Don’t you wanna feel special?

March 16th, 2007 by John Herman, under client communication, competition, customer service. No Comments

Over at UX Magazine there is an article who’s title alone deserves blogging goodness.

You’re special… (I lied).

Not only is it grammatically correct, with the final period outside of the paranthesees and all that fun stuff, it’s completely hilarious. In that “Dear John” sort of way it’s just the best title around.

What’s even better is the actual point of the article. When you begin with wit and end with genius…well…you’ve got yourself a blog entry now, dontcha?

I’ll break it down for you. Perception is reality. Even if what you do is terribly niche specific and you think you have no competition from here to the moon…your customer may perceive you as being one OF a million as opposed to one IN a million.

So, the way UX Magazine defines this is absolutly spot on.

The product and service we offer categorizes us, everything else we do defines us.

Because your competition isn’t just, well, your competition. It’s everyone your client even thinks of as your competition. You can’t fight that so you may as well accept it.

The best you can do is keep your branding strong, your customer service bar none, and above all…be yourself. That will always differentiate you from the corporate stiffs play acting righteous businesslike boredom and know-it-all-ology. Your personality has already brought you this far…why not let it take you even farther?

Need help making your branding consistent or working your personal mojo into your branding without making it a one man show? Succeeding Steps can help. Schedule a consultation with us today, and set yourself apart from the pack you never even saw coming.

Bait and Switch Customer Service Brought to You by Google Apps

March 2nd, 2007 by John Herman, under customer service, tools. 2 Comments

Last week we switched our email back to the all new Google Apps Premier Edition. We tried it before in January but had to stop using the free version because of a disturbing amount of emails that were going into some sort of black hole and never ending up in our email or being sent back to the sender as undeliverable.. The big announcement led me to believe that it was now ready for prime time. So I got out my credit card naively thinking that it would be much better now that I was paying for the service. The promise of a phone number to call for technical support was my siren song.

So Sunday night I flipped the switch. It appeared fine on Monday, till the problems started. All of our clients with AOL mail were getting undeliverables. A couple of us were involved in lengthy email conversations with a large group. As we would receive some of the replys to the group we would discover new messages that we had never received that they were replying to. The final straw was when I emailed to a client some documents for a presentation our entire team was about to give. When I arrived they had not received them, luckily Google Apps is web-based so I was able to download it from my account. (Note: The client finally received the email about 3 hours after we left. Time delays are fun.)

All of these problems were a pain, but I thought maybe I could have setup my MX record incorrectly. Google just made this big announcement and they were going to charge me for the service… why would there be this huge problem! I convinced myself that it must be my fault like a good abused customer.

I assembled the various pin numbers I would need for my upcoming support call to Google. (Can you image the loss in productivity if one of the “free” people made it through to support?)

I was used to waiting for days for a customer service response email from Adwords, a service that is Google’s bread and butter and one that we spend a lot on for our clients, so needless to say I was not expecting a two second hold time. I grabbed something to drink and a fluff magazine to protect my mind from the evil, evil elevator music.

I dialed the support number and begin the menu dance, only the phone menu only had 2 levels. What a surprise. The first task of evil phone support now complete, I took a quick breath as I prepared for the long wait ahead. Within a second a friendly, intelligent, non-outsourced sounding voice was saying hello. What!? Wait a minute? I was taken aback for a moment, but I composed myself and delved into my issue.

When I started to speak the warning signs began, but the superior levels of customer service tricked me and my mind started ignoring those warning signs. First, I told the service rep my problem only to discover that he had not really listened to what I said. I then repeated it and I think he got it that time. Then he mentioned that their support system was down and that he would have to take notes of our conversation and then enter them into the system. It was apparent now that his number one goal was to get me off the phone as fast as possible. The call was suddenly over and I was left spinning in my chair. I had no chance to tell him what the problem was, there was no opportunity for troubleshooting. All I could do was wait for an email.

I received the email confirming our conversation a minute later. Their support system was back up. A little too fast for me to believe that it was really down. No real details from our conversation were included in the ticket and they asked me for email headers so they could look into it further. I replied with a few of the email headers clients had provided to me and clicked send. I sat back in my chair and thought about the Proctor and Gamble and GE quotes included on the Google Apps Customer page. I was using enterprise class software, this has to be just a bump in the road with a new system. They will find the answer quickly and get back to me.

A few hours later, I started to get worried. I had been dealing with these problems for a week and it was frustrating everyone on our team and all of our clients. That is the moment when I started to look through the Google Groups support section for Google Apps. I was shocked and horrified to find many other people having the same issue and they had been dealing with it on a continued basis since Google Apps launched. No answer from Google. I knew I didn’t have a chance in the world.

So last night I switched our email back to the old trusty web host. I will miss using Google Apps. Private labeling software always makes you feel important, but the lost email was just not worth it. Google, why don’t you let me know when you are really ready for me to pay for one of your services. I guess it is back to having my email forwarded to Gmail and not being able to truly use my real email address with the Gmail interface (What can I say, I really do like the interface. Not to mention having all my email on the web lets me save the day by getting files on-site that I emailed clients.)

With this experience I remembered some of the advice I always give to clients, but didn’t actually follow myself:

#1 Always check the knowledge base and support forums before you call customer support.

#2 If multiple people are complaining about an important problem in the forums, you don’t have much of a chance of getting that issue fixed quickly.

Mental Note: Follow my own advice.

You Have to Keep Answering Customer Emails

January 22nd, 2007 by John Herman, under clients, customer service, customers. No Comments

I had an annoying experience with two Hosted Application companies last week. We won’t name names, but this not the first time this sort of thing has happened to me.

I had an issue with two separate products last week. So I emailed their support.

I was shocked a couple hours later when I had received a response from both companies. It was a great response, very personable and helpful. The kind of response that i love to get from Customer Service. It didn’t seem canned. It felt like they had actually read my original email. They even gave me a solution that included actually work on their part and not something I had to do myself.

I was high on the quick and solid response, so I quickly replied back with my choice. The response came so quickly the first time, so my expectations were really high.

One Day passed, then another, and another, and another. It has now been a week from when I emailed back with my second reply. I have no idea what happened. In one case they were going to provide me with some additional information. I ended up having to give up on the addition information because I never received it. I had to move on and not by my choice. In the other case I was suppose to receive a credit for part of my bill and they were going to take care of something and tell me how the problem happened so I could prevent it from happening again. Didn’t hear from them again after my second reply.

Is the expectation on that you need to reply the first time? Why would you give a customer a choice and never get back with them? I have always had a rule that every email needs a response. I expect it. A lot of people expect a response every time. Even just a simple, "We took care of it. Please let us know if you have any additional questions." is fine.

Moral of the story: Don’t just don’t leave your customers hanging. It leaves a bad taste in their mouth and they will remember it. There is no excuse for not returning customer emails and phone calls in a timely manner. Find a system to manage the emails if you have to.

Update: Oddly Enough, one of the companies finally replied a couple hours after this post was published.

Clash Your Sword with a Customer Service Rep and Win

January 17th, 2007 by John Herman, under customer service, operations. No Comments

I spend way to many hours on the phone with Customer Service Reps some months. The Consumerist gives 28 tips for fighting back and winning in a battle against a Customer Service Representative. Here are the Top 11:

1) Use a speaker phone
2) Set aside at least 30 minutes
3) Get a human.
4) Gather your evidence
5) Act like a human
6) Don’t think the world revolves around you
7) Know your enemy
Take notes
9) Don’t be afraid to hang up and try another operator
10) Run out the clock
11) Be firm

Read the full list of 28 tips.

Note to self and other small businesses: If your customers need this list, you are doing something wrong!