Category Archives: Customer Success

And that is how you do good service – thank you Apple!

My trusty iMac (from 2008) decided to not play ball earlier this week. It was way outside Apple’s warranty (even Apple Care) – by over a few years – but trying to fix it was beyond me and I needed help from Apple. A call through to the local Apple Store (in the Bentall Centre in Kingston) and they advised that they had no Genius appointments that day but to come in with the iMac and they would see what they could do.

When we got to the store we spoke to one of their guys who said all the iMac tech team were busy all day with no slots, but to hold on and he would see what they could do. A very friendly iMac Genius then came to have a look and ran a series of quick tests on the iMac. As typically happens in these situations, everything worked fine and the iMac passed all the tests. A number of restarts were done – where the problem had been before – but all working fine.

The guy took down all the details of the problem as I’d seen it and advised that I could leave it there for them to take a more detailed look (which would probably take a few days) or take it back home and see how I get on (which I did and typically again the problem has re-occurred and I’ve booked to go back in tomorrow).

But, the whole point to this post is the exceptional level of service that Apple provided here, going way beyond what they were obliged to do, going out of their way to help as best they can, to listen to the customer and check and test accordingly, to offer options when the standard response (booking a slot for that day) was a no-goer and doing all of this in a friendly professional manner.

This level of service is what makes Apple so great and why people – like me – will now go back and go nowhere else. It is exceptionally good service and yes you do pay a premium for Apple products but this is one of the major reasons why; it’s not just a great product, you’re buying it’s a full service experience.

It’s not the only reason of course, there are 3 reasons generally why you are willing to pay extra for a product or service. These are:

The quality of the product
The level of service received
The overall experience of using the product or service

These 3 are the major drivers to creating loyalty for you business and Apple yet again are are leaders here. Fingers crossed that my visit tomorrow fixes the problem once and for all.

Bad service is not far behind…

Leave a reply

Only a day after my good service is everywhere experience and post, I had a day of bad service experiences – mainly across companies in one particular industry/market. I’ll leave it to the reader to guess where…

Service doesn’t need to be not good and it can easy to do it properly, but it does require some thinking about and a strategic view on what service is all about.

In this day and age, giving bad or poor service is really inexcusable. It says so much about the person and company giving it.

There are a few simple points to take service to next (and better) level:

(1) Empower the guys providing the service – let them make some of the decisions as they see fit. They’re the ones sorting out issues and queries on the front line.

(2) Give everyone training in good service – it’s a culture shift and mindset change. And requires an investment to do it properly and making sure people know what is expected and what good looks like.

(3) Define good service or even better, excellent service. Reach out to the teams providing the service and find out from them what feedback they’ve had from customers and what changes they suggest.

(4) Listen, listen and listen again, before you say anything. This is so important. Too often these days people want to tell their story or their version or side. Listen first though. The more you listen, the more you can understand and be better informed to make the right decision.

And smile – it makes a big difference to the person you’re speaking to. Again as per the last post, start thinking in all the interactions you have with other people, “How can I help this person?”.

Good service is everywhere…

Leave a reply

Yesterday was a day of receiving consistently good service – from a variety of different people, in different places and different situations. And a very pleasant day as a result.

Good or exceptional service isn’t rocket science but it does require a change in mindset. Some of the key things yesterday that made a difference to the experiences are:

(1) People were smiling and coming across that they were generally interested, and they listened. Even on the phone this makes a huge difference. It’s about empathy and taking the time to fully understand the query at hand.

(2) They were all looking to see how they could help me. This is something I read a great article about recently, where you should be thinking in any interaction with anyone else, “How can I help you?”. Not how can they help me, or what do I want, but what can I do for the other person.

(3) Everyone was going the extra mile – without prompting or being asked for something else. They were all looking to see what else they could do.

(4) They all knew what they were talking about and the services or products they offered or sold, and were passionate about them.

(5) And lastly they were all empowered to make decisions and do the job, and trusted to do so.

This last one is key and a lot of companies and businesses don’t do this and add process upon process around what should be a simple decision, for no real benefit or commercial reason.

Good service is so important in all businesses and so often overlooked or forgotten. It really was a great experience yesterday seeing it done so well and how it should be.

How important is good service to you as a provider and how do you ensure it is delivered?

And as the great Yoda himself said…

High street shops are fighting back

Leave a reply

Nothing like a Star Wars-esq headline to catch my eye…

“The emporium strikes back”

Following very neatly on from my last post – way back in April – I found a great article this week, talking about the growing “threat” from online retailers and what the more traditional high street shops (our bricks and mortar friends) are doing to come back.

Things like bundle deals, profiling great accessories, personalised high street shopping and shopping as an experience much like Apple do now are all coming.

The one thing that’s sure, is that for the customer and consumer, the shopping experience of the future is going to be very different from today!

Is this the future of shopping? Showrooming and paying to browse.

Leave a reply

My first blog for a few months – this article caught my eye and is on a similar vein to some of my previous ones about the future of shopping.

A very interesting article from the BBC on “showrooming”. Something you may have never heard of but like me something you do lots. So what is it?

You’re out shopping with the family and browsing a high street bookshop (for example) and find something that takes your fancy – your normal reaction now is to scan the barcode and check the price on Amazon (pretty much the de facto online shop for us all) and no surprise it’s cheaper. You then order online and a couple of days later it arrives, backed up by the great service that Amazon provides. The high street bookshop clearly loses out here and there isn’t much it can do – they have more physical shop space to pay for and staff to help customers. Or is there?

We all do it. And it saves us money as online is normally (much) cheaper. But it doesn’t help the high streets stores. Charging for browsing is an idea to tackle this growing problem and it only needs to be a small charge, that you get knocked off your bill in the shop if you buy anything from them. I like it – it makes sense and it’s easy to do. But unless the prices come down in the shops, it’s not going to help long term get us back on the high street buying, which is what’s needed.

Another interesting article over on Euromonitor talks about other ways retailers are looking to address this problem – in-store discounts, store loyalty schemes, online price matching and more. Some I can’t see working – loyalty schemes can apply online and the likes of Amazon have their own loyalty scheme (attached to their credit card); online price matching hasn’t caught on – any price matching that is done now is very restricted and never includes online as it’s more often than not too big a difference to match.

Jessops, HMW and Waterstones in the UK have all had this problem and in some cases suffered massively as a result – and gone out of business.

Is it too late for the rest of the high street to change?

Connected content – it’s nearly time!

Leave a reply

I’ve long preached the time when we’ll be paying a single fee that covers all our home connectivity and includes unlimited access to all the content we would ever want (music, videos, games, books and more), and all through a single joined up service provider that knows what they’re doing and where it all just works (including how I access everything and when – so a big mobile and hardware bit).

Are we there yet? Nope, but there are some very clever interim solutions and ways to almost get some of this.

I caught up with a good friend this week who I’ve not seen for some years and we were talking about the joys of using Apple devices and in particular how good Netflix was on it.

So far I’d resisted the Netflix move. Just couldn’t convince myself it was worth it and that it would be that good. But I took the plunge today and boy am I impressed. On the Apple TV it really is as if it’s a content channel with the same great Apple usability as the Apple TV box. And even the little Nobles can successfully navigate it. There are box sets on there to watch, that I’ve recently bought the physical DVDs for – yes I know it’s physical but I couldn’t find digital anywhere for the right price (until now). My DVD collection (that has been getting smaller as we move to a digital world) is now pretty much obsolete thanks to Netflix – minus Disney and Star Wars (technically though that’s also Disney). They’ll all come I’m sure – they’re already on Lovefilm and similar.

So my Apple TV is now looking even more appealing. The music link is still missing – sure I can link to my iTunes library but I want more content streamed, not my library only. Spotify can plug that gap for the music but it’s not on the Apple TV (yet).

I can only see this getting better and very quickly. Whether we need Apple to bring out a physical TV box I’m now not sure. Their little Apple TV box of magic does it all and plugs into any screen I want. I can control it with my iPhone and it works.

Total connected content as I described above? Not yet. My broadband, phone, TV and content are all with many different (carefully) selected (good) providers – including Sky, BBC (care of the license fee), BT, O2 and now Netflix. But thanks to good devices it’s all joined up and it won’t be long before we see some very clever services coming in that offer more or all of it in one package.

Anytime, anyhow and anywhere – IS coming soon…!

Do digital and online mean the end of the high street?

Leave a reply

I’ve long been a big fan of digital content – in all its forms – and how it’s changing our lives for the better. More choice, more variety, better (read cheaper) prices and convenience. It’s all about the anytime, anywhere and anyhow philosophy – with us consumers far more in control of when, where and how we consume. But, this clearly has an impact on the more traditional world of content in its physical form. And also drives our retail experiences – beyond simple content.

Some interesting questions come up…

Can digital/online and physical/traditional retail co-exist peacefully? Yes they can.
What about our traditional high street shops? We need them but they need to change.
Should we all buy online? A good question!

It’s not just about digital content – going online for content ultimately impacts my other retail experiences and drives me to the same retail channels, online, for other products.

It’s number 3 that right now is the big one. In the UK we’ve seen some major high street shops go under recently – or change hands and scale down. Including – Game, Jessops, Comet and HMV. Some with years and years of history going right back to when consumers started listening to and consuming content (and buying products).

So why are they struggling? I think it’s quite simple – a reluctance to change and move with what consumers want (all of the above in the introductory paragraph). Cheaper prices, more choice and one not mentioned above better service.

This last one is important and maybe something not considered as much as it should be. Good service – or even excellent service (of which I’m a huge fan) – is crucial to build relationships with your customers and get them back and get the all important repeat business going. Just look at how Amazon do customer service. No quibbles when taking items back – fantastic return policies – and people to help when you need it, however you want to contact them (not waiting round for someone who might not be the right person to help).

Another big plus online is the whole idea of reviews – from consumers just like you, telling you exactly what they think of the item, good or bad. This helps you make your decisions.

Your typical high street shops now are used more for browsing – and people then compare prices with online retailers, go away and order online for it to be delivered a couple of days later. Sure there are some purchases that don’t make sense to do this way but more people are going this way. And yes I’m one of them. How can I justify a book in one of the few remaining high street shops, when online (and by online I mean Amazon) it’s half price (with great service and quick delivery) – there just isn’t any competition.

I can shop when I want and even when mobile. It’s all so convenient.

Everyone talks about how much of their Christmas shopping these days is done online and typically this means Amazon.

It’s another post about whether Amazon’s business models (pricing) are sustainable or not for them – but so far it’s working and their bottom line is healthy (now)!

So now to the crunch question – is there still a place for the traditional high street? I think there is. A lot of change is needed and retailers need to embrace online and digital as well as their traditional retail arms. This is critical. If they don’t – and don’t do it quickly, they’ll sadly go the same way as others.

For us consumers, it’s an exciting time but will be a sad one as well if we lose well known names from the high street.

It’s time to change!

Curry good service

Leave a reply

It’s too easy to write about bad service but good service – real good service – needs to be shouted about, so people know who’s doing it well and how.

Saturday nights in the UK are perfect nights – every so often – for a good takeaway curry. And we’re luckily enough in Twickenham to have a good number of local Indian restaurants (a bonus living near to the home of rugby – The Twickenham Rugby Stadium – yes that’s where England beat the All Blacks this weekend).

A few weekends ago, with the kids in bed, it was time for a curry. Order placed with our favourite restaurant and greeted on the phone as normal with a pleasant “How are you?”. 40 ish minutes later and the food arrived, delivered in style by a gent in a nice suit and again very pleasant and friendly. Order complete with the usual free large bottle of Cobra beer. We dished up and Mrs. Noble discovered the naan bread that should have accompanied her order was missing. Shock, horror! What do we do?

A quick call back to the restaurant and apologies from them and driver on his way back. 5 minutes later and the missing naan arrived plus another free bottle of beer and a few more free poppadoms. Nice! Very happy customers.

The morals of the story?

1. Good service always counts – whatever business you’re in, however big you are and whatever size order your customer has with you.

2. Exceed customer expectations. Do more than others will at the same price. Your customers will remember you and they will come back.

3. When you make mistakes – and you will – fix them quickly and pleasantly and do more than your customers expect.

It’s all about curry good service…

And in case you wondered, our very friendly Indian restaurant is called The Green Spice. Pop in and see them or call them up for a take away, you won’t be disappointed.

No really, poor service is not good

Leave a reply

Ok another post on the sadly too common theme of poor service. This time it’s from our lovely UK (privatised) utility companies.

It’s been all over the UK press recently with pretty much all of the power companies bringing in a pretty hefty price increase – just before the winter kicks in and we all start using our heating properly. Clearly the rubbish timing is a coincidence. Average increases in the region of 10% seemed to be the standard. So I was prepared – or so I thought.

Woke up this morning to find a nice letter from the lovely people at npower – our power company (who we use for our electricity and gas supplies). A 3 page letter from them that started off with an apology…

Ok, they know it’s not good news and want to be open with me. Next the reasons…

Ok – turn over the page, it’s then the increases, hidden deep in what can only be described as rocket science (and even though I actually do have 2 degrees in rocket science it’s not easy to understand). They’re planning a 20.3% increase on our electricity and an 18.0% increase for gas. Did I misread that? 20+%? I’ve never seen an increase anywhere like that. Has inflation suddenly changed? Have the national papers got the average that wrong (and I know it’s an average but this is way off)? Is it an error?

A quick check on Twitter and it’s not just me. Lots of people with similar nice letters recently, with the very same reasons (or shall we call them excuses), and with increases – but none quite this high. Some people even with no increases. Now maybe I see this in a very simple way but what is it about my supply that means I need a larger increase? Pass – but npower customer services surely will be able to set me straight.

A nice 0800 freephone number to call and then a multitude of rubbish menus to go through – entering my account number, listening to it, entering my date of birth, pressing the number 6 a few times and a few more. Then a message saying we’re experiencing a high volume of calls due to the recent letters, oh really? And you weren’t ready for that?

A message then to say they could call me back in about 45 minutes. Ok, sounds a good idea. So then about 2 hours later I get the call, and yes more menus and information I have to enter first. Then the agents on…

I explain the problem and that I’d like to understand why my increase is so much – good question she says. So then tells me the reasons in the letter – ok that tells everyone why there’s an increase but not why we’ve had the bombshell we’ve had. She then tells me it’s the region we’re in. Say what? Is Twickenham so different in how we receive our power, that they need to charge us twice as much more? Then she says, it’s also based on our low-ish usage. Huh? We have a low-ish usage so the increase is higher? Nonsense.

Let’s escalate – time for the manager, please can we speak to them? A 5 minute on-hold pause. Then, the agent has spoken to the manager and they say the same. What? Did “Can I speak to the manager?” not make sense? So second attempt…

The manager now says the same – and then completes it with we can’t really tell you, we don’t know. Oh, that’s ok then, so it’s some sort of lottery that even the rocket scientists at npower can’t really explain and it’s ok not to explain to customers, we just charge them 20% more. Or it’s a secret.

The morals and how this isn’t a good example of customer service…

Don’t send out generic information when what you’re actually saying is very different.
Ditch the menu after menu after menu system – it’s not friendly and no-one likes it.
Employ more staff when you know you’re going to get busy, very busy. Plan better.
Empower your staff so they can talk to customers and give them real information.
Tell the truth and keep it simple.
Listen and listen again, and understand what is being asked.
If someone needs to escalate, let them – don’t do it for them.
Don’t do something that is guaranteed to lose customers.

The moral? Well, if I want to keep warm – and today it’s cold – I’m pretty powerless to do anything with npower, the price increase stays and they’re not listening. But I can switch to someone else. And yes, no doubt they’ll also have an increase there but there’s a chance that it won’t be an obscene one and they might be able to tell me why….

Happy days, and a nice story in the book on how to lose customers.

The same day also, that a story about how npower mis-sold gas to someone and have been taken to the small claims court and the person has been successful in winning an harassment payment from them…

Digital pricing – it’s not difficult

Leave a reply

Still on the digital books theme as I’m loving iBooks on the iPhone right now.

Pretty much the only reason I visit a real bookshop these days is to browse and let the kids enjoy kiddies book sections. Inevitably I go away and order online (yes through Amazon), for the printed book, as it’s cheaper and not just a bit cheaper.

Last weekend on such a browsing session, I spotted a book called “The Art of Running Faster”. It looked great, (and yes I’m trying to run faster) so I went to Amazon but then thought no, let me check on Apple’s digital bookstore. And yes it was there and about 30% cheaper than the printed one. Sample downloaded, read and enjoyed and I went to click the buy button. Suddenly the price had jumped up to more than the printed book in the real shop. Say what? Why on earth have they done this? Convenience yes but more expensive to download and read on my phone? No thanks. Right now we’re in the transition to digital for books so we need to be incentivised to buy digital. You don’t get more features, it’s just a bit more convenient. It should be cheaper.

What to do? I decided to check out the Kindle app on the iPhone – a first for me – and it was there and even cheaper than the first cheaper price on iBooks. Brilliant. So buy I did, and boy is the purchasing process on Amazon good. So simple and quick. A top result. And yes the Kindle app works well. iBooks now has a competitor.

Please please get the pricing right. Digital should be cheaper. The production costs and other costs of sale should be cheaper. Help us consumers make the transition to digital. Don’t have wildly different prices across digital shops and not more expensive than physical…

Adventures in customer success and technology

Innovation | Transformation | Success

Category Archives: Customer Success

And that is how you do good service – thank you Apple!

Bad service is not far behind…

Good service is everywhere…

High street shops are fighting back

Is this the future of shopping? Showrooming and paying to browse.

Connected content – it’s nearly time!

Do digital and online mean the end of the high street?

Curry good service

No really, poor service is not good

Digital pricing – it’s not difficult