Customerspective

How about a Slice of that Customer Experience Pie?

Bank of America unveiled it's costly new marketing campaign with it's new slogan "Bank of Opportunity" replacing the four-year old slogan "Higher Standards", the Wall Street Journal recently reported. The ads debuted during the annual academy awards telecast on Sunday, Feb 25th.

The shift in marketing strategy hopes to persuade existing customers with checking accounts to buy into the other services and unique programs that Bank of America offers.

Bank of America hopes to get a bigger slice of the banking industry's revenue pie and we hope that they don't jeopardize the customer experience in the process.

Personally the "Higher standards" slogan resonated with me and made me feel that if Bank of America adopted higher standards for it's employees this would translate into higher standards for their customers.

On the Bank of America website I can't help but notice that absence of the Customer Experience in their desire to get a slice of the pie. “Bank of Opportunity,” is emblematic of what Bank of America has always strived for throughout its history ― to create opportunities for the individuals, businesses and communities we serve throughout the world.

We'll just have stay tuned and hope that Bank of America keeps it's higher customer experience standards as it provides more opportunities for individuals.

Read more on the banking industry and the online customer experience.

A Lost Customer...and for what?

Moving is an event all its own. It’s not as simple as, “I’m moving. Pack up belongings. Move. Unpack. Settle in and smile.” Moving nowadays involves many more “little issues” that you don’t think about until you actually move. With that said, my recent move proved to be an “experience” all it’s own.

I hired movers for the first time in my life, which despite all the horror stories, ended up being an expensive, but pleasant experience. The physical move lasted only 3 hours! “Great, I thought, I’m almost done!”

Not quite.

I have to get my mail forwarded to my new apartment. I have to call all my credit cards and student loan companies to update my contact information. I have to locate the Chicago office that sells parking permit #62 so I can stop receiving tickets for parking in front of my new apartment. I have to go through everything I own and throw something out. I have to find a new route to work - what trains do I take? Where is the nearest grocery store? Oh no, my old gym is too far to get to now, but I have a contract with them. Can I cancel that? Where is a closer gym? And most importantly, what and where are the take-out restaurants that will deliver dinner to my place almost 5 days a week? My old “menu” of places consisted of a Chinese restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a diner, and a Mexican place - all phone numbers that were efficiently programmed into my cell phone. But now, the comfortability of knowing what was where and what I wanted had vanished. I needed to find dinner delivery, and fast!

Luckily, there were take-out/delivery restaurant menus stuck in my mailbox, scattering the floor of the foyer walking up to my apartment, rubber banded to the front doors, and cleverly shoved underneath my windshield wipers. So, I was in luck. i’m not going to go hungry here!

The first place I ordered from was a somewhat higher class Chinese/Sushi restaurant. I was excited - I had never ordered sushi in before. Nice! So, I ordered in for myself and a friend using a credit card, having been told on the phone that delivery time was 45 minutes to an hour. About an hour and a half later, my doorbell rang and I buzzed the delivery guy in, who emphatically apologized for being late, I gave him a gracious tip (thankful that he acknowledged his lateness) - he then went on his way, and I went on mine. The food was delicious! Even though he was late, he apologized. I thought I had found a keeper.

Again, not quite.

The following day, I was viewing my checking account information online, and to my surprise, “Fantastic But Slow Moving Chinese Restaurant” had charged my account twice for dinner! And not even the same amount - one charge was what the meal, with tip, really came out to, and the other amount was $20 more! So, I called them to inquire about this mystery charge and this is how the conversation went:

ME: “Hello, I ordered from your restaurant last night and was just reviewing my credit card information online, and you charged me twice for dinner- at two different prices!”

THEM: “What’s your name?”

ME: “The order was placed under “Niki.”

THEM: “Oh, yeah, I remember you. The girl must have hit the wrong button. It’s not really a charge.”

ME: “Well, then what is it? I have 2 withdrawals in my account from your restaurant and there should only be one.”

THEM: “She just hit the wrong button probably. It’s not really a charge.”

This conversation lasted a little longer, with this man named Frank insisting that this was not a real charge, though the amount ‘charged’ was no longer in my account! He rudely told me the money would be reimbursed in 5 business days, never offered an apology, and hung up.

Five business days later, and no reimbursement. I called back. I asked to speak with the manager. When he got on the phone, he seemed to know who I was after stating my name. “It should be in there tonight,” he said almost like he was annoyed with my call. Never an apology, never a “sorry for the inconvenience” - nothing. And this was the manager I was talking to! I offered up the fact that I was indeed frustrated, that I hadn’t even been offered an apology. I said I know mistakes happen, but in this instance, I can’t believe an apology wasn’t offered. And still none, and he basically hung up on me.

Lucky for them, I was reimbursed the following day. But the moral of this story is this: Good food. Good location. Wait time was longer than expected, but I was still ok. But, POOR customer experience. And they just lost a potentially loyal customer. And there were three simple words that could’ve changed that, “I am SORRY.”

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

I just ordered the new book by Danny Meyer called Setting the Table: The Tranforming Power of Hospitality in Business. For those of you who aren't restaurateurs or New Yorkers, Meyer is something of the golden child in the progressive (but not too progressive) restaurant industry. His first establishment, Union Square Cafe, was voted the most popular eatery in New York for some multiple of years in a row, and now there are a hefty handful of other hip and diverse Meyer restaurants sprinkled through that city.

My wife and I gave Union Square Cafe a try our last time in New York, despite my aversion to things labeled "most popular" anything. (It makes me think of "the world's largest Bennigans!" on Times Square). To my surprise the experience was wonderful. Far from being knocked about at a crowded bar waiting for a table, or worse, feeling inferior to the snooty, sublime environment, we felt welcomed and apppreciated in a very human way. The service was, well...warm and professional. The food was fantastic, and we lingered at the table with overt approval from the staff.

The experience caused us to seek out a second of his restaurants, Tabla, which offered modern American fare imbued with Indian accents, or maybe vice versa. Anyways, it was a different but no less impressive meal and evening. In fact, given the table we were at, and the service, I wondered if we had been mistaken for some couple of note.

So, what is Danny Meyer's secret?

It really comes down to that one word: hospitality. That is his business model, in all the word encompasses. It's not "quality" or "service." It's hospitality. It's how he sets up his restaurants, how he communicates to his team.

But here's the distinction in strategy: it's how he hires. His main point is that - if your raison d'etre is hospitality - you can't hire somebody with all the right skills and the wrong attitude. Attitude can't really be trained, skills can. If you start with a person who doesn't understand some of the processes in the restaurant but possesses an attitude focused naturally on helping people, you'll beat the other guy everytime. It's something we believe and try to live here as well.

Customer experience for time-pressed consumers

I've been reflecting on Luis' blog entry about Information Overload. I concur that it is a complex and ever-expanding phenomenon. We at Vox encounter Information Overload in our own lives as well as that of the Customers for which we advocate.

However, I controversially postulate that the real problem isn't actually too much information. There is really no such thing as too much information. The problem is one of organization. It takes too much time and effort to get to the information we want and need, whether it's to get a 1-800 number, to find out how much our insurance will cost, or to find out when our favorite movie comes out on DVD.

Therefore, we realize that from the Customer’s perspective, it's imperative for us to accomplish two objectives: one, to create a clear path to their goal and two, to set expectations of time and effort.

Creating a clear path to Customer goals involves building experiences based on what the Customer wants to do versus what the company wants the Customer to do. It is about--to give just a few touchpoint examples--automated phone systems that tell the holding Customer where they are in the que, websites that always let Customers know when they have received or are sending out an item and written customer communications that speak to the customer instead of at them.

Setting Customer expectations involves answering the questions they ask themselves when trying to access information. Customers want to know "How long will this take?" "What steps will I need to complete to accomplish this?" "Will I need to process a ton of information and make a complex decision, or will this be straightforward?" The more accurately we answer these internal questions of Customers, the less "Info-intensive" we will make their experience.

What else can we do to help Customers accomplish their goals?

Road trip to nowhere (or "just hang on, we are almost there").

Yesterday I've learned two important lessons:

1. Some habits are forced upon you and others are very hard to give up.

2. If you are doing something different from everyone else, you are either remarkable or just plain dumb.

If I'd knew that, it would have completely changed my day...

Having lived my whole life in a tropical country, I find very difficult to remember to turn on the TV everyday to see the weather forecast before leaving to work. In my mind, it should be enough to check it once a week.

(Matter of fact, I still have the habit of looking outside the window to "guess" the weather for the day).

Yesterday here in Chicago the forecast was for a huge snowstorm, so unless one had a "life or death" kind of appointment, every wise person stayed at home and waited to see what Mother Nature would decide to throw our way.  Well, I didn't.  Nothing was said about a storm on the day before yesterday's forecast, and my window guess told me that the snow outside didn't appear to be that bad, so I ventured out and faced the road.

After driving for 15 minutes, I could already tell that it wasn't going to be a fun trip.  It was slick and slushy, not a single snowplow in sight, and the wind was starting to blow–HARD.  I could see many people turning back, but I am not one to give up easily, so I thought: "Everything will flow after I get to the highway..."

The highway came and the traffic slowed to almost a stop.  Still, not a single snowplower in sight.  The maximum velocity was about 15mph.  The road was extremely slippery and the only way to keep driving straight was to stay precisely on the tracks left by the car before you.

All that white around didn't help alleviate my feeling of sleep deprivation and anxiety.  I had no idea how long it would take to get to work or if the storm would still go on for hours.  Other cars started to stop in the curb or look for the exit to go back.  I kept thinking that everything would be all right if I just insisted for another ten miles and, in the end, I found myself turning back after 2.5 hours without even reaching half way to my office.

Almost 5 hours after leaving my home, I was back.  I didn't reach my destination and didn't accomplish anything at all for first half of my day.  I went on a road trip to nowhere for no apparent reason.  On hindsight, I could have worked from the comfort of my home, attended to any meetings via conference call.  It might not be ideal, but would definitely be a better experience.

Like me in that story, customers sometimes are slow to react to a bad experience.  By pure habit, they hang on to a bad service for longer than anyone would consider possible.  But that's an illusion!  If you ignore a customer experience problem until your customers start to leave, you may be waiting too long and now the damage may be irreversible, or just too expensive to fix.

Don't make a habit of overlooking your customers' complaints and suggestions.  If you ignore the signs around you, chances are that you're going the wrong way.

By the way, this morning, before leaving, I opened my window, took a good look outside... and turned on the TV!

Guiness Offers Consumers a Chance to Create their Commercial

Talk about getting the customer involved...Guinness is inviting the public to have their hand in creating their new commercial.  The owner of Guinness, Diageo, is launching a site on Monday that will allow the public creative freedom to use software tools to switch around the soundtrack and footage to create their own commercial.

According to an article in FT.com, "Users will be able to post the finished commercial on the site or email it to friends. They can also compare their version with that produced by the professional creatives at AMV BBDO when the latter appears on television from February 12."