Let's Change Customer Service This Year!

Well, I made up my mind to put some efforts in changing today’s bad customer service and will exchange all personal bad experience with my readers this year (anyway hoping not to have many).  We all are experiencing unsatisfactory customer service interactions here and there, but in most cases we keep our emotions to ourselves, thinking that nobody cares, or that it’s pointless to complain. In this way we let it slide without any punishment, make a mental note to avoid the company in the future, and that’s it.

My previous article was about airlines’ bad service, and today’s experience is related to hotels. Both services are very popular nowadays for many people who travel for both pleasure and business.

Recently I had an unpleasant customer service experience with a well-known hotel chain Citadines, a member of The Ascott - a Singapore company known as the world's largest international serviced residence owner-operator, functioning in 95 cities across 27 countries.
Citadines is one of its three award-winning brands which we liked during our vacation spent in Lyon last summer. As all loyal customers, we decided to spend our winter vacation in the same brand, but this time in Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s our neighboring country and it is usually a four-hour ride from Yerevan where I live.

So, without even imagining that we’ll have any force majeure, we booked a non-refundable family room for four people. When we heard the weather forecast with heavy snowstorms for the next few days, we sent an email to announce about the weather “surprise” we had, asking to cancel our reservation. Well, we “may” have reached Tbilisi in fourteen hours instead of four, but when you travel with kids, you try not to disturb them so much.

Soon we received a reply from the hotel representative asking for our phone number to speak to us. We called the hotel, and the lady told that when their management is back, they hope to refund our money back. Afterwards we received another email, saying that they cannot refund, instead next time when we book the hotel, they will make some discounts. 

I couldn’t imagine, that the “reputation” of a worldwide operator could cost 550$. Is this a huge amount for a hotel chain? Was it worth spreading the world about hotel bad experience? I am complaining not about Tbilisi, but the whole chain policies and normal human interactions.

My next step was tweeting to the company, and imagine, they have a “good” social care - the respond came the next day with the usual regretting tone for the bad experience we had, asking for the details of our reservation… Anyway they haven’t refunded. Later on we received an email, saying that they will try to make 50% discount on our next arrival. And what would you do in our place? Would you book the same hotel any more after all this?

They really had an opportunity to turn our negative experience into a positive one, an opportunity to make us remain loyal and not walk away. But reality is that they earned 550$ instead of maybe thousands of dollars, and which is more important – they could escape negative word-of-mouth. 

This is today’s reality and I am sure many people all over the world experienced such incidents. But time changes and we should express our opinion, tell about our poor experience in hope that one day we’ll really have a better service with better human interactions. We should build our future! Build it today!

Recognizing Airlines Poor Customer Service

If the customer service is the new marketing, this means many airlines lack marketing at all. I thought that I’m the only complainer in my surrounding, but after reflecting my “mood” on social channels, I did understand that it’s a global problem and should be solved somehow.

I’ve been traveling much recently, and I already know that US domestic flights almost never depart on time, accordingly arrivals are also late. You may be lucky a few times, but it’s just a chance.

Another thing is when you arrive in the airport and they say that the landed plane is too small and some of the passengers cannot get on board. “We are sorry, but you can take another flight tomorrow only”. But do I have that tomorrow at my disposal? And why should I stay one more day away from family? Yes, this happened to me while travelling from Bozeman, Montana to LA. And that was United Airlines. But United is not an exceptional example of a bad service.

When you have multiple flights with a company, you can use your bonus miles, right? And this is the only reason I’ve been travelling with Aeroflot for many times. It really used to be a good company, but what happened to it?  

Once I had to wait three hours on board in New York airport, we even had lunch during this period - I never had any meal on board before the flight in my life...

Then this happened again, but with a two-hour delay. But today I started thinking that the world doesn’t like “Russian airline”, maybe it’s politics? My London flight was also delayed…

But the delays are not the only reason for my “unmoody”post. Last time one steward made me very angry. Personal behavior is worse than company’s one, and the steward’s bad service was a slap for me. In case of flight delays many reasons can be found, sometimes even reasonable ones, but the crew selection factor is within an airline’s control, within their customer service obligations.

Imagine sitting in the plane for two hours waiting for the flight. You cannot sit any more, especially thinking that after departure you’ll have to sit nine more hours to get to your destination. I stood a while, and then walked in the direction of the 1^st class. It was 70 percent empty. A steward was approaching from the economy class… “I’m sorry, can I change my place from the economy class?” was my question to him. He replied in a very rude way “NO” and left. 

I started thinking how impolite he was, he could have explained me that he had no right to do so, as my ticket was a cheap one, etc. Although I heard thousand times, that passengers give some 50-100 dollars to crew members and they change their seats without any difficulty. Money works everywhere…

Well, I went to my seat. Three hours later I could think about nothing, but standing. I decided to walk to the lavatory to stand a bit. A man was sleeping with his feet stretched in the front row. He was alone in that row, two vacant seats next to him. I sat to stretch my feet for a while, when I noticed the same “Sergey” passing by. He looked strangely at me and came back, asking if that was my seat. I explained that I sit next to the window in the same economy class, next to a fat lady and decided to have some rest here…

“You should return to your place, and the sooner, the better”, was his reply. But why? In this case I was in the same class, I wasn’t disturbing anyone, and I used to change my seat lots of times with different companies and never had such a bad experience with the crew.

I was more than insulted. Now when customer service is a priority in every field, for any biz, when we do speak about exceptional customer service in all the parts of the world, why do you keep such rude and unfriendly employees, Aeroflot? Why do you put the company reputation in the hands of such individuals? Why should a steward change the face of the whole company? Why Aeroflot, why…

Customer Success Story - Best Reward for Any Company!

What can be better for a company than customer success stories?

 

The reason I decided to write this post is the story I’ve recently read in Facebook - a touching story, which made my friend's day...

One of my friends was telling about his birthday best present. You cannot even imagine - it was a letter from Lufthansa, a German airline, the largest one in Europe. It said: “The captain of the plane wants to speak to you”. After a while a call from that same captain... What a surprise! He called my friend to congratulate his birthday. Unbelievable! It really made my friend happy. I guess it’s a feeling of being important – who doesn’t need to feel special?

A minute call and the whole world will learn about it. Why can’t we make people happy and at the same time spread some good will?

Another story I read once is about a sick woman, who had recently had medical treatment that made her feet numb. Her daughter ordered six pairs of shoes from Zappos, in hope that at least one would work. Unfortunately none fit her and they had to return all the shoes back, explaining the reason. In two days they received a large bouquet of flowers from the company, wishing her health, along with an upgrade to “Zappos VIP Member". So impressive!

Every company says that their customers are #1 priority, they do every possible thing to delight them, but do they all receive success stories from their happy customers? Do they all “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”?  I’m sure not.

Providing an excellent customer service is a must. It’s the most important point in every business which will make you stand out from the rest of your “one-click-away” competition.

Make customers feel important and appreciated as my friend felt on his special day. Treat them as individuals, value sincerity and try to give more than expected. Create a culture of customer service, the best, unforgettable one; help your customers help you!

All You Need to Know about Customer Loyalty

Customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer relationship - expressions that became very popular and valuable in every sphere. Are they really so important?

Only great professionals can create long lasting customer loyalty. It seems to be so easy to use the right behavior, but in reality it’s not so. Creating mutual relationship with the customer is the most difficult thing, as it’s not a one-click-action, but an ongoing process.

In fact, to become a loyal customer, you should have the “desired” product. And when you become loyal, you adore not only the product you have, but the whole brand with the whole variety of its products.

“Marketing Metrics found out that the probability of selling something to new prospects is only about 5-20%, whilst the probability of selling something to an existing customer is 60-70%” reports Nextupasia.

The problem of most companies is that as a result of a poor customer service they cannot keep existing customers. Studies across a number of industries show that it costs about 5 time as much to attract a new customer than to keep the existing one. The value of each lost customer is $243.

Loyal = satisfied customers come back over and over again and they are likely to refer the product to others. The most trustworthy recommendations are made by friends or relatives.

“90% of online consumers worldwide trust recommendations from people they know” says Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey.

Loyal Customers are said to represent about 20% of our customer base, but make up more than 50% of our sales. The more you do for them, the more they are likely to recommend you to their acquaintances. They provide honest and valuable feedback, which can help any product to make future improvements.

Most Apple buyers are extremely loyal to Apple and always speak negative about competing products. They love everything Apple does, starting from design to all its solutions. They become a part of the “Apple World” and as a rule they use several Apple products.

Increase Customer Loyalty

Needless to say, to increase customer loyalty any company should focus on improvements – a process that never stops. Know and appreciate your every customer, promise only what you really can provide, try to understand their needs and finally make them happy. This is all you need to make them loyal to your business and never forget: “Actions speak louder than words!”

Ultimate Customer Service Starts with YOU

Nowadays it is becoming increasingly complicated for entrepreneurs to find people well suited for customer service roles. Experience is not the only essential component. In most cases the customer cannot see the rep he is talking to, so a smile and positive attitude must reflect in spoken or written words. Not an easy task,especially when you recognize the importance of every single customer.

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” Mahatma Gandhi

The more you interact with your customers, the easier it will be to define areas for growth and future improvements. As long as customers are actively engaged, your service team has the opportunity to ensure long-term loyalty; if they leave dissatisfied, chances are they have now already become some other company’s customer. Only about 4% of dissatisfied customers complain.  96% just go away.  (Harris Interactive, 2011 Customer Experience Improvement study). So why let it happen?

To clarify the most significant aspects of delivering customer service satisfaction, I’ve listed below some “must have” skills and strategies along with relevant quotes, which can help you form your company’s success story.

Be reachable, if you want to succeed in your business!

One of the most common mistakes begins from the homepage of a company’s website. You search for a way to contact someone for help, but cannot find it. Sometimes even after a long search throughout the whole website you find only a “Contact Us” form which can take a long time to answer. As a customer, I have dealt with this frustrating experience many times. In such cases, I often think that perhaps the company doesn’t want people to reach them, as they are afraid to fail in giving a proper answer.

Be polite and make your customer feel at home
“Politeness is the art of choosing among one’s real thoughts” - Abel Stevens

After reaching the customer service team, a customer should feel at ease. A quiet, friendly tone has never made anyone upset. Your reps should give full attention to the person they are speaking with, be polite and make them feel as if his problem is their own problem. And then they should do their best to solve the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Be patient and understanding
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” –  St Augustine

It’s natural that in dealing with people of different characters, situations will arise that can push the limits of one’s patience. Communicating over the phone or through chat can introduce many challenges. Some customers may not even know what exactly they want or need. Train your team to keep calm and try to understand every single word; listen and give a simple answer to every question in a friendly tone.

Be happy and make your customer happy 
Happy staff = Happy Customers = Happy Business!

Be accurate, complete and reliable, and you’ll make the customer happy. People are happy when treated positively. Besides answering the customer’s questions, your customer care team can introduce other products or features, making sure to communicate the value to the customer and a commitment to ensuring all of their needs are met.

Be an expert on your product!  
Make sure the customer is confident that you know the product inside and out!

If your reps don’t know your product well, the risk of miscommunicating or failing to solve the customer’s problem is huge. Ensure your customer service team is well-trained, with a deep knowledge of the product and the company so they are ready for any question.

Be confident and never say “no” 
“With confidence you have won before you have started” – Marcus Garvey

Encourage your customer service team to pronounce every word with confidence even in cases where they are unsure and need to get additional help. They should always avoid using the word “no” – it’s not a word any customer would like to hear.

Be the face of your company 
“First impression is the best impression!”

People form an impression of your company based on a single call or chat with someone representing the company. Your customer service team is often the face of your company, so train them to represent you well.

As John Freshney said: “There’s nothing clever or complicated about delivering excellent customer service, but there is something magical about achieving it!”

It’s important that companies commit to doing their best to make customer service a pleasant and effective channel!