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Tag Archives: customer service

The Same, But Different

26 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Customer Experience, Customers, Shared values

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Customer Experience, customer service, Mike and the Customer, Virgin Atlantic

I am pleased to introduce you to Mike Bird from mikeandthecustomer.com. This guest post from Mike is a must-read for anyone interested in customer service–especially how it translates across cultures.

Virgin Atlantic

“We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.” – Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

I have led customer service transformation projects all over the World, and if there is one thing I have learned, it is this: the customer experience of service is not the same on both sides of the Atlantic.

So if you try (as many companies do) to take a customer service strategy which worked in the USA and move it to your UK operation, thinking that the same things which worked in America will work in the UK, then I’m sorry: you will be entering a world of pain. 

I want to save you some of this pain. So here are some of the things to watch for, if you ever find yourself taking customer service thinking from the US to the UK. 

  • British people usually do not want a stranger to wish them a nice day. It is not part of normal conversation and to many British ears, it sounds fake and insincere.
  • British people normally do want to talk to someone to help sort out their problem.  But they don’t want to have a conversation about anything other than their problem. Discussion of how they feel, their health or their families is a distraction and an intrusion.
  • British people do not express enthusiasm easily, except at sporting events.  Even then, it will be qualified. “What a great goal!”  “Yes, but he should have scored earlier.” If your business is aiming to measure customer advocacy (such as through Net Promoter Score, or some such), such reluctance can make getting good NPS scores hard.
  • British people love to complain about companies, but they hate complaining to companies.  Britons normally try to avoid conversational conflict, which is why UK conversation is so punctuated by words like “…sorry…” and “…thank you…” It also means that they avoid complaining unless they feel a real need to do so.
    It is quite normal, for example, even after quite dreadful service, for a British person to apologise for making a complaint. So an organisation that gets only a few complaints, should not assume that everything is good–-these complaints could be the tip of a substantial iceberg.
  • By the same token, Britons use “I’m sorry,” in many different ways, situations and meanings.  And if you hear this combination “I’m sorry, but with the greatest respect…,” be very careful. It usually means the opposite.

Of course, these are hopeless generalisations, but they do have a truth at the core:  British people, like all customers, want to receive customer service which fixes their problems promptly–with emotional honesty and respect, on their terms.

And, of course, for companies like Virgin Atlantic or first direct Bank or Hiscox Insurance that do get customer service right in the UK, the rewards can be massive.

So is it harder to get customer service right in the UK or the US?  In my experience, it is equally hard on both sides of the pond; it is just that the challenges, in many ways, are different.

Mike is Customer Strategist with MikeAndTheCustomer.com where he helps companies turnaround their customer experience. Find more fresh thinking and practical advice about the customer at www.MikeAndTheCustomer.com or follow Mike on Twitter @Bird_Mike

Just for fun: What British People Say, Versus What They Mean

My Purpose Here

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Contribution, Customer Experience, Management

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Tags

Camping, customer service, Northern California Consultants, Purpose, small business, start up, Vision

camping

On one side of the coin it reads, “How do I help my workers achieve?” On the other side, “How do I make a contribution in this job?” These are the two sides of the same coin of managing people.

Recently, we were catching up with our friend who works as a receptionist at a campground where my wife and I spend several nights each year under the stars. We’ve always been impressed with Ola and her customer service and people skills. At 82 years of age, Ola looks forward to coming to work each day, serving her customers, and being the ambassador of her campground’s brand.

The campground has been under the same management for years and in all that time the owners have never shared their organization’s purpose and vision with Ola. Curbing my speculation, it seems their main interest is in maintenance, making physical upgrades, and keeping track of the cash flow and accounts. The rest, they leave to chance.

Well, as chance would have it, Ola is intuitively filling in the rest. She has a keen sense of what the campground stands for and its small-but-growing reputation as a destination. She recounts stories about visitors from all over the U.S. and several points abroad. How they heard about her place, how she made them feel welcome, and the positive experiences they had. She gets post cards from friends she’s made as they pass through her campground and her life.

I asked her if the owners support her and help her achieve these amazing results. Her reply, “No, not really. But, I don’t let that interfere with my purpose here.”

Ola demonstrates impressive knowledge in three little words, “My purpose here.” She looks for the ways to realize the unused potential in her job. She’s working for something larger than herself. She’s achieving results for her customers. Ola is a self-managed executive and an inspiration.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved

The Real Ryanair, Please Stand Up

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Branding, Customer Experience, Customers, Management

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

consulting, customer service, Low-cost carrier, management, Michael O'Leary, Northern California Consultants, Ryanair

Ryanair

Mike and the Customer is a very good blog about how to improve things for the customer. One of Mike Bird’s recent posts caught my eye: Ryanair: kings of the customer experience. I prepared the following as a bit of conversation between Mike and me. If you’re interested in following along, please read his Ryanair article too. Ryanair is a low-cost Irish airline.

Mike, I really enjoyed your post and I’ve reread it a few times. Considering solely what’s in it, something seems a bit off to me in terms of emphasis. I don’t think the most interesting observation is, “Customer experience is not about being nice, it’s about meeting strategic goals.” Rather, I prefer something closer to, “Ryanair succeeds precisely because it is one of the few companies to have understood exactly the customer experience that it needs to compete strategically…”

My take is it’s about Ryanair understanding what its customers consider value. As you say, they value, “…Low cost, on time, with bags, that’s it.” From this perspective I read the story as a triumph of understanding the customer and driving the organization to deliver what they value without compromise.

To me, Ryanair hasn’t, “…Designed a customer experience to compete strategically.” Their customers don’t care about it and they know it. Instead Ryanair has chosen a low-cost, high-efficiency strategy vis-à-vis their competition to meet the needs of the utilitarian traveler. In that space customer “service” is all that is required and an experience isn’t a consideration. That being said, I do love the Michael O’Leary quotes you use (CEO Ryanair). He obviously knows how to promote his brand through the Press. Making fun of “Mother” is much more memorable than some dry statistic about on-time rates for take offs and departures.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved

Not Too Big To Fail

18 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Jim Lucas in Branding, Customer Experience, Customers, Shared values

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Tags

customer, customer service, management, Orchard Supply Hardware, retail

Orchard Supply Hardware, OSH, Customer Service, Lucavia Consulting

As a “Radical Do-It-Yourselfer” (R-DIY) I’ve been a regular same-store Orchard Supply Hardware customer for 16 years. In all but a handful of visits I’ve shopped at OSH because it’s about half as far away from my house as the big box stores. In other words I only shop there if I’m in a hurry or if I’m already nearby. As a result, I only buy the small inexpensive items where paying an extra 10%-30% won’t break the bank. You know; screws, nuts, bolts, and minor plumbing supplies.

Why? It’s convenient. And. That’s. It. Being in a neighborhood gives a brand many advantages. However, none will overcome if people only visit you for fill-in purchases—while spending 95% of their budget elsewhere. So, after 16 years of not one OSH clerk or manager taking the time to learn my name, or to even recognize my face with a smile or head nod, it came as no surprise—and, yes, a bit of schadenfreude to read of OSH’s demise.

The irony is I’ll be able to reuse this post in just a few years. Lowe’s management is buying the locations—not OSH culture. Without a commendable customer service culture of its own to inject into OSH it will only be a matter of time before the same cycle repeats itself (Sears bought-and-spun out OSH 1996-2011). One day, Lowe’s will look back and wish they hadn’t simply purchased the locations without doing more to make OSH worth the few percentage points customers would willingly pay to patronize a community resource: Where the staff looks up, smiles, makes eye contact, and says, “Hi Jim. Nice to see you.”

Seriously, all the management firepower that could be brought to bear to make this acquisition succeed pales in comparison to this one friendly human touch.

Jim

Lucavìa
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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© Copyright Jim Lucas 2007-2013 All Rights Reserved

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