Customer Service - the tale of two phone companies

Last week I received two phone bills. One from Vodafone as expected and one from Optus not expected. The way the companies handled the matter is an example of how to win a customer loyalty and how not to.

I had reason to call both companies. 

In the case of Vodafone I had a small query on a 90cent charge. The women like me was puzzled about how the charge occured but with some work she identified what she thought the problem was. She then tested this theory by replicating the action. She then waited 24 hours to check billing and sure enough there was the charge. She contacted me again and confirmed the reason for the charge and credited the charge from the message before. 

All I can say it was fantastic customer service and while the amount was small in portion to my total account it showed a company willing to investigate even the smallest error.

In contrast I called Optus and had three very unpleasant phone conversations which resulted in a formal complaint.  Basically this experience was a reminder of my experience back in January 2008 resulting in moving the service in October 2008.

After speaking with two different people the end result was a formal complaint as they refused to investigate the issue but kept insisting I hadn't been disconnected when in fact the service had been disconnected in late October 2008. However what was interesting was that the service had sometime between late November and now been reconnected without my knowledge. Optus didn't seem to care or wish to investigate this issue.

The end result was the filing of a formal complaint to Optus. As previously no response to the email was received I called them the next day to confirm receipt but was told that this wasn't on file yet and to check in another day. On discussing with the person managing the call it became clear that the earlier discussions were not documented correctly but rather were documented with what Optus wanted to believe happened. 

I also asked why instead of transferring me to another department they couldn't send an email to the other department and call me back. I was told that this wasn't possible - the department couldn't call out. This seems to be a common practice of phone companies and other large companies to assume that their time is more valuable than the customers and so refuse to call to their customers but insist you be placed on hold.

End result: Bad customer experience  - sufficient to say Optus should be avoided in Australia. If you are looking for a cheaper option Engin Naked ADSL provides a great value service.

Lessons for a business from this:

a) Listen to the customer. Sometimes the customer may rant but that is okay. You don't need to listen to abuse but do allow the customer to express their feelings and emotions if necessary - remember you have come in at the end of the process.

b) Check what the issue is. It may not be what you think it is.

c) Agree with the customer what the issue is - say something like so you are concerned about xyz. Is that correct?

d) If things get heated not call the customer "uncooperative". Take a deep breath and ask what do you want to do about this?

e) Once agreement on the issue is identified then start looking for a solution - in some cases if you don't have an immediate solution the best option is to offer to investigate and call back later.

e) Agree timeframes  and means to follow up - does the customer have email - get their details and email them what was discussed so they have a copy.

g) Action and followup.

When things go wrong!

At 7:15am the phone rang and a message was left from Jucy rentals.

I missed the call by seconds and checked the voicemail to find a booking we had made for a client had been cancelled and so there was no car ready for them so you can imagine my first reaction on realising in the peak season a clients holiday might be ruined.

The good news is it wasn't and highlights how things can be fixed.

So what happened next highlights how a potential holiday disaster can be turned around when good customer service kicks in.

Jucy found a vehicle at their airport depot and put our clients into a taxi (they got the taxi to agree to a $30 rate instead of $70) and so they got away quickly.

From our end I contacted the guys at Baystay B&B to give them a welcome drink of wine or other treat.

We also credited them for a wine tour to apologise for the inconvenience

In the end the clients got the rental car with some inconvenience and got away on their holiday.

Thanks Jucy Rental for having such great customer service.

The last bit which will happen over the next week is we will trace back through the system to see what went wrong with the booking and put in place systems to stop this happening again.

As always when things go wrong it pays to sort out the customer first then work out what went wrong afterwards to avoid the situation repeating again.

Travel review sites

When you mention to travel businesses, sites such as Trip Advisor, most small businesses haven't give too much thought about the review site - or if they have they have a negative perception.

One of the best things that any travel business can do is encourage feedback.

However if you intend to do nothing with the feedback then don't bother.

The reasons to seek feedback are:

• Find out what things are working well
• What things are not working well
• Identify possible new services you could provide
• Give you a good basis to assess how your are meeting your business expectations for service and quality.

What to do with feedback:

• Collate it into a database
• Look for the good points and bad points
• If you have contact details for the feedback thank the guest for the feedback.
• If the guest provides negative feedback acknowledge this, thank them for the information and that you intend to fix the issue. 
• If you promise to fix the issue make sure you do!

Should you encourage feedback on online forums:

YES

Simply put you want to encourage feedback on the various online forums as the more feedback the better. Ideally you want to encourage guests to comment to you directly on any negative issues and to put their general feedback on line. If you do get negative criticism on a website, review the comments and if you are able feel free to add a comment. Just don't be defensive, rather be open and if there is a real issue acknowledge and state what you are doing to fix it.

If you want assistance on managing review sites why not contact us as we can assist you with a full audit of your web presence and give you some simple tools on how to manage your wider web presence.

How to annoy a potential customer

Just over two years ago I opened an account with Regfly.com to enable a transfer of a domain name to our business.

Once the transfer was completed I moved the domain name to our registry.

After this transfer I received no further emails from Regfly.com then this last two months I received two emails from them saying how they appreciated my business.

Thinking I might have left a domain on their service by mistake I checked but found none. I thought I should close the account so that I didn't get any further emails.

However this proved impossible and I was told by their tech support that this couldn't be done.

So what lessons does this hold for how you treat your customers:

• If you haven't had contact with customers (or previous customers) on your database don't assume they will want to hear from you.
• Ensure you provide a means to opt out of your system and if they ask to be removed from your system simply do it. 
• In every email communication offer a simple means to be removed from your system. It should be a one click system ideally
• The longer the gap in communication the more likely the person won't remember dealing with you.
• Of course this rule applies not only to emails but phone, fax and postal communications.

Have you any experiences like this to share? Feel free to comment below.

Google Webmaster Tools

If you have a website or a blog then you should sign up for Google Webmaster tools.

This service is provided free of charge by google and will show you how details about your website, google indexing of it, keywords been used to find your website on google and more - it also shows a lot more information and can help you tidy up descriptions and titles.

Google also runs a blog - Google Webmaster Central Blog - this gives you information on new products.

Of course if you don't have time that is when you can employ an SEO expert to do this for you.

Ideally if you do employ an SEO company for you they will set google webmaster tools and analytics for you plust much more.

Don't Panic - SNAFU - Emails

The words "Don't Panic" are printed in large friendly letters on the cover of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

From Wikipedia:

Arthur C. Clarke said Douglas Adams' use of "don't panic" was perhaps the best advice that could be given to humanity.

So what does this have to do with SNAFU - "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up" and what does this have to do with Emails.

Emails are a great bit tool but sometimes they can cause a lot of communication problems and result in a SNAFU.

When tensions increase in the email STOP sending emails. Ideally give the person a call or if you are in the same office go and talk to them face to face!

Some recent examples of emails which have caused problems:

Example one: SNAFU = Loss of business referral.

A request for a small credit. 

The response was that the amount was so small that they wouldn't credit. The writer then went on to explain in great detail why the charge should stand. This resulted in a further exchange of emails between ourselves and the other company. In the end we stopped emailing them as it was clear they missed the concerns we had and the amount of time wasted on the emails over 10+ was not worth our effort.

End result - we removed our weblinks and recommendations for this company.

How we could have achieved a better outcome - phone them and discuss the issue when it became clear they had misunderstood our concerns. How they could have handled it better. Not insulted us with our request is a waste of time response as their first comment then spent the rest of the time actively defensively.

Example two: Almost a SNAFU

A tourist requested a booking which was confirmed. They then emailed about other dates. We confirmed all options and then after the dates were finalised confirmed back to them what was booked. 

End result  - SNAFU avoided as potentially with so many dates the customer could have ended up thinking we had booked different dates.

However we could have done it better. We should have called the client earlier to confirm what they actually wanted and what options they were looking for - i.e. if we had been a bit more proactive we could have gathered all the information in one phone call rather than 10+ emails.

Google Chrome - check your website stats

While you may be happy using Internet Explorer the launch of Google Chrome is a good time as any to check out how your website looks with a different browser.

You can be sure now that with the growth of Firefox and now the launch of Google Chrome that more and more visitors to your website will be using something other than Internet Explorer.

It is important to check as sometimes different browsers will result in code displaying differently. For example on Rainbow Tourism there is a minor difference on how Internet Explorer displays our site versus Google Chrome and even a difference between Firefox 2.0 and Firefox 3.0

You can always find out how your visitors check your web statistic reports. Our own statistics show that 68% of our visitors currently use internet explorer, 22% firefox, 8% safari, 1% opera and we have  other browsers listed.

I suspect in a month or two that google chrome will have gained a small share at the expense of both firefox and internet explorer but it will also mean people will be more willing to switch browsers.

So why do I need to have more browsers on my desktop - the key reason is to check that your website functions as you expect it to - if it isn't get your webdesigner to fix and make your website code friendly to all browsers.