The Old College Try
"Do, or do not. There is no try" -@yoda
"We try harder" -@avis
It's really challenging to "speak with one voice" as a company, whether your company is small, large, or anywhere in between. I recently had an experience with a major car rental company that left me appreciative of individual effort and frustrated at the inability of the company to meet the needs of the customer.
So, what happened?
I had a small crisis - a flat tire on the way to an important meeting while traveling on business to Research in Motion headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario. I called Roadside Assistance, and my expectation was that Avis would send a crew to fix my tire. They actually told me to fix it myself and that there were tools in the trunk to accomplish the task.
Lesson #1 - The Company Process Doesn't Always Benefit the Customer
The representative from Avis wasn't necessarily wrong - he was following a script that suggested what he should do when someone calls in with a flat tire - but he wasn't able (or willing) to see things from my point of view. I didn't want to learn a new process, use any tools, or to do work because my day was already full.
Lesson #2 - Help can come from an Unexpected Place
Lauren (the building receptionist) went above and beyond my expectations by finding a local Avis rep when he was returning another car and escalating the issue to the local sales manager Chris. Chris showed up and brought me a new car - a Kia Soul - and was very pleasant. I was ecstatic and wanted to shout everyone's praises to the whole world. And I did.
Lesson #3 - Oops, Everyone's not on the same page
I drove off into the sunset with a new rental car and went along my merry way. Everything's great, right? Not quite - when I returned home to the states I got a bill to replace the tire. Huh? After a few emails to figure out what was going on, I found that because my corporate office advises me to decline the rental car-provided insurance, incidents like a flat tire are "rotten luck" and need to be paid out of pocket.
I wrote to @AvisWeTryHarder and explained to Ann Smith (the social media representative) that this outcome was silly, that I shouldn't need to pay it, and that she should fix it. She did (eventually), but she wasn't able to do so immediately (by policy.) And the overall experience was one of confusion, rather than triumph at great service and heroic efforts by a few people.
What did I learn?
Avis resolved my issue and I didn't have to pay for the flat tire (yay!) There were a few key lessons that I gleaned from this experience, including:
- It's hard to speak with one voice - even if everything goes right, training your employees to understand the complexities of a situation and how to use common sense is difficult to train, so you've got to hire for attitude;
- The customer decides if it was a good experience - customers don't care why it went wrong, they just want you to fix it. Or explain very clearly why you can't fix it and to offer a good alternative;
- There might be good substitutes, but it's hard to think of them sometimes - I could have called AAA Auto Club, but I didn't realize that they would cover me while traveling in Canada. In this case heroic effort won the day.
What's the impact of the "old college try"?
The customer doesn't care whether you try harder. The customer cares whether you get it done. Yoda wins.
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About Greg Meyer: Greg delights customers and tries to provide the best customer experience possible by listening, providing support, and solving problems. He is a startup veteran of several early stage companies including Gist (acquired by Research in Motion.) In addition to his ability to translate simultaneously between English and Geek, Greg likes to draw things and take pictures of signs. You can contact Greg at @grmeyer. (photo by http://flickr.com/photos/gregmeyer)
