MBA Geek » customer service

What’s your service expectation?

Owen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:49:54 +0000

If one of your customers has a problem, how long does it take you to respond? I’ve had a number of opportunities to interact with companies here in Europe and the usual experience is as follows:

Send an email to the company
Get an automated email saying that you’ll be contacted within the next 48 hours
Wait 2 days
Get a customer service representative emailing back
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.

Boots: Looking out for the customer

Owen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:03:15 +0000

Just had a brilliant experience at Boots the other day. The customer in front of me had a big pile of shopping that she popped in front of the cashier. The girl who was serving her took a quick look over the items in front of her and split them into two piles. She explained that if she processed them as 2 transactions, the first transaction would entitle the shopper to a £5 discount coupon which could then be used on the second transaction.

I was pretty impressed by this. The cashier had no incentive to help the customer out, yet her actions made sure that the experience was memorable to the customer, positively reinforcing the shopping experience and ensuring the client returned again. Retailers spend lots of time and effort in trying to entice customers back to their store but a positive experience can outweigh any promotional products or discounts that the shopper may meet. Now if I could find someone who would cut me a deal on some baby furniture, then maybe I can finish off Arthur‘s room

Tesco: how to cheat your loyal customers

Owen — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:54:40 +0000

Tesco are one of those organisations here in the UK that have a sophisticated customer loyalty scheme in place. Their range of services covers their core segment (supermarket shopping) but also extends to energy supply, car rentals, hotels and an extensive selection of products and services that their consumers use. And their loyalty scheme is geared to keep customers coming back from mere, with a rich set of rewards ranging from Airmiles, cruises, days out and other goodies. Both my wife and I are pretty big fans of the scheme, albeit for different reasons. Personally I find the way Tesco use their data and incentives to motivate their customers to purchase quite interesting to observe.

This morning however, we had a pretty negative experience with Tesco. They have a “Deal of the Day” mailshot with a different special offer every day, and last Friday my wife decided to take advantage of a special offer to get an LG phone on PAYG for around Â£20 (see picture). In fact, she liked the offer so much, that she decided to get 4, to give as gifts to her family who sometimes visit the UK. Yesterday she received an email from Tesco saying that they had cancelled her order because of a problem with her credit card. We had also made other purchases with that card on the day, and guess what, no problems there.

So, she decided to phone up Customer Services to provide them with further payment details and was informed that the problem wasn’t really with the payment, but that the offer was limited to one unit per household so they couldn’t supply four. If you click on the advert, you’ll see that the bottom half is all small print, but that condition just isn’t listed there. My wife was even more upset, because the website had allowed her to actually place the purchase and pay for the order without any problems. If you try shopping for groceries and try to buy more than an allocated amount of items (I think it’s 10) the website stops you from doing this. Was it wrong for her to expect the same sort of behaviour from another part of the site?

The net result of the whole experience is that my wife is feeling bitter and disappointed. Does it mean she’ll stop shopping at Tesco? Probably not, but the experience has knocked a substantial dent into her loyalty. Instead of raving to her friends about how great her new phone from Tesco is, she’ll be telling them how disappointed she is because Tesco cheated her out of a new phone for herself and her siblings.

How could Tesco have prevented this situation? First of all, they should have been honest with their advertising. It’s a great deal, but we’re only letting you have one. Don’t just say it in the small print, but set the customer’s expectations, even make them feel honoured with the opportunity. Next, if you make a promise, honour it. The customer service representative who my wife spoke to shouldn’t have been making excuses, but should have been looking for a way to resolve the situation. And finally, don’t lie to a customer. Why blame the failed transaction on a problematic credit card (and worry the customer that they have been subject to identity fraud) when this was just not true.