Hello From the Other Side

Companies can’t hide their bad behavior in today’s era of empowered customers.

“Hello, it’s me… I was wondering if… you’d like to meet to go over things.”

Remember that washing machine I purchased from you a few months ago? Yes, the one that stopped working after seven weeks. That’s the one. Remember how you told me you would take care of me if anything happened? You said I was a valued customer and your company was very proud of your customer experience record. You gave me a pretty, glossy brochure describing your commitment to me. The warranty said that, if anything happened, your expertly trained service people would respond quickly, and with your in-stock parts program, I’d be washing clothes again at warp speed. Remember? I believed your promises. They turned out to be lies.

After multiple calls and shameless pleading, I was able to get an “expertly trained” service person scheduled to come in four days. He certainly was not as advertised, as he fumbled around like a toddler with one of those busy boxes—banging buttons and spinning dials to see what happens. His diagnosis was that he needed to replace a part and it would take two weeks to get it.

But what about the in-stock parts? The brochure says you have the parts in-stock! Can’t they overnight it to you?

All I got was a shrug of the shoulders and a grumpy “two weeks lady.” So two weeks and four visits to the laundromat later, my “expertly trained” service person returns. And, oops, the part didn’t fix the problem. Let’s order four other parts and see if that does the trick. And, oh, by the way, one is back-ordered 30 days, so I’ll see you next month, he says.

But wait—what about the in-stock parts commitment?

Sorry lady, not my fault. See ya next month.

“Hello, can you hear me? Hello, I must’ve called a thousand times…”

I’m sure that I’ve spent at least two days in queue. I’ve called customer service, customer relations, corporate customer care. I’ve been transferred 12 times, disconnected nine times, promised six callbacks that never happened. The local retailer where I bought the dang thing finally stepped up and offered to replace it. Yes, finally progress! That is, until the hose on the new unit sprung a leak and flooded the floor and soaked the walls two feet up from the floor. At this point I’m thinking it would be easier to throw my laundry in a basket, grab an old washboard and head to the river.

Now I am battling with them to cover the damage to my home. It appears my only option is to take them to court—and I will, even if it takes my last ounce of energy. Customers should not be subjected to such abuse, and I will continue to fight for customers everywhere! Hopefully law and order will be on my side.

“Hello, can you hear me? But it don’t matter, it clearly doesn’t tear you apart…”

No part of this customer’s journey has been acceptable. This company is certainly doomed to fade into history as a company that once had appliances in almost every home in the United States, but failed to recognize what it takes to compete in today’s new era of empowered customers. They mistakenly thought they could ride the coattails of their once good name forever. Didn’t they realize the world has changed? Competition has never been so intense. Customers communicate with each other through online product and service reviews—they share experiences on which companies are worthy of our business and which ones we should run away from, right? You can’t hide from your bad behavior anymore. It’s just a matter of time. Harvard Business Review researched the life span of more than 30,000 U.S. companies over a 50-year span. In 1970, the average company life span was 55 years. Now it is as just under 32 years.

My guess is that senior management doesn’t have a clue what their customers are experiencing. If they did, I’m pretty sure they would have launched a corporatewide initiative to course correct. So they either didn’t recognize their failure or recognized it and were unsuccessful in turning the company’s performance around. Either way, they failed. In the end, isn’t that all that matters to customers?

5 Key Steps to Delivering a Customer Experience You Can Be Proud Of

1. Clearly define and communicate your mission statement saying who your company is, what you do, and why you do it is a basic sound business practice. All employees need to know what target they are trying to hit.
2. Leadership must define and communicate an overarching strategy on how the mission will be accomplished. The mission defines the who, what and why. The strategy is the how are we going to do it. You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, right? Right, and you certainly shouldn’t run a business without a strategic plan.
3. Departments within the organization must define an aligned mission statement and a supporting strategic plan. In the contact center, the how must include the organizational structure including supported functions (management team, supervisor-to-agent ratios, WFM, QA, training), technology requirements, measures of success, and a roadmap to close gaps and deliver on the organization’s brand promise.
4. Execute the strategy! This is where most companies fail. My appliance company certainly made some strong brand promises to me. Who knows, they may even have a defined mission and strategy. If you don’t have the appetite to execute the strategy, then why bother? There’s no question that it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes true grit, tenacity and relentless passion. Make sure that you have the right people in key roles who can make the strategy come alive.
5. Assess, reassess, refine and repeat. Strategies must always evolve to adapt to our changing environment. Successful companies continually assess their performance versus mission and course-correct as needed, tweak or overhaul processes or implement needed technology, etc., and repeat, always repeating. Subscribe to a continuous cycle of improvement.