We arrived inside and quickly realized the eco-tour bus we saw parked across the street had just unloaded its riders at Hopworks. Shoulder to shoulder we stood in the bar waiting for our turn to sit down when one of the servers (who we have gotten to know since we are always there), said, “Tracy/Ben – turn around. I reserved the small table in the back for you. This place is crazy.” One of the tables in her section had just opened, she saw us walk in, and put a reserved sign on the table for us. We are forever loyal. It doesn’t take much. Look for opportunities to take care of your customers and surprise them with extraordinary service. They will never leave you and will tell everyone about you.

I’m sure you can see where this is going already…. we sat down at a new spot and ended up receiving awful service and food. Bummer! The drink order came pretty quickly (and they were good!), but the rest of the experience was very poor. I had to get up to find our server to take our order after 20 minutes, the food was gross, and then I had to get up again and ask for the check. I stood next to her register as she handed me the check. She asked me, “How was everything?” I thought, “Whatever… I’m not talking to you, I just want to get out of here.” I didn’t give her any feedback since I was so annoyed. I told her it was fine, we paid, and on we went with our night. But, I’ve told everyone I know how bad it was.

This happens to people all the time. And, it likely happens to your clients. This is exactly why online feedback surveys are so powerful. Clients are not always ready to give respectful feedback at the exact moment they are mad. But receiving an online survey after the fact provides your clients a safe environment to express their thoughts and give feedback to help you improve.

Back to the normal watering hole!

We tried a new hotel called Inn of the White Salmon that we selected from Yelp reviews. As much as I love dogs, I don’t love yappy barking dogs outside my hotel room. There was a house next to the hotel with dogs that just ran around crazy all day barking at the wind. I asked the hotel if they had a different room on the other side of the hotel, but they were totally booked. Boo! I was bummed, but there wasn’t much we could do about it.

Ben and I headed out from breakfast and spent most of the day shifting through antique shops. When we returned to our room just before dinner, the hotel owner had left us a gift certificate in our room for two glasses of wine down the street, along with a short note apologizing for the noise. We were so surprised and very excited to enjoy the wine! It was clear the owner couldn’t do anything about the barking dog, but he was very empathetic. It meant the world to us at the time. The dogs still barked like crazy the next morning, but our tolerance had shifted. It doesn’t take much to make a huge impact on someone’s experience with your company even if you don’t have complete control over the situation at hand. You just have to be open to identifying the opportunities when they arise.

I was annoyed and convinced I wouldn’t come back since I couldn’t rely on them to be on time. A couple minutes later I was taken back to the dentist’s chair. The dental assistant was super sweet and never made me feel like she was completely rushing. We got done and finished on time. I was very pleased! I went to check out and again the receptionist apologized for being late and then she handed me a $25 gift card for my troubles. Wow, it made my day! I’ve told everyone about it.

This experience could have gone really sour and I could be telling you all the reasons why I would never go back there, but they recovered amazingly. We are human and aren’t robots. We are going to make mistakes and people expect that. The most important part is that we are empowered to identify when there is a moment to recover and take the steps to provide over-the-top service. I tell everyone about my $25 gift card… forget that they made me a bit antsy and annoyed. It just doesn’t matter anymore.

Four simple reasons why I love Rackspace so much:

1. Support – I can IM with them 24x7x365!  No more “on-call” pager numbers = no more guilt when I contact support at 1AM.
2. Killer Product – the Cloud Sites and Servers are so easy to use and scale exactly as promised.
3. Communication – I always know if something is being planned that could affect my sites and even get nice emails warning me of issues with my Cloud Server and how to resolve them.
4. Fanatical Client Service – At Inavero we specialize in measuring a firms attention to client service, so I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Rackspace is definitely a good egg.

I have one final example of why I love the client centeredness of Rackspace so much.  Rackspace recently experienced some failures in it’s technology systems that ended up affecting their clients.  The client recovery from these failures is the best I have ever experienced with a technology services company.  Below is a video that the CEO released within days of the outages that goes into great detail explaining what happened, sincerely apologizing for the downtime, and detailing what they will change to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  This is how exceptional companies recover from failure.  They take 100% of the blame and quickly move to make things right.  Way to go Rackspace!

American Airlines customer service manager says: “We can only take 50% of the blame for the problem. I mean…how do we know for sure that it was our fault that you don’t have reservations on the flight? You could have put a hold on the reservation and then let it expire. We just can’t know for sure.”

I reply: “Maybe because my 5 year old daughter is booked on the same flight, but now by herself? In what world is it ok to send your 5 year old on a plane ride to Disneyland by herself?”

After pondering this conversation and experience I wonder, should it matter? Why should any customer ever have to answer to an argument from a customer service manager about the % of blame they are willing to take in a problem like this? The real question is not who is to blame, but how can a solution be found?

American Airlines would serve it’s shareholders, employees, and customers much better if it took a play from the Southwest Airlines playbook and created a customer service culture that avoids laying blame and instead strives to find the solution. A solution that sends the customer off to promote the company’s great customer service and not off to write a blog post about how poor the customer service was. That is what leads to long-term profitability in tough economic and industry environments. It also generates Net Promoter Scores that crush the industry average.

Is the customer service culture within your company one that focuses on who’s fault it was? Or one that focuses on finding a solution that creates happy, loyal, and long-term customers?

How you would ever think to ask for it back after one of your own employees was responsible for the mistake is gutsy enough, but when that didn’t work, they sued her for the total cost of the jewelry, plus any legal expenses!  Now they have a legal and PR nightmare.  All for the grand sum (at wholesale) of less than $30k.

So, while rival high-end retailer Nordstroms has a book focused on their exceptional customer service Saks is suing their high end clientele.  We don’t do research for retailers, but I don’t need $100,000 worth of segmentation research to be able to tell the savvy Saks management this…..people who will purchase jewelry for $20k and up also hang around OTHER people who will purchase jewelry for $20k and up.  You’ve created a brand assassin, negative press, and a legal nightmare for what?

Well played, Saks….. well played.

Me: 2/1/2008 4:15 PM – (recreated from memory)

Hi, I am trying to set up a Group within LinkedIn for an association for which I am involved with. I am getting an error message when I try to prequalify members for inclusion into the group.

Can you help?
Thanks. Eric

LinkedIn: 2/1/2008 5:14 PM -

Dear Eric,
(good use of personalization – easy to do, but way better than the alternative) This is an automated response email, we don’t mean to be impersonal but want you to know that we received your inquiry sent to LinkedIn Customer Support. (I actually like the fact that they poke fun at the impersonal aspect of an automated response).

We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks,
The LinkedIn Customer Service Team

Me: 2/6/2008 8:19 PM -

Hi, I haven’t heard back from tech support (about 7 days ago) on an issue with the upload (gives an “unexpected error” message). Can someone please contact me at 503.977.6295 to help determine the problem and a solution?

I’m very frustrated with the customer service (or lack thereof), and hope that this email will spur some action, as I am trying to start a group that would increase LinkedIn users substantially. (In hindsight, a bit aggressive perhaps, but this really highlights the frustration that can happen when there is a problem and a lack of communication).

Thank you in advance.
Eric

LinkedIn: 2/7/2008 10:08 AM -

Dear Eric,
I sincerely apologize for the delay of our response. (Good start with a personal apology) We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with group owners’ ability to upload .csv files into their pre-approved members list. We are working to resolve this issue and hope to have it resolved soon.

We will notify all group mangers who are experiencing this error once it is resolved. I apologize for this error and thank you for your patience.

Thank you,
Matt K.
Customer Support Representative (All in all, not a bad message, but the key point here is that it should have been proactive, not reactive).

LinkedIn: 2/9/2008 11:17 AM -

Dear Eric,
We are pleased to announce that the issue you were experiencing while attempting to upload your pre-approved member list has been resolved.

Please re-attempt the upload and should you encounter any additional errors please do let us know.

Thank you,
Angela B.
Groups Lead, Customer Support

Me: 2/10/2008 8:53 PM -

Thank you Angela.
I appreciate the update.

Eric

Result: After getting a little snarky in my email, I finally did get some action, but that was after 4 days being in “no man’s land”. Your clients don’t know you are working on fixing something if you don’t tell them, and it is easy to feel abandoned as a consumer. Their process wasn’t bad, and the end result was a fix, but because I didn’t feel like they empathized with my situation and repeated attempts to utilize their site, my end impression was only so-so, when I started as an active ambassador.

Grading LinkedIn
Personalization: B+ (They actually did okay here…..not bad overall)
Responsiveness: C- (This should not have taken as long as it did, and certainly there should have been proactive communication of progress, or lack thereof).
Empathy: C+ (I never really felt like they empathized with my frustration. You just can’t fake empathy)
Result: A+ (The end result was a fix. It is working well and I couldn’t be happier with this aspect)
Overall Experience: C+ (I never really got past the feeling of abandonment early on. I was excited about this group, and the time it took really slowed us up)

For those not familiar, the Nike+ website allows you to upload your run/walk information from an Ipod receiver. The receiver plugs into your Ipod and tells you roughly how far you have walked/run and how fast you did it. While I can’t verify that all Nike+Ipod devices do this, Lance Armstrong’s voice comes on mine and congratulates me when I run especially fast or far. Pretty cool…..until you can no longer link your Ipod information to the website that tracks it, causing the analytical part of me to seize up at fear of lost run data. Keep in mind, I am not a natural athlete or runner….I want full credit for every inch of every mile I cover!

Here’s what I did to fix my situation and what Nike+Ipod support did in response (see my comments to their response in italics and parentheses).

Me: 2/10/2008 8:42 PM -

Hi, I have been using my nike+ipod and it has worked great, except that I just replaced the sensor and although it seems to be recording the runs fine on the ipod itself, it isn’t showing up when I sync with the website. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Nike+: Response Kim – 02/11/2008 08:10 AM (Their response comes within 12 hours – they’ve already accomplished more than many service recoveries) –

Hello Eric, (starting off with my name – so far so good) I am very sorry to hear that you are unable to sync your runs to the your Nike+ account! As one who also runs with the Nike+ iPod and Sport Kit, I can certainly understand how disappointing this is for you. (Another runner, who acknowledges my frustration right off the bat.)

It may be better for us to go through this together over the phone. So that we can effectively troubleshoot, please contact Nike+/ Running customer service at 1-800-595-6453 ( 7am-3:50pm, PT, M-F). (This is understandable, and a positive step to take to resolve the issue. While not directly a solution, I feel like it is a positive next step.)

When you contact us, please ensure that you are near your computer, and that you have your Nike+ iPod and Sport Kit available.

Look forward to hearing back from you.

Have a great day! (They may tell everyone this, and they should…..it is simple, but it drives home this feeling of customized service that is often missing.)

Sincerely,
Kim (When did it become okay to have no name or be from “The service team”? Nothing says I don’t care more than the impression that your problem didn’t even warrant the attention of a single human being. By simply signing the first name of the person who responded (or auto response, if that was what was used), Nike+ has sent a very different message – you are important to us, and we will treat you as an individual, not just a number)
Nike+/ Nike Running

Result:

After calling Nike+ and having a very pleasant experience with the service rep on the phone, but not being able to find the problem, I essentially sucked it up and started a new account. Tracking has been seamless since, but I did lose a couple of months of historical run data (not necessarily a bad thing….when you are as slow and out of shape as I am, it can be better to rely more on my faulty, ego-driven memory than what the reality of the runs was).

Grading Nike+

Personalization: A+ Nike+ gets that I am a person with a problem; I like to feel like another person has heard me.

Responsiveness: A+ I was never left wondering if anything was happening – they gave me clear instructions on how to clear it up.

Empathy: A+ How perfect is it that Kim has related to me and confirmed that I have every right to be frustrated. That is so rare in service recovery.

Result: C- After all of these high scores, the end result is that they didn’t actually fix my problem. Ironically, by the end, I almost didn’t care.

Overall Experience A-

Sure, we all want our problems resolved, but almost as important is the path that a company takes us on to get to the resolution. We are frustrated; show us empathy, we are busy; show us responsiveness, and we are not a faceless “customer”, treat us like people and let us know that we matter to your organization. In the professional service firm environment it is even more important we display these characteristics, but think closely about whether we do everything we can to put ourselves in the shoes of the people on the other side of the issue.