Home Leadership Turn Archives Me RampUp Solutions  
 

  • Categories

  • Archives
 

Ryan’s Journal: What is Customer Success?

Thursday, August 30th, 2018

https://hikingartist.com/2013/04/22/how-will-stress-look-to-the-future-us/

 

In a previous life I had a title of Customer Success Manager at a tech company. As the name implies, I was tasked with ensuring the desired outcome for our clients was met on every level.

Sometimes clients just wanted to be heard and I was a therapist. Other times there were specific business criteria that had to be achieved and I felt like a CFO that was building my case to deliver to the board.

One thing was clear though. Success meant different things to every client.

My title no longer carries that tag line of CSM but the desire to exceed customer expectations continues. As I am in a client facing role (and can’t imagine it otherwise), success is still top of mind within my interactions.

However, I sometimes wonder if I am truly achieving it and what is the measure for success?

We have all been delayed at airports. You fly more than once in your life and it happens. Typically I don’t get too upset, because a lot of it is out of the hands of the crew. They don’t want the delay either.

However, there are a variety of ways the crew can deal with it. I have seen some that ignore the issue and hope it goes away. Pro tip, it doesn’t. I have also seen crews decide to make it a party by giving out extra snacks or drinks.

Same situation, different outcomes.

As the veil is lifted between brands and consumers, it become easier than ever to vocalize your displeasure.

This has had the effect of highlighting those brands that are nimble and responsive and those that double down on the trashcan fire by pouring gasoline on it.

I’m looking at you United Airlines. #notafan

But what does success really look like? There are KPI’s, surveys and referral programs. In the end, success has many forms, but for me it comes down to this.

Was I happy with the interaction? Would I talk to a friend positively about said company?

That’s it. I know it’s hard to quantify, but, in my heart, those two  questions are the key to success.

Image credit: Hiking Artist

Rotten Customer Service Then and Now

Tuesday, August 28th, 2018

 

Customer service — or the lack thereof — isn’t new. It goes back centuries, one might even say eons, and no, that isn’t based on assumption.

The first documented customer complaint happened slightly more than 5,800 (not a typo) years ago

What could be the world’s first complaint about shoddy service is on a clay tablet that was first sent about 3,800 [BCE; they forgot to add 2,018 CE years to the total–ed] years ago in southern Mesopotamia from the city of Ur…

Here is an excerpt from it.

Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message:

When you came, you said to me as follows: “I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.” You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: “If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!”

What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? (…) Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.

What I found most interesting is that the complaint wasn’t limited to the shoddy product or the initial lies in service of making the sale.

It sounded angriest at being “treated with contempt.”

Update the product and delivery method and it could be a template for almost any 21st Century customer unhappy with a product or service.

Decades ago rotten customer service was more a function of little-to-no training and draconian scripts, but the advent of technology raised rotten customer service to new heights — think Ma Bell and Comcast.

And it was tech companies that added contempt to the rotten customer service recipe in ever larger doses.

If contempt is yin, then arrogance is its yang.

And there is no question that tech companies excel at arrogance.

Image credit: The British Museum

Retail DIS-Service

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/13754606573/

I am a frequent Home Depot shopper, other than during the Nardelli regime, mainly because my Amex points a good conversion rate to dollars for HD gift cards.

Now it seems I only have to deal with corporate purchasing stupidity.

Let me explain.

I live in Washington State, just across the Columbia River about 20 minutes from Portland, Oregon, an area known locally for it’s dozens of micro-climates, multiple rivers and fast elevation changes.

This means that when it’s cold and rainy by me, it’s probably cold and snowy at my friend’s who lives about 15 minutes and 800 feet away.

But in general, we don’t get a lot of freezing weather — but we do get it.

A couple of weeks ago the entire area got walloped with the worst storm in 16 years and it stayed cold, with temperatures in the 20s.

So I wasn’t surprised when I finally got to HD to buy ice melt they were sold out.

However, I was flabbergasted when I went back this week and was told that they wouldn’t have more until October.

A very chagrined manager explained that they had sold out their year’s allotment and had no way of ordering more.

When pushed, he said that central purchasing decided how much of a given product would sell annually and if a store sold out tough luck.

So, based on the weather forecast, it was back to Lowe’s, where I shopped when Nardelli was in power.

Retail DIS-service; better know as retail stupidity.

Image credit: Mike Mozart

Ducks in a Row: John Legere and T-Mobile

Tuesday, October 18th, 2016
T-Mobile un-carrier movement

*click image to read

John Legere is not your typical big company CEO. Legere is an ancient 58 year-old leading a company filled with Millennials in a market driven by them.

Perhaps he should be termed the “un-CEO,” just as he is branding T-Mobile as the “un-carrier.”

… his mission to turn T-Mobile into an Un-carrier — essentially the opposite of any other mobile company.

The interview with him is worth reading, especially if you want to learn how to compete against brands (AT&T and Verizon) that are better known and far richer and successfully lead people who are not like you.

In just four short years he has taken Deutsche Telekom owned T-Mobile from a joke to the third-largest and fastest-growing carrier in the US.

Not too shabby.

He radically changed the culture, and, as he says, “set out to solving customer pain points in an attempt to fix a stupid, broken, arrogant industry.”

And not just with talk; but with an additional million square miles of LTE and new services, such as Binge On (unlimited streaming at 480p quality from services like Netflix), forcing competitors to follow suit.

His advice to business school students is something that anybody at the helm of any company, from the the corner dry cleaner to the Fortune 5, should embrace.

“I can summarize everything you need to know to lead a major corporation. Are you prepared to write this down?” And then they get all ready. I tell them I can summarize how I succeed as a leader: Listen to your employees, listen to your customers, shut the f— up, and do what they tell you. Then I say that the genius of the marketing strategy that we’ve had in every company that I’ve ever been in, is that if you ask your customers what they want and you give it to them, you shouldn’t be shocked if they love it.

Ask your customers. Listen to your customers. Give your customers what they want.

Definitely rocket science.

Image credit: T-Mobile via BI

Golden Oldies: Customer Service Week 2016

Monday, October 10th, 2016

It’s amazing to me, but looking back at more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.

In case you didn’t know, today is the start of Customer Service Week, focusing on “the importance of great customer experiences to the success of the organization and reinforce a customer-focused culture.” “Customer” typically refers to the people who buy your product, but they aren’t your only customers, especially if you’re a manager. That’s why today’s Golden Oldies includes two posts, with several links to additional, valuable information on the subject of customers and how to keep them. One new link seems worth including; it explains why, unlike other fields, the constant practice involved in active customer service can seriously reduce empathy — an absolute requirement of great customer service.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelaarcher/5166009978/Who is Your Customer?

Customer service is a major topic these days (more on that tomorrow); as is employee retention, but do they really have anything in common?

Absolutely.

Every manager, from team leader to CEO, is also a customer service manager, because your people are your customers.

That’s right, customers.

More accurately, that makes you an ESM—employee service manager.

Why do you service your people? To

  • help them achieve their full potential;
  • assure high productivity;
  • lower turnover; and
  • create an environment that’s a talent magnet.

How do you service your people? By

  • cultivating the kind of MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) that truly values people and understands how important it is to manifest that;
  • offering high-grade professional challenges to all your people and making sure that they have the resources and all the information necessary to achieve success;
  • fostering fairness so that people know they are evaluated on their merits and favoritism plays no part; and
  • always walking your talk and living up to your commitments.

What’s in it for you?

  • Better reviews, promotions and raises;
  • increased professional development;
  • less turnover and easier staffing; and
  • what goes around comes around—everything that you give your people will come back to you ten-fold!

Flickr image credit: Angela Archer

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/6467405231Employee Retention: Not Rocket Science

Yesterday we looked at how a new IBM analytics tool that analyzes tweets found that customer loyalty was severely impacted by employee turnover.

A decade ago research by Frederick Reichheld found that a 5% improvement in employee retention translated to a 25%-100% gain in earnings.

Deloitte recently released its annual survey, which seems to back up the need for improved retention.

2015 Global Human Capital Trends report, their annual comprehensive study of HR, leadership, and talent challenges, the top ten talent challenges reported for 2015 are: culture and engagement, leadership, learning and development, reinventing HR, workforce on demand, performance management, HR and people analytics, simplification of work, machines as talent, and people data everywhere.

The first three are nothing new; the terms have changed over the years, although not the meaning behind them or their ranking as top concerns.

In a major employee retention push, companies are turning to algorithms and analytics to mine a raft of data, identify which employees are most likely to leave and then try to change their minds.

But some things never seem to change and until they do companies won’t make much headway.

At Credit Suisse, managers’ performance and team size turn out to be surprisingly powerful influences (emphasis added –ed.), with a spike in attrition among employees working on large teams with low-rated managers.

With decades of research saying the same thing, it makes one wonder why the finding was “surprising.”

In fact, nothing will change until companies, bosses and the media stop being surprised every time a survey shows that talent acquisition and retention is most influenced by

  • the culture in which they work;
  • the bosses for whom they work;
  • the work itself; and
  • the difference they can make.

Gee, maybe it really is rocket science.

Image credit: Steve Jurvetson

Entrepreneurs: Good Ain’t Cheap

Thursday, September 15th, 2016

https://twitter.com/CBinsights/status/772958529347092485?utm_source=CB+Insights+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a8ddd2fc89-WedNL_8_31_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dc0513989-a8ddd2fc89-87432613Back in June, when money got tight and investors started focusing on profits, instead of the emperor’s clothes, we considered why freemium isn’t an enterprise play.

Cheap doesn’t work, either.

Competing on price means keeping costs down.

Keeping costs down typically means skimping on headcount.

That skimping often happens in customer service/support.

Cheaper customer service frequently means online help or offshore outsourcing.

Neither option is known to keep enterprise users happy.

And while inertia may retain consumers, enterprise is quick to walk.

Like the man said, good ain’t cheap and cheap ain’t good.

Image credit: CB Insights

Entrepreneurs: Problems of Privilege

Thursday, July 28th, 2016

14997011612_a1a5303fa5_zLast January I wrote about how trivial so-called innovation has become citing comments from Matt Rosoff, Peter Thiel and a study from Accenture.

More recently, RMT (Riva-Melissa Tez,CEO @ Permutation AI and an active investor) wrote a superb post on Medium noting that Silicon Valley has lost its perspective on the difference between a ‘problem’ and an ‘obstacle’

— any obstacle that restricts our standard of living — is now framed as a problem. (…)  Recognizing these obstacles or inconveniences and being able to avoid them are privileges — a special right enjoyed as a result of one’s socioeconomic position. They are perks

Or, as one commenter called them, “problems of privilege.“

It’s not that the multiple on demand services that eliminate these obstacles or the apps and games that entertain us are bad.

But they will only change the world of the relatively few who can afford them and pitching them as such is, simply put, a lie.

In another comment, Annie Feighery, founder of mWater, makes a good point.

Most of SV has made its success from vertical approaches to issues with little complexity. The few SV approaches to humanitarian causes are failing badly for repeating that simplicity.

Starting a company that is a solid, sustainable, revenue-producing business, even one that won’t change the world, but that rewards its investors, will always be funded.

So, if that is what your startup is, then say so.

Not just to your investors, but also to your team.

It’s called “honesty”

Flickr image credit: BK

Foolish Google’s Mic Drop Day

Wednesday, April 6th, 2016

http://www.bufale.net/home/pesce-daprile-gmail-mic-drop-ho-ragione-io-pescedaprile/

Google is supposedly packed with smart, above-average-intelligence people who are savvy to the ways of users.

Assuming that’s true, one wonders why they violated the number one caveat of software for their traditional April Fool’s Day fun by changing Gmail’s long-used UI (emphasis mine).

The premise of the joke was simple. In Gmail, next to the standard “Reply” button, Google added a “Mic drop” button. Using it would reply to the email, archive it — and also add a GIF of a “Despicable Me” minion dropping a mic. (…) Its placement directly next to the default Reply button — replacing the “Send and archive” button — meant it was easy to click by accident, especially if a user didn’t understand what it was.

Unbelievable. Even non-biz people know you don’t change long-used/well-loved anything (think Coke/New Coke), especially without warning, and expect your users/customers not to react strongly and, most often, negatively.

Especially as a joke.

Google’s product forums are full of furious users claiming they pressed the button by accident, often on important professional emails.

If you think Gmail “Mic Drop” stories of lost jobs/opportunities/etc can’t be true, remember: there are 900m Gmail users. It was live 12hrs. — Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) April 1, 2016

Doing this was stupid, but Google’s response made it worse by totally ignoring user feedback and blaming a bug.

In a statement, a company representative said: “Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. Due to a bug, the MicDrop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page.”

How’s that for uncaring, it’s-not-our-fault, smug and inane?

Perhaps Google should have renamed itself Arrogance instead of Alphabet.

Entrepreneurs: What to Build

Thursday, January 7th, 2016

https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/8261449212New year, new ideas — one would hope.

Less ‘me too’ and more ‘me new’, or, as Matt Rosoff puts it, stuff that impresses his 5-year-old son.

By groundbreaking, I mean a technology that changed society, changed every other industry in the world. The World Wide Web was groundbreaking. The internet was groundbreaking. The personal computer was groundbreaking.

And before you write Rosoff off as a know-nothing consider Peter Thiel’s comment.

“We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”

It’s nice to know my nobody-know-nothing opinion is in good company.

In the tech world IoT is supposedly the bright light on the horizon, but don’t hold your breath.

According to a study by Accenture of 28,000 consumers in 28 countries, the world is tired of gadgets and no interest in replacing what they have.

Worse for tech, the public is waking up to the fact that it doesn’t give a damn about people’s privacy, security or even safety as long as they buy — at least not until it’s forced to and then only enough to shut up the noise.

As Accenture puts it, companies must “ignite” the next five years of growth by coming up with products that “offer a compelling value proposition,” “ensure a superior customer experience,” and “build security and trust.” 

Read the article. Digest Accenture results.

Then think about what you can build that would impress a 5-year-old—even a little.

Flickr image credit: centralasian

United Airlines: Unbelievably Stupid

Thursday, June 25th, 2015

It’s amazing to me how just plain stupid some companies are and, worse, maintain that stupidity for years.

United Airlines is a good example.

In 2009 it damaged the Dave Carroll’s guitar. Carroll spent 9 months trying to get United to fix it, which they refused to do.

So Carroll, whose band is Sons of Maxwell, posted “United Breaks Guitars,” a musical video on YouTube.

The video went viral and UAL’s stock dropped 5%.

Six years later the video has garnered 15 million views, 83 thousand Likes, 21 thousand comments and is still being passed around.

You would think they would learn something from that experience.

You would be wrong.

Last month, United personnel once again stuck their foot in it when they first refused to provide hot food to an autistic teen, although they finally relented.

The girl was fine, but the idiot pilot called for an emergency landing, called the paramedics and the cops.

When the officers started to leave, the captain stepped out of the cockpit and said something to them, Beegle said. They then asked her family to leave, she said.

“He said, ‘The captain has asked us to ask you to step off the plane.'” Beegle said. “I said, ‘She didn’t do anything’ … But the captain said he’s not comfortable flying on to Portland with [Juliette] on the plane.”

All of this with the full support of management.

United said its “crew made the best decision for the safety and comfort of all of our customers and elected to divert to Salt Lake City after the situation became disruptive.”

Passengers who witnessed the whole thing and posted videos said it was total bunk.

Of course, what UAL did to this child was far worse than breaking a guitar, but it goes to show their motto is still “the customer is always wrong, no matter what.”

RSS2 Subscribe to
MAPping Company Success

Enter your Email
Powered by FeedBlitz
About Miki View Miki Saxon's profile on LinkedIn

Clarify your exec summary, website, etc.

Have a quick question or just want to chat? Feel free to write or call me at 360.335.8054

The 12 Ingredients of a Fillable Req

CheatSheet for InterviewERS

CheatSheet for InterviewEEs

Give your mind a rest. Here are 4 quick ways to get rid of kinks, break a logjam or juice your creativity!

Creative mousing

Bubblewrap!

Animal innovation

Brain teaser

The latest disaster is here at home; donate to the East Coast recovery efforts now!

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation or call 00.733.2767. $10 really really does make a difference and you'll never miss it.

And always donate what you can whenever you can

The following accept cash and in-kind donations: Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Red Cross, World Food Program, Save the Children

*/ ?>

About Miki

About KG

Clarify your exec summary, website, marketing collateral, etc.

Have a question or just want to chat @ no cost? Feel free to write 

Download useful assistance now.

Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.

Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
while $10 a month has exponential power.
Always donate what you can whenever you can.

The following accept cash and in-kind donations:

Web site development: NTR Lab
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.