Perfect Service Magic Comes From Wowing Current Customers

Not Related But A Funny Advertisement About Service

I am spending some time in Wisconsin these days, and I noticed an interesting phenomenon on the radio. At least 80% of the advertisements for local businesses promoted their high levels of service, their moneyback guarantees, and their industry rankings for satisfaction. All types of businesses were advertised: health insurance, roofers, car dealerships, and security firms. And most tried to position themselves as the market's service leader.

I am of two minds about this:

1. I think it is great that companies believe selling service satisfaction is a viable competitive weapon. They are counting on a sizable segment of the population to positively respond to the idea that being satisfied with the service is more important than having the lowest price or the most progressive features.

2. I worry that promotion of premium service is not over-hyped to the point of numbness. And that this is viewed as a way to get new customers, and then under-delivered. It reminds me that 80% of companies in a recent survey said they wanted to use the customer experience as a competitive differentiator, yet only 40% had any type of formal service program in place.

I hope that these offers are truly well thought out, and that when customers are attracted to the offering, the company can deliver on the promise. After all, saying you have the best service is easy to do, but much harder to deliver.


My View

While advertising for new customers is important, Perfect Service programs focus on your existing customer.

• By delivering a premier experience to that customer, an asset is created that continues to grow. The customer will stay with you, buy more from you, and serve as a reference for future sales.


• The customer experience is designed based on a model for a "perfect" or ideal transaction. All aspects of the delivery of that perfect transaction are measured and improved upon. The feedback is frequent and instantaneous.


• Satisfaction is unconditionally guaranteed.


• Client satisfaction success stories are trumpeted throughout the organization.

Only then can a company confidently go to the marketplace and tout its services. And the experience will match the promotion.

SuperGuarantees and Angie's List Are Changing How Consumers Make "Perfect" Choices

At its core, Perfect Service is based on delighting customers through guaranteed offerings. These customers will then stay with you, buy more from you, and help attract others to you. A formula for success and growth.

One of the most important elements for establishing a "Perfect Service" program is to establish and boldly promote a "Perfect Guarantee." This one act sends a message to potential customers, as well as current clients, that your company is serious about providing satisfaction.

Another element is for your customers to promote their happiness with your services. Companies need to get creative in how they get the word out.

I am seeing a lot of work being done in both of these areas, and while I believe they are not fully developed, the trend is a good one:

SuperGuarantee Designation

Consider the Phone Directory....in recent years, these businesses have been a major victim of technology advancements with online and mobile data replacing the hefty phone book. When I need a phone number, I no longer even think about using the book or even the Phone Directory's website. I can go direct to the provider's website or query my search engine for a listing of providers. If most people this this way, why would businesses advertise in Phone Directories any more?

Lately, I have begun seeing advertisements from the Yellow Pages about a new program called the "SuperGuarantee." In short, if a consumer registers with the SuperGuarantee service and selects a service provider from the Yellow Pages listings that has a "SuperGuarantee Shield" designation, the work is guaranteed. If work is not completed satisfactorily, the service will mediate the conflict and, if still not satisfied, will pay the consumer $500 for the trouble. (Obviously lots of terms and conditions apply, but the concept is clear.)

For businesses, the SuperGuarantee "Shield" is given to companies who meet advertisement criteria of the Yellow Pages. There is no review of services, no adhering to specific business practices, etc. You pay for the advertisement, and you get the Shield at no extra charge. The Shield means that the SuperGuarantee company will guarantee the work, not the service company.

Collecting Service Reviews

Another service that is also growing is one called "Angie's List," where members can access "thousands of unbiased reports and reviews abouth service companies in your area." Again, the concept is simple: consumers report their experiences and members can review these experiences before buying a service. Should there be a problem with the service, Angie's List members also have access to a "conflict resolution team" that will try to settle the dispute.

The only way for a company to be listed is to have performed a service, and have that service experience reported and rated by a member. Companies, however, are permitted to advertise discounts to members, but only if they have an A or B rating.

While there are no guarantees offered, the collection of unbiased reports assist consumers in making the right choices.

My View

When selecting service providers, consumers are constantly looking for ways to sift through all of the information available to pick the right provider. Horror stories abound about the impact of bad decisions.

Both the Yellow Pages SuperGuarantee and the unbiased reporting from
Angie's List attempt to help the consumer with this selection. Both are unique
in their approach, trying to add value to what is perceived as a high risk
transaction.

SuperGuarantee spotlights service providers with its "Shield," offers provider conflict resolution services, and offers a financial guarantee if the experience fails. But service providers get listed if they advertise in the directory, not if they provide premier service--this lack of screening is a problem.

Angie's List delivers user-generated reviews on service providers, offers provider conflict resolution services, and has some membership benefits like discounts to services reviewed. But the consumer is powerless should the provider not perform, other than the power of a bad review in Angie's List. I am not sure this is enough of a deterrent.

I believe, however, that both services are on the right track. Consumers need help to wade through the potential providers of service, and both get partially the way there. Perhaps, each company can take their service a step further:

• SuperGuarantee needs to establish a filtering mechanism so that only companies that provide excellent service be permitted to advertise a Shield. The right to advertise the Shield is a premium and should be earned.
• Angie's List should consider awarding its top companies its own version of the "Shield" to designate top providers according to its members. Then perhaps if members select companies with the "Angie Shield," Angie's List will guarantee or insure satisfaction with the work. That would make the user feedback a meaningful metric rather than just anecdotes.

I like the number of ways this area is evolving. The spotlight needs to shine brightly on companies providing top service. Keep going!

Huh? Did I Read This Right? CIGNA HealthCare Wins Customer Service Delivery Award Through Focus on Helpful and Easy Interactions!

Gartner Group recently announced the awarding of its Outstanding Customer Service Delivery award for 2010 to CIGNA HealthCare. This follows its 2009 award to CIGNA for Outstanding Customer Service Strategy.

Huh? Outstanding Customer Service Award to a HealthCare Company? Isn't this the same industry that for years has been viewed as the poster child of customer abuse and mistrust? Isn't this the same company that had a nickname amongst doctors and patients as "CIG-NO."

In previous posts, I have often said that if one healthcare company can break from the pack based on a service strategy, it would help transform the industry.

It appears that something significant has indeed been launched at CIGNA and, according to Gartner, has begun to take root. I took a look at CIGNA's website and found just how simple and aspirational its new mission is:

The Mission:

To help individuals enrolled in CIGNA plans achieve their health goals with helpful information, trusted support and excellent service.

To do that we must: communicate simply, consistently, and in ways they find personally relevant, compelling and easy to understand.

Every interaction must be helpful
Every interaction must be easy

The Plan:

If we:
•Make interactions with us positive, productive, and seamless
•Provide helpful information that’s understandable and easy to obtain
•Do this repeatedly and reliably

People will:
•Trust us
•Come to us so we can help them
•Fully use their benefits
•Take better care of their health

And if this happens, the cost of health care will be lower for all.

I like it.

I like big goals, and there is none larger than the goal of lowering the cost of health care for all.

I like simple plans that are easy to understand, and this one points out that "if we do this, then people will do that...."

I like fact-based approaches that outline what the company has to do in order to accomplish the mission. CIGNA's website points out that, among other things, it has:

• eliminated what frustrates--if you want a human, you get one, 24/7


• redesigned explanation of benefits brochure


• redesigned new and simple enrollment guides

My View

CIGNA's efforts are to be applauded, For now, it appears that it is truly focusing on many of the features that matter to customers. Should it continue along this path, we believe what may emerge is a company that is approaches its business differently than others in the benefits industry.

As a former CIGNA employee, I find this a refreshing focus in that the company for years has found itself mired in an expensive technology and re-engineering debacle that cost the company dearly in customer goodwill, client focus, and employee morale.

The caution I put out there is questioning how deep this commitment to Customer Experience may be. As Bill Hogg recently wrote in his blog "Customer Service That Astonishes," companies need to become a premier customer service company in its strategy and culture, rather than having Customer Service as a tactic that sits alongside all other tactics in the corporate tool box.

I look forward to seeing more progress from CIGNA, and other HealthCare companies that must follow suit. This is how we will see leadership in transforming a troubled industry.

After The Win, Companies Need To Deliver "A Perfect Conversion"

Your company has worked for weeks and months on positioning your services exactly the way you want. The client has given the right signals that it values your service proposition, and thinks your approach is intriquing. There seems to be a connection forming between the decision-makers and the sales team.

And then you get the word....you have won the big sale! Congratulations. Time to brew the pot of coffee...the real work begins.

Now comes a critical stage in the relationship...the Implementation or Conversion process. This stage is the first time your company moves from typical sales hype to reality of having to deliver what you sold. In many instances, this is a sobering time in the deal for both parties, one that Perfect Service companies need to critically analyze and design.

Bruce Temkin, in a recent blog post, describes this as the "Engagement Phase," the underappreciated stage between Point of Sale and Service. He believes that during this stage instead of worrying about collecting the proceeds from the sale, companies should focus on getting their customers satisfied. http://www.customerexperiencematters.wordpress.com/

The longer the transition period, more risk, and opportunity, a company has to reinforce its value proposition. Companies take this transition stage way too lightly.

My View

Many industries, particularly those delivering outsourcing services, experience long periods between sales and ongoing service. Typically, this stage is viewed as a technical experience as the service provider is taking its new client's detailed requirements and translating them into service capabilities. We are in the weeds here.

To perform this phase, most companies deploy a dedicated conversion or implementation team to the transaction. This team is staffed with Project Managers, Business Requirement Analysts, Technical Analysts, and other members of the Project Teams

To collect client requirements, there is a lot of client interaction and documentation, often with face-to-face meetings. Any confusion or details that are unclear are addressed here by this team.

In short, the conversion process is an intense learning experience, with frequent client interaction.

And once the conversion is completed and services are now live, the client is transferred to the Relationship Manager and the ongoing service organization. Several things can be improved with this typical arrangement:

1. Most of early relationship building is done with Conversion Team, not ongoing Service Team. The early meetings are where first impressions are created. While probably personable, the Project Manager's chief talent is most likely structure, detail clarity, and adherence to schedules.

2. Most client learning is experienced by Conversion Team, and although details are likely documented, the "soft" learnings are not as well as the conversations leading to specific decisions. As a result, client particulars must be "re-learned" by the service team.

3. There is often a lack of continuity in commitments made from sales to conversion to ongoing. This is understandable given that each group has its own objective. Unfortunately, that objective is rarely the same.

As Temkin describes: the main objective of Sales, Conversion and Ongoing Service should be the satisfaction of the client, not just the achievement of a departmental goal. Companies that recognize this will review their conversion processes with a different eye:

--Involving Client Service staff during the conversion process;
--Training Project Managers on the tenets of delivering satisfaction rather than merely the execution of the project;
--Identification and resolution of client dissatisfiers early in the Conversion process, rather than waiting for them during service delivery.

In Re-Engineering The Corporation, the classic business book, a view presented is that Conversion is just an extension of the sales process. That makes some sense, since business requirements and offerings are collected during the sales process and are used for implementating that business.

Instead, I offer the following thought: that Sales and Conversion are just the first part of the Service Process, and need to be as thoughtfully designed.

Obama Speech May Have Gone Over Head Of Many In Televised Audience -- That's Okay!

Saw this news item about President Obama's recent televised speech about the Gulf Oil Crisis:

(CNN) -- President Obama's speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.

Tuesday night's speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.

Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence "added some difficulty for his target audience," Payack said.

In order to clearly convey your message, one must always keep in mind your target audience and the tone of the message you are trying to communicate. It is inconceivable that President Obama's staff did not purposely craft and deliver this speech as intended.

My View

Without opining on the state of American education, general guidance is to craft important messages at a 6th grade level. And without expressing a view on clearly divisive politics, I believe President Obama purposely took a different tact.

Why? I think that the Gulf Oil Crisis is a serious and complicated issue, one that requires careful description, planning, and messaging. The President needed to communicate to multiple audiences in an even-handed, yet compassionate way. While BP is an obvious villain in this episode, it is also a necessary partner in the fix, both in terms of capping the "spewing" oil and in funding the cleanup.

The President knows that using flip or overly simplistic antagonistic rhetoric will not remedy the situation any faster. The day following the speech, Obama met with BP officials and secured $20 billion for a recovery fund.

It is expected that citizens impacted by this disaster are angered. Those directly representing them must also express outrage. This outrage can be easily described in language concepts that are simple, emotional, and elementary.

However, when the senior leader speaks during difficult times, he or she must always be mindful of the exponential impact of his or her words on those listening. Those words must be consistent, factual, empathetic, but solution-based and hopeful.

To do this, President Obama stepped up the level of communication in his speech. He sounded like he understood the complicated issue, tried to put it in perspective with examples of other disasters, and was working all angles to minimize its impact. I think there has to be some comfort that the leader is in charge, even if the message sounded more professorial than preacher.

Senior leaders must understand their audiences, but should not simply communicate in simple terms. Rather, thinking through the intended outcome, and then crafting an appropriate message and medium is preferred.

Delta: Sometimes The Quality Of Service Is About The Art of Recovery

In a private moment after a particularly tense meeting with an important client, the senior manager at the client wrapped his arm around my shoulder and said, "Sometimes the quality of service is about the art of recovery." That lesson stuck with me throughout my career, and I was reminded of it recently while reading a letter from Delta Airlines this week.

In short, the letter apologized for a recent unpleasant flight experience when my bag was left behind (made even more frustrating since I had to pay $25 to check the bag in the first place.) The letter announced that I was going to be awarded 1,500 frequent flyer miles for my troubles.

Last week, I received a similar letter from Delta Airlines awarding me 1,000 frequent flyer miles for a cancelled flight.

Despite the inconveniences from the delays and the baggage mishap, I did not walk away from those incidents at the time with a poor feeling about Delta, rather sensing it was just my time to have problems that are common on all airlines. During the delay, Delta updated passengers with honest and relatively accurate progress reports, and ultimately we reached our deistination. When my bag did not show up, the clerk methodically and efficiently recorded my information and the next morning my bag was delivered to my hotel, as promised.

So while the letters and frequent flyer bonus miles were more symbolic than substantial, they were recognition that something went awry, and Delta management noticed. I like that.

My View

It is an unfortunate fact of business and life that things will go wrong. Using that long ago observation about recovery, Perfect Service identifies these as opportunities to demonstrate superior service.

One of the Perfect Service building blocks, that of "Perfect Improvement," is that customer service people must be empowered to "fix the situation" while the organization reviews the problem to determine root causes and ways to prevent it in the future. Customer service people do not wait until the problem is solved, but rather, do their best to make the impact of the current problem minimal.

Customers should feel like the error is not a usual event, and that the
service provider takes this specific situation very seriously. My counsel is to
make the company or person feel like you are "over responding" to an unusual
situation.

My son was recently receiving baseball lessons from a pitching coach to help him control where his pitches were going. After throwing a bad pitch, my son would think he was a wild pitcher. The coach said that when a pitch is wild, the pitcher should think that this is an unusual situation, and that the next pitch will be back to normal. That mindset alone gave him confidence, even when things go wrong.

At the airport, my expectation is that flight delays and baggage problems are normal events. What Delta did was to remind me that, at least to this company, the situation was being viewed critically, and they were sorry. This reaction makes me think that perhaps my situation was not normal, and that Delta was going to figure out how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Of course, if it does happen again, and I get a third and fourth letter, then my conclusion is that Delta is using these apologies as the primary means of recovery, rather than improving the process. And that would be bad.

Don't Commoditize Your Services; Taking The Weather Out Of The Weather Channel

I've read in many business publications that the number one job of the senior executive in any company is to keep products and services from commoditizing. That is, to keep away from competing on generic characteristics that ultimately ends up a price war and depressed margins.

When we speak about Delivering Perfect Service, it is with the aim to carve out a niche in the marketplace by offering services at a level that is decidedly different and superior than other competitors. For those customers that value permier service, price will be a secondary consideration. The mission for the service company then is to continue to improve and focus along that specialty...to invest in differentiation.

A news item caught my eye that speaks to curious decision-making from management at The Weather Channel. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_bi_ge/us_dish_weather_channel_1

It appears that The Weather Channel, previously THE authority on all things weather, has opened up its programming to movies and other general entertainment offerings. We have watched this slippery slope into the entertainment realm for several years as the channel has packaged many weather-related documentaries for its viewers. But the move into general-topic movies has created friction with cable and satellite carriers who view The Weather Channel as a public service channel, particularly for local weather warnings.

The move follows a trend amongst other specialized television channels in recent years to stray from their original purpose. MTV rarely plays music anymore. The History Channel, A&E, Science Channel, Discovery Channel all have added content such as specialized reality shows like Deadliest Catch on The Discovery Channel, Ice Road Truckers on The History Channel, Hoarders on A&E. These are entertaining shows, but what does Ice Road Truckers have to do with history? And don't get me started on Jon & Kate on The Learning Channel.

So why do it? The answer is simple....specialized programming is attractive to a select audience. General programming is attractive to a wider audience. The thought is that a smaller share of a larger audience is potentially more lucrative than a larger share of a smaller audience.

For years, The Weather Channel honed its weather-based programming, creating a ubiquitous brand and service for viewers across the country.

But is that about to change? Will we no longer see weather on The Weather Channel?

My View

It is a curious, but common phenomenon. Management looks at the market and realizes that there are many opportunities beyond the borders of its offering. By altering its features, marketing differently, perhaps even changing pricing, companies move into new territory.

The problem is that the value proposition that vaulted the company into its leadership position in the specialty niche may be compromised. The specialty offering may soon be overtaken by competitors, and soon is no longer special.

I have seen it time and again in the benefits marketplace. Competitors serving small companies decide to focus in the large company space; companies that offer a specific product now expand to offer a full-service suite; companies that offer a premier service begin to offer scaled-down versions of the product that are less expensive. And so on.

The end result: the companies gain a few marginal wins, but I have never seen significant marketshare gain for these companies. In the meantime, the focus on the primary specialized business is lessened, and as a result so is the company's differentiation.

The Weather Channel runs the risk of becoming a marginal general programming channel, instead of the valued premier content provider that it was previously.

Before management strays into other markets and generalize their products, they would be advised to think through their current unique competitive positioning and exhaust ways to extract value and keep their products worth the premium dollar their customers are spending.