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Top of Mind Thursday – June 15, 2023: Do Your Damn Job
It happened again this week.
At least once a day, someone else told me about a simple customer service issue they tried to resolve that became unnecessarily complex and drawn-out–and I experienced this myself, too.
None of these were unique situations. It’s likely a similar situation happens to this company dozens of times a day–if not more. Yet, in each case, the company representative was unable or unwilling to do what was needed to help, which should be exactly what they were hired to do!
Meanwhile, we’re living in an uncertain economic environment. There are layoff and cutbacks. Wouldn’t it make sense for companies to take some kind of proactive action to keep the customers they have satisfied?
Why does this happen? In some cases, customer service has been relegated to a series of prompts on a computer. If your situation fits their script, you’re in luck. Otherwise, the rep can’t or won’t think outside of the box. In others, it seems apparent that the company really can’t be bothered to help you. If you leave, someone new will take your place.
In my case, I was trying to dispute a credit card charge. The supervisor at the credit card company told me I needed to have proof I received a credit to dispute the charge. But if I had the credit, I wouldn’t be having the dispute now, would I? She repeated the same thing several times, louder and slower, until I told her I heard and understood everything she had already said, I just didn’t believe the argument made any sense. Then she hung up on me.
There’s much consternation today about how generative AI might disrupt our lives, eliminate jobs, and drastically change the way we do business. Yet, given the current state of affairs, it’s hard to see how an AI bot could make things much worse. At least generative AI tools learn–which doesn’t seem to be the case with today’s tone-deaf human reps.
How is your business doing in this area? Here’s a novel idea. Try calling your own customer support line with a problem and see what happens. Then you can see where you have to step in and get people to do their damn jobs.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 8, 2023: The Right Spark
My gas grill picked an inopportune time to stop working.
With summer fast approaching, this is the time of year when BBQs are the preferred way to cook dinner. Over the last couple of months, it’s been getting harder and harder to get the grill to light. Then, a few weeks ago, it just stopped lighting at all–even though it has plenty of propane gas and everything else seems to be working fine.
The big question was whether or not I should try to get this repaired–or would I spend more money on parts and labor than it was worth. Maybe I should just get a new one at one of the many seasonal sales.
Before doing that, I wanted someone knowledgeable to look at it. Perhaps this was something that wouldn’t be too hard to fix. So I asked the contractor who’s doing some repairs to my house to take a quick look.
That he did–and it was definitely quick. After no more than 30 seconds, he asked me if I had any spare AA batteries. Sure. But what did that have to do with the gas grill?
Turns out the igniter is powered by a AA battery. He swapped that out and voila! The grill lights perfectly. A battery! Who would have guessed? Not me!
How often do we look at something that’s not working and make assumptions that the whole system is faulty? Too often, we jump to the conclusion that we’d be better off starting from scratch instead of letting the people who understand what’s going on tell us what’s really wrong.
Sometimes, all you need is a little something to create a spark.
S’mores, anyone?
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 1, 2023: A Matter of Perspective
Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
We’ve all seen statistics that seemed too good, too bad, or just too strange to be true. The problem is with the right set of data–analyzed at exactly the correct angle–you get a perspective that generates a particular statistic. But looking at things from a broader perspective, shows something very different.
Today, the local media reported that the 2023 Bay Area tech layoff had reached a “grim milestone.” The latest cuts at Meta will bring the number of people let go this year to 25,000. Gee, that sounds bad, doesn’t it?
Until you consider that there are over 378,000 tech jobs in the Bay Area, and more than 25,000 people were added to the job rolls from mid 2021-2022 alone, plus 16,000 added since mid-2022. In fact, unemployment in the area is now about 2.9%–where 4% is considered full employment (there are always some people in between jobs–that’s the way the world works).
Furthermore, there are more than 200,000 fewer people on the unemployment list now than in mid 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
So what does this all mean? Probably that those companies who hired like crazy for the last couple of years overdid it. Those who thought upward trends would last forever are realizing it’s called a business cycle for a reason.
Silicon Valley is not imploding. Tech is not under siege. And maybe some of this culling will help make organizations stronger for the future.
The next time you see a stat like this, stop and ask what’s really being measured. Then look at things from a more reasonable perspective before becoming too grim.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – May 25, 2023: Doing What You Say You Will
Sometimes I wonder if people ever read their job descriptions.
This is particularly true of those in customer service. As a customer service rep, your job is to help a customer resolve their issue. It’s not to berate the customer for calling, or to make it impossible for them to get to someone who can solve their problem. But there’s one sin CSRs make that beats all the others: telling the customer when their issue will be addressed–and then not making their own deadline.
This past week, I found myself with a dead major appliance. Getting a service rep out was simple–the dryer was dead and replacement parts were not available. Getting the home warranty company to come through with their promise to find or pay for a replacement was not so simple.
Calling their customer service line resulted in extremely long waits–but they had that covered. They would hold your place in the queue and call you back when a rep was available. That sounded reasonable. They even told you when to expect a call–which was estimated at a 90 minute wait.
Unfortunately, in two instances, the call never came. In the third, the waiting time was supposedly 2.5 hours, but the call came 4.5 hours later. Huh? Then the service rep told me the same thing I had been told two days earlier–except the deadline they’d set for resolving the issue had been moved out two more days. And she was annoyed that this didn’t make me happy. Double huh.
Let’s make this simple: For the customer service component of your business, make sure you have people and systems that understand what’s needed. No one calls customer service to tell you how happy they are with your product or service–they call because they have a problem and need help. Hire people who are willing to be helpful, then give them the tools to actually solve the customer’s problem.
AI may be a tool to help CSRs navigate complex problems more quickly, but it won’t replace the human element. We’ve all gotten stuck inside automated systems that provided more aggravation than help, which makes the customer even more frustrated than when they started.
And, most importantly, when you set expectations with a customer, do so knowing it’s your business reputation on the line.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com