Tag Archives: service

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Continuity Matters

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Recent experiences with various companies has really driven home how critical continuity of the message and actions is to provide basic acceptable levels of customer service.

Handoffs lead to Disconnects

In the past two weeks, interactions with four different companies (large and small) were all scarred at various points by because the transactions could not be completed without interacting with multiple individuals who were not in sync with each other.

The sad part is on the whole these experiences could have been totally satisfactory or even better had these unfortunate hand-offs not left a bad taste for something that overall was fine.

Coordinate and Confirm

The solution is simple. The principle should be a single point of contact for a customer to the greatest extent possible.

In cases where other expertise or skill focus is needed the transfer of the customer should always include all parties in the company (and the customer) to ensure a full understanding of what has incurred to date.

Just dropping the customers into someone else’s hands is a recipe for disaster.  Consistency in approach requires a “warm” handoff.

How We Doing

With longer service and support interactions, particularly those requiring some handoffs of the customer, pay attention to how things are going.

Confirm the customer is getting what they need at a minimum by asking them for feedback each time a transfer is made to someone else (always a warm transfer with everyone present at the beginning).

Avoid dumping the customer on someone else without confirming they are okay with bringing in additional support and be sure to consult internally beforehand to ensure continuity of message and avoid duplication.

Simple Approach Works Best

The suggestions made here can virtually always ensure success with every customer interaction.  Even if things don’t always proceed without glitches (shit happens) being sensitive to this and addressing issues collaboratively within your organization can make the overall experience for those you serve a positive one.

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Microsoft support is not very good

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Wow, no posts from me for 7 months and suddenly the muse is back.  Although it is certainly triggered by difficulties I am having getting simple things done through others.  I am trying hard though.

Microsoft Fails

This story requires a little bit of background about how email works. Hopefully you will find it interesting, the theme though is how Microsoft is unable to resolve what is relatively. a simple problem.

The background

When you send email from your desktop or mobile device it goes to a mail server associated with your email service (e.g hotmail, gmail, outlook).  This is the senders mail server.

Using a process called MTA (mail transfer agent) or SMTP relay (mail transfer protocol relay) the senders mail server searches the internet for the recipients mail server location, using the internets Domain Name Servers (DNS) .

The recipient can have more than one mail server listed in DNS, a primary and one or more backups.  The standard is for the MTA to select the recipients primary mail server first and only if it fails then the secondary or backup server is selected.

Microsoft Mail Server Behaves Like  SPAM server

The Microsoft mail server always selects the backup or lower priority recipients mail server first even if the primary server is live.  This is to avoid spam/junk mail filtering as typically the backup servers do not have such filtering in place (they are bare bones)

For major email service like Microsoft’s, this is a travesty.  They are supporting the delivery of spam and junk mail.  For comparison, gmail, yahoo, icloud and the majority of legitimate corporate mail servers use the primary mail server first when available.

 Like a brick wall

I tried repeatedly over numerous support tickets (more than 5) to get Microsoft to acknowledge and adjust this inappropriate mail server behaviour, to no avail.

I have since advised the Canadian Government Anti- Spam agency about this is issue.  Given it would have a world wide impact on reducing spam and junk email, I hope they take action but doubt anything will change

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Understanding Service

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Helping others, providing advice, resources or undertaking requested action so others can achieve their goals are the most common activities of service organizations.

Service can be provided by sections or departments of large organizations focusing solely on the provision of service to a target audience, often called customers, or just individuals for the pleasure of helping others.

Expectations

I am often surprised by those providing service to me.  They tend to either guide me to conform with their practices or even taking  action without first taking time to understand my expectations.

Anticipating the needs of your customer rather than concentrating on their expectations leads to dissatisfaction more often than not. This happens when the goal of the service provider is to meet their organizational expectations versus what the customer is expecting.

Focus on Understanding

Regardless of the situational context, before providing any service, the priority should always be to determine what the requestor is expecting of you.

Assuming what is required might be expedient and could hit the target occasionally but more often it can lead down a path of confusion even frustration both by the service provider and the receiver.

Perception Matters

The customer might perceive the person they have contacted can assist them because of their own assumptions about what a specific area, contact or knowledge source is capable of.

The best way to start a service interaction is to clarify what is beIng expected first, that is not what the requestor wants but rather the outcome they are seeking.

Granted these are related but the distinction can be critical to ensure the service is appropriately target.  Time spent up front to ensure the request is understood is a great way to avoid disappointment.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Customer Service

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From time to time organizations are called on to provide assistance and advice to those people who buy or use its products or services. This can include people who work for the organization as long as they also purchase goods or services from the organization.

The prime motivation of this action of helping or doing work for someone is most likely primarily the monetary compensation received from the organization.   The customer must be dealt with because that is the specified task they are paid to do.

Company or Client

The biggest challenge in customer service is balancing the needs of the organization against those of the customer.  Loyalty to the company is imperative but effective customer service requires more than simply empathy.  The customer must be satisfied.

The most successful organization have empowered their front-line employees allowing them to act logically (within reasonable constraints) rather than simply preaching the corporate gospel, particularly when it does not make sense to them.

Using Common Sense

I recently encountered an example of a lack of common sense in a customer exchange with BMO (my former employer for 33 years).  The customer service representative I was dealing with blindly insisted on something that made no sense.

I insisted on speaking to her manager.  She reviewed the case with her boss and told me the manager would review and call me in 15 minutes.  They did not.

Ultimately the situation was resolved to my satisfaction, what I was proposing was accepted as totally reasonable, but the hoops I needed to go through left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

Find the Balance

Disaffecting customers through blind stupidity is caused by a lack of empowerment.  The risk of not acquiring or retaining a customer needs to be balanced against the blind adherence to policy (or what the service provider thinks is policy).

Organizations with top-flight customer service understand this and enable their employees to do what is right without jumping through a series of silly hoops.

 

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

How hard is it to check a bag with Air Canada?

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Took a trip recently.

I am quite impressed with the “on-time” record for the last few flights I have flown with Air Canada., however, on the way home from this last trip I experienced a surprise.   Interestingly my daughter had the same experience in August.

As had become the norm in this age of the internet I checked in electronically well before the flight, but not having a printer at hand (nor using a smart phone) I selected to print the boarding pass at the airport kiosk.  I had to do this anyway to print my bag tag.

On arrival at the airport I printed boarding passes for both myself and my wife, but my baggage tag would not print – the message on the machine directed me to check in assistance.

It took 30 minutes to get through the line at check in assistance for my 30 second transaction to tag my bag (remember I had already checked in).  The Air Canada agent jokingly advised I had broken the machine, I guess she could read my stress level.  Basically, there was no explanation as to why I had to seek check-in assistance and given the average time with the agent for those ahead of me in the line was 5 to 10 minutes generally they did need some assistance.  It is  too bad they could not tell me why I was rejected for automatic bag check because I would definitely like to avoid this situation in the future.

Because my bag check in took much longer than expected my plan to meet my wife at the security gate got mixed up.   As one would expect, she did not anticipate my bag check could take more than 30 minutes and thought we got our wires crossed on the meeting place.  It all worked out in the end but was very frustrating.

Not as bad as my daughter’s case

In August my daughter, son-in-law and grandchild experienced the same problem at the same airport.  Unfortunately for them the more than 30 minute line-up at check in assistance resulted in missing their flights and having to be booked on later ones.  Given I was massively frustrated I cannot imagine how my daughter and her husband felt.  (I don’t think they will be sending Air Canada any Christmas cards).

And the point!

The main differentiation for domestic air travel providers is service.  Things like a smooth check-in really matter and given two cases at the same airport just a month apart I suspect there are many others.  These unsatisfied customers move to WestJet and other providers, and ultimately Air Canada’s business will suffer.  I sold my Air Canada shares a couple of months ago (for a  good profit) and I am kind of glad I did.