Right hand not talking to the left hand…
Pestered by darling daughter into getting her phone upgraded: you know, it’s a fashion thing although you’d be hard pressed to get the little tinker to admit that … ‘No, Dad – it’s got nothing to do with the look of the phone I’ve spotted, it’s just the one I’ve got doesn’t work properly and I think you can get me onto a tariff with unlimited texts for the same money’ said Pinnochio. Anyway I digress …
Step 1: had to find out whether her phone contract was eligible for upgrading the phone: “the computer, it says NO”. But sprog had received a text message saying she was. Ah, the old left hand and right hand syndrome.
So I give the customer services lot a call and they say: ‘cos you’re such a great customer, we’d be happy to upgrade the phone and change the tariff’ … OK, so obviously talking to the left hand which is turning out to be nice and friendly. Then confirm that I will also get the 4Gb memory card that they’re advertising on their site as part of the phone package: they say ‘Yes’ … happy days.
Phone arrives next day = deep joy. But no 4Gb card … an oversight, but foregiveable given previous interaction. So back onto the phone … let’s face it, little worse than Dad failing to deliver a simple thing like a phone package advertised on a site where there’s a daughter involved: especially the gobby one I’ve got.
So call up customer services …. Aaaaaaaaarrggggggghhhh or words to that effect. The right hand is back in play. Summary of conversation:
“No sir, you’re not eligible for the memory card – that’s an internet offer only” says right hand.
“But I was allowed to get it on site, I had to get it through the customer services dept” says me.
“Nothing I can do sir, it’s an internet only deal” says right hand.
Put down phone as blood and bile start to rise. Jump around the office howling at the moon. Calm down. Back onto their site … looking for customer services complaints. Send off e-mail informing asking them quite politely: “Are you mad? My darling daughter has spent about £1K in call costs over last 2 years ( I started crying with this sudden realisation) and you lot are quibbling over something that retails for £10 so presumably costing you no more than £2-£3 … and I am signing up for another 18 months”.
Not sure whether I am sending this to the left of the right hand, but off it goes. In the meantime, go and buy a memory card from T-mobile site … thinking, well I need the card and I am not waiting to see what happens – they can always rebate the cost if the left hand has got anything to do with it.
Hooray, it’s left hand sending an e-mail …”terribly sorry, you’re wonderful (OK, a bit of poetic license there), memory card in the post”. Now I have 2 memory cards with the one I bought being credited so I seem to have got a free card … so all’s well that ends well.
The lessons:
Some brands seem to think that customers only use one channel, never two … or can’t be bothered with those of us who do. Don’t make it difficult for us ‘cos you’ll lose … get some buzz metrics in place and you’ll see lots of people like me ranting, reviewing and scoring … and guess what: others are more likely to listen to me than you, Mr Brand Manager.
A single customer view would probably have helped bring left and right hand together and avoided the above. But if that’s too expensive, then for the love of God, please recognise your big spenders and get a specialist retention team in place so we can get a nice big warm feeling … after all if you’re a customer it’s all about me, me, me.
Chris
Last Christmas they gave us their art.
Geronimo (art) house band 17 Trees ‘interpret’ the Wham classic ‘Last Christmas’ at our Christmas party, at The Firehouse, London SW7 2HR in December.
Line up is Pete (Art Director) guitar & vox, Wayne (Head of Art) bass, Adie (Sr Designer) guitar, Gabor (Interactive designer) drums.
Despite some interest from Cowell and Walsh the lads will not be giving up their day jobs any time soon
Web traffic : Eaon in Brand Republic this week
I wrote this for Brand Republic ages ago and had forgotten about it, it just appeared today. In case you can’t log in to BR (Ithink you need to be a subscriber, not sure?) I’ve re posted it here.
As an aside, i think i’ve been sub-edited as I’m fairly certain that the liberal sprinkling of the c-word (consumer)was not my doing. I’ve amended it for republication here.
“How to generate traffic to your website:
Conventional marketing usually involves investing a lot of time, effort and money trying to interrupt people who are busy doing something else and probably don’t care about your products or services — and it’s usually through advertising.
About 5 years ago I could expect to encounter around 1,000 marketing messages per day as I go about my business. Today with more fragmented media channels, it’s closer to 5,000.
The bad news for brands is that I am now better equipped for ignoring their messages than ever before.
The good news for brands is that they have assets to affect this that are massively underused and undervalued, which come in the form of the customers they already have.
More importantly, there’s the core group of those customers who are strong brand ambassadors.
Brands need to work out who these people are, get their permission, build a relationship and dialogue, and then ask!
The big question is, can brands handle the fact that no-one actually cares much about them?
People care about their own passions and the groups and communities that they are part of — even those that are extremely brand loyal only care because their chosen brands make it easy for them to do what they want to do (not vice versa).
We need to give our customers the tools to make their brand experience personal and relevant.
Build the affiliations — syndicate the content using RSS and embed codes.
Attract visitors by sending them away — link out to the individuals and groups that are talking about the same stuff.
The nature of the web is not as a communication channel, it’s a connection channel.
Amazon.com is of course the great example of this empowerment of the customer: A friend of mine produces a podcast on Buddhism.
He has a core community of around 200,000 listeners via his blog and i-tunes. Amazon’s affiliate shops allow him to create his own “shop” within Amazon via a widget embedded in the blog where listeners can easily purchase further reading material to aid their practice.
Brands need to think about their site: “Is the content compelling? Is it worth talking about? Have I set in place the mechanisms to allow my best customers to personalise their experience, adapt and share the message? Does my site serve the needs and desires of my customers, not just the brand message? Do I have the systems in place to be able to listen and quickly respond - with a human voice - to comments and queries?”
And finally, brands need to ensure that their products, services and customer service is so good, actually forget good, so great that their core group of influential fans have something to shout about.”
Opportunity: a challenge for 2009
People are spending less, retailers are going under, agencies are laying off staff and the weather is unseasonably cold. 2009 started as 2008 ended, with many in the communications business wondering what lies in our immediate future in these troubled times.
I remember listening to Timo Veikkola from Nokia (who on an unrelated note holds one of the coolest job titles I’ve stumbled across - Future Strategist) at PSFK London 18 months ago telling us that the future will be utterly fantastic. He was right, but not in the way I interpreted it back then.
A perfect storm has been brewing for the last decade, and perhaps we are now entering the vortex of this beast. Media consumption has diversified beyond many “experts’” predictions (remember the guy from IBM who said there was a worldwide market for “maybe 5 computers”?), people are more cynical than ever with regards to their attitudes towards profit-seeking corporations and the economic avarice that was bred during the industrial revolution under the guise of free-market capitalism has crippled our economies to a degree that could never have been predicted.
With this backdrop, how is the future fantastic and what does an agency like Geronimo have to look forward to this year?
If I could boil it all down to one word I would say: opportunity.
There are a myriad of clichés that tell us how in tough times, the best shine. And in that is the challenge that is on our doorstep as individuals, agencies and an industry. Are we really ‘creative’? Or have we been hiding behind our self-appointed expertise and generous budgets? Do we really believe in the primacy of the idea, or is it the primacy of ‘I hope this idea convinces a panel to give it an award’? Can we tailor our messages to the complex reality that faces customers and people today, or are we more from the ‘throw enough things at a wall, and something will stick’ school of thought? These are the questions we need to asking ourselves, because the time to really prove what we as an industry have been telling clients for years (namely that we understand people and are the most skilled in providing the service we do) is now.
Now is the time for us to give people communication ideas that resonate with them, that make their lives better, even if only in a tiny way. The value of a positive experience, the power of good if you will, has often been overshadowed by our own egotistical drive for obtuse creativity that extravagant budgeting has allowed. Now that the belt has been tightened, it’s the value of the idea, the experience that is paramount. We need to be more effective than we have ever been before.
The only way to survive in these times is for us to be exceptional at what we do.
How’s that for a challenge?
Sam
Life’s a gas…
Most of you with recognise this tale. Get first winter utility bill and say “How much? The thieving little … (sound of bleeps)”. So immediately onto the price comparison sites.
Actually find out that I would save most with British Gas … slightly unusual as I am BG dual fuel customer!!! Apparently I am on the wrong tariff – an being an energy expert like the rest of the customer base, I should know that !
So, onto customer services … “Yes, you would save money if you were on that tariff” says call centre lady. “Just go onto our website and you should be able to transfer”.
It’s amazing how for a split second you feel like you should be apologising for wasting their time because all of this should have been bleeding obvious. And then a voice starts screaming in my head …
What?!! Hold on a minute. I have had to find out from a 3rd party that you’re effectively ripping me off and I haven’t heard the merest hint of an apology, no trace of recognition.
C’mon people, if this information is in the public domain … then how long do you think it’s gonna take for your customers to find out! And guess what …
“ Taxi”. I’m off to someone else … even if it cost me a little more.
Lessons:
If you’re not going to be proactive, then at least scenario plan so that a somewhat stroppy customer can be mollified better … perhaps even change tariff for them (God that’s almost helpful, so probably not) to make up for some of the time spent by customer finding out they’ve not been advised well.
Obviously better to pre-empt the potential problem. So what about the following … let’s assume you haven’t got the money or IT resource to create lapser propensity models; you’ll know there are key times for customers to be looking at outgoings … and New Year is one of them (especially with the price comparison sites advertising like there’s no tomorrow during January).
So what about BG approaching me in November offering to do a tariff review … so “go on-line and let’s see if we can ensure you’re on the right tariff” – even if it’s done on a test size to prove/disprove business case. So they’re proactive, customer-centric, and pre-empt the inevitable but with more control rather reacting to an ill-tempered customer.
In other words, look at other sectors like the mobile phone sector and proactively tailor products to suit customers.