Lessons In Service: Strive For Perfection, Don't Screw Your Customers

Yesterday, I had two experiences that triggered some thoughts about what companies have in mind when they act.
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First--

Watching television with my wife and a commercial appears for "Simply Orange" orange juice. The advertisement was clearly emphasizing the freshness and goodness of the product, features of a typical "product focused" sale. What caught my eye was the "Orange Back Guarantee."

According to the product's website:

"If, after tasting, you don’t agree that Simply Orange orange juice tastes as fresh as biting into a juicy orange, you may make a claim under the Orange Back Guarantee.....On a 3”x 5” card, state why you think Simply Orange orange juice does not taste as fresh as biting into a juicy orange in 50 characters or less.."

What do you get back? A free bag of the competition.....ORANGES!

I have been focusing a lot recently on guarantees, and how they make a market statement as well as focus an organization to deliver. So what does this guarantee do for the product? Well, it clearly caught our attention, more for being unique than anything else. Second, without tasting the product, my mind assumes it is a premium offering....why else would they guarantee such a thing. Third, it was not a true comparative offer, such as "we are guaranteed better than the other brands," yet it tried to position itself that way by comparing its taste to the ultimate competitor...the orange itself...against "the perfect competitor!"

My View:

The commercial worked for us. If you asked consumers to describe the "perfect orange juice," they would likely say that it should taste like freshly squeezed oranges. So Simply Orange guarantees its product is the "perfect orange juice," not that it tastes better than its competitors. I like that.

When trying to differentiate based on a premium offering, companies should look ahead toward perfection rather than simply staying ahead of competitors. Perhaps that's one of the reasons the Health Insurance industry, with its low service reputation, lacks a breakout service competitor...in their minds, it is okay to just beat competitors; they feel they don't have to strive for perfection.

Wrong.

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Second--

Poland Springs delivers bottled water to our house. Each month, we get a bill in the mail for about $40, which I am usually diligent in paying. A year ago, I noticed that a "Fuel Surcharge" had been added to the bill for about $2.50. I didn't pay too much attention to that since the cost of fuel had been going up dramatically. But I did notice that when the price of fuel went down, the surcharge remained. Well, unfortunately, last month I was two days late in paying my now $42.50 bill, and I see an additional $15 late payment fee. Now my bill is $57.50.

I was furious. So I called Poland Springs to cancel my delivery service. Between a Fuel Surcharge and now Financial Penalties, getting water to our home was getting expensive and complicated. Not worth it....

The Call Center representative transferred my call to a trained specialist who obviously handled all discontinuances. Noting my long tenure with with Delivery Service, she immediately offered to waive the Financial Penalty. As well, when I queried about the Fuel Surcharge, she said she couldn't remove the surcharge, but would discount my water 50% this month which would be the equivalent of about 9 months of fuel surcharge. So my bill goes from $57.50 to about $25.

Mission accomplished. I stayed. But I am not happy.

My View

There is an ugly business practice out there that I refer to as "The Appeal Process":

---Squeeze and underserve your customers and hope customers don't notice;
---Focus on recovery for those customers who do notice.

Like many companies, Poland Springs has set up a game of pushing the revenue envelope as far as it can (adding fees and penalties) to supplement its commodity product offering. For some companies, the money made on penalties, interest, and other charges can rival that of the product or service itself. (One has to question at this point what business these companies are in...is Poland Springs a bottled water company or a financial company?)

But Poland Springs understands that it can only push the envelope so far, and it tries to catch fall out during a recovery process. In the time of a 5 minute phone call and without my asking, the discontinuance specialist waived the penalty and discounted my water 50%. I am staying with the service, but am now wary of the company.

A company that wants to distinguish itself in service must not put its customers in such a predicament. By offering deals only to those who complain, or who know how to play the game, a company is creating a trust gap. I am not going to feel good about a service provider if I have to read and understand all of the small print just to not be taken advantage. Examples abound:

Health Care Insurers--deny coverage or prescription at first, but will accept if appeals are made. Model hopes insured people will not appeal.

Banks/Credit Companies--charge fees for everything but are willing to drop them if challenged or if accounts are threatened to be closed.

Everything Travel--the guy next to me on a vacation flight has paid half for his seat and hotel room because he knew how to work the process.

The true premier service provider would not have forced me to go through the humiliating process of threatening to stop my service before offering me the discount. If I was truly valued for my tenure, the discount or penalty waiving should have been automatic. Now that would have been impressive. I would have felt special rather than cheap.

Good Lessons here!