Customers are the life-blood of a business. Without customers, a business has no purpose, no income and no reason. And this is why organisations always try to understand their client base, figure out what drives them and how they can cater for their needs.

I came across a great example of this when visiting a website of a company called Chocolate and Love. They’re in the chocolate business; making and selling chocolates for a wide customer base. They offer a great service that lets them engage more closely with their clients called The Chocolate Club, whereby you sign up to receive different a supply of chocolate every month. Now, instead of having a very short relationship with the customer, where the experience at Point of Sale will govern the relationship between supplier and retailer; the retailer has an opportunity every month to satisfy and delight their customer. It’s a simple proposition, but one that helps stimulate the engagement.

We’ve tried some of the Chocolate and Love products, so if you’re interested, read our review on Shopaholic.

It’s all about setting expectation though isn’t it. Regardless of whether you’re the tax authority or simply giving out colonix reviews, once the expectation is set in a customer’s mind, that’s what they’re expecting. In truth, you cannot provide 100% service, but people need to understand just what level to expect from your product or service.

We’ll see how HMRC deal with this one.

It’s been just under three weeks since we wrote to both RyanAir and FlyBe about our cancelled flights and subsequent reimbursement and I’m delighted to say that today we received a letter from FlyBe who have reimbursed us for our alternative travel arrangements. I must say I’m really happy with the way they have responded to us and I will be telling all my friends of their great customer ethic.

When I buy something, I’m not one to go for an extended service plan, but if I have a problem I will write to the company in question to see if they will remediate the problem. In this case, it was a service that we had bought, but it was no different; I did write to both companies we had issues with, and it’s great to get a positive response, at least from one of them.

I’ll keep you posted on what happens on the RyanAir front …

photo credit: kevinzim

Well, it’s been 2 weeks since I sent my complaint to the airlines, one to RyanAir and one to FlyBe; and I still haven’t had a reply or even an acknowledgement for my letter. So tomorrow I’ll be posting another copy of the letters to see if I can get the ball rolling. I don’t know if I’ll be getting a positive response, I was expecting some sort of acknowledgement. It’s not like I’m sending spam about the best acne remedy around; I probably wouldn’t expect a response from that.

As a customer, it’s quite annoying to be ignored by a company I have given my money to. I’m quite keen to try and get to the bottom of this.

My wife had a negative experience with Tesco a couple of days ago, where they cancelled her shopping delivery without any prior warning. It was interested to watch Tesco’s response, which was initially going to make a negative experience even worse. When she phone to enquire about the order she was fobbed off and she wrote an extremely annoyed letter of complaint. It took them 3 days to respond, which did nothing to help improve the situation; but last night she got an email back with an apology and a £10 voucher.

My wife was satisfied with this; the voucher helped but what she was really after was an apology. The problem here however is that for 3 solid days, all her friends and family have been hearing about the negative experience and all this affects their perception of the retailer. The situation could have been turned on its head if the person at the other end of the phone when she called had the presence to offer an apology and deal with her complaint successfully; much like a quick trim from some problematic tuft . Unfortunately, however, a complaint needs to filter though numerous stages before it can be dealt with successfully and all this does is increase the frustration at the client’s end.

So, we had an interesting experience on our recent holiday to Malta, having cancelled flights with both FlyBe and RyanAir. Anyway, we had to make alternative travel arrangements in both cases, and I’ve just written to them expecting reimbursement for our cancellation, as per EU Regulations. It will be interesting to see what responses I get from each one and what process they will try and implements.

It was quite a harrowing experience, having to change airports and reroute while travelling with 2 newborn twins, a 3-year old and a pile of luggage. It’s going to take more than hair vitamins to get the stress out of my hair (what’s left of it) this time! And now I have to deal with the airlines. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I’ve had a flight cancellation with RyanAir recently and it got me thinking about how much low-cost companies actually save by removing the service element from their offering. Traditionally, companies have always sought to minimise costs and increase efficiency; whether it’s by reducing product complexity or using call center outsourcing, but doing so by removing the service element was a pretty bold move. The fascinating thing is that the net result has been the usurping of the incumbents and the emergence of a completely new model for flying.

It does turn the whole game on its head and opens the door to a rethinking of other sectors. More importantly, it raises an interesting question:

Is the customer still king? Or are cheaper prices more important?

1. Send an email to the company
2. Get an automated email saying that you’ll be contacted within the next 48 hours
3. Wait 2 days
4. Get a customer service representative emailing back
5. Reply saying that I’ve solved the problem in the meantime or switched to a different supplier.

I had a great experience the other day dealing with a company in China called DVBSeller, an online store where I purchased my new Dreambox. I emailed them with a problem on my shipment and received an email reply from one of their customer service reps in under 8 minutes! An email response time measured in minutes is something that European counterparts can only fantasise about, but the experience has redefined my expectation of Customer Service. We can really learn from these guys.

The really interesting thing was one line that they added to the email response they sent:

Thanks for getting in touch and I must compliment you on your choice in kids wear.

I found that single line awesome. It wasn’t just a thank you for communicating with them. It showed that someone had taken the trouble to actually look at my order, and note what sort of products where in there. It added that touch a touch of personality to the email and gave it that human touch.

It doesn’t matter if you sell cheap clothes, or the top of the line walk in bath, adding that touch of humanity to your online presence can add that touch of class that will keep clients coming back for more.

Wherever I go, I always try to think what I could do to improve a business. I’ve been doing it for years and now that it comes naturally to me, I even do it while I’m on holiday. So, as I’m holidaying in DisneyLand Paris at the moment, I couldn’t but think up something I would do to improve the place. And here it is.

What is Disney’s most powerful advertising medium? TV? Print Ads? Movies? All wrong, the people who enjoy their entertainment products and pass on the message to their friends. This viral element is immensely powerful and as Seth Godin would say, if something is remarkable enough (read Purple Cow), people will talk about it. It’s advice that applies to any business, whether you’re an Outer Banks rentals outfit or a multinational like Disney. So why don’t you encourage people to speak about you.

I would provide free Wifi in their hotels and their parks (there’s paid-for Internet in the hotels, but nothing in the parks) so that people can share their images and experiences in real time with friends and family around the world. I would enhance my website, so that photos taken in the parks (or even live streams) can be watched by people around the world. I’m having a whale of a time here and am eager to share it with my friends, so why don’t you just make it easier for me?