The invasion began with the mental onslaught of psychologically soothing music, which endeavoured to promote a stuporous state of mind.  To further deflect any issues, heavy cavalry rushed in with advertisements for premier service and enriched experiences; push one for diversion.  Intermittent air raids chimed as regularly as a well-tuned chronometer, reminding her that she would be served eventually, if she stayed on the line.

Just as the usually passive customer was about ready to punch the next person she met, a cheery voice announced the beginning of next skirmish. “Good morning, Customer Service.  How may I help you?”

Despite the well-intentioned hypnosis, the customer’s demeanour had become ragged. “I received an extremely useful text message from your company, it said and I quote, ‘your account is overdue’.  No amount, date, contact or account information.  When I checked my books, I realized I have never actually received an invoice.”

The agent’s tone oozed condescension, “Oh, we don’t send out invoices. We’re a green company, we save paper.”

“Your programmers aren’t capable of emailing a useful electronic invoice? I’m supposed to look in my crystal ball and determine what I owe, and when?”

“Well ma’am, you just need to look it up on our website.  Every month, you log on to your account and look up your bill. The first time you logon, the system will ask you to enter your account number.  Within the hour, our automated system will send you a password.  It’s really very simple.”

“I spent fifteen minutes on your site trying to find a phone number.  I suppose I receive my account number after I’ve logged on?”

“Oh, I can give you that.  If you have trouble setting up your account, just consult our Q&A tab or send a text message to our Account Services.” 

“Search your site or send a text?  I’m already on the line.  Can’t we finish this now?”

“No ma’am. Our system’s completely automated to save you time.”

“Wow. Sixty minutes for you to rattle off my account number, and you close another successful service call.  I however, have the pleasure of wasting more time logging on, entering an account number, and logging off to wait for a password. Yahoo, and how many times do I need to check my email until your message arrives?  Then I get to start again, search your oh-so intuitive Q&A system, just to have the privilege of paying overdue charges for an invoice that never arrived.”

“I can’t help the fact you’re late.  It only takes a few minutes once you’re used to it.”

“A few minutes,” she replied mockingly, “every month.  To logon to your website, to pay it by your method, on your timeline? Perhaps I should bill your company for the hours I have to spend doing your job?”

“Not my job ma’am.  To ensure you incur no further overdue charges, I would suggest scheduling it on your calendar.  Your account is due on the 13^th of every month.”

“Schedule your bill on my calendar?  I’m a small business and pay my bills on the 29^th so I only have to do my bookkeeping once a month.  Therefore, I’d like to change the billing date.”

“Ma’am, that would make us send out an extra bill and have to adjust for the short period.”

“You just said you don’t send out bills.”

“Well ma’am that would be a lot of extra work.  Besides, our system allows you five days beyond the due date, so that’s actually the 18^th.”

“The 18^th? An honour student in math, eh?”  The customer shook their head at the obviously scripted response being touted as logic. “It takes five days to go through the bank, so from the 29^th, it’s the 4^th or 5^th depending on the month.  So no matter what, I’m forced to do my billing twice?”

“It only takes a few minutes to logon and pay it through your credit card,” the agent reiterated.

“I pay my bills through my bank so I can have a single record of all my monthly payments.”  Her tone became snarkier, “It is a little thing called saving time and money, for myself, my accountant, and Revenue Canada, they like records.”

“Oh, it’s much easier to pay it while you’re on our site.  You don’t have to print anything.  Just use your credit card.”

 The sarcasm dripped from her voice, “You’ve been programmed I mean trained, very thoroughly.” 

“Oh, thank you, it’s always nice to be complimented.”

“So . . . First I have to spend time blowing away your irrelevant messages. Log on to your site to look up the amount. Do my bookkeeping twice to save you money. Pay your bill using my credit card, instead of paying all my bills at once while I’m on my banking system.  Of course, print a copy of your bill separately, so I waste time, ink and paper, but you can say you’re green.  I assume I’m also supposed to pay credit card interest rates on top of your overdue charges, because your company saves money sending unintelligent invoices?  Wow, you really do have my interests at heart. So that’s customer service eh?”

The above story depicts a common customer service issue that has little to do with the actual product or service being purchased. Entrepreneurs and larger companies often ignore their customers’ perspectives when designing non-core functions.

Our lives have become a whirlwind of priorities.  Amidst everything we have to accomplish and remember, what makes a single event, product or person stick in our minds to the point that we will refer them, or go out of our way to repeat the experience?  How often have you settled for “good enough” because you were out of time, or switched service providers because they were a pain to deal with?

Although customer referrals and on-going loyalty are usually based on their overall experience with your company, any single event or interaction can derail their opinions and lasting impressions.

Customer Experience Analysis

1. What % of your customers return to purchase additional products or services (excluding trapped/on-going contracts)?
2. What % of revenues comes from referrals?
3. Are your services tailored to ease your customer’s pain, or make your life easier? (i.e. marketing, meetings, packaged offerings, sales, invoicing, support, refunds)
4. Based on No. 3 above, what % of your products or core competencies, account for your customers’ total interactions with your company?
5. Were your products/services the closest, cheapest, or just good enough, or, did your customers go out of their way to deal specifically with you?
6. Did you deliver what they wanted, when, and how they wanted it, every time? (i.e. above-mentioned story)
7. Are your customers raving about their experience, or their anger?  Do you know?
8. Do customers refer to you as “the go-to expert”?
9. What makes your company stand out from the blur of everyday actions and split second decisions?
10. Was the outcome for the customer memorably positive today?

If three or more of your answers were not at the excellence end of the scale, you may wish to consider shoring up your service offerings, processes, and/or customer differentiators.

If there are specific subjects or issues you’d like me to address in my articles, let me know www.allusiveimage.ca/contact us

Anne Ismay, President
The Allusive Image Inc.

“I really need a much larger closet,” the prospective client complained.  “Our current one doesn’t even hold half our stuff, and I hate having to drive over and haul everyone’s ski gear out of our off-site storage locker and then haul it all back in spring.”

The designer smiled confidently, “No problem Jack!  We’ve done similar jobs, dozens of times. I understand your requirements exactly.  That’ll be $30,000. I’ll draw the design tomorrow, and we can have it ready by Thursday.”

“I didn’t know it would cost that much.”

“Our work is very high quality, and you’ll have a new closet by the weekend.”

“Hmm,” muttered Jack.

“Look at this way, we’ll save you from giving up every weekend for the next six weeks, not to mention arguments.”

The two returned to work feeling positive about their agreement.  By finding an expert, the client saved precious time by not having to tediously explain every item. In turn, the designer gave himself a high-five for closing a sale in less time than it took to get his coffee.

The closet went in with fabulous spaces for skis, snowboards, boots, and poles. However, when the client began filling the closet, he was dismayed to discover there was no space allocated for the mountains of ski jackets, pants, hoodies and gloves.

“But you said gear, not clothes,” the designer retorted.  “Well, no problem,” he continued thinking fast, “the closet backs onto your living room, so we can just swipe a couple feet. It’s a big room, you’ll never notice.  Tell you what, since you didn’t tell me you wanted clothes included, we’ll add in the closet for ten K, and we can have the modifications done by next Friday. That’s 40% off what it would normally cost.”

“Ten grand?” Jack’s face screwed up with the ‘my wife is going to kill me’ look.  “There goes our skiing trip this winter, and the kids probably won’t talk to me for a week.”

“Look at it this way, you’ll have a peaceful house to come home to,” smiled the designer.

The living room got a mite trashed by adding the closet, so the happy couple decided it was really time for a new carpet anyway, and since the room was smaller, they got a blow-out of a deal, only $5,931.  A thirty percent discount with no HST.  Taking advantage, the wife added a nice new couch to match.

After moving the furniture back in, they realized their computer desk no longer fit in the living room, so Jack took a trip back to the designer.

“No problem Jack.  We can put a staircase in over the closet, and add a room with a view!  Just imagine . . . being stretched out on the deck with a beer, after working in a real office, instead of being crammed behind the couch listening to your kids fight over which internet game they’ll play.  What more could you want?”

“Could I get a wet bar?” asked Jack.

“Of course, with a fridge!  It’ll only cost a bit more to add some plumbing, electrical and a slight mod to the roof.  Since you’re such a good client, we should be able to squeeze it out for sixty.”

Jack refinanced his home adding a mere $100,000 to his mortgage. The design was completed and renovations commenced.

The staircase only reduced the living room by four feet.  The new coat closet became a fabulous cubbyhole under the stairs, and the sports closet received a stylish enclosure connecting the wet bar plumbing to the old bathroom. 

After cramming the boots, gloves and bags under the stairs and hanging their coats on the skis, the clients belatedly realized the new couch had to go, due to the slight inconvenience of climbing over it to get to the kitchen.

Food for Thought:

Although this fictitious story depicts a B2C customer interaction, this scenario can apply equally to B2B, with two slight variations: 1) higher price tags, and 2) often the supplier wears the egg and foots the bill.  Regardless of who pays, both parties are impacted, and referrals are unlikely to occur.  Although in the story, the designer received an immediate infusion of cash, he’ll constantly need to find net new customers, which costs more than keeping one.

The designer threw out a price of $30,000 to guarantee a large profit margin; then designed the closet without having ascertained the client’s true requirements. In the past, many of us have received such offers, and the results?  The provider came across as:

1. Uncaring about their client’s requirements;
2. Inexperienced about estimating their solutions; and
3. Their estimates were sometimes slightly short – anywhere between 30 and 300%.

Earlier in my career, it was common to use an average project failure rate of 40%.  The reasons are numerous, but often had to do with unclear requirements causing excessive modifications, and pushing the envelope in terms of technical and computing capabilities.  The results usually had a 7 to 10 year life before being replaced.  Despite advancements in global communication, computing power, and automated tools and equipment, to help us estimate, design and build whatever our customers dream up; the failure rates don’t appear to be dropping.  Various studies range from 37 – 70% (i.e. http://calleam.com/WTPF/?page_id=1445).

This speed driven model appears on first glance to have benefits of immediate satisfaction for the customer, and endless revenue for the supplier, and it definitely works for some types of projects.  Success rates depend heavily upon which point in time and by whom, the success is measured, the initial sports closet delivery date, or, paying an additional $100,000 for 25 years?

It used to be said that unhappy customers complained about ten times more than happy customers.  In the World Innovation Forum Summary 2011, I read that a high-profile customer with 470,000 followers sent 40 tweets about his complaint; it was only re-tweeted 700 times…

Customer experience is the culmination of all direct and indirect client interactions with your company, from first awareness to post invoicing.  The designer would say the sports closet and renovations were a success, and revenues increased $100,000, but does their assessment match the client’s lasting impression?

Anne Ismay, President, The Allusive Image Inc.

“At the appointed time, I entered through the doors of a business that had contacted me for assistance.  Apparently, their Cashflow was running low and they needed help attracting investors and large corporate clients. Immediately before me, sat a little modular table with a guest book for security purposes. Placing my briefcase on the floor, I scanned the previous companies to assess the number and type of companies that had visited lately, and signed in. 

I entered a second set of doors and looked around for a reception area or front office.  The business specialized in designing and manufacturing high-end components in a business-to-business sector.  To that end, there were no original oil paintings; no sculptures resting on pedestals within recessed glass-lit nooks, and not a single mahogany desk or leather armchair in sight to impress wealthy clientele. 

Instead, cubicles of computers and equipment filled every nook and cranny, extending as far as the eye could see.  Around the perimeter, glass offices obviously held various persons of the management persuasion, from financial gurus to engineers, where they could continually oversee their subordinates; their high-priced specialists appeared to go on and on.

As I stood there, I noticed the cubicles nearest the door were currently vacant, though their spaces indicated usage, as they were cluttered with electronics. Gauges balanced precariously on one another, wires dangled and extension cords littered the floor, producing a worker’s compensation case manager with abundant makings for a heart attack.  Every computer screen faced me, each glowing with a diagram; the effect was a maze of intellectual property, which one assumed were supposedly confidential.  Where was my spy camera when I needed it?

The minutes ticked by as I stood patiently waiting to be noticed.  It was obvious that many had heard the door open, as I received surreptitious glances over shoulders.  When the owners realized I wasn’t one of their accepted comrades, the owners’ backs, usually covered in androgynous hoodies, rapidly returned into hunched lumps of perceived invisibility. 

I had to chuckle at the sign on the cubicle closest to the entrance, which humorously read “No. 1 in Customer Service”.

Just as I considered leaving, as I was now late for my appointment with the Chief Executive Officer, and with another appointment scheduled on its heels, an unfortunate soul raced into the arena from a nearby office, nearly running me down.  His panicked eyes searched around for rescue.  Upon seeing no feasible option without appearing to be completely rude, he shuffled a foot, muttered something about if I’d been served, and voilà, I entered the inner sanctum, where I was greeted like a long-lost friend. 

During the meetings that followed, the same experience became the norm, until I took it upon myself to walk directly into the CEO’s office in the far corner and interrupt whatever was happening.  When trying to set up or confirm meetings with investors, phone calls and text messages were never answered, everyone ducked visitors as though they suffered from the plague, and documents and answers were rarely received on the dates promised. 

To resolve these issues, during the course of one meeting I carefully suggested the consideration of a single investment totalling less than $50,000 per year including overhead.  A drop in the bucket compared to the millions already spent in research and development, facilities and equipment, professional staff, and endless international travel.  For I dared recommend the addition of one customer service, reception-type person to potentially prevent the loss of customers, investors, partners and other influential contacts.  This was met with blatant shock, and I was told in no uncertain terms that they provided excellent customer service, in fact, they had just demonstrated their products to some engineers that morning . . . but, of course, I wasn’t a customer.”

This short story illustrates issues beyond standard customer service that are not taken seriously by many companies because it is outside their core focus. Customers and other sources of money, may not come solely from presentations or through channels such as websites or webinars.  The ‘customer experience’ is the culmination of all the various interactions and observations, made by everyone that has contact with your company.

If you have observed these, or believe there may be other customer related issues impacting your customer and revenue growth, Anne would love to hear from you.  Alternatively, you may wish to consider one of her training workshops @  www.allusiveimage.ca/ training/.

Anne Ismay, AInstIB.