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Top of Mind Thursday – May 25, 2023: Doing What You Say You Will
Sometimes I wonder if people ever read their job descriptions.
This is particularly true of those in customer service. As a customer service rep, your job is to help a customer resolve their issue. It’s not to berate the customer for calling, or to make it impossible for them to get to someone who can solve their problem. But there’s one sin CSRs make that beats all the others: telling the customer when their issue will be addressed–and then not making their own deadline.
This past week, I found myself with a dead major appliance. Getting a service rep out was simple–the dryer was dead and replacement parts were not available. Getting the home warranty company to come through with their promise to find or pay for a replacement was not so simple.
Calling their customer service line resulted in extremely long waits–but they had that covered. They would hold your place in the queue and call you back when a rep was available. That sounded reasonable. They even told you when to expect a call–which was estimated at a 90 minute wait.
Unfortunately, in two instances, the call never came. In the third, the waiting time was supposedly 2.5 hours, but the call came 4.5 hours later. Huh? Then the service rep told me the same thing I had been told two days earlier–except the deadline they’d set for resolving the issue had been moved out two more days. And she was annoyed that this didn’t make me happy. Double huh.
Let’s make this simple: For the customer service component of your business, make sure you have people and systems that understand what’s needed. No one calls customer service to tell you how happy they are with your product or service–they call because they have a problem and need help. Hire people who are willing to be helpful, then give them the tools to actually solve the customer’s problem.
AI may be a tool to help CSRs navigate complex problems more quickly, but it won’t replace the human element. We’ve all gotten stuck inside automated systems that provided more aggravation than help, which makes the customer even more frustrated than when they started.
And, most importantly, when you set expectations with a customer, do so knowing it’s your business reputation on the line.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Posted in News and Updates, Top of Mind Thursday Memo
Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, customer experience, customer service, reputation
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Top of Mind Thursday – May 18, 2023: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
My dog needed a refill on one of his prescriptions. How difficult could that be?
For years, we’ve used online pet med companies, like Chewy, who quickly and easily refill pet prescriptions on time and at a reasonable cost.
The problem is our vet has decided they don’t want to take the time and effort to approve online prescriptions. Now you either have to go through their online service (priced at about 25% more than Chewy), or come to the vet, pickup a paper prescription, then physically mail the original prescription to the online provider, who can then fill it and mail the meds back. Or you can get the meds from the vet directly, which is always the most expensive option.
Huh? It should not have been easier for me to fill a prescription for opioid pain killers after my recent knee surgery than to get a refill for doggie-Advil.
In an age when everything is done online–including filling prescriptions for human patients–why have we reverted back a century to doing things the old-fashioned way?
Because the vet is concerned only about their cost of doing business–not about ongoing customer care or providing the best solution for their patients. Why don’t we change vets? Because it’s virtually impossible to get a timely appointment with a new vet, and the current vet isn’t taking new customers–so if you leave, you’re out of luck, therefore you put up with being treated poorly.
Right now, we have a supply constraint–too many pet owners, not enough vets–so the vets can throw customer satisfaction out the window and not worry about it. But that won’t last forever. When conditions change, customers will remember how they were treated, and react accordingly.
Don’t expect us to sit and stay forever when we’ve been relegated to the doghouse. There’s a greener pasture out there somewhere.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Posted in News and Updates, Top of Mind Thursday Memo
Tagged customer experience, customer experience optimization
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Top of Mind Thursday – May 11, 2023: Whose Ad Was That Anyway?
It happened again tonight. Watching TV, a cute ad came on that seemed to have no relation to any specific product or brand.
This seems to occur more and more frequently. Advertisers choose music or a comic scenario or some kind of theme. That’s all well and good, but when viewers can’t recognize who the advertiser is, the question is why spend the money on marketing?
Not all marketing is designed to sell products. Some spots are designed to build brand awareness or recognition. Some advertising is meant to show brand values–what that brand stands for. Other promotions are meant to make you feel good about a recent purchase–to both build repeat business and encourage referrals to other potential customers.
But none of that can happen when your audience sees your marketing and has no idea who you are or why you’re running with those messages. It’s one thing to disagree with a brand’s messaging. It’s another to not be able to connect the brand to the message they’ve just shown you. Or, worse yet, to connect that message to one of your competitors.
Are your marketing messages resonating with your customers and prospects? Or are you leaving your audience befuddled as to who just spoke to them?
John Wanamaker famously said half his advertising was wasted, but he wasn’t sure what half. If your customers can’t connect you to your message, you might be wasting both halves of your marketing budget.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Posted in News and Updates, Top of Mind Thursday Memo
Tagged advertising, brand marketing, marketers, marketing, marketing budget, Marketing Messages, Marketing Messaging
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Top of Mind Thursday – May 4, 2023: What Happens When You Believe Things Are Real
When my daughter was young, we had a “Magic Closet” where we put candy on Halloween night. In the morning, all that candy magically turned into a non-sugary treat, like a book or toy.
After a number of years, she asked us if the Magic Closet was really magic. So I told her the truth: It’s only real if you believe.
Unfortunately, this is true in other places in our lives. If enough people believe something is real and they act on that, it’s quite likely they can transform that belief into reality.
Take the recent banking liquidity crisis. After Silicon Valley Bank failed, several other banks were in danger of failing, too. First Republic Bank was known for offering outstanding service targeted to more affluent customers. The problem is many of those people have accounts holding more than the FDIC insured limit. When those customers began to fear for the bank’s safety, they pulled their money out, which in turn caused the exact effect they were trying to avoid. This past week, the bank was taken over by JP Morgan Chase.
Here’s the problem. When enough people take action based on fear, they feed that fear, which can spiral into a full-fledged panic. Then we’re all in a worse situation than we had before (Another bank is rumored to be in a similar situation today, so the panic continues.). Add in new AI tools that create content that might, sort of, in a way be real (or not) and that just makes things more complicated.
We can’t manage the actions of the masses, but we can control our own responses. Staying cool and calm in the midst of a potential crisis shows true leadership.
How well prepared are you to face potential crises in your industry? Will you be part of the problem or the solution? Can you separate out the fact from fiction? Or, will you be waiting for magic to come in and save you?
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Posted in News and Updates, Top of Mind Thursday Memo
Tagged banking crisis, crisis, Crisis Management, fear
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