What ‘Next’ for customer service?

In the age of technology, super-efficient logistics models and the ‘always on’ society that we live in, purchasing a sofa may seem a pretty simple task.

My mission was to purchase a low price sofa for a family member who lives about 100 miles from me. They needed it quite quickly, ideally within a week.

I started with the usual culprits…SCS, DFS, etc…who are promising delivery by Christmas. I then progressed to those that you expect to deliver quite quickly – Tesco, Argos, Sainsbury, all doing large ranges of furniture with some good deals…but still 3 weeks or more to deliver. Ikea was next…good availability but quality and comfort was suspect. Finally coming to the conclusion that I may have to pay a little more, I looked at John Lewis, Marks and Spencers…all long delivery times…and then Next.

At last, a website that offered delivery on sofas in certain fabrics within 5 days…great! But this is where it all started to go wrong…

I scanned through the sofa styles, cross referenced the fabrics and was ready to place the order on a sofa in a ‘5 day fabric’ that fitted the bill. All boxes completed on the order form regarding the sofa specification…8 weeks delivery quoted! I tried another sofa…12 weeks!

By this time it was 10.15pm but luckily their customer services team would be there until 11pm so I gave them a call. Apparently their systems do not your enable them to show 5 day delivery – only 2 weeks. But if it quotes over 2 weeks it’s likely to be out of stock. If it quotes 2 weeks, however, you can order it and then, if you need the sofa sooner, you phone the customer service team and they’ll arrange it manually…although it doesn’t say this on the website!

I thanked them and returned to the site to find an acceptable sofa quoting 2 weeks delivery.

20 minutes later I was ready to place the order again. This time I got a little further…sofa specification and part way through the address details. But as a new build home, the address didn’t show up in the search and it wouldn’t accept manual entry, so I decided as a last resort to call the Next customer services line again and order directly over the phone.

I said that I wanted the 5 day delivery. Unfortunately, she explained, the delivery would be 14 days. I told her about the issue they had with their system and that she would have to adjust it manually (strange to have to tell the supplier how their system works). The lady went to speak to her manager and returned to confirm that it would be fine. I went through the whole order process, product, delivery address, credit card….”is the credit card registered to the address where you want delivery?”, I was asked. “No” I responded. “Then we can’t accept your order”.

At this stage, after days of trying to do what I believed would be a relatively simple task, I was a little frustrated. I wanted to give Next money for a product and specific service they clearly offer on their website but they wouldn’t accept the order. “What now?” I asked. “You’ll have to go into a store and order it, as they will be able to take your credit card there and deliver to a different address”.

By this point anyone in their right mind would have given up…but it appeared to be the only way to get a sofa in five days. So I headed off to the Next store in Peterborough this morning, knowing that they had a specific ‘Homeware’ department. Great, the exact sofa was on display, correct fabric and a big sign advertising the ‘Express 5 Day Delivery’.

One lady was just completing her transaction and another had joined the queue behind me. I suggested she went first, knowing it may take longer to purchase a sofa as opposed to a cushion. Finally, I asked the sales assistant if I could order a sofa. She went to find someone else to help me.

A gentleman arrived and I said that I wanted to purchase a sofa, on the ‘Express 5 Day Delivery’ and have it delivered to an address other than that to which my credit card was registered. He wrote this down and disappeared again returning with another lady. All three of us worked through the design, fabric, leg colour, etc using two separate computer terminals and he told me that delivery would be in 48 days. I asked which fabric was available on the 5 day delivery. He confirmed a couple of options one of which was acceptable but on entering the details it came up with 2 weeks delivery.

I then recounted the previous evenings tale and suggested that it was manually adjusted. He decided to call Head Office, only to return to tell me “No, it’s definitely two weeks”.

At this point, my ‘toys left the pram!’ and I told them that they were advertising an offer they obviously couldn’t fulfill and I suggested that they find a way to deliver on the promise Next were making both online and in their instore communications. The gentleman, who I have to say was trying his best, suggested I may like to go for a coffee whilst he worked out what to do and he’d call me.

After about 30 minutes I received a call saying that he thought he’d sorted it out and if I wanted to return we could try again.

I did, and it all went through without a hitch. Though I did smart somewhat when at the end he asked me if I’d tried Next Online service as there was a special offer…I reminded him that I had definitely experienced their online service.

But what can we learn from this experience?

• Never launch an offer if your systems are not capable of fulfilling it seamlessly
• Never publicise an offer in store or online if you have not fully trained all staff likely to face the customer to a consistent level
• Update the website if certain products are not in stock to remove the offer and the need to progress through the whole order process to find out
• If you get something wrong, admit it and make it better. Particularly if this is the first experience of shopping with a company, you will lose the customer for life if you do nothing to make them want to give you a second chance.

So what now? I’ll find out whether the delivery arrives on time and in good condition, which I sincerely hope it does. And will I shop with them again? Would you?

Turning issues into advocacy

In a post today by Canadian blogger Mitch Joel, owner of agency Twist Image, Mitch spoke about two recent experiences of bad service and how companies often fail to engage with people who complain via traditional media.

This is very true and something I have experienced on a number of occasions in a business environment over recent years. It is a personal priority that customer service should be given equal importance to employee engagement as without engaged staff you will never deliver outstanding customer service…and without loyal customers, you won’t need the engaged staff!

But poor customer service by the traditional methods of mail, phone, face to face and even email will drive customers to use social media as a method of communication to deliver their negative comments regarding your products or service. It is often out of frustration that customers use these media to complain, making it visible to all, as opposed to a more personal one-to-one communication.

If a customer feels the need to complain publicly, it is important that a business recognises that the customer has an issue, whether they believe it to be true or not. And this issue needs to be addressed.

The benefit of the social media complaint, however, is that it can also be solved in the public domain, giving you the opportunity to show how effectively and professionally your business can turn a dissatisfied customer into an advocate. This can have a hugely positive impact on your broader customer and potential customer base.

So remember a customer who believes they have a problem has a problem that needs addressing, whether you agree or not. But address it effectively in a social media environment and you can have a loyal customer for life in addition to positive repercussions in the broader community…and the community is likely to include other potential customers who share the same interests as your new loyal customer as people who use social media tend to ‘congregate’ in communities of like-minded individuals.

Solve it quickly, professionally, publicly and reap the rewards but don’t forget that some customers still prefer traditional methods of communication and these must be addressed with the same speed and professionalism to develop advocates for your brand.

It’s all about attitude

In marketing, sales, customer service…in fact any area of a business that has interaction in any way with the customer, a ‘can do’ attitude is half the battle.

If a customer calls and asks for something specific, for example ‘can you source me a product that is not in your core range?’, ‘how can I market your products better to the end user?’, or ‘I don’t understand how to get this service to work for me and support my business growth’, a ‘can do’ attitude will often keep the customer loyal…even if the problem can’t be solved immediately!

All too often, the response can vary from not returning a call to a slightly abrupt ‘it’s not something we do’. There are always things which are just not feasible, but a ‘can do’ attitude around service often makes up for this and adds a great deal of value to your product or service offer.

So before you say ‘I can’t’, think ‘How can I…?’. It often makes your job more rewarding too!

Whom would you employ?

Yesterday my husband and I dropped into one of the Little Chef restaurants on the A14 near Kettering which received the ‘overhaul’ by Heston Blumenthal following the ‘Big Chef takes on Little Chef’ Channel 4 TV series. It was packed at 10am on a Saturday as travellers stopped for breakfast in droves. We were shown by a lady to the only two remaining seats and prepared to wait it out.

The service was surprisingly fast, but it also provided sufficient opportunity to observe the staff at work. Two members of staff stood out for two totally different reasons.

The first was the chef. He had a restaurant full of people wanting ‘fast’ food. Whilst there wasn’t much complexity in the menu, he was churning through the work alone. He was meticulously organised, smartly turned out and worked fast and methodically, engaging with his fellow workers to ensure food got to the customers quickly and whilst still hot.

The waiter who took over the management of our table after we were seated was perfectly personable, but dragged his feet and walked with hunched shoulders and looked totally disinterested.

The two chaps were not that dissimilar in age but the difference in the level of enthusiasm and professionalism communicated non-verbally to fellow employees and customers was vast. I know which one I’d employ.

So employees or those in the market for a new job, attitude is key…the value of enthusiasm is not something to be under-estimated. And employers, wouldn’t it make recruitment of staff so much easier if you could pick up these attributes from a CV? Could there possibly be a role for video CV’s in the future?

The rewards of understanding your customer

I bought a car today. Not something you do every day, in fact it must be about six years since I last had to engage in such an act. I was in the reasonably good position of knowing approximately what make and model I wanted, approximately what specification and approximately what price and payment method…and I wanted delivery in three days time…or more specifically on the next working day!

I headed out to two separate dealerships within 20 miles of each other.

The sales person at the first dealership looked at my current car, understood what I liked and disliked about it, understood my needs, job role, the amount of driving I did on a day to day basis, timings and budget and set about taking me to two cars that offered the key things I needed within my price range.

I then drove South East to the next dealership. The receptionist was cheery enough and asked if she could help. I asked to speak to a sales person about the purchase of a used car. She went to talk to a couple of people seated at desks and returned telling me to go to the lady at the end desk, which I did. I sat down at the desk and said “I’d like to purchase a used car” and quoted the model. “Oh, you want sales”, came the response and she got up and went to find someone else.

A chap eventually emerged from an office and took me to another desk, asked few questions beyond the make and model disappeared for ten minutes and came back with one sheet of printed A4 paper showing a car of which any ‘boy racer’ would have been proud! It had the full black body styling kit, black windows, 3ltr turbo engine, etc. He put pressure on a decision so that he could arrange to get the car to the dealership for a test drive and showed me a similar model on the forecourt…surprisingly owned by the car sales person himself.

I made an excuse to leave and returned straight to the other dealer, the one who made the effort to understand my needs and recommend a car that satisfied them.

Job done, happy customer and proud owner of the new car from Monday. Thanks Huntingdon Audi, great service.

Just think how many customers you could win by having a better understanding of their actual needs.