United Airlines drops out of the Customer Experience Sky

United Airlines have taken the unusual step of turning off their Customer Service feedback line.

They say their research says that they get a better quality interaction when people write to them and are clearer about what has happened and the details because they are writing it down and hence considering what they say.

That may be the case. It's still dumb. Two things they need to do:

• give people a way to vent when they want to. Even if they write to you it will mean many have stewed on it and told many by the time they write to you - if they bother to. The vast majority will just whinge to anyone who will listen.
  
• if cost is an issue (of course it is in this market) then find a more cost effective way to capture the feedback when people are angry. There is certainly a backlash with outsourced and obviously overseas call centres. There are simple, cost effective ways to get the feedback live. Set up a virtual feedback system. Ask (quantitative) questions and at the end ask if they want someone to contact them(quallitative feedback). I can show you how for your business and spend a few cents to do it easily and quickly.
• when you set up a virtual feedback system you can also get pats on the back for a job well done.
  

I don't care how much research they have done. We want to complain and give feedback when we want to. Not on the suppliers timeframe.

It is possible to turn every customer into a mystery shopper. Get great feedback and improve the service and operations of your business.

You can do this without commiting customer experience suicide!

Experiencing the new Cloud

This is a great article on how we will be effected by the 'Cloud'. The Cloud is that virtual computer platform that is causing the death of software as we know it - insert the death of Microsoft's ability to charge for a disc in a box.

No longer will we need to buy a hard copy of software. The program will always be up to date and should be much less expensive. Of course the flip side is you will need to be able to access the cloud by being constantly online. That works for some and not for others.

It may mean that you have to invest in one of the new smart phones - iPhone, Black Berry or Palm Pre.

I would love your comments on how this will effect you.


Iven

Apple product designs are 40 year old rip offs?

Apple is recognised as a leader in industrial design and also the way they design their retail experience.

Did they rip off the designs from Dieter Rams?

Who? Rams designed the highly innovative products for Braun in the 50's and 60's. There is a striking similarity between some of his designs and those churned out by Apple's chief designer Jonathan Ive. Ive has just been voted number one on the worlds 100 most innovative people list by Fast Company (yes I obviously read their stuff as you can see from my posts. They have great info you can get online. Go to Fast Company and get the daily newsletter.

Go here to see the Braun products designed by Rams and the ones Ive came up with. Also have a look at his 10 rules of design. They apply to any business (with some modification for your industry). I have adapted them here for customer experience. I have inserted CX for Customer Xperience (Yes I thought that would be great branding, registered it and then worked out that no one who could spell in English would Google experience without the 'e'. Life lessons!) and modified them a touch with thanks to Rams.

Good CX design is innovative.
Good CX design makes a product, service and customer interaction memorable.
Good CX design is aesthetic.
Good CX design helps us to understand a product and what the brand stands for.
Good CX design is unobtrusive.
Good CX design is honestly communicating what the brand stands for.
Good CX design is durable.
Good CX design is consequent to the last detail from the customers view.
Good CX design is concerned with the customer's environment.
Good CX design is as little design as possible.

So the big question is this. Is Apple ripping off or updating? My view is the latter with inspiration from the former.

What if I asked the question with a different perspective?

If you saw an innovation or a great idea that was outside your own company, or business, would you consider adapting it for your self? Of course you would - proving it was legal and also that morally you were OK that you were not just ripping something off. This is all part of the Makers and breakers in your business.

Some examples.

• Air travel. Breaker. Square plates scream in-flight even if you are in business and first class with a better meal. Maker. Airlines using round plates to make it feel like a restaurant for the bigger bucks. Ansett International (God rest their corporate soul) had in-flight chefs to make it a true a la carte restaurant at 30,000 feet.
• Car Wash Cafes. Breaker. We love having someone else wash the car but hate waiting. Maker. Import and combine that with the coffee culture and you relax with a latte and waiting time is not an issue.
• Westfield Bondi Junction. Breaker. Carrying all the shopping and parcels around the centre. Maker. 'Hands Free Shopping'. If you use valet parking (a major maker) you get the service of having all your parcels waiting for you when you collect your car. Fee $5 - not per shop - for the service. Just notify the shop you are a hands free shopper. How much more would you buy if you didn't have to carry it all?

What can you see from any industry that would help what you do?
What experiences have you had, in any business, that you felt were outstanding that you could import to your business?
What experiences have you been told about, that someone else felt was good enough to spread, that you could incorporate into what you do?

Keep your experience sensors on and active. Other people and businesses can give you ideas and practices that you can incorporate to drive more business to your business.

American Airlines website sucks - till someone fixed it

This is a great story from Fast Company of how simple wins. By trying to make everyone happy with their site AA messed up. Apple has a simple site, so does Google. The both manage to sell heaps from them so simple can, and does work.

The new and old sites are shown in the article. Love the difference. Send this to businesses that have sites that could do with learning this lesson.

Experience is everything.

Iven

Disasters can be great customer experiences

US Airways have shown a great sense of understanding customers by making a huge effort to return the belongings of passengers on their flight that ditched into the Hudson River.

Read the story here
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/hudson-crash-passengers-start-getting-luggage-back-20090520-bffq.html

Two things are very important:

• They didn't have to. The law says belongings only have to be returned when there fatalities. As we know thankfully there were none.
• They gave each passenger $5,000 immediately. Normally this is done by a passenger fund.

US Airways got great maedia for the Pilot 'Sully'. The saving of the passengers and the way they handled the incident at the time. They could have left it there. That would have been easy. Engaging a specialist company to retun the personal items is outstanding.

Well done US Airways.

What can we take from this?

• Every business needs a disaster recovery plan. Naturally airlines have procedures. Do you?
• Disasters can be recovered and made into CX winners.
• Thinking form the customers perspective always pays off.
• The staff will get the same warm, happy feeling as the customers when the company does the extra stuff. It also teaches new staff "That's the way we do it round here"
• Recovery opportunity happen at any point the customers trust is potentially damaged.
  

In summary; Good experiences are, most often, not an accident.

Your customers are changing - are you?

As some of you know for a time I was the marketing Communications manager for the authors of this report the Peppers + Rogers group. They are the recognised thought leaders in the 1 to 1 marketing field. For the last 18 months I have been talking to audiences about the challenges facing businesses when putting their offers out to the market. Three of those challenges are reflected here in this study. 1 The authority shift from manufacturer to customer 2 The customer xperience will drive the customer's decision to stay with you or go 3 Trust is the glue that binds you to your customers. OK so I am now over the ego boost that Peppers + Rogers agree with me. That's nice but more importantly it means that a number of people observing the market are observing the same things happening, even though we all have different perspectives. It sn interesting read and you can get the full report, if you want it, at the bottom of their post. 1to1 marketing to change radically by 2020
Monday May 12, 2008

1to1 Media - the publishing arm of Peppers & Rogers Group - has taken a look ahead at what marketing will be like 12 years from now, having fielded research among 150 marketing executives for their insights into the future. The conclusion, of course, is that the process of marketing will be 'radically different' from today.

The research broadly determined that in all four components of the 1-to-1 Marketing Framework (Identify, Differentiate, Interact, and Customise - as developed by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D.), the degree of 'radical change' will be high, with this degree of change being cited by more than half of the survey's respondents. ifrangi This article is copyright 2008 TheWiseMarketer.com).

Positive change
Most respondents (at least 80%) agreed that there will be moderate to high levels of positive change occurring within the capabilities that enable 1-to-1 marketing.

This may well be true, the study concluded, despite the increasing appearance of "marketing fog" on the horizon (such as government-backed privacy regulations, a deluge of messaging from multiple channels, and the increasingly scarce resource of consumer attention).

What's in the marketer's future?
The research also highlighted several noteworthy perceptions about 1-to-1 marketing in the year 2020:

1. Challenges remain and opportunities still abound
   Relevant customer dialogue is expected to be the area with the lowest level of positive change, but it will at least be driven by moderate to high levels of change in understanding, in terms of both customer value and customer needs. Capturing and sharing customer information will see high levels of positive change, and using and coordinating these insights will improve the overall customer experience.
   
2. Marketers out of control while customers take control
   82% of respondents agreed that control will shift from marketers to customers and, as a result, customer collaboration will take on much greater importance by 2020.
   
3. Relationships beat products
   78% agreed that the future of marketing will be based on building authentic relationships more than the development of new and exciting products. As one respondent said: "A product can be duplicated, but a relationship can't."
   
4. Trust is still paramount
   84% agreed that "building customer trust will become marketing's primary objective". Historically, the main objective of marketing has been promoting sales, and this shift in attitude suggests that marketers are more fully recognising that a message can't influence customer behaviour if the messenger isn't trusted. Consequently, marketers will play a greater role in creating and nurturing customer trust.

Early-mover advantage
According to Jack Sundstrom, director of research for Carlson Marketing, the 1-to-1 concept will become more significant in the years to come: "Organisations that plan on the groundwork of 1-to-1 will have the 'early mover advantage', possibly building a sustainable competitive advantage."

Based on this research and other market trends, Sundstrom predicted that 1-to-1 capabilities will change greatly in the coming years, and that those companies that are behind now will fall even further behind if they don't take corrective action soon: "Keeping up will require constant diligence and attention to new developments within each individual organisation".

The full report has been made available for free download from 1to1 Media's web site - click here (198Kb PDF document, no registration needed).

Director, Customer Experience

This is the copy for the ad that I talked about in my newsletter 'Other Side Up"

It makes interesting reading. The skills required are broad and yet quite specific at the same time.

So as you read ask yourself these questions "Do I have anyone in my business doing this? If others are gearing up this way what's stopping me?"

Let me know your thoughts.

Iven

SunLife - Director, Customer Experience

Toronto, ON

Overview

The Director, Customer Experience is a newly created leadership position, working with business and IT partners to deliver an industry leading e-business experience. This role is key in Customer Solutions’ vision to provide value-added, innovative, and easy to use integrated e-business offerings. The Director leads a virtual team of e-business professionals within Group Benefits, Group Retirement Services, and Individual focused on customer experience, ensuring alignment of our brands, standards, education, training, tools, templates, and managing key partnerships with our business and IT partners, external entities, and other key stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities/Job Functions

• Work with the business areas (Group Benefits, Group Retirement Services, Individual, Customer Solutions, Public & Corporate Affairs), IT teams (Group Benefits, Group Retirement Services, Individual, Shared Application Services), and external organizations (customers, alliance partners/vendors) to ensure the development, delivery and integration of a high quality customer experience that will enhance value for users and enable the business units to meet their business objectives. This consulting role provides the expert advice and guidance to all areas involved in e-business design and publishing on all external Canadian sites.
• Provides program management services for usability aspects of projects that are single business unit projects or those that cross business units. Projects tend to be large, complex, inter-related and span the organization.
• Consulting with senior management, steering committees and working teams, this position will integrate user centric methodology into the product and services development process and take the overall customer experience to the next level. This incorporates user interface design, layout and harmonization, wire-frames, site-maps, information architecture, personas expertise, usability testing with report findings, prototypes, content templates and style guide interpretation.
• Participate in the development of the e-business strategy as it pertains to customer experience, ensuring alignment with business initiatives.
• Develops holistic usability solutions that integrate products/services, processes and technologies.
• Facilitate effective partnerships and alliances with business units, external providers, vendors, etc.
• Provide education and training on customer experience, usability and user centric design methodology through training sessions, workshops or lunch and learns.
• Promote a learning environment that ensures continued development of a skilled and expert team to enable delivery of quality results.
• Adopts a broad business approach to address stakeholder needs and priorities, in terms of defining and executing customer experience initiatives. This may include requests for enhancements of existing web functions or services.
• Ensures standards and best practices are appropriately communicated and documented into the Style Guide.
• Set up an internal community of web best practices, while maintaining linkage with a similar external community.

Qualifications

Knowledge/Skills/Experience/Competencies:

• Minimum of 7 years experience in advanced customer experience design, ranging from vision and strategy to the creation of the information architecture, navigation and screen design.
• Strategic thinker, strong hands-on leadership skills with the ability to influence and persuade others, especially across organizational boundaries. Well respected by management, peers and direct reports.
• Excellent planning skills. A team player with the ability to manage a portfolio of programs/projects of significant scope and complexity in a fast-paced environment that includes numerous internal and external stakeholders and partners.
• Ability to influence, facilitate, negotiate and manage stakeholders with a variety of sometimes conflicting interests to achieve a cohesive and quality web presence that meets enterprise and individual business area objectives. Includes ability to manage stakeholder expectations to achieve common goals.
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills, and demonstrated creativity with respect to idea generation and solution implementation. Creative, yet meticulously detail oriented with a sense of craftsmanship.
• Strong interpersonal, presentation, communication and written skills. Will be expected to present to senior management, customers and partners as well as conduct usability testing with customers.
• Collaborator with strong listening, facilitation and persuasion skills.
• High tolerance for change and ambiguity.
• Solid understanding of all facets of e-business development, including related methodologies and object-oriented practices. Proven ability to work with both business and technically oriented e-business teams.
• Good understanding of Group Benefits, Group Retirement Services, Customer Solutions and Individual (products, services, distribution, organization, systems, processes), and a proven track record in partnering across business boundaries would be assets