What to do if your copy of "Service Failure" is a service failure

A limited number of copies of my new book, Service Failure, were shipped out this week, well in advance of the planned November 1 launch date. Unfortunately, some of the books in the initial run had a problem with the binding that causes some of the pages to fall out. The problem has been corrected, but a few people who pre-ordered the book may receive a copy within the next few days that has this binding issue.

I assure you this is not a guerilla marketing stunt!

Embarassingly, my parents first noticed the pages falling out. I was tempted to accuse them of being overzealous in exploring my new book, but then remembered the iceberg theory and went looking for more examples of the same problem. Sure enough, other books had the same issue.

Fortunately, it will be very easy to get a replacement book if you do receiving one with a binding problem. 

1. Call 800-250-5308 and speak with someone in customer service at AMACOM, the book's publisher.
2. You'll be asked a few questions such as your name, address, and where you bought the book.
3. A replacement copy will be shipped out to you.

I've also been assured that the binding problem has been corrected, new books are being printed, and we're on track for a release around the original November 1 date. You can still pre-order your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell's Books, or visit the Service Failure website to learn more about the book.

Etiquette tips for airline passengers

I've been on the road a lot lately, which means a lot of time spent in airplanes. In a moment of deep reflection, prompted by the passenger next to me spilling over into my seat, the passenger in front of me putting his fingers on the back of his headrest (too near my face), and the passenger behind me resting his open newspaper on the top of my head, I realized why I'm often so grumpy at the end of my flight. 

There are many times when other passengers are literarlly assaulting our senses.

Something has to be done! 

I asked some of my friends to share some etiquette tips for airline passengers to follow. Thanks to John, Sally, Sardek, Grace, Nicole, Katherine, Amber, Paul, Michelle, Judy, Adriana, and David for sending me such a fantastic list!

Sight

• Sweatpants - even the "fancy" ones are not appropriate attire. Especially because everyone knows you slept in them the night before and rolled out of bed to catch the flight.
• Please cover up your really jacked up feet. It ruins peoples' appetite and is just all around uncool.

Smell

• Bathe (sometime) before flying.
• Bringing aboard stinky food is not very polite.
• If your kid needs a diaper change then change it!!! No one wants to smell your kids crap the whole flight.
• Don't take your shoes off if you feet smell.

Sound

• Our team had a conversation about this exact topic just this morning. Top of list - loud mouths on phone. And, with internet now available on some flights, voice over calls while in flight. Keep conversation to people next to you, not the entire cabin.
• No arguing with co-passengers; in your party or not.
• If someone is sitting with their eyes closed like their trying to sleep, don't talk to them. 
• If someone is wearing earphones then they are trying to tune out the world. Please don't tap them on the arm so you can share your story.

Touch

• Keep your elbows INSIDE your seat boundaries. (And knees. Please.)
• Keep carry-on stuff under the seat in front of you, not in front of the person sitting next to you.
• If your hips are wide, please don't bump the heads of people who are sitting in the aisle seats with your wide bottom.
• Along those same lines, when boarding, don't bump your wide bottom, carry-on, small child or anything else you might be carrying on the heads of each passenger as you go down the aisle -- some of those big purses hurt.
• The person in the middle seat gets the arm rest! Just because the person is small does not mean you should wedge them in and take all arm rest space so they can't move.
• Store your carry on above YOUR seat only, don't use up someone else's space because you carried on more than you should have.
• (Don't bring) your entire bedding set with you. I don't want to touch your dirty pillowcase from your king sized pillow.

Taste

I didn't get any responses for this category. That's a good thing.

What etiquette tips would you add to the list?

The hidden dark side of good service

I recently traveled overseas and had to get a loaner phone from Verizon since my iPhone wouldn't work in the UK or Ireland. If Verizon had sent me a net promoter-style customer satisfaction survey about their Global Traveler Program (they didn't), I'd probably give it a 7. You can get an overview of Net Promoter scoring on the Net Promoter System website, but a 7 is a relatively neutral score.

It may be tempting to classify my service experience as good, but not great. However, my slightly positive overall perception of Verizon's Global Traveler Program is really a rough average of elements that were truly fantastic as well as some frustrating service failures that greatly diminished my enthusiasm. In other words, Verizon was one step away from either turning me into an enthusiastic promoter or an angry detractor.

What is Good Service?

Customer service is a function of each individual customer's expectations and experience. Outstanding service happens when experience exceeds expectations while poor service is the result of experience falling short of expectations.

What happens most often? Good service. This is when the experience meets expectations. There's nothing wrong with good service per se, but it isn't memorable. We only tend to notice, and remember, service that's outside the norm.

A Collection of Experiences

My perception of Verizon's Global Traveler Program was really a collection of experiences. There were at least seven distinct moments of truth that shaped my overall impression. 

My overall impression of Verizon's Global Traveler Program wasn't just impacted by the average of each moment of truth, but by their sequence.

Starting Perception. This signifies where a customer's perceptions are at the start of the experience. Good, or neutral, impressions are relatively easy to sway but strong perceptions are not. That's because a phenomenon called confirmation bias causes customers to selectively filter out information that doesn't match their existing beliefs. If they're a raving fan, they'll look for evidence that Verizon is awesome. If they hate Verizon, they'll look for any little nitpick to justify their feelings.

Primacy. My first two experiences with the Global Traveler Program were outstanding. Since my starting position was neutral, I was easily moved into a 9 or 10 position on a 10-point scale. It's also important to note that first impressions are much more memorable than what happens next.

Mid-point. The two frustrating experiences were sandwiched between neutral or positive experiences. This, combined with an outstanding first impression, likely prevented my perception from being in the 4 or 5 range.

Recency. My last moment of truth was good since it was relatively easy to return the phone. Customers tend to remember their first impression and their last impression, so a good beginning and end can help overcome a few negative experiences in between.

What can we learn?

I see a few take-aways here:

1. Good service can hide distinct opportunities to be either great or terrible.
2. Companies should fall all over themselves to make a great first and last impression.
3. It's a good idea to collect data to help you spot the strong and weak points in your service delivery system.

What other lessons can companies learn from this experience?

Jeff Toister is the author of Service Failure: The Real Reasons Employees Struggle with Customer Service and What You Can Do About It. The book is scheduled to be released on November 1. You can learn more about the book at www.servicefailurebook.com or pre-order a copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's Books.

Is the front line customer service employee a commodity?

A client recently posed an interesting question: Should frontline customer service employees be viewed as commodities where one employee is relatively the same as the other? My client is the Human Resources Director, so unsurprisingly she thought the answer is no. However, her company’s Chief Financial Officer firmly believed the answer is yes.

Who do you think is right? 

The argument for "No"

My client believes there is a meaningful difference in each individual’s ability to be trained, deliver exceptional service, and ultimately generate profits. If you want to attract and retain better talent, you need to invest more in your employees in terms of wages, benefits, and training. There is certainly plenty of empirical evidence to back up this claim (see my recent post, “Three reasons to give customer service employees a raise”).

The challenge, of course, is proving this to a skeptical CFO or even the company’s CEO in a time when the company is focused on reducing costs. Any increase in wages, benefits, or training expense will immediately be seen on the company’s profit and loss statement, but the resulting impact won’t be readily apparent. Even if revenue or customer satisfaction begins to rise, it will be hard to prove that this wasn’t really caused by an improving market, a clever advertising campaign, or a new product line.

The problem my client has in making her case is a lack of hard data to show that she’s right.

The argument for "Yes"

The CFO’s primary concern is controlling costs and maintaining cash flow at a time when profit margins are shrinking. To him, adding costs immediately makes that problem even worse. It’s foolish to spend the money if he can’t prove that investing more in employees will provide a positive return on investment. He is also drawing from his own belief that frontline customer service employees’ performance is more a reflection of the system (products, processes, and management) than their individual strengths.

The CFO’s challenge, however, is the same as the Human Resources Director’s: a lack of hard data. Sure, he can see labor expense on the profit and loss statement, but looking at those numbers in aggregate can obscure what’s really going on. An outstanding employee might generate twice as much revenue as a co-worker, but then leave the company for a higher paying job with better benefits. The replacement employee may cost more to train while producing less revenue, but that story won't be told on the company's financial statements.

Who is right?

My view is both could be right. Great employees will flourish in almost every environment, but those employees are also hard to find. Mediocre employees can become great given the right products, processes, and management, but you need to invest time and money in those things to ensure your employees have the right support.

The best way for the HR Director and CFO to settle their debate is through testing and evaluation. For example, rather than giving all employees a raise, they can pick a test group of new hires to start at a higher salary. This minimizes risk and expense, but it also allows them to compare the test group’s performance to the rest of the new hires who join the company around the same time.

Where do you come out? Are frontline customer service employees truly unique and special? Or, are the vast majority of them really interchangeable?

Would you rather hire rock stars or roadies?

I've seen a lot of help-wanted ads lately from companies looking for Customer Service Rock Stars to join their team. My first thought is, You really want to hire rock stars?!

Let's break this down a bit and see if you'd be better off hiring rock stars or roadies.

Rock Stars

I don't know any rock stars, but I read the news and have seen more episodes of VH-1 Behind the Music than I can remember. I also once had a roommate in college who was in a band. He skipped out on our apartment to move back in with his mom while leaving me to pay all the rent. I'm fairly sure that's an accurate sample size.

What attributes do rock stars possess? Here are a few that come to mind: 

• Talented
• Famous
• Selfish
• Demanding
• Immature
• Entitled
• Obnoxious

The first quality sounds terrific, but it quickly starts going down hill after that. Can your company truly deliver service with a team of people that resemble rock stars?

Roadies

Now, think about roadies. Just in case you don't know what a roadie does, they are the people that set up the stage, lug the gear, and make sure the rock stars have everything they need to play music. I took a tour of Fenway Park in Boston last June when an army of roadies was setting up for a Roger Waters concert. Watching them transform the ballpark was amazing:

Here are some of the characteristics that come to mind when I think of roadies:

• Unpolished
• Hard-working
• Dedicated
• Tireless
• Selfless
• Caring
• Skilled

The first trait doesn't sound too great, but after that list starts looking a lot more like the characteristics you'd value in a customer service professional.

So, back to the question. Who would you rather hire to serve your customers, a rock star or a roadie? 

How to respond to online complaints

It can feel like a personal attack when customers criticize your company in online forums such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, or even on Twitter. Our first impulse might be to fight back by writing a scathing response that sets the record straight on their so-called “facts” and tells the rest of the world this person is an idiot. While this approach may feel cathartic, it will probably do more harm than good.

Here’s a better way to handle online complaints:

First, take a deep breath

Your priority should be preserving your business’s public image. Trading barbs with a customer in an online forum generally has the opposite effect, so it’s best to give yourself a moment to calm down before responding.

Patrick Maguire’s I’m Your Server, Not Your Servant blog recently featured an incendiary restaurant review, an equally incendiary response from the owner, and a follow-up interview with both the reviewer and the restaurant owner. It’s fascinating to gain a better understanding of both parties’ point of view, but it’s also interesting to note that the majority of the commenters felt both were in the wrong. (Read the post here.)

In an example of a worst case scenario, a bookstore owner infamously found herself arrested on battery charges after she confronted a reviewer in person (Read the article in Inc. Magazine). The ensuing press coverage, with article titles like “Angry store owner assaults Yelp reviewer,” was far more damaging to her business than a single reviewer giving the store two stars.

Second, respond strategically

When you respond to an online complaint, you’re not just responding to the complainer; you’re responding to anyone who reads your response. With this in mind, your goal should be to send a message that your business cares about service and you are eager to address any shortcomings.

Here are three tips that consistently work:

1. Respond quickly
2. Assure the reviewer (and anyone else who is reading) that you want to help.
3. Provide a way for the reviewer to contact you privately so you can attempt to resolve their issue.

This approach works whether the complaint is written by a legitimate customer or a jealous competitor who is trying to hurt your business. Either way, it sends a signal to other readers that you are responsive, professional, and care about your customers. You won't win over a vitriolic jerk, but you will win over people who might otherwise have been persuaded to stay away from your business.

Third, look for the hidden truth

Nearly every complaint contains some kernel of truth that you can use to improve service. That’s not to say that you have to agree with everything the person writes about your business, but what if their complaint is really just the tip of the iceberg? Perhaps other people feel the same way, but haven’t voiced their opinion yet. Even worse, they may have just stopped doing business with you. (See more on avoiding icebergs.)

When you think of it that way, someone flaming your business online might actually be doing you a favor. For example, the bookstore owner might have noticed that her critics consistently mentioned that the store was messy and in need of a good cleaning. Even some of the positive reviews agreed that the store could be better organized. Rather than getting defensive, a smart business owner might have taken a day to thoroughly clean and reorganize her store. She could have then responded to all of the Yelp reviewers to thank them for their feedback and invite them to come back for a grand re-opening.

For more information, check out my whitepaper on engaging customers via social media or get a copy of Micah Solomon's outstanding book, High-tech, High-touch Customer Service.

Why I'm rooting for American Airlines to improve service

Customer service at American Airlines generally leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm rooting for them to improve. A stronger American Airlines creates more competition and can bring some much needed stability to a battered industry. This should result in better overall service from the airlines, even if you aren't flying American.

Competition is Good

The airlines may be much maligned for their overall service, but their industry score on the 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) was the highest its been since 2003 (see the results here). The traditional carriers like American, Delta, and United continue to lag in service quality, but newer airlines such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines have picked up the slack considerably.

Without competition, things can get ugly. Look at what happened to Continental Airlines after merging with United. Their ACSI score was 18 percent higher than United in 2010. Two years later, the combined airline's ACSI score declined 13 percent. It will probably get worse since they were responsible for a whopping 33.6 percent of passenger complaints filed with the Department of Transportation in the first half of 2012 (source: The Consumerist).

Competition in the airline industry often comes down to where you fly.

I'm based in San Diego, which isn't a hub for any airline, so my options vary depending on where I'm going. If I want to fly nonstop to San Francisco, I can shop three airlines for the best combination of fare and service. On the other hand, when I travel to Dallas in October to speak at the 2012 ICMI Call Center Conference and Demo, I am literally going two hours out of my way to avoid flying American even though they are my only option for a nonstop flight. I instead chose better fares and service at Southwest Airlines.

Taxing on the runway at DFW

Stability is Needed

Customer service often suffers when businesses struggle. It might start with employee discontent, where employees' concerns over their own jobs create a distraction that negatively impacts their service. This has been happening at American Airlines for quite some time, though their flight attendant union ratified a new labor contract on Sunday which might improve things a bit (see the story here).

Service gets worse when companies start making radical moves in an effort to turn things around. American Airlines is actively considering a merger with another airline, most likely US Airways. Recent history suggests that won't bode well for customers, as evidenced by the United-Continental merger and even the recent decline in service at Southwest Airlines as they merge with Air Tran (see Five Reasons Why Ratings Are Down at Southwest Airlines).

Perhaps worst of all is when an airline goes completely out of business. In March 2008, Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy and then abruptly cancelled all of their flights. Ten days later, ATA Airlines (another airline that primarily served Hawaii) followed suit. The result was thousands of stranded passengers and a temporary spike in air fares to and from Hawaii that made it difficult for many people to even get home.

What's Next?

I really don't know, but I fear the worst. Do any airline industry experts care to handicap their chances of turning things around?

Three reasons to give customer service employees a raise

Updated: March 8, 2023

I once managed the call center for a catalog company that sold a wide range of imported collectables.

Our call center reps had to have a lot of knowledge. They dealt with sophisticated customers who had high expectations and were expected to handle both sales and customer service calls.

You might think we paid well, but our company had cash flow problems. The company's owners mandated a starting wage that was in the bottom 25% of the market.

This made it hard to hire great people.

I asked the CFO many times to raise wages. He always said no, citing the company's cashflow issues.

It wasn't until years later that learned to make a better pitch.

In this post, I’m focusing on three benefits of paying your customer service employees more. I'll also show you how I used these techniques to convince a tightwad CEO to increase pay.

#1: Hire better talent

Good employees don’t come cheaply. They tend to have more options than less skilled or poorly performing employees.

Offering a higher wage immediately gives you access to better talent.

The problem is executives don't like to spend money if they don't have to. So how do you convince them?

By tapping into the another big way executives make decisions: benchmarking.

CEOs spend a lot of time worrying about what other companies are doing. They tend to follow suit when they see a trend.

So show them the trend.

Here's the graphic I showed the tightwad CEO who was paying bottom-barrel wages:

At the time, he was paying his customer service reps $12 per hour. (This was a few years ago, wages are even higher now.) I wanted him to raise wages to $14 per hour.

This graphic provided a clear visual that he was paying bottom-market wages.

A few well-placed stories can help make the case.

Ask your CEO or CFO to name a few companies they admire for outstanding customer service. Here are a few that are almost always on the list:

• Trader Joe's

• Costco

• In-N-Out Burger

These companies are all low-margin businesses that pay their employees above-market wages.

Your CEO is wavering now, but they're still hesitant. So eliminate some risk by proposing a simple test:

1. Post a job at the new rate

2. Compare the quality of applicants to what you got at the old rate.

I did this with the tightwad CEO. He was blown away by the volume and quantity of applications they received.

#2: Get Better Results, Faster

You should expect more from employees when you pay them more. They bring more skills, ability, and passion to the job than someone who is willing to work for less.

A great to make this case is to focus on the issue your CEO cares most about.

The tightwad CEO cared most about the conversion rate. This was the percentage customers who called with a product question and then made a purchase.

The current rate was 33%. The CEO wanted it to be higher.

I asked him what the conversion rate needed to be to justify raising wages from $12 to $14 per hour. He crunched the numbers with his CFO and came back with 35%.

So I proposed another test:

1. Hire a new rep at $14 per hour.

2. Measure their conversion rate after 90 days.

3. See if they can beat 35%.

The tightwad CEO agreed to do the experiment. What happened next was amazing.

His contact center director hired a great new employee who was passionate about the company's products and had great customer service skills.

Her knowledge and skills also inspired the rest of the team. They were excited to have a new coworker they could really count on.

After just 30 days on the job, the entire team’s conversion rate was 45%!

#3: Reduce Turnover

Good employees won’t stick around very long if they feel undervalued, especially if they can get the same job for higher wages.

The real cost of employee turnover can be enormous when you factor in the cost of covering for absent employees (overtime, lost productivity, etc.) and the cost of recruiting and training new ones to take their place.

Paying just a little more might be much less expensive than the high cost of employee defections.

Here's how to run the numbers:

1. Download this turnover cost calculator.

2. Calculate the cost savings of a modest reduction in turnover.

3. Ask your CFO to validate your calculations.

Getting your CFO involved can give your numbers more credibility.

I did this with one client and the CFO estimated the company could save $100,000 per year in direct costs by improving retention a modest amount.

He surprised me by also estimating an additional $1,000,000 in soft cost savings. These are essentially cost savings that would likely result from increased retention, but hard difficult to measure.

The CEO probably wouldn’t have listened to me if I had shared those numbers, but she did listen to the CFO.

Conclusion

Wages aren't the only reason great employees stay or go. There is a whole list of factors that influence employee performance, engagement, and retention.

It’s ultimately about culture, and how you pay your team is part of that.

For example, 95% of job applicants consider culture before applying. And 64% of customer service employees have left a company because of culture. (Source)

Here are some more resources to help you:

1. Report: Wages are one of 11 factors tied to burnout risk

2. Book: Build a customer-focused team with The Service Culture Handbook

Your service is only as good as the weakest link in the chain

A recent post on Micah Solomon’s excellent College of the Customer blog discussed how companies who only pretend to care are doing their customers a disservice. He described a service failure where a hotel sent him a pre-arrival email inviting him to contact the general manager with any special requests, but then failed to deliver when Solomon took them up on their offer. (Read the post here.)

This type of experience is frustrating, and Solomon makes the point that the offer comes across as disingenuous when it’s not fulfilled. That may be true, but I’d be willing to bet the problem is just as likely the result of a broken service process. According to John Goodman, vice chairman of the noted customer loyalty agency TARP Worldwide, these types of failures are responsible for as much as 60 percent of customer complaints. (See more in Goodman's book, Strategic Customer Service.) 

Here are a few examples:

A hotel promises its airport shuttle will arrive every 20 minutes, but it takes an average of 25 minutes to drive the route. The result is the shuttle is usually late. Fail!

A new credit card arrives in the mail. The accompanying letter instructs the cardholder to go to a website for instant activation, but the web address doesn't direct the customer to an activation page. This causes the customer to spend extra time searching the company's website for activation instructions. Fail!

A consultant sends his client a link to an archived webinar, but the client can’t open the link. The result is the client has to send another email to ask the consultant for a working link. Fail! (Okay, this one was me. Soooooooo embarrassing.)

How to eliminate broken processes

There are at least three great ways to prevent service failures that are the result of broken processes.

1. Test
Test things out before sharing them with your customers. Timing the route between the hotel and the airport before writing the shuttle schedule would allow the hotel to determine how long it actually takes. If the hotel realized ahead of time that driving the route took 25 minutes on average, the hotel could revise its schedule or add more shuttles to avoid disappointing guests.

2. Map the touch points
Identify how and where your customer will interact with your company (a.k.a. touch points) and make sure they are all aligned. The credit card company could have mapped their new credit card activation process to ensure the enclosed instructions clearly sent customers to the correct website or optional toll-free number. (See my previous post, Why ALL touch points count.)

3. Act quickly on feedback
There will still be occasions when a customer discovers a process is broken before you do. When that happens, act quickly to fix it. In my case, I had tested out the webinar link ahead of time and it worked fine. When my client reported the problem, I had to do some research to find out why it didn't work for her. As soon as I found the cause, I emailed the corrected the webinar link, apologized for the inconvenience, and thanked my client for bringing it to my attention. I also revisited my webinar software and learned how I had inadvertently caused the problem so I won’t do it again.

A little more (PG-rated) bathroom humor

Awhile back, I posted a small collection of signs found in or near restrooms. They were all good for a laugh, but also served as a reminder that we need to see things through our customers eyes. (See: "A little bathroom humor"). 

My friend Dawn emailed me a photo a few months ago for my "next blog post" on bathroom signs. I guess this means it's a series. Well, Dawn, I finally have enough photos to share. A few of the establishments were even in on the fun this time around.

This is the sign that Dawn sent. I'm sure it settled many arguments.

This was on the inside of the mens room door at a Salt Creek Steakhouse. 

Sounds like the coolest restroom ever!

This is sage advice at the Tilted Kilt. (I understand something similar is in the ladies room.)