Don't be a company that SUCD, or, how to lose a customer in 30 minutes

[Feek]

But Feek, isn't it "SUCS"? Yes, but this experience SUCD - Sudden Unexpected Customer Disservice.

...ok, so in this day and age disservice is usually expected, but "SECD" doesn't sound as good.

Everyone on this forum has had bad customer service and knows how it feels to be blown off by a company when you just want a problem resolved, so I'm not posting this as if it's new information that OMG PEOPLE TOTES NEED TO HEAR MY STORY!

I'm posting this because as a serial business owner, I've personally seen that one of the easiest ways to cultivate repeat customers and word of mouth advertising is through what MJ calls SUCS - Sudden Unexpected Customer Service...such a great term!

I'm posting this because I love to give people examples and lessons (that should be) learned. I'm always beating this drum to anyone that has a vested interest in having and retaining customers, from entrepreneurs on a forum to any team I've ever lead - up to and including software development teams. In fact, I'll be sharing this story with my team this morning during our daily standup.

My Story
Over the weekend, I bought a costume online for one of my sons. He's going to be in a parade the day before Halloween, and he's super excited to be wearing his new popular-like-you-read-about "Skylanders Trap Force Chop-Chop" costume. Ah, to be 9 again.

I was concerned because I was ordering on a Saturday and the parade is on Thursday. While I could order with overnight shipping, I don't know how efficient their warehouse is. As I checked out, I looked for a shipping options area, but I didn't see any. The banner on checkout said "order today and have it by Tuesday," though, so I figured the company would handle it behind the scenes like I've seen some companies do.

Fast forward to Tuesday and the package hasn't arrived, so my ex-wife asks me to check on the tracking. Sure enough, I look and it's shipped ground, set to be here sometime on Friday. In my head I can practically see the tears on my little boy's face and just thinking about it makes my heart break, so I give them a call to see why the site said Tuesday and then they shipped ground.

After explaining the issue, I tell the rep that I want to buy another costume, that I need it overnight, but I don't want to pay shipping because their website screwed up my first order by not giving me shipping options. From the first guy I get essentially "well, the options are there, so I don't know what to tell you."

Send me to your supervisor. Reticence and a "well, okay..." from him didn't make me hopeful for the responsiveness of this company.

I explain to the supervisor the issue and she says "I find it hard to believe that the shipping options weren't there," basically calling me a either liar or an idiot, neither of which I particularly enjoy being called. Having been in retail customer service as a younger man, I can understand the propensity for BELIEVING that, but to actually SAY it to a customer....well let's just say my fear of dealing with an unhelpful company seemed to be realized.

A little more conversation rolls by and I ask her what she was going to be able to do for me. This time I get "I can ask my supervisor, but I already know what he's going to say."

Business Lessons
That second supervisor ended up giving me free overnight shipping and even rushed the order through the warehouse for me. As a customer, does that matter? In a certain sense it does because my son will be happy to be able to show off his awesome costume that his cool dad (I can dream!) got for him, but I can tell you I'm not going to be ordering from them again.

What if I have a problem in the future? Am I going to have to fight with two disinterested levels of customer service to finally get it fixed?

That second supervisor did right by their customer, because why lose repeat money over $25? Unfortunately, he's not driving those values down to the front line people. There are many books on how to do this, a couple I've read just the past few weeks even give step-by-step instructions, so there's no real reason why he's leading his people the way he does.

There's always the possibility that I was trying to scam them. Could I have been a scammer? Maybe, but if you drive away 10 customers in order to stop 1 scammer, is it worth it?

Let's not focus only on the lost revenue from me by ignoring the opportunity cost as well. I'm never going to recommend that site to anyone, and if someone tells me they're going to buy from them you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to tell them my story.

Having 3 kids under 10, if I had a wonderful experience this company would have easily had a repeat customer (times 3!) for the next 4 or 5 years. That's a good $1500 just to save $25. The math doesn't work out very well.

Before you say "well, Feek, $1500 isn't very much, who do you think you are, Warren Buffet?", let me agree with you and then give you the other perspective; if customer service treated me like that, how many other customers have they treated like that? If they put off only 100 customers like me, that's $150,000 in lost revenue. It adds up quick.

This illustrates why in anything I run where I'm providing a product or service, one of my very top concerns is customer service. To me, "customer service" is a gold-standard phrase that I strive every day to achieve the best I can. Ignore it at your own peril.

 

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[Writer]

To me customer service is what differentiates a company to another. This is why I stuck with T-Mobile, and I got rid of AT&T as soon as I could.

Two examples.

- Yesterday night I ended up at a BJ’s with my family. We ordered two kids pizzas and a nice medium pizza for me and my wife. After a while the waitress informs us that the kids pizzas were not good enough so they were making new pizzas for them, but we had to wait ten more minutes. After a few more minutes the manager came at our table, and apologized profusely. He kept checking on us, asking if we needed anything etc. We didn’t complain, managing a restaurant is hard and error happens and since we were not in a hurry there was no reason to freak out. When the pizzas were ready, the manager served them to us. And, of course, he removed the pizzas from the check… and he also removed the drinks. So we ended up paying $10 or so for three pizzas and drinks. I left a written the manager a message thanking him for his concern and for his good customer service.

- Last Sunday we were in a neighboring city and we ended up… well, at a very good Italian restaurant eating… pizza. First of all, they opened the restaurant earlier, just for us. Then, the waiter gave us free drinks. Then they told the kids that they could see the pizza maker making the pizza (in that place it’s handmade). After a while my kids show up with two pieces of dough, apparently they told ‘em to make pizza to be put in the oven, which they promptly did. My kids loved it, and ate not only the pizza we ordered, but their own pizzas! Of course, we didn’t pay for the two pizzas. Again, I left a message of appreciation. Be aware that the restaurant is located in a very rich city; it’s common to see McLaren’s or Lamborghinis.

Bottom line: two different styles of service were great, and we will certainly go back.

Bottom bottom line: it seems I can’t pay for pizzas.

 

[Mattie]

All I can say is I had a good laugh when we ordered some clothes from a company in china and their XL is XS. Of course, we lost money, and was to much money to ship back. Important lesson learned don't order clothes from China because they don't size their products right, don't tell you about extra shipping costs when the item is delivered.

 

[Feek]

Bottom bottom line: it seems I can’t pay for pizzas.

Lol, how terrible! You know what they say: "In every life, a little rain must fall".

I just recently read a very good book that both those managers would probably read through while nodding their heads in agreement: "Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney"

All I can say is that of the techniques I didn't already employ in my own leadership, the few that I've been trying out are really starting to produce a return from my team, both in customer service and engagement. It's been going so well, in fact, that I'm starting to research into the Disney Institute, if not to use in my current job, at the very least to use in the company I'm building.

 

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[Writer]

Lol, how terrible! You know what they say: "In every life, a little rain must fall".

I just recently read a very good book that both those managers would probably read through while nodding their heads in agreement: "Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney"

All I can say is that of the techniques I didn't already employ in my own leadership, the few that I've been trying out are really starting to produce a return from my team, both in customer service and engagement. It's been going so well, in fact, that I'm starting to research into the Disney Institute, if not to use in my current job, at the very least to use in the company I'm building.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out ASAP. You should also read "How to be like Walt", which is a much better book than I thought, with many invaluable lessons. It's a bit apologetic in some parts, but hey, Mr. Disney well deserves it.

 

[Feek]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out ASAP. You should also read "How to be like Walt", which is a much better book than I thought, with many invaluable lessons. It's a bit apologetic in some parts, but hey, Mr. Disney well deserves it.

Thank you, that's going in my Kindle queue. Actually, a lot of the lessons taught in "Creating Magic" come directly from lessons that Mr. Disney himself taught, so that book may dovetail nicely with "How to be like Walt."

 

[chipmx]

ok, here is my story

Today my family and me went to breakfeast to a restaurant, the recepcionist was awesone, he escort to our table, he joke with my 3 year old daughter, etc I think wow I need to tip the waiter and the recepcionist as well when I left the restaurant for such a good service... Wrong!!

despite the good reception, our waitress came to our table 15 min after we arrived and only because we call her, then I saw how other couple of family arrives to the restaurant in tables near of us, their waitress immediately took their order , they take orange juice in just 5 min, we wait about 20 min for our jar juice... and guess what, we got the glasses without straw, so we called again the waitress,,, in this restaurant the waitress just serves the table with some bread for you can wait to the main dish, guess what our bread basket arrives just 2 min before our breakfast so its unuseful, then remember the jar juice it was hot and the glasses without ice, then our meal arrive nothing special just for the detail that my meal supposedly has cream on it, but it hasnt..... so I was kind of angry but hell I said its sunday the restaurant its full, its a normal behavior I think, the worst was in the bill.. they charge us with 2 higher price shakes (adult price instead of kids price) so we went to the cashier and complaint, they just adjust the price..

well, the point is that I will never return to that restaurant, because of the sad customer service, and because that restaurant its near one of my bussiness I told my wife early in the morning, "lets try this, so we can came back every sunday because its near to our store", they lose a possible long life customer for ever.

 

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[Mr.B]

All I can say is I had a good laugh when we ordered some clothes from a company in china and their XL is XS. Of course, we lost money, and was to much money to ship back. Important lesson learned don't order clothes from China because they don't size their products right, don't tell you about extra shipping costs when the item is delivered.

It's not that they don't size their products right @Mattie - it's that we don't size our people right!

@Feek I've had similar things happen on numerous occasions and once manage to turn the experience into a consulting gig after I gave that second level supervisor some of my thoughts on how they could improve their customer service!

If you keep escalating up the chain of command, it quickly leads to a resolution (or you being 'accidently' disconnected during the transfer). No CEO wants to be bothered by a complaint that could have been resolved at the first point of contact, yet many don't actually give their minions the authority to make these kind of decisions.

Please, if any of you have a customer service team as part of your business, give them the authority to make these kind of decisions and you'll have happier customers and happier employees as a result.

 

[tafy]

4HWW actually deals a lot with the front line staff and how to give them power to deal with complaints.

I think his version was no rules at the start, then when a few problems start to crop up he made a rule for the staff to follow (I hope someone can explain better than me)

So lets say someone complains about the coffee, first instances they would ask the manager what to do. Manager would say if someone complains about the coffee then you apologise, take it off the bill and check the coffee. Then it becomes a rule that the manager doesnt get bothered with the same thing again.

About the shipping problem it does sound like it shouldnt have happened in the first place, its important for websites to convey accurate information and not to set themselves up for dissapointment, hotel websites have to be very careful with customer expectations and not to market themselves too much or you get a customer who expects more than you are offering when they show up and its not great and leads to bad reviews.

In my hotel we get great reviews, we dont set customer expectations too high and the price is reasonable (hence the good reviews as they got more than what they expected) but occasionaly the customer just reads the reviews only and sees 9s and 10s and thinks we are a boutique high end blah blah and they are not happy when they arrive and leave a bad review ofcourse. Cant please everyone right guys.

 

[RazorCut]

HOW NOT TO DO IT

I was at a trade show the other week at the NEC in Birmingham. As always there are limited options for lunch so we went to a restaurant and I ordered the 'Gourmet Burger'. This was the best part of £10 which is about $16 US.

This is what turned up:

The 'onion' was smaller than my fingernail. The burger cooked to death and it had 16 fries. After the experience I wrote to the company. Some time later they wrote back apologising for the delay and saying they would do an internal investigation. Weeks later I get an email from the restaurant in question. They blamed a 'limited menu' and said next time I'm in the area (a 160 mile and 3 hour round trip) call in and I can have a free meal.

Don't think I'll bother.

 

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[Feek]

Weeks later I get an email from the restaurant in question. They blamed a 'limited menu' and said next time I'm in the area (a 160 mile and 3 hour round trip) call in and I can have a free meal.

Don't think I'll bother.

Let's count the ways this was terribly handled, shall we?

1. Take forever to get back to you the first time
2. Take forever to get back to you the SECOND time
3. Made you wait while they performed an "internal investigation" (all customers think this phrase is nothing but BS) about their bad food
4. Don't take any actual responsibility
5. Something something "limited menu" bullshit bullshit.
6. Offer you more of the product you're complaining about
7. Giving you a gift card you can't/won't use

The result: "Don't think I'll bother"

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Spending money (or, generically, using resources) is an emotional event for most people. If you make someone happy, they'll literally go out of their way to shove their money into your face.