Customer Experience: The Psychological Shortcut

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Everyday we face hundreds of choices. It gets complicated. And this is why we create habitual behaviour — whether it is to take the same route to work, whether we put on our underwear before our sock everyday, or simply the same breakfast. It makes our life easier and we can go onto autopilot.

Consumer Decision Making Shortcuts

When there is no autopilot system, these choice get a bit to hectic. We look for the mental shortcuts that will make our decision making process easier. Its why we use the peer review system so often. For example,

  • If a hundred people say its good, we will try it.
  • If a blogger has a 100 000 RSS readers we follow them.
  • If some one we respect loves that product or service, we will give it a try. [Read more...]

Why Your Competition Is Your Customer’s Expectations

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We tend to think of our competition as the person who is selling the closest product and services. Banks look at other banks, cell operators look at other cell operators. You know how this work but things have changed.

You are no longer just selling a product or services.

Let me use an example to put this into context.

I live in South Africa and if I order a Kindle from Amazon.com in the States I will get it (at my front door) within three working days. Brilliant. Mind blowing and superb service and customer care.

Yet when my Blackberry breaks and I take it to a MTN service centre in Northgate for repairs. Here is what happens. I wait close to an hour (or two) to see a consultant, it then takes over two weeks to swop the hand set and get it back to the service centre. And when it gets back to you its still broken. [Read more...]

15 Reasons To Start A Movement, Not A Campaign

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I get this a lot: “We need to improve our customer loyalty and the quality of our customer relationships. Michael, we need a campaign that will get this right.”

My answer is always the same: “If you want to get this right you must start a movement, not a campaign.” I am always asked what the difference is.

Well, here are 15 differences between a campaign and a movement and why you need to start one right now:

1. Loyalty versus awareness

[Read more...]

Why your customer strategy must focus on social thinking and not social techno

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This is not a go do post. It’s a go and think about it post. Here are three Ted Talks I originally saw on Mashable and convey an important message for your customer strategy and how you create earned media:

It is how we socialise and not technology that we need to focus on.

What makes us human is the ability to reason, to think. Information and knowledge is the raw material of this process.

The internet makes this available in abundance. It has empowered individuals like never before. We have moved from passive consumers of information to become active producers of knowledge. Just think Wikipedia and Google’s quest to bring you the most relevant, high quality information it can and how you go about your customer strategy.

  • Clay Shirkey argues that information is now created on mass, is ubiquitous, cheap and global. Citizens are real time journalists that have social power and the real connections are between individuals rather than companies and brands.
  • Stefana Broadben argues that the internet has made us more personal and that we can now become more connected.
  • Seth Godin argues in his presentation below that one person with an idea and enough passion can change the world, can create a movement. It’s the tribe that matters now.

And given that the internet is becoming more mobile, more device agnostic and more accessible, this will have greater implications for how we live – and how you set up your customer strategy in the future. Something to think about :) .

You can find the original article on Mashable.

The Golden Rule of Customer Service. Use It

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Customer service often comes across as patronising; arrogant; disinterested; rude; indifferent; bored; and a general lack of care. This creates a really bad customer experience and damages customer loyalty.

In South Africa the chances are this is how you are treated when phoning a large company. Their customer service message is simple:

We have so many clients that you don’t count. And yes, we can afford to lose you.

You have no loyalty to this company (and their customer loyalty score sucks) and your motive now becomes destructive – you will tell everyone you know how bad the company is. You will also move to a new service provider when it suits you.

Yet we are all customers of someone. Ironically the same staff get the same treatment they dish out. Perhaps the easiest way to solve poor customer service is to ask those staff:

How would you like to be treated?

I can guarantee no-one wants a patronising; arrogant; disinterested; rude; indifferent; bored; and a general lack of care customer service person dealing with their problem.

When we say business is about relationships maybe it’s time to be human again. To really focus on the relationship and ask a very simple question:

Treat others as you want to be treated.

Make this your golden rule when it comes to creating customer loyalty and you can’t go wrong. I am sure that this may have a spin off effect of appealing to your staffs deeper desires and aspirations. You may just be very surprised to see what happens.

Ok, I have Your Money, Now Customer *F* Off …

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I suppose I could complain about the really bad customer experience and customer service (and indifference) of Blackberry South Africa and MTN’sinability to look after me as a client, and actually phone back a week ago when promised.

But this type of customer service is so typical of a large organisation. I don’t think it’s limited to South Africa, but I think it’s a worldwide issue. Certainly my experience shows this. I could list a list so long that will become boring.

The greatest problem is that most organisations have structured their business processes and systems to others impossible to provide customer service. They are designed to screw up the customer experience.

So what’s the problem? We have your money, now bugger off!

Let me put this into context here and expand on my Blackberry / MTN:

  • My Blackberry Bold got stolen and I went through the insurance process and got a new Blackberry Bold.
  • I collected the new phone from MTN’s “customer services” centre (they really are customer irritation centres)
  • The service consultant service consultant told me not to worry if there were any problems I could bring back within seven days.
  • There was a problem. Ironically, the B on the Blackberry keypad works intermittently. And when I took my phone back to get a new one MTN refused to take it.
  • The problem: I did not have the original box and the Blackberry phone came in. I had the barcode, and all the correct numbers, but not the physical cardboard box.
  • The MTN consultant spoke to Blackberry and they would not Blackberry budge.
  • The Blackberry Problem: Their warehousing department cannot accept anything back unless is comes back in the original box
  • The MTN consultant said they would chase this and promised to phone me later that day to see what he could do.
  • My current situation: Nothing a week later — or rather a very load but F*&K You from Blackberry and MTN. We have your business so stop complaining and bugger off.

The common customer service issue

There is no doubt that there is a large degree of indifference shown by MTN here. There is no doubt that their staff are not delivering.

[Read more...]

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