C-Sat: So what?!

Question: Let's say your business engaged in a process that was mildly annoying to your customers and provided absolutely no value. You aren't quite sure how it got started or who in your company owns it but the process continues simply out of habit. What would you do if you found about about this process?

For many companies that gather customer satisfaction (C-Sat) data, the answer is, "We'd keep doing things the same way." 

Sports talk radio personality Jim Rome has a favorite saying for his callers, "Give me an A or give me an F." If your company gathers C-Sat data, I hereby challenge you to do the same. Either make sure your C-Sat process earns an A, or stop wasting time and annoying customers with a process that yields no value.

How can you tell if your C-Sat process gets an A?

I propose three simple tests to get you started. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you answer "Yes" to these three questions you are probably doing OK.

#1 Do you know why you're asking what you're asking?

Forget your survey questions for a moment and ask, "What do I want to know?" Now, ask, "Why do I need to know that?" If you can't think of a really good reason to ask the question, don't.

I recently received a survey after getting my car's oil change that contained 36 questions (see "Customer Service Survey Mistakes to Avoid"). Does it really take 36 questions to find out if I was happy with my oil change? Of course not!

Surveys of any sort consume your customers' time. The shorter you make them, the better. As a rule of thumb, if you can't get the information you need in five questions or fewer, you are probably asking the wrong questions.

#2 Do you do anything with the data?

The whole point of capturing C-Sat data shouldn't be getting a good score. It should be using the data to improve actual customer satisfaction. If you aren't acting on the data you receive, you aren't extracting any value from the process.

In most cases, you don't have to be an expert in statistics to find value in your C-Sat data, provided you are asking good questions (see #1, above). For example, a client of mine recently grouped the comments attached to their C-Sat survey and discovered that the majority of negative feedback was attributed to one particular process. My client used this insight to fix the process and make it more customer friendly. Customer satisfaction immediately jumped and many people commented on how pleased they were with the improved process.

#3 Do you close the loop?

C-Sat instruments usually collect individual data points and combine them into an average. That's helpful for an overall score, but what do you know about each individual customer? A good system allows you to follow-up with people to either thank them for their business or fix a problem. It can be as easy as asking for their email or phone number at the end of the survey, but it's essential that you follow-up if you request this information.

Here are two examples that highlight the value of closing the loop:

A shipping company recently left a case of wine on my front doorstep. Not only did they fail to get an adult signature for the wine, they left the wine outside where the wine might have been ruined if it had been a hot day. They never asked for my opinion, so they never got my feedback. However, the next time I ordered wine from a winery that used them, I shared the story and asked the winery to use UPS instead.

One of my favorite hotels, the Napa River Inn, sent me a survey after my wife and I stayed there last year. The visit was terrific overall, but there were a few things that weren't up to their usual standards. The General Manager emailed me in response to my survey, thanked me for my feedback, and assured me she would correct the problems I had noted. She also invited me to let her know the next time I visited so she could personally ensure I had a wonderful stay. I took her up on her offer and on my next visit my wife and I had an absolutely amazing time. And, the problems we had noticed on our previous stay had clearly been corrected.

My personal policy for identifying companies via social media

I gave a lot of thought to how I would identify companies and individual employees by name while writing my book, Service Failure. Through the help of my editors and a little trial and error, I came up with what I think is a fair and reasonable way to approach this issue.

As my audience for this blog continues to grow, I think it's time to apply this personal policy here as well. My goal is to use examples of good and bad customer service to inform and perhaps entertain, while recognizing that customer service is difficult, mistakes can and will happen, and sometimes even the best companies and employees fall a little short.

Here's my policy:

• When I receive poor customer service, I won't mention the company by name unless I've first attempted to address my grievance with a company representative.
• I will mention companies by name if I am commenting on a news story (rather than my own experience as a customer).
• I won't hesitate to identify companies by name when I receive exceptional service.
• When discussing individual customer service employees, I will only use their first names unless I've been given permission to quote them by name. 

Like all policies, it may get broken or stretched from time to time, but I'll do my best to be faithful to it.

Survey: How quickly should people respond to email?

It's time for my 2nd annual email response time survey. Chances are pretty good that you send a lot of emails. Please take a moment to complete a short survey to let us know how quickly you expect to receive a response. You may also view the 2011 Email Response Time survey results here.

The survey will close on Friday, May 18 and the results will be posted on Monday, May 21. The final results willbe posted on my blog. You can subscribe to updates via email by clicking here

Update - May 21, 2012

The survey is now closed. Please click here to view the results.

A tale of three stores: how service drives sales

Service makes a difference when mattress shoppingMy wife, Sally, and I recently went shopping for a new mattress. We visited three stores that had the same products, similar prices, but vastly different levels of customer service. Guess which one we went with? Once again, proof that customer service drives sales in a retail environment.

Last Place: Nightmare service

The worst example came at a mattress store near our home. As we walked through their door, we heard a guttural, "Howyaguysdoin?" from across the store. We both looked in that direction but couldn't tell who it came from since nobody was looking our way. After a minute or so, a woman approached us and revealed herself as our greeter by repeating, "Howyaguysdoin?"

If you haven't purchased a mattress in awhile, the process generally involves lying down on a bunch of mattresses and trying to imagine how comfortable you'd be sleeping on each one. Our salesperson made this fairly impossible because she never stopped talking. She told us about the great deals they were offering each mattress, about the cutting-edge technology integrated into the designs, and then somehow segued into her personal medical problems. None of those topics had anything to do with whether we'd get a good night's sleep on a particular mattress, and her medical history threatened to give us nightmares.

I'm sorry life dealt you a rough hand, lady, but that approach was a huge turn-off. 

Distant 2nd: Slow service, dirty ceilings

We also visited a major department store where our salesperson was nice, but he was too busy to be helpful. We had to wait a few minutes while he served another customer, which wasn't so bad, but after we caught his attention it was hard to keep it. He left us repeatedly to serve other people while we were trying out various mattresses and discussing their pros and cons. Each time he left us, it made us less enthusiastic about shopping there. It also gave us time to notice things like their incredibly dirty ceiling.

Holy cow, that ceiling was gross! Seriously, store, lie down on one of your mattresses and look up at your disgusting ceiling and tell me if you feel restful. 

The Winner: Dan at Sleep Train

Our winning salesperson was Dan at Sleep Train. The Sleep Train store was nicely organized with sparkling clean ceilings, so the deck was already stacked in their favor. However, Dan really nailed the customer service aspect of the sales process. Here are just a few things he did right:

• He greeted us immediately and introduced himself.
• Dan asked questions to get to know us and our needs.
• He encouraged us to try out various mattresses and adjusted the models he showed us based on our feedback (too hard, too soft, that sort of thing).
• There was silence, glorious silence, while we tried each mattress, but Dan remained nearby to immediately answer our questions.
• Dan didn't discuss price until we had picked our top choices. He realized that price was irrelevant if the bed was uncomfortable.

Service Pointers

In retail, service can have a huge impact on sales, especially on bigger ticket items. Here are just a few take-aways from our mattress-buying experience:

• Train your sales staff to first identify their customers' needs and tailor their pitch accordingly.
• Literally see things from your customers' perspective so you won't miss problems, like dirty ceilings in a mattress store, that are costing you sales.
• Consistently remind your sales staff that their job is to solve their customers' problems, not dump their problems on their customers.

Authenticity matters in customer service

My new head shot - it looks like the real meI recently had to get a new head shot for the jacket of my upcoming customer service book, Service Failure. These sorts of things are tough for me because I never know exactly what look to go for. I'll admit to spending a good deal of time looking at other author's head shots to find examples that resonated with me.

Finally, I decided to just be me. I wanted my headshot to pretty much look like the person who would show up at a client's office or be at a speaking engagement. In other words, the look I was going for was authentic.

Fortunately, I think Ted Donovon at Donovon Photography nailed it. (Shout out for great service - Ted is personable, does great work, and turns things around fast!)

Why Authenticity Matters

The short answer is your customers can tell the difference. We like authentic - it can feel trustworthy, welcoming, and enthusiastic so long as your company and your employees really are those things. 

Customers can also tell when an employee is faking it. I love this vintage commercial from Pacific Southwest Airlines that promoted the difference:

(Here's a link in case you can't view the video.)

Terrific stuff, right? Unfortunately, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was acquired a number of years ago by US Airways, but I still have fond memories of flying on PSA when I was a kid. 

3 Ways to Keep it Real

There are many ways to promote authentic customer service, but I'll give you three of my favorites.

#1 Hire people who want to do what you want them to do
It's never fun to encounter a customer service employee who clearly doesn't want to be there. This challenge can be partially remedied by hiring people who not only have the skills to do the job, but the passion to match.

My wife, Sally, and I were on vacation in Napa a few weeks ago when we met Bob at one of the wineries we visited. Over the course of our conversation, we learned that Bob worked in the tasting room at Rombauer Vineyards, but enjoyed wine so much that he went wine tasting on his day off. He gave us his card and invited us to stop by Rombauer later in the week. We decided to pay Bob a visit that Saturday, and despite a large crowd in the tasting room, he remembered us and treated us to an outstanding tasting experience. 

#2 Ditch the script
Scripts are for actors, not customer service employees. Give your employees guidelines if there's an essential message you need to convey, but don't trip them up with a clunky script that makes them sound like robots. (My disdain for scripts is frequently documented in this blog -- see my "ditch the scripts post.")

I once visited my local True Value hardware store and was greeted with, "What are you doing in here?!" That greeting would never pass muster in a corporate brand standards meeting, but it felt wonderfully authentic to me. The employee who greeted me had been helping me with a home project that required several unexpected trips back to the store. After each trip, we both hoped it would be my last visit for this particular project. Alas, when he saw me once again, he knew something else had gone wrong. 

#3 Give employees something to smile about
There's a flip side to authenticity, where customer service employees harbor negative feelings about their co-workers, their boss, or their company. Venting frustrations to customers is certainly authentic, but it's very unappealing. I want the people who serve me to keep it real, but I still want a great experience.

The antidote to this problem is to help employees maintain a positive outlook. Show appreciation for their contributions, acknowledge their successes, and help them recover from their mistakes. Be quick to share good news, but don't hide the bad news either. Involve them in solving problems. Make them feel like partners.

I'm sure there are many other ways to promote authentic customer service. Please be sure to share your ideas and comments.