Spreadsheet Jockeys are clueless about retail service

All super heroes have at least one nemesis. Batman has the Joker. Superman has Lex Luther. Outstanding Service has the Spreadsheet Jockey.

What’s a Spreadsheet Jockey? It’s an executive who designs systems and strategies to serve their customers based on data points and intuition without gathering any input from the people who are actually serving customers.

The sad, inevitable result of Spreadsheet Jockey management is service failure. Here are three examples where a spreadsheet jockey designed a system that any frontline employee could tell you would fail.

Upsell or No Sell at Staples

A month or so ago, I read an incredible story on Bruce Temkin’s blog that described how employees at Staples office supply stores were refusing to sell computers to customers who didn’t accept any of their upsell offers.

You might be tempted to say, “Fire those scoundrels!” until you learned that a fear of being fired was the cause of their behavior.

A Spreadsheet Jockey at Staples had created a standard that required sales associates to average $200 in add-ons for each computer they sold. The penalties for failing to meet the standard included progressive discipline and possible termination. While designed to increase revenue, the new policy actually gave employees a strong incentive to avoid selling computers altogether.

Why?

Let’s say you sell a computer to a customer who doesn’t buy anything else. That’s $0 in upsells on that computer, so you’d need to sell $400 in add-ons on your next computer sale to maintain the $200 average and avoid getting fired. That made a person who didn’t want any add-ons a threat to your job unless you could somehow ensure the sale didn’t go through.

A $100 solution to a $20 problem

My wife recently returned a briefcase to the store where she bought it so it could be repaired under warranty. The leather zipper pull on the main compartment had torn off, which would have been a simple repair if the luggage store had an onsite repair shop.

The fact that it couldn’t do the repair onsite shouldn’t have been a major obstacle. In a normal, sane world, the luggage store would have a relationship with a local repair shop that could help them facilitate the repair within a day or two. They might even have an authorized repair center in town that could provide same day service if my wife was willing to do a little driving.

Unfortunately, things are never that easy for customers when a Spreadsheet Jockey designs the system. The luggage store’s actual process involved shipping my wife’s bag to their corporate repair depot in New York, making my wife wait an estimated four weeks, and then shipping the bag back to our home in San Diego.

In the end, it made more sense for my wife to pay to get the repair done at a local shop than to be without her bag for four weeks while she waited for it to be repaired under warranty.

Labor models can’t see inside your store

I recently spoke with a friend who works in a retail pet store that is continuously victimized by corporate Spreadsheet Jockeys.

Exhibit A is Saturday morning, the store’s busiest time of the week. My friend would love to schedule extra sales staff to help boost sales, but his hands are tied in two ways.

First, the store’s labor model doesn’t allow him to bring in extra staff. A labor model is a tool often used in retail that tells each store how many employees they can have on each shift. It is a Spreadsheet Jockey invention that relies on data analysis to optimize labor costs, but it can also take away an individual store’s ability to react to opportunities such as a busy Saturday morning.

The second problem was the store had to take associates off the sales floor to process the weekly stock shipment. The delivery schedule was set by another Spreadsheet Jockey to optimize delivery logistics, but it didn’t factor in the impact on operations. The store had limited overstock space, so they had to get the new stock unboxed and out on the sales floor as quickly as possible. Replenishing stock is also a labor intensive job that’s usually done during slower periods, not on a busy Saturday morning when they should be helping customers and generating revenue.

A simple cure

Adam Toporek recently wrote an excellent post on his CustomersThatStick blog about the virtues of management by walking around in a customer service environment. His was point was that Spreadsheet Jockeys need to temper their data analysis with a dose of reality.

Look at the best retail operations and you'll see this happening. Executives are constantly spending time in their stores, asking questions, and observing. They realize that nobody understands their challenges better than associates, and those same associates probably have some good ideas about how to fix them. 

The trouble with magic metrics

Executives like the idea of using a single magic metric to evaluate customer service because it’s so simple. “Do well at this,” the thinking goes, “and you’re doing well.”

Unfortunately, the real magic happens when you start peeling back the layers of your data to find out what’s really going on. If you look carefully at so-called single score metrics like the Net Promoter System, you’ll realize the score is just a starting point for evaluation. It’s the underlying analysis and continuous drive to improve that’s really important.

For example, a few months ago I blogged about my experience with Verizon’s Global Traveler Program. I’d rate my likelihood to recommend their service as a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, but this rating doesn’t reveal that my score is really a sum of good, great, and poor experiences. A closer look at experiences like mine is needed for Verizon to clearly understand how to make their service truly exceptional while cutting down on costly calls to technical support.

Not All Promoters Are Loyal
I really enjoy reading the Wall Street Journal. Their informative articles help me stay on top of the news I care about while their style really captures my attention. I follow them on Twitter to get the latest updates on their news coverage and I consider it a plus when I stay at a hotel that provides free copies to their guests.

So why did I recently cancel my subscription?

Simply put, subscribing to the Wall Street Journal had become a hassle. You could classify me as a “Promoter” if you used a Net Promoter System because I would certainly recommend that you read their news coverage. However, I’d give the Wall Street Journal low marks on the amount of effort required to subscribe to them via my iPad.

Customer Effort Score
One of the latest magic metrics to gain popularity is called the Customer Effort Score. It essentially gauges how easy or difficult it is to do business with a company. According to research published by the Corporate Executive Board, Customer Effort is a better predictor of loyalty than a Net Promoter Score.

Reducing effort is where the Wall Street Journal could have saved my business. I subscribed via my iPad because I liked the promise of reading the paper wherever I went and getting updated content throughout the day. However, they frequently released updates to their iPad app, which meant that I couldn’t read the paper until I performed the update. This got more and more annoying until I finally decided the price of the subscription wasn’t worth the extra effort.

Ironically, cancelling my subscription also required more effort than necessary since the only way to cancel a subscription is to call. Their website states this is for security reasons, but the truth is they want to take one more shot at keeping your business by making you speak to a retention specialist.

So, just make things easy, right?!
Not so fast. Let’s compare one of my favorite examples, McDonalds vs. In-N-Out Burger. Getting a burger at McDonalds is relatively easy. The drive-through line moves pretty quickly and most orders placed at the counter are delivered almost instantly. On the other hand, there’s always a wait to get your food at In-N-Out.

If we judged the two by Customer Effort alone, McDonalds would win hands down. The problem with that assumption is that you’d then be stuck with a McDonalds hamburger which consistently scores poorly in consumer taste tests. As legions of devoted In-N-Out fans will tell you, getting a tasty In-N-Out burger served by a cheerful employee in a clean store is absolutely worth the extra effort.

There Are Three Kinds of Lies
One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain:

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

My take-away is data can be very useful, but it can also obscure the truth. Customer service metrics like Net Promoter Score or Customer Effort Score are fantastically useful tools, but achieving a certain score should never be the ultimate goal.

If all you want to do is achieve a certain Net Promoter Score, I can show you a dozen tricks to make that happen. For instance, one enterprising store manager at the Gap offered a 20% discount in exchange for a 10 on their Net Promoter survey. That will certainly improve the score but not necessarily the service.

The most successful companies first ask, “How can we do better” and then find the right data to help them continuously improve.

A service failure reveals surprising customer service trends

On the Friday before Christmas my wife, Sally, headed to Newark Liberty airport for what she thought would be an uneventful flight home to San Diego. What followed instead was a string of bizarre delays lasting nearly nine hours that could only be caused by a company as inept as United Airlines.

Throughout the day, Sally texted me frequent updates on her flight status. I captured her messages in a blog post that turned out to be my most read post of the year.

Sally finally made it home safely. As she recounted her ordeal over a late dinner that night I realized that her experience reflected a few surprising customer service trends. Perhaps most surprising of all is that Sally intends to remain a loyal United Airlines customer (more on that later).

Trend 1: Communication is more important than the problem
Research posted by Rob Markey on the Net Promoter System blog just one day prior to Sally’s trip suggested that the way airlines handled a flight delay had a larger impact on customer perception than the delay itself. More specifically, passengers were much more understanding when the pilot provided frequent, clear, and empathetic updates.

This is exactly what happened on Sally’s flight. The pilot and the rest of the flight crew were absolutely terrific and the passengers generally remained calm as a result.

Trend 2: Anticipatory Customer Service
In his book, High Tech, High-Touch Customer Service, Micah Solomon describes the concept of anticipatory customer service where companies predict customer needs and proactively address them. Anticipating a customer’s needs gives companies an opportunity to provide unexpectedly good service or fix a problem before it gets even worse.

By the time Sally’s flight landed, the passengers on her plane had received an email from United Airlines apologizing for the delay and offering their choice of travel credit or frequent flyer miles as compensation. Sally has experienced her share of challenges in the past trying to get a response from the United Airlines customer service department, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive a proactive resolution.

Trend 3: Not all customers are equal
A day prior to Sally’s trip, Adam Toporek wrote a post on his CustomersThatStick blog explaining how all customers should expect excellent treatment, but they can’t all be VIPs. In the real world, Toporek explains, some customers will receive better treatment and service than others and deservedly so.

Sally certainly had some advantages over other passengers on her flight from Newark. She was relatively comfortable in her first class seat with plenty of legroom, a power outlet to keep her computer and phone charged, and attentive service from the flight attendants. Sally also knew from comparing notes with other passengers that she received a higher compensation offer in her email from United than the people sitting next to her.

Sally received better treatment than her fellow passengers because she is Premier 1k frequent flyer member. To earn this status, she had to fly more than 100,000 miles on United Airlines in 2012. This frequent flyer level comes with perks like complimentary first class upgrades, but Sally had to spend many hours and many flights sitting in coach to get there.

Final Trend: Why Sally is still loyal to United Airlines
Last November, Bruce Temkin shared new research that reveals some companies’ customers are more loyal than their customer experience ratings suggest they deserve. United Airlines was 19th on Temkin’s top 20 list. One of the explanations offered by Temkin was that people may be more loyal to a company than reasonable when there aren’t a lot of acceptable alternatives.

This is exactly why Sally will continue flying United almost exclusively. United Airlines offers a flight schedule that best meets her overall business travel needs in terms of cost and convenience. Her frequent flyer status also ensures she spends less time waiting in airport check-in and security lines and receives frequent seat upgrades. Looking at the big picture, Sally would have to spend more money and travel with less convenience to avoid flying United Airlines.

One Final Note
United Airlines might pat themselves on the back for earning Sally’s continued loyalty. What they may not realize is they still lost a customer that day – me.

I flew enough miles on United Airlines last year to earn their Premier Silver status. I plan on traveling a lot more this year and that status would have come in handy. However, unlike Sally, I have several good alternatives that make it easy to say I won’t be buying a ticket on United Airlines anytime soon.

Why people don't respond to email

We all know how annoying it is to send an email to a co-worker, vendor, or even a client and not receive a response. If this happens to you, it may be helpful to know why you aren’t getting a response. Here are my top three reasons why this happens. Please leave a comment and let me know yours.

Reason #1: Your Email is Hard to Read
The sender is often to blame for a lack of responsiveness. Unsolicited emails aside, some emails just aren’t written with our busy lifestyles in mind. They contain run-on paragraphs or it’s hard to quickly decipher what the person is asking you to do. One person I know averages over 500 words per email, which is longer than this blog post!

I’ve compiled a short list of tips for writing more effective emails, but the biggest one of all is to make your email easy to read and respond to.

Reason #2: Your Email is Not Important
We all lead busy lives and are constantly reprioritizing our tasks, but most people agree that a timely response to business email is a professional courtesy. According to a survey I conducted earlier this year, 68 percent of us expect co-workers to respond to an email within four hours or less and 63 percent of us expect businesses to respond within one business day. When people don’t respond because they’re too busy, they’ve opted to do other tasks instead of replying to the sender.

I recently came across a post on a blog about business writing where the writer described a follow-up message she had received from her graphic designer. The graphic designer had emailed nearly two weeks prior, hadn't gotten a response, and so she sent another message. The blog writer felt it was a professional and thoughtful way to handle the situation. Interestingly, the writer wrote the blog post before responding to the email. 

Reason #3: They Can't Handle Their Business
Many people fail to respond quickly to email because they simply don't know how to properly manage the avalanche of email they receive each day. It becomes overwhelming and email messages simply get lost in the shuffle.

The skills required to effectively manage email are well-documented, but that doesn’t mean they’re well-practiced! Here are some of my favorites that are simple and effective:

1. Use an out of office message when you will be unable to respond to email within one business day. (Don’t forget to turn it off!)
2. Clean out your inbox daily. Messages often get lost in cluttered inboxes. (See Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity for more fabulous tips on inbox management.)
3. Dedicate several blocks of time per day to focus on email rather than constantly scanning and skimming messages. (A terrific tip from The Four Hour Workweek.)

Why else do you think people fail to respond to emails?

Ten bad leadership habits that lead to poor service

There are people for whom customer service is a core value, one that is always present in their personal and professional lives. When these types of people lead customer service teams, their teams tend to work magic.

There are also people who don't truly believe in customer service. When these people lead customer service teams, service failures tend to be the norm. They may talk a good game to try to convince their customers, their employees, and even themselves that service is indeed important. However, their true colors are eventually revealed by their bad habits. 

Here are ten examples of bad leadership habits that cause service failures:

1. Unable to clearly articulate what outstanding customer service looks like.
2. Too impatient to do things right.
3. Focused on catching employees doing things wrong instead of helping them do things right.
4. Too busy to provide employees with training, coaching, or direction.
5. Failing to respond to email and voice mail in a timely manner.
6. Allowing employees to continuously provide poor service.
7. Disciplining employees for behaviors they regularly exhibit themselves.
8. Treating employees disrespectfully.
9. Asking employees to do things they wouldn't do themselves.
10. Making excuses for any of the above.

What bad habits would you add to this list?

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Jeff Toister is the author of Service Failure: The Real Reasons Employees Struggle with Customer Service and What You Can Do About It. The book is scheduled to be released on November 1.

You can learn more about the book at www.servicefailurebook.com or pre-order a copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's Books.