I’ve used Eurocard (the European equivalent of MasterCard) for about 20 years. That's why we also chose Eurocard for the FatDUX corporate cards. My particular card was set to expire sometime in 2010. So I was surprised when I got a new card in the mail with a nice cover letter already in April 2009:
“Here’s your new Eurocard Corporate Gold”
“New card, new name, same code…”
The letter went on to tell me that now that they had added the word “Corporate” that it would be easier for me to distinguish this particular card from the others in my wallet – not really a problem as far as I was concerned. Buried among the other services that were promoted (none of which were new), the letter discreetly suggested that I contact any companies that had my card number on file and let them know that it had changed.
Yikes. I could barely remember all of the places this particular card is registered. Why couldn’t they simply let the card expire normally? Was there a security issue? I could understand that. Or an improvement to the built-in chip? Who knows?
Bother disguised as improvement
I asked the company. After all, there was basically no advantage, just a lot of bother to me.
Janni Hansen of Eurocard Customer Service wrote back to tell me: “We had to make new cardnumbers on all Eurocard Gold Corporate cards, because of ‘Corporate’ had to be on the front of the card.”
No word as to
why “Corporate” had to be on the front of the card. Or
why the company had to issue new card numbers, etc. You'd think that if they could retain the PIN, they could also retain the card number.
And then the fun started…
Having missed the really fine print that explained the old card was soon to be cancelled, I unexpectedly found myself barred from the Copenhagen Airport Business Lounge.
Our electronic pass that automatically paid the toll-bridge to Sweden no longer worked.
Basecamp wrote a nasty letter:
“This is your first failed credit card transaction. You have 6 more days to update your credit card information before your account is frozen.”
I’ve since talked to a dozen different business entities. And I keep finding new places where our card number no longer works – from Amazon to Avis. Honestly, Eurocard, I’m so irritated this may well mark the end of a long and profitable relationship for you guys.
As I generally say when people disguise inconvenience as better service, “Don’t pee on my boots and tell me it’s raining.”
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After my talk on e-service, many folks have asked me to recommend books written by those "middle-aged guys in white shirts." Well here they are.
E-service: 24 ways to keep your customers - when the competition is just a click away
Ron Zemke, Tom Connellan
(Amacom, 2000)
Zemke has written 27 books on service management since the mid-80s, so it was only a question of time before he got around to the web. Apparently, he has conducted extensive usability testing in which he examined e-mail response time, shipping time, quality of product packaging, on-line help by actually having professional testers order products from Amazon and other on-line companies. Good stuff on hockey-stick satisfaction. Interesting reading for 35 year old managers who were too young to experience the service revolution in the 80s.
E-service: eat or be eaten – speed, technology & price build around service
John Tschohl
(Bestsellers, 2001)
Another of the off-line gurus makes his mark. For the most part, Tschohl applies typical off-line techniques to improving help desks and other semi-on-line activities. Not a bad book, but not as great as it could be. I really got the impression that he simply doesn’t understand either the UX or usability communities.
WAYMISH: why are you making it so hard for me to give you my money?
Ray Considine and Ted Cohn
(Waymish Publishing Co. (Pasadena, CA), 1996)
Considine was one of the great pundits of the service world and a personal friend. Alas, he died on Thanksgiving Day back in 2006. In WAYMISH, he describes a litany of service-related crimes caused by uninformed, inflexible, or just plain stupid service providers. A must read for all middle managers, and very useful for the UX crowd, too. I think a newer edition is available.
Customers.com: how to create a profitable business strategy for the internet and beyond
Patricia B. Seybold, with Ronni T. Marshak
(Times Business, 1998)
This high-powered CEO of the Patricia Seybold Group was one of the early proponents of business-process integration and has consulted extensively for Fortune 500 companies. Her observations are sharp, her sources are impeccable. Don't let the 1998 publication date put you off - rarely have the ground rules for e-commerce been explained so clearly. There is also some food for thought from a UX/customer service perspective, although this isn’t the main thrust of the book.
Service America: doing business in the new economy
Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke
(Dow Jones Irwin, 1985)
This was about the first “new economy” not the digital revolution. I mention the book here because there’s some good SAS / British Airways stuff, plus Don Porter’s stats on customer surveys at Heathrow. Time Manager International and Scandinavian Service Management are also mentioned.
Dazzle Me! – how to deliver uncommonly good customer service every time
Editors at Dartnell
(Dartnell, 1997)
A little too much hype for my taste, but a typical book for the off-line crowd. Actually, if you can get beyond the noise, there is a lot of good advice. However, it will be up to you, the UX professionals to apply this knowledge in a meaningful manner when designing on-line ventures.
Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit
Michael Johnson, Anders Gustafsson
(Jossey-Bass, 2000)
Very solid old-school style textbook from the University of Michigan Business School. Good stuff on customer satisfaction surveys and defining usable metrics.
Talk to the hand: the utter bloody rudeness of the world today, or six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door
Lynne Truss
(Gotham, 2005)
Not exactly a service book, but brilliant nonetheless. Ms. Truss knows exactly what ticks people off – and that’s exactly the kind of stuff we want to avoid when designing an on-line experience.
Why we buy: the science of shopping
Paco Underhill
(Simon & Schuster, 1999)
The most authoritative book on shopping ever written. I’ve learned bunches from Paco.
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I bought an interesting book in the United States a few weeks ago. It turns out, it is the second volume of a trilogy – but the first volume is now out of print. So, I turned to Alibris, the well-known online used bookseller for help.
Since I live in Denmark, I naturally chose the UK site rather than the US version. And I found a bookseller, John B. Driscoll, Ltd, who had the book at a reasonable price.
On April 14, I placed my order.
And waited.
On April 23, I received an e-mail that my order had been shipped “today.” Except that according to the actual order, my book had been shipped two days earlier on April 21.
Upon closer investigation, it seems John B. Driscoll, Ltd. is located in Helena, Montana.
My book is expected to arrive on May 9.
So, here are my questions:
First, why did an American vendor get priority exposure on a UK site? Why even bother with a UK site if it isn’t selective?
Second, why did it take a full seven days to wrap a book and put it in the mail? It seems booksellers in Helena, Montana are busier than I would have thought.
Third, why did it take a full two days for Alibris to send an e-mail telling me the book was in the mail?
Quite frankly, I am seriously underwhelmed. I know that when I deal with companies online, I generally get a better selection than I would find at a bricks-and-mortar shop. And the tradeoff is that I accept having to wait for an order to arrive – no instant gratification here. But I do expect online service providers to make a modest attempt to keep my waiting time to a minimum.
- "We shipped your order today" wrote Alibris - a full two days later on April 23. This gives a whole new meaning to the concept of "today".
Equal time to Alibris
Before publishing this post, I did pose exactly these questions to Customer Service at Alibris.
After the usual problems of finding a useful contact e-mail, which was buried somewhere in the FAQ, I did receive a prompt and somewhat helpful answer from Tim Garvey, Alibris Client Services. Here is his explanation:
"If you're ordering on our UK website to ship to an European address, shipping costs will be less than the US website."
OK. A thoroughly reasonable explanation. However, cognitively, this makes little sense to me as I don't understand Alibris' distribution routines. I would think that the company would always try to achieve the lowest shipping costs no matter which site I use.
Tim continues:
"The delay in shipping you saw was the seller sending their book to our distribution center for consolidation before it was shipped to you."
Again, I have no knowledge of distribution centers or other logistical elements within the Alibris organization. So, if Mr. Driscoll can't get his act together and send the book promptly, well, here's a customer-service aspect that is begging for improvement.
Tim concludes:
"I can't speak to the exact reason for the delay in shipment notification, but I'll be sure to look into that for you and make sure it doesn't happen again!"
Good, clean answer. But my advice would be that all three of the problems need to be addressed in some way.
Fix things BOTH ways
As is the case in every complaint situation, fix things BOTH ways. In other words, make sure to fix the root of the problem, don't just make
me happy. Here's how.
The first action should be to ask John B. Driscoll, Ltd. why they waited so long to send the book to begin with. Next, find out what the average delay is across the board - how many other booksellers are equally slow? Then figure out if there's any way Alibris can encourage booksellers to expedite orders on a same-day basis - carrot (loyalty program benefits), stick (we'll kick you out of the system if you don't perform). Finally, follow up with customer satisfaction surveys to establish a baseline and revisit these issues regularly.
There's also a basic disconnect between what we customers perceive as happening when we place an order and what actually happens. If the point of the UK site is to reduce shipping charges to European customers, then this needs to be communicated more clearly. However, I do wonder if this is enough reason to justify the existance of a UK site. If I am to believe Tim Garvey's answer, this is pretty much the ONLY reason for this site - which, as a web strategist and businessman, makes no sense to me.
Do you have any other helpful suggestions to give these folks?
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I've long be fascinated by disclaimers of various sorts. For example, on U.S. television, the fine print included in pharmaceutical ads is so fine that I cannot read it, even having captured it on DVD and clicked through frame-by-frame. Is there some evidence that Americans are living longer, safer lives thanks to this silly legal requirement? I'm always amused when the letter of the law takes precedence over the
intention of the law.
Most of the e-mail I receive also includes a disclaimer of some kind. Here's a typical example:
"The information in this e-mail (including attachments, if any) is considered confidential and is intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. Any review, use, disclosure, distribution or copying of this e-mail is prohibited except by or on behalf of the intended recipient. If you have received this email in error, please notify me immediately by reply e-mail, delete this e-mail, and do not disclose its contents to anyone. Any opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily the XYZ Group. Thank you."
I thought the "thank you" was a nice touch. Very polite. Very Danish.
Earlier today, I got what must be the Big Daddy of all disclaimers from a financial investment house:
"The information contained in the linked e-mail transmission and any attachments may be privileged and confidential and is intended only for the use of the person(s) named in the linked e-mail transmission. If you are not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you should not review, disseminate, distribute or duplicate this e-mail transmission or any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. We do not accept account orders and/or instructions related to XYZ Company products or services by e-mail, and therefore will not be responsible for carrying out such orders and/or instructions. The linked e-mail transmission and any attachments are provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed in any manner as any solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment opportunities or any related financial instruments and should not be construed in any manner as a public offer of any investment opportunities or any related financial instruments. If you, as the intended recipient of the linked e-mail transmission, the purpose of which is to inform and update our clients, prospects and consultants of developments relating to our services and products, would not like to receive further e-mail orrespondence from the sender, please "reply" to the sender indicating your wishes. Although we attempt to sweep e-mail and attachments for viruses, we will not be liable for any damages arising from the alteration of the contents of this linked e-mail transmission and any attachments by a third party or as a result of any virus being passed on. Please note: business instructions sent electronically to XYZ Company shall not be deemed accepted until a representative of XYZ Company acknowledges receipt electronically or by telephone. Comments in the linked e-mail transmission and any attachments are part of a larger body of investment analysis. For our research reports, which contain information that may be used to support investment decisions, and disclosures, see our website at
www.xyzcompany.com."
Yikes...very...um...er...American.
Here at FatDUX, we use the following:
"If you received this in error, please let us know and delete the file. FatDUX advises all recipients to virus scan all emails, and to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables daily."
As far as I know, both our e-mails and clients are in perfect health.
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They have a saying in Texas, “Don’t pee on my boots and tell me it’s raining.” But that’s how a lot of service offerings appear these days.
Several years ago, I took this picture at the Portland, Oregon Hilton:
Hmm. If they were really interested in my convenience they wouldn’t have removed half of the ice machines. Long ago, I came to the realization that anytime someone told me something was “for my convenience” it probably wouldn’t be.
In December, my family and I went to brunch at the Rusty Pelican restaurant on Key Biscayne. Because the parking lot is too small, the restaurant only provides valet parking during peak periods. There is no second option.
We arrived at the restaurant on time, early in fact. But it took another 15 minutes to creep to the entrance and actually get rid of the car. Inside, the hostess curtly informed us that even though we were late for our reservation, she’d “try and squeeze us in.” An inauspicious start to a lovely meal.
Sir Colin Marshall (now Lord Marshall), then CEO of British Airways (later Chairman), once told me that keeping airline customers happy means a lot more than giving them free food and drinks; if the front-line personnel screws up, the overall impression will remain bad despite your best on-board efforts.
Happily, the Rusty Pelican has a GREAT brunch. So everything was fine…or was it?
Here’s the line of people waiting to pick up cars after their meal:
Is this good customer service? A 15-minute wait to drop off the car? 30 minutes to get it back again? Hey, don’t pee on my boots…
I always thought valet parking came under the heading of a “luxury service” – after all, I’m expected to be grateful and tip these car jockeys. But is it really a service? No, it’s an unsolved problem hiding behind a misleading label.
Websites pull the same stunt. Check out the so-called welcome screen at Wine.com:
Unless you type in the abbreviation for a U.S. state, they won’t let you in. Try FL for Florida – the site with further insist on your zip code. Quite apart from the questionable legality of requesting personal information before it is actually needed to complete a transaction, Wine.com excuses this bizarre on-line experience with the following:
“Because wine availability and pricing may vary from state to state due to the way interstate commerce laws influence our buying patterns, Wine.com created this layover welcome screen to prevent confusion.”
“Welcome screen?” Hey folks, you stopped me at the door before I even had a chance to see what your site was about. No welcome in sight.
And on a SAS flight last week from Frankfurt to Copenhagen, there was no more food for those of us sitting in Economy Crap. Although the in-flight menu said we could buy a sandwich, the stewardess explained that the sandwiches taste so good that they often sell out on the first leg of the flight.
Let me see if I’ve understood this: because the food is good, there isn’t enough of it? Are people booking flights on SAS just to sample the cuisine? Or is SAS simply incapable of anticipating the needs of a plane full of hungry passengers on a noontime flight?
OK. This is slightly unfair. The stewardess was actually very nice and would have really liked to help if she could. But it didn’t stop my tummy from growling at 35,000 feet.
The SAS story is vaguely related to an interesting phenomenon known as being TOO helpful. Computer applications are prone to this: “Do you REALLY want to close this window?” The infamous “Clippy” from early Windows products was a prime example of this. And we’ve all fought with the irritating desktop cleanup service in XP:
BTW, if you want to get rid of this, follow the following path:
Control panel > Display options > Desktop > Customize desktop > General
Now unclick the Desktop Cleanup box. Simple, huh? (It took me almost a year to figure this one out).
In a world where products are becoming more and more alike, service is often the only differentiating factor. So don’t let someone con you into thinking that you are receiving good service when the opposite is actually the case – well-intentioned or not. If we don’t demand better service, we will never receive it.
Don’t pee on my boots…
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Our friends, Thomas and Jane, sent us a Christmas card on December 19. It arrived today, February 2.
The address was absolutely correct. So was the postage. Why did this letter take six weeks to cover a fairly short distance? Who knows? - it just plunked into our mailbox unannounced.
Six weeks to make a journey of 30km!
The Danish postal authorities have been under press for years - first because of the fax, now because of e-mail. The short and the long of it: people send fewer letters. Not surprisingly, there's been talk that the Danish postal service will be bought up by a larger organization - the German postal authorities, for example.
In the meantime, here in Copenhagen, we now have TWO postal services: the official Danish government sanctioned service and CityMail, a private carrier.
So how are the Danes reacting to decreased traffic and increased competition? By reducing the number of folks manning the counters in post offices, by installing centralized automatic package dispensers so the carriers don't need to actually deliver stuff to individual addresses, by raising the postal rates - and, seemingly, by distributing second-class mail (Economique) at their leisure.
What a way to run a business...
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