Those of you who have been to my "office" know that I don't actually have an office. Rather, I spend my days cooped up in a cubicle, about half the size of the average US jail cell. Though to be fair, my cubicle is quite lovely. It's on the second-floor with a nice window view (mostly of the parking lot - which allows me to glance out lovingly out at my car). However, this is not a rant against the inhumane practice of cubicle farming, nor is it a cautionary tale about the perils of becoming romantically involved with our automobiles.
Today's blog is about the folly of rolling out customer-service projects where we forget to even take the "customer service" out of the box. I am not just speaking metaphorically or allegorically about boxes either. Boxes can be quite real. Take for example the box that has been sitting in the hallway of the building where I work for the past weeks - posing a bit of a fire hazard, but also serving nicely as a coffee table for impromptu get-togethers and discussions. So what's in the box? Where did it come from? And why is the box still unopened? Like all good stories, this tale involves intrigue, politics, and surprise plot twists.
No one knows for certain where our box came from or what's in it. Rumor has it that the box contains training materials on "lean" software development - a methodology similar to but somewhat different from "agile/scrum" software development. Long story, short: the word "lean" frightened some folks who associated the term "lean" with down-sizing and headcount reductions rather than with a methodology for removing waste from non-value added production processes (slow internal communications, unclear requirements, unnecessary code, etc.). Hence, the worker's council forbade the box from being opened. And so here we are - using it as a table for playing cards and eating muffins.
While somewhat comical, this is a very real example of how even the most innocuous, best-conceived initiatives can be derailed by uninformed paranoia, misguided distrust, or simple misunderstanding. Many companies will undoubtedly undertake new customer service projects in 2010. And many of these projects will be brilliant, cutting-edge initiatives built on the latest-and-greatest Social CRM platforms and technologies. And unfortunately, many of these projects will fail. Of course, nobody wants to fail. No company plans to fail. No manager writes a business plan outlining how to achieve record failure in record time at record cost. But failure happens nonetheless.
Having read trillions of existing blogs and articles about why projects fail, we all know that project failure rarely comes down to inadequacies of technology. Rather the cause of project failures usually tends to rest with "people issues" such as improper planning and readiness, inadequate staff or resources, lack of support from top management and leadership, poor communication, breakdowns in project-management, and so on. In fact, the reasons behind project failure are really the same reasons behind any type of failure - whether failed diets, failed relationships, or failed civilizations. Basically, somebody did something stupid, causing a lot of bad things to happen.
2009 provided a wealth of spectacular customer-service failures at which we can look back and laugh, and hopefully learn from. Facebook angered privacy advocates (yes...yet again) with their latest atrocious misstep in what has become an alarming trend of complete disregard for the data privacy of their users. AT&T took heat this holiday season when they temporarily stopped offering the popular Apple iPhone on their web site for customers living in the metropolitan New York area - just a few days before Christmas. Electronics mega-retailer Best Buy continued to infuriate their customers last year, many of whom accused Best Buy not only of providing horrible customer service, but also of stealing - including stealing camcorders, stealing computers, stealing gift cards, and even stealing Christmas itself (warning: link contains extreme profanity). And anyone who traveled via the commercial airlines this holiday season probably has some customer-service nightmares (and profanity) of their own to share.
Okay, so this is the point in the blog where I generally try to wrap things up with a witty, yet insightful conclusion and call to action. To that end, let's talk about what we can all do in 2010 to avoid the customer-service failures that we saw in 2009. For starters, we obviously shouldn't steal from our customers. Good start; but clearly not enough. So here are three more principals that will hopefully help avoid any major customer-service faux pas in 2010:
- It's about time. Much is written about the need to respect your customers' time. Obviously customers would prefer that companies be able to solve every issue right away on the first attempt in as little time as possible. However, when a company needs more time to resolve an issue, it is much better to be upfront and set realistic expectations than to lead customers along under false hopes. Similarly, nobody ever wants to lose any customer. Yet the reality is that customers defect, and there's no point in making it overly difficult and time-consuming for customers to cancel their service. Doing so only provides a deterrent to signing new business.
- Pay the price for privacy. In addition to respecting customers' time, we also need to respect customers' privacy concerns. Fooling your users into sharing all of their personal data with your business partners - or indexing all of their data onto the Web by default - might seem like a good way to grow your business quickly; but the fall-out from lost customer trust can have devastating, costly long-term effects.
- Focus on fixing the right things. Often, even when everyone agrees that something is broken, customers and companies sometimes disagree on what needs to be fixed (and in what order the fixes should occur). Taking air travel as an example, although people are in agreement that the existing security processes and procedures failed recently, people have different ideas on how to fix the problems. The airlines apparently favor policies designed to keep passengers in their seats at all times - out of the bathrooms, aisles, and overheard compartments. Yet many customers rightfully point out that prohibiting passengers from using the bathrooms might not be the most effective approach; rather it is probably much more logical to focus on simply keeping known criminals and suspects from buying tickets and boarding planes.
- If we can't be great, let's try to at least be consistent. Few things annoy customers more than inconsistency. If a product or service is available in stores to any customer, it should also be available on web site to all customers, and vice versa. Similarly, customers who come to our web site for self service should be able to get the same solutions and answers as customers who contact our call center. We don't have to be perfect (though it couldn't hurt), but we should at least strive to provide consistent service across all channels and customer contact points.
That's it. Pretty simple, right? If not, what do you think is missing?