I woke up this morning and wandered over to Chris Brogan’s blog and read all about his recent issues encountered when trying to buy a pair of Timberland Boots. I think the comments and Chris’s point may have gotten a bot lost in the shuffle, so I thought I’d write about it over here.
Back in the old days, say, even 10 years ago, we largely only had brick and mortar stores as an option for things we wanted. That meant we were limited to catalog shopping or stores near where we lived, or how far we were willing to drive for our access to most goods and services. The access to the long tail of goods online has disrupted this traditional model, and we can see its effects everywhere.
For example, the consolidation of the Department Stores to a few national brands has in some ways offered less nuanced choice, as well as less advertising revenues for newspapers who used to have competing ads from the three, four or more regional stores, but now have ads from only one, and we all know what that declining revenue is doing to the newspapers… but I digress.
The issue here is that we are fragmenting markets. As the department stores consolidate, choice becomes more one note, and we see the rise of specialty stores to offer what the big guys don’t anymore. How else does something like The Walking Company come into vogue over another shoe store which hopefully also carries shoes you would want to walk in? Why do we have three flavors of The Gap, both in malls and in local strip centers, rather than a department store that carries it all? The all in one has become uniform, and as a result the specialty retailers are making hay by offering the special and filling that nice well.
But then we added Online as an additional choice. Heck, today is “Cyber Monday” where all sorts of online specials take place, where it’s been formally acknowledged that we are buying stuff through another channel than merely in person.
Here’s the crux of the problem:
In person, in bricks and mortar, the experience of the customer, and making them feel valued is important. It’s not just about making a sale, it’s about making that person feel that their effort in dragging themselves to the mall was worth it- otherwise, why shouldn’t they just shop online? When bricks & mortar was the only choice, competition was more fierce and we seemed to understand this better. Now that the competition is largely invisible, ie. not the guy with the sale sign two doors down, but someone virtually, online, without limited shelf space- this competition is not as obvious. You may think you are the only option in town, but you may still see your sales declining- not because you are doing anything different, but because your customers have other options you can’t even see.
And thus the little quirky things that customers used to have to put up with- a sales clerk snapping their gum while you were waiting to be helped, people talking on the phone rather that seeing if you needed any assistance, someone acknowledging you in the store- they don’t have to any more. And that means that now, unlike any other time before, those “threshold experiences”- the first person people encounter in your establishment, and how they are treated- matters more than it has in the past. In some ways, it’s a shame these people seem to be hired as place holders and not paid very well, because they may be in the best position to effect your bottom line as never before.
In medicine, doctors who have practices in hospitals get reviewed regularly by things like the Press-Ganey scores. And it’s amazing how the quality of care patients perceive receiving is directly related to the office atmosphere and front line clerks and nurses, rather than the physician themselves. Likewise, large law firms help manage the perception of success by the waiting areas, fresh flowers and the like, which often has little bearing on the quality of work, just on how much you pay for it.
In the digital age, these threshold experiences are going to become more and more important, because they are going to set the tone for any subsequent interaction. Your mom may have told you something like “You only get one chance to make a first impression” and in a world where people have less free time and shorter attention spans than ever before, this is more true than ever.
This means that both in the real bricks & mortar world and in the online world, those first impressions and encounters are important, and will effect return business, recommendations and the like. So while a company like Timberland may not be able to manage the clerks at Macy’s, the clerks at Macy’s need to realize that the success of Macy’s depends a lot on whether they take their job seriously, and whether they make an effort to help a customer find what they want.
Isn’t that what we all learned back when when we watched “A Miracle on 34th Street”?
I have been a big fan of Pottery Barn for years. We’ve purchased all sorts of furniture (chairs, son’s headboard), dishes, towels, lighting, shelves, and more from them over the years. The only thing I’ve ever had a problem with has been their Emma dishes.
My husband bought these for me a while ago, to replace some pfaltzgraff dishes that had just gotten beaten up over almost ten years worth of use. After a few months, the plates started to get marks in them- the glaze on the started to crack and discolor. I was pretty disappointed, since I love these plates and we use them every day.
Today I was out to meet a friend for lunch, and stopped by our local Pottery Barn and mentioned this problem to them. the lady at the counter was very polite, took my name, and said she’d give me a call. I said I’d be happy to bring the discolored ones in or take pictures and email them in if necessary. By the time I got home, there was a message on our machine that I could bring the discolored plates in and they would replace them, no charge. So I packed up the plates and did the exchange. While I was there, I purchased a few additional cereal bowls to round out our set.
I have to say a big thank you to the Pottery Barn in Glen Mills, PA and to Pottery Barn in general for standing behind their product even a year after the sale. I am thrilled and happy, and still pleased as punch with some of the most attractive plates available for every day use.
The selection of stuff at Pottery Barn is always terrific; the great customer service is what will keep me coming back to Pottery Barn time after time.beyond th
Chris Brogan had an interesting post up today about “Cafe-shaped conversations” that got me thinking. The big versus the small, the mass versus the individual touch- this is a classic dichotomy we all struggle with in our lives. Are we part of a group (safety in numbers) or are we individuals, acknowledged for what makes us special and unique? And if you are trying to sell stuff to LOTS of people, how do you deal with this fundamental seesaw of mass versus customization?
In a typical day, in a typical store, my choices seem infinite. There may be plenty of options, but sometimes, none of them fit what I need, want, or imagine in my mind. Because there are so many choices, rather than just one carton of one flavor of orange juice, you can spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to figure out the price/quality/flavor differential for everything you buy- and that’s just the grocery store.
If you walk into a clothing store, or a “junior department store” like TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, the selections and choices are many, often jarring to the senses, and leave me with more questions about what I truly want, and whether any of this is truly worth while, than an ease of making a selection and beating tracks. The mere fact that the choice and selection is so wide, makes me speculate whether or not the “perfect” something is out there, just waiting for me to fnd it- there’s an illusion created that “good enough” need not be good enough any more. Ideal and perfection may be just around the corner, after all, the selection is already so wide…
One Attempt to Scale the Conversation- Education
Taking this out of the marketplace, let’s look at education. Schools are based on delivering information on the one-to-many scale, but tends to do so in smaller “cafe-sized” classrooms. It works best when the groups are even smaller, even one to one. But to administer and deliver the information to the maximum number of people, the institution, just like a company, has a heavy administrative burden. It can deal most easily when everyone gets the same stuff, in standard format. We’ve built in exceptions for students that learn differently than the middle of the curve, through special education or gifted education. This customization of the mass information delivery model works okay, but perhaps not optimally in all cases. This causes many consumers (ie parents) to see if they can game the system to fit their individual needs, to supplement outside the system, or to opt out altogether and send their kids to private schools or even home school them.
I’d argue that these options for education are equivalent to people taking their jeans and modifying them to suit individual taste, with embroidery, paint, “bedazzling” , rolling up cuffs, creative wear, wash and rips, etc. We’re taking what the mass market does offer, and customizing it to meet individual needs- the one on one conversation where the mass market left off.
Customization versus The Right Neighborhood- Good Enough
When I started writing this piece, I thought it would be about the overwhelming nature of the selection currently offered in the mass market, and how small things, like better customer service, provides that one-on-one, cafe-class attention that makes all the difference. It’s certainly one of the things that differentiates quality in my mind and makes a difference where I decide to spend my dollars. If the people care and are engaged, that is huge to me. But that is the retail end of things.
From the company production end, I really don’t need Prego or Progresso to have an all-hands on deck customer service team, because I don’t have or need a one on one relationship with my soup or sauce provider. If I need something slightly different, I can customize the “good enough” product with items at home and make it m own, better than they ever can. They can get me in the neighborhood of good enough, and my customization will make it perfect for me.
Companies who have a significant investment in service products, like banks, utilities, retail stores- these are the people that should take social media conversations and opportunities to provide great customer service to heart. They are the people who should look for ways to better serve customer needs, rotate stock, get a better “neighborhood” of customer needs they fill every day. Customer service and relationships matter here much more than they do for strict manufacturing of items.
From a manufacturer’s point of view, they will never be able to fill every need for customization out there, and I think they should probably stop trying. Apple, for example, does well enough with a few models, and a few colors-they leave the etching and customization through cases and accessories to others, and have spawned additional support industries because of it. Cafe conversations with Apple happen through their retail store- Steve Jobs doesn’t feel compelled to hug every ipod owner, and we still love him.
I think social media is a great place to engage consumers, figure out what seems to work and what doesn’t. It’s a great way to problem solve and to generate and keep loyalty. But it won’t work equally well for everyone, so seriously consider with whom you need to be having a conversation before you try to wrestle people into one. No one wants to be the person who talks too loudly and won’t shut up in a cafe. We all want those meaningful conversations that generate new ideas and make us feel engaged and enriched by the experience, and that should be enough.
Chris Brogan had a very interesting post on Trust Agents this morning. It got me thinking about how people become trustworthy in the internet age, when relationships may be many, but have weaker bonds than say, the friendships you make in your off-line life, through work, school, church, or other daily encounters.
In a presentation this weekend at Podcamp Philly, Christopher Penn said everything is customer service, and every step along a transaction chain, in effect, is an opportunity to provide customer service. This got me thinking about how important customer service is becoming in most of my business and personal financial transactions. Why now? Why didn’t customer service weigh so heavily for me in the past? Let me talk for a brief bit about abundance.
Below is a great talk Malcolm Gladwell did at the TED conference in 2004, talking about how the abundance of consumer products we find on the shelves is largely due to the insights of one man, Howard Moskowitz. (This, and so many other TED talks are definitely worth your time, so be sure to check out others as well, hopefully after you have finished reading this post….)
** Chris Anderson wrote a book a few years ago called The Long Tail, which also discusses the almost infinite choice of things we now have online, and Seth Godin frequently discusses the difficulty of differentiating yourself from the pack out there on the tail, encouraging all of us to Be Remarkable and stick up above the rest of the sameness that’s out there now. But how do you become remarkable?
So let’s do some “sociological math” here and add up these insights. If you take the insight that customer service, or the opportunity to provide customer service is everywhere, and consider that in light of the abundance of choice we all face with every purchase, whether it’s online or in person, I came to the following conclusion:
Now, in an age of abundance, the only differentiation besides price is customer service, or the Relationship you create between your brand and your audience.
Let’s add in the foloowing as well: Ze Frank describes a brand as the “emotional aftertaste” you get from an interaction, and Chris Penn elaborates on this by comparing the difference in your likelihood to buy “Grandma’s Cookies” versus “Old People Cookies”- Grandma’s emotional aftertaste tends to be more loving and sweet, and much less generic than “old people”, unless you REALLY dislike your Grandma.
Examples of Creating a Relationship and Becoming a Trust Agent
Let’s take a quick look at some consumer experiences I’ve had to illustrate the point.
For example, Apple wins, for me, because the customer service is great, the “community” users have created from the days of the Macintosh User Groups, and whether thecompany allows social networking on their site or not, the forums still allow users to help each other out- and that’s probably good enough.
Likewise, when I go to an Apple Store or call customer support, I get actual human support. I get people who are understanding and wait, talking to me, while I download a third party plug-in for imovie so I can get my kid’s video project for school finished, and wait with me until everything is working. That keeps me delighted- that is remarkable, and that’s why the next computer we buy will also be an Apple. The price is always a differentiation in the marketplace, but the relationship tips the balance where it matters.
Similarly, Land’s End delighted me almost fifteen years ago now, when a coat of mine developed a hole in the pocket shortly after getting it. I called customer service, and they insisted on sending me a new coat, so I wouldn’t go a day without one, and could use that box to send the old one back. This was back in 1992 or 1993, but this takes any possible fear out of any email/catalog/web transaction with them. They earned my trust, and as a result, not only do I spread this story to all my friends, but I always consider their products before looking at a competitor, say, LL Bean, because of it. (And I do like LL Bean as well, for the record.)
Price isn’t the only factor in the decision matrix anymore.
Last example- FiOS is finally coming to my neighborhood, and I have had intermittent problems with Comcast. But I also have Comcast Cares, Frank Eliason, from twitter on my side- any problems, Frank makes sure I get taken care of, and has called me at home, from his home, to make sure everything is fine. I haven’t yet met Frank in person, but I feel a loyalty to him and the company because they have gone above and beyond to make sure I have what I need- and this makes me very unlikely to switch, even if I suspect FiOS might be a bit better, or maybe even a bit cheaper- it has to be more than just nominal price and quality to disrupt what I currently have, when I have Frank for customer care.
Can We Quantify This?
Every business wants to know the Return on Investment, or ROI for its customer service/community evangelists/Outreach efforts- I suggest the following equation for the math geeks out there:
Purchase = Remarkability or Necessity
We make a purchase when something is really special and catches our eye, like that cute item in the checkout aisle at the bookstore, you don’t really need, or when we have a real need to fulfill.
Remarkability = (Brand experience + Price) x Customer Service Experience
To be remarkable, the brand experience, combined with price is important, but it is enhanced considerably by the customer service experience. I may like a brand, or have heard good things about it. I may be willing to pay the price, high or low, or take a chance on a new version of a product, say, V8 fusion, if I already like V8 juice. If the prior relationship with that brand is positive, I’m more likely to give your new product a go, and less likely if the prior experience is poor or non-remarkable in any way.
But what is tipping the balance between all the brands on the shelf, virtual and physical, is becoming more and more dependent on the customer service I receive, or the customer stories you hear from others.
The Long Tail of Customer Experience
Just like I indicated above, Land’s End still gets business from me, not only because their products fill a need, but they enjoy a long tail of customer service excellence- I like them, even if I haven’t needed a lot of customer service since that incident, because they treated me well back then. Sites like Amazon.com, DealTime, Consumer Reports and more collect stories from customers about what they like and hate about products. Even Twitter and other social networks provide information to people every day on what brands seem great and which have led to less than great experiences. And this information stays in Google and on the Web for a long, long time. This means every time you have a chance to interact with a customer, any issues, especially if they aren’t addressed, may haunt you forever online. And this means, long after that particular not-so-great transaction took place, you may still lose sales to competitors based on one bad experience- consumers can now broadcast, making every mistake you make all that more costly when it comes to relationships online.
One answer would be to never make mistakes, but that’s simply not practical. The other option is to make sure you are human; that you understand that each of those customer service experiences act as a multiplier towards your positive or negative remarkability, and then you can reap the true ROI of social media investment- creating a brand aftertaste everyone wants to try.
