the dealership good scores but not a perfect.
This experience is not uncommon since I have heard similar stories from other new car purchasers. In the end, as a consumer this has left me feeling that a #1 customer satisfaction ranking by any retailer needs to be scrutinized to truly understand what metics were being rated and what influence the retailer had on the outcome. If you want to increase customer satisfaction levels and do it consistently it begins with talking with your customers and having an overall strategy on what great customer service will look like. I also believe that a customer satisfaction survey has its place in understanding satisfaction levels but it should not be the only one.
Written by Ronald Rameshnauth
Apr 07
The weather is milder than usual in Canada for this time of year and we have decided to get ready for the biking season a littler earlier as well. My wife and I have spent the past few weekends discussing what type of equipment we will need for our 18 month old to enjoy biking as much as our 4 year old. With questions in mind, we headed over to large retail chain on a Saturday afternoon and headed right for the bike section. We paroused the isles looking at equipment but also looking for a salesperson to help. We found an infant carrier for our bike but we had not found anyone to help us with our questions. I decided we would split up and see who could find help quicker - my wife would stay where she was and I would go to another department in search of help. I found a salesperson in another department who was kind of enough to explain there was only one person working in sporting goods and he kindly walked me back to the section and got the attention of the sporting goods guy who acknowledged me and said he would be a few minutes.
It turns out, I was not the only person waiting for his help - there was also a grandmother and her grandson. I decided that the 15 minutes it had taken so far was far too long and decided to go with my gut and purchase the item I had found and return it if it didn't meet my requirements.
There is a valuable lesson here for this store (which I will share with them) and for shops and businesses in general. As a customer I really don't care about what the staffing issues are , inventory issues or any other issue - I just care about getting the product I came in for or possibly an equivalent. If your staff are not trained to provide assistance across all aspects of your business then what good are they putting up pricing labels in their department when a customer needs help in another? In this situation, the gentlemen who walked me over from the other department would have been able to help his co-worker out by trying to facilitate my questions. In the end, this lack of help has led me to believe this is not a store I want to return to in the future.
Mar 24
It's Saturday afternoon and I am in the lineup of a drug store. There are three cash counters but only one is open at the moment. The cashier is working to reduce the lineup of six people as quickly as possible. There's a problem - the next customer in line did not receive her double rewards on her purchase and would like to do a return and purchase a few more items to ensure she gets full value. I know this because I like everyone else in line can hear everything. The customer's request is reasonable and the cashier is more than happy to accommodate her. The line adds another person. At this point the cashier does something that is not done often enough. She looks me right in the eye and says "We have another cash counter available in cosmetics but you're welcome to wait if you have the time".
The cashier had acknowledged not only my presence but the fact that I was waiting and there might be a quicker alternative. Instead of going to the other line I said "I'm happy to wait". In this instance, this simple gesture from the cashier made me feel my business was important and secondly that my time was valuable. I think it happens far too often that we end up waiting in lines with no acknowledgement of our presence. I can recall a bank years ago that made it a priority to acknowledge customers waiting and if they were not acknowledged they would receive $5 on the spot.
The key message for any shop is to ensure customers are acknowledged when waiting inside the store or in the lineup even if its a physical gesture but this way the customer will know that they are appreciated.