The Lost Art of Customer Service

Twitter as a Customer Service Tool

Those of you who are following me on Twitter know that I recently witnessed an unfortunate interaction between an employee at my local Guitar Center store and another customer.  As I left the store I posted the following on Twitter via my BlackBerry.

jdale Just finished watching an employee at Guitar center making fun of a customer who was trying to exchange a cable that had a lifetime warranty...I guess he doesn't understand the lifetime value of a customer.          04:36 PM June 30, 2008

Within hours I received an email informing me that @Venezia had started following me on Twitter.  When I looked at @Venezia's Twitter page I realized that he is the Chief Marketing Officer and an Executive Vice President at Guitar Center.  I sent him a private Twitter message and asked him if he'd be interested in learning the details of what I'd observed while in the store.  He twittered me back and said he would.  So I sent him an email explaining the details of what I'd observed.  A few hours ago I received this email response from @Venezia.

(Posted here with the author's permission)

Wow, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the time you took to write this richly detailed account of what you experienced. Twitter continues to make me more of a believer every day in its usefulness as a customer service tool.

First, of course, we deeply regret the scene you witnessed. I read your email aloud to the EVP of Sales, Mark Galster (in charge of the stores), and forwarded it to the Regional and District Manager. I will speak with them as well. So your critique falls on receptive ears. We’re on it.

Second, we have, as of the latest count, 11,249 employees. And we spend millions training them to create the best possible experience for our customers. With so many stores and employees, we conduct research that gives us “report cards” on our customer experience delivery, and we are quite deliberate about becoming stronger where we learn of weakness. The good news is, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the feedback is great. Better than our competitors, in fact. But like all good musicians, we need to have good ears if we want to get better. So I actually actively troll for dissatisfaction on places like Twitter and in the blogosphere. We have an employee that does nothing but look for critiques (and praise) on the net. And we stay out of the ivory tower and self-criticize to learn from missteps.

We take our satisfaction guarantee extremely seriously. I wish it were possible ID the customer you described, though it probably isn’t. But at least we have the feedback from you, and for this we are grateful.

We’re glad you’re our customer, and hope to see you in the stores for years to come. If there is anything you need from me, let me know.

Norman Hajjar
EVP/CMO
Guitar Center Inc.

What could Guitar Center have done differently (other than avoiding the incedent in the first place)?  I appreciate the fact that they are monitoring Twitter for customer service issues...I would have preferred it if they had proactively Twittered me to address the issue rather than just starting to follow me (in Norman's defense...according to his Twitter posts he is at Disney on Vacation...so I'm impressed that he was even aware of this incedent...and he may usually initiate contact with people). 

If you really want to understand how to use twitter to provide customer service check out @Zappos or @Lijit. These are two companies that understand customer service and understand the internet.  It seems as though Zappos standard operating procudure is to offer a gift certificate or discount to anyone who blogs about them ( :-)  I guess I'll find out if that's true).

It's The Product Stupid

A great post from Michael Hyatt's blog From Where I Sit:

One of my favorite marketing gurus, David Ogilvy, once wrote, “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.” How true.

I have argued for years that, “It’s the product, Stupid.” The secret to success in any business is to deliver a great, compelling product. No amount of marketing savvy, salesmanship, or operational excellence can overcome a weak product. This is especially true when it comes to publishing.

The purpose of marketing is to get a book launched—to prime the pump. But if people don’t want to read it and—more importantly—if they won’t recommend it to their friends, you’re hosed. You can’t spend enough money or be creative enough to overcome a lack of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM).

Continue reading "It’s the Product, Stupid"

Missing the Target

So Amy orders a Velma (think Scooby Doo) costume for Anna from Target.com.  She even plans ahead and orders it 6 weeks before Halloween.  10 days later we receive a "Skull Plaid Diva" (think my child is a satanist) costume.  She was a little miffed because Anna was expectantly awaiting its arrival.  I tell her not to worry, Target will fix it.  I suggest she call the toll free number on the packing slip.  She says there is no number.  I tell her to call the number on the web site.  She says there's no number there.  So as a last resort, she fills out their customer inquiry form and they respond the next day with this friendly email:

Dear Amy Dale,

I'm sorry for the trouble you had with your order. I know how frustrating it can be when an item doesn't work out, so I'm glad we can help. I've arranged for a replacement to be sent, with no new charges.

You can discard the original wrong item. We don’t need you to send it back.

Thanks for your patience while we fix this problem.

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. 

Best regards,

Mandeep (Singh) Kohli

Sure enough, we received another package from Target today and it was the wrong item again.  Here's the crazy part.  The packing slip clearly lists the wrong item.  It in now way matches the item that is listed on the receipt from our order.

So Amy asks me to call them.  But we don't have their phone number, after searching their site for "Customer Service" I do a quick Google Search for "Target.com Customer Service" and find this post, At Target.com "Customer Service" remains a mystery.  Thankfully, someone has commented their with the phone number for Target customer support and I give them a call.  After navigated their ridiculous voice activated menus (for goodness sake, please set up "0" to reach a real person) I'm finally connected to Justin.

Justin listens as I explain my situation and informs me that their must have been a mix up with a supplier (pass the buck).  I ask if they can ship me the right item and he says they can only ship one replacement item.  He then tells me that I need to cancel my order and try again.  I ask if he can make sure that I'm going to be shipped the right item and he says that he has no way to contact the fulfillment center.  I tell him that someone must have a way and he then says that he can send them an email.  I suggest that he have them overnight me the correct item (see my recent praise of Zappos.com support) and he says that there is no way anyone can overnight that item because the item only has "regular" shipping available. 

Here's my question: Isn't there a real person anywhere at Target.com who could actually go into a warehouse and grab the correct item, put a FedEx label on it and get it shipped.  Amy's comment to me was, "They really don't even care do they."  You see, I think Justin does care, the problem is he works for a company that doesn't.  Unlike Zappos, who gives their employees the power to fix customer problems, Target seems to think they can live on their Bricks and Mortar reputation (I love their regular stores), and forget that what their customers think really matters.  Maybe someone who actually has some power over at Target.com should take the time to search on-line and see what their customers are saying about them.  As you'll see from their Shopping.com reviews, I'm not the first one to have these problems.

After an extended conversation, Justin promised to email me tomorrow to let me know what is happening with my order.  I'll let you know if they redeem themselves.

What can other on line companies learn from Target?

1. Make it easy for people to reach a real person at your company.  Post your phone number everywhere, on each page of your site and on each piece of paper you send to your customers.

2. Empower your employees to fix your customers problems. 

Will I shop at Zappos.com again?  Absolutely.  Target.com?  Probably not.