Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Rule Numero Uno: Respect the customer. If only one customer has a problem, you have a problem. Seriously. Yet, PayPal seems to have some mystical, magical number before they consider a problem a problem.

One of my Ask Mary subscribers sent me an email a couple of weeks ago - seems she didn’t see the monthly subscription payment on her account. So, I contact PayPal, thinking it’s probably some minor glitch. After several emails back and forth, PayPal tells me the subscription hasn’t been canceled and “thanks for sharing your concern.” When I respond, asking yet again why then the payment hasn’t been processed, I get an email telling me to call them, from “Nicole”

I understand that this is frustrating, so let’s eliminate the frustrating part by calling us at 1-888-221-1161. This will be less frustrating, you will be able to talk to an actual person, and you won’t have to wait for a response. Your issue will be resolved a lot quicker if you call.

Wow, I’m thinking, a real person! Somebody that gets service! Um, not so fast there, oh naive blond one.

When I call - there I am in phone system hell. After punching in numbers and responding to prompts, I get a guy who can’t grasp I’m a merchant with a problem that has already been reported multiple times. So, I ask to be escalated. I then speak to a supervisor, who tells me there is no problem with the code, that I’m the only one with this problem and “it won’t be taken seriously” if he submits a trouble report. “Maybe if five people called us, but you’re the only one.”

Finally, he says he’ll contact the subscriber since “it could be a problem with that account.” (Begs the question, why didn’t they check that when I first reported a problem?) He asks me for the subscriber info, which he can see by accessing my account (which I know he’s done because he’s quoted some of the info from it to me.) So, I pull up my account and read it to him. When asked when I’ll hear from him again - no commitment. I ask to be escalated, and - nope, can’t do that. He’s a “supervisor.” And, no, I can’t call him back directly. Sorry. Wonder if Scott Thompson, the relatively new CEO of Paypal, ever sits in on customer calls? Hello? Scott? It may not be fun but it sure could be educational! Everything you do is marketing - and that includes customer service call centers.

(Just so you don’t think I’m a hopeless crank - I also recently had a great positive service experience with a local company that I’ll be writing about tomorrow. If a small “low-tech” company can get service right, why can’t the high-techies, with all those marvelous systems? Hmmmm.…)

Update, 6/17/08: My client never heard from PayPal. And I got no response to my email sent to PayPal’s PR contact. Soooo….I’m looking into alternatives, will let you know my recommendations.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, Paypal, Scott Thompson

Or…how to lose two customers in four days.

Doing business on the Web is great. BUT, some companies take the living/breathing the web stuff way too far.

Example: WebFaction. I recommended the company to a client for hosting. We are now on day FOUR of trying to get her email working. What could have been a 15 minute call has turned into a flurry of back and forth emails and no resolution.

As a former Director of “Worldwide Help Desk Services” for Unisys, I’m painfully familiar with the costs of phone support. But, not offering it in this case is likely going to lose Web Faction at least two customers. (My client and I talk to a LOT of people - on and off the Web.) And, we’ve eaten up a lot of Sean’s time (the fella who provides support for Web Faction out of Las Cruces - so the company must grok some of the basics of remote support…) I asked him to call my client and got the response “we don’t provide phone support.” Great.

After some digging, I found the CEO of Swarma in London who owns Web Faction. Sent him an email via Linked-In.

Now, it’s up to WebFaction. Can they recover? Do they even want to? Stay tuned…

Oh - and WebFaction? I hear they’ve got this new-fangled thing called “online chat” and some radical thingie where you can access other PCs remotely. Golleee!

Monday Update: Richard, one of the co-founders of WebFaction, responded to my email to the support address on their web site. Iit seems the problem is fixed. WebFaction claims it was a Comcast problem (they block the specified port).

Two things:
1. WebFaction should post re such known problems - and have a standard fix, written in non-tech language, step-by-step. (And, if your problem is you can’t send email - it makes it really difficult to communicate with them via email…)

2. Richard, although apologetic, didn’t provide any personal contact information (including - sigh - a phone number.) And, he said the situation appeared “under control” - that if there were further issues he’d call my client. (How about calling her anyway? Take two minutes and might be a good service recovery.)

I have to compare this to Scott Westerman, Regional VP of Comcast - who passes out his direct line, email, and Twitter info with great abandon, including starting a Q&A forum at Duke City Fix. I forwarded Richard’s email to Scott this morning and he’s already responded (within about 5 minutes) that he’s on it. I have no doubt that he is - I’m not sure the man ever sleeps (or stops smiling.)

Wednesday Update: No response to my email of Monday. I also invited Richard to post a comment here - nothing. And, no call to my client. Guess we’ll be looking for a new hosting service for both this site and that of my client. Any recommendations from my readers? Hello? WebFaction?

Tags: web hosting, Web Faction, emarketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, Remi Delon, Comcast

Tom Peters latest rant about customers, service, and such has stirred up quite a few people. What it all comes down to - is forget being so focused on “the customer” (who the heck is that anyway?)

Focus on the people, starting with yourself and your employees. After all, as has been said in a bazillion self-help books - if you aren’t jazzed about yourself, it’s impossible for anybody else to be so.

Forget the high-dollar, fancy-schmancy “customer relationship management” systems and methodologies. Focus on the real live human being. THEN you can look at the systems that will help make the relationship easier for everyone, including - yep - the employees. If the relationship doesn’t work, $30,000 worth of software ain’t gonna fix it.

Related Posts:
Service Stupidity
The “I’d Take A Bullet For Them List
People Who Need People

P.S. The more company’s blah-blah about their “commitment to customers” - the less likely they are to care about the people. All those big companies natter on and on…while they cut heads and treat customers like walking wallets.

Want to browse through all my posts? Go to The Idea Pool. Everything I’ve written since I started blogging.

Tags: management, leadership

People routinely abandon web site shopping carts…often because: A. It’s difficult to find relevant info quickly; B. it’s impossible to quickly make changes; C. The site forces them to start all over if they change one element of the order…and those little cart icons can be flat hard to find. (Particularly for us aging Baby Boomers, who have the bulk of discretionary income in this country.)

Brick & Mortar Example: Lowe’s. They’re supposedly more helpful and “woman friendly” than Home Depot. And maybe they are, if you can manage to flag down an employee.

Earlier this week I went to buy a lot of dirt in BIG bags. But, first I had to find a flat-bed cart. I walked up, down, around, out, back in…no carts. And, no employees around to ask. Sooo, I unloaded a cart that was apparently being used for restocking, stuck way at the back…and proceeded to heft about 300 pounds of dirt on the cart. Employees (having magically appeared), intent on their tasks, zipped around me as I was grunting and groaning, And - yep - I would have bought more, but I couldn’t manage two flat-bed carts.

So - in both the real and virtual world:

1. Have carts ready and waiting, all over the place. Have a “buy now” button everywhere you have a product on the web site…don’t make me have to go somewhere else to buy it. The more I click the more likely I’ll abandon my shopping…as I almost did at Lowe’s, but I needed the damned dirt since I was in mid-project.

2. Make it easy to get/find help! If you’ve got an online chat feature, make sure it works and is staffed (At one site I was told everyone was on break and to send an email. Buy-bye!) In the real world, have signs, phones, buttons…and train employees that when they see a customer looking (or groaning) to stop and help. (Really, customers should be more important than sweeping the back room.)

Next trip I’m buying mulch….good thing I’ve got Ibuprofen!

Tags: customer service, ecommerce, emarketing, Lowe’s, marketing troubleshooting

I’ve had to call (gulp!) the IRS several times through the years - and without fail, they are always nice and do their best to help. This when the IRS is backed by laws and guys with guns…and it’s not like they’ve got any competition for our money. They don’t have to be nice.

One of my estimated tax payments got misapplied for 2006…and what will all the back and forth correspondence, the issue still wasn’t resolved with April 15, 2008 fast approaching.

So, last week I sucked it up and called the IRS. I did have to go through multiple menus and spend time on hold (but at least they told me the estimated wait.) However, when I got to a live person, he was courteous, tried to help and seemed to have a sense of humor (at least I made him laugh.) He ended up having to transfer me to another nice man, who was able to finally apply the overpayment to 2007 and answer my questions.

If the big bad IRS can train their phone reps to at least have a good ‘tude…why can’t Corporate America do it?

Tags: customer service, IRS, marketing troubleshooting

This past weekend, I was in New Orleans celebrating my - um - 29th birthday…I had previously called Commander’s Palace for a dinner reservation. Not only did they answer within two rings, they were both efficient and effective. No being put on hold while they found the book, no transfers, no long waits. And, when finished (this all took about a minute), the woman said, “My name is _________and if you need anything else, darlin’ - call me.”

(Being called darlin’, honey, sugar, and sweetheart is just the way it is in New Orleans. You find yourself doing it with waiters, cab drivers, shop keepers…and it works there.)

So, once again I ask why is it so hard for companies to:

B. Prepare their employees to both efficiently and effectively handle callers? (Those godawful “policies” you can’t go against are efficient.).

C. Understand that every inbound customer call is a golden marketing opportunity? Somebody wants to talk to you!

And, note to all sizes and types of companies: please don’t tell me “we can’t afford it.” I know all the rationales - I used to develop, package and manage call center and software support services - and have run my share of cost analysis spreadsheets.

Everything You Do is Marketing! Can the commercials and focus on the inbound calls.

Read More: Seth Godin’s insightful semi-rant post, Who Answers The Phone?

Related Posts:
Why You Didn’t Get My Business - The Phone List
Customer Service Tip: Hire Grandmothers
Customer Relationship Management: Control or Comfort?

Tags: customer service, business development, marketing troubleshooting

What with one thing and another, I somehow ended up with $3.16 credit on my card…and I’ve not been using it (as part of my “Simplify” resolution I’m only using one credit card, Discover.) So, I kept noting on my To Do list that I needed to apply that credit somewhere, but it just hadn’t risen to the top. (I mean, the time it would take me for a whoppin’ three bucks and change…)

So, it was a really nice surprise the other day when I got a check from Cap One for $3.16. It probably cost them more than that to issue and mail the check.

Hey, that’s a breakfast burrito! And, Cap One has now risen to top of mind for me again. I may even pull the card out of the box and put back in my wallet.

When was the last time you surprised your customers? (Tip: They’ll probably tell others about it too…absolutely free marketing of the best kind.)

Related Post: Did The Easter Bunny Visit Your Customers?

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, Capital One

WSJ: Baggage Becomes Big Ticket Item

I understand that airlines need to make a profit. And, it’s tough - what with rising fuel costs, overweight passengers, the unions and various service inefficiencies. However, someone at the airlines should consider this question as they’re rolling their next doobie: “Hey, man, do we, like, really want to totally p** off our customers before they even get on the plane?”

Some snips from the article:

“United says one of every four customers checks multiple bags, and they are more likely to be leisure travelers — who likely paid cheaper fares than other travelers. United did exempt its elite-level frequent fliers and travelers with expensive, refundable tickets from the new baggage fees. The new second-bag fee by itself will generate $100 million in annual revenue, the airline said. That’s two million customers hit with round-trip second-bag fees.” (Wow,we’ve got another $100M and 2M people ticked off at us. Far out! Pass the bong!)

…“So a second checked bag that is overweight and oversized will cost $450 round-trip at United after May 5. At Delta Air Lines Inc., a third checked suitcase that weighs 71 pounds and is oversized costs $660 round-trip.”

And my fav: “United, however, says it won’t refund baggage fees even if it loses your bag.”

I’m a light traveler. I once spent a month working in Europe with a single “magic bag” (as my co-workers marveled). So, this won’t affect me. Even the “overweight” bag I brought back from vacation in October was only 63 pounds (and that was at least 10 pounds of books.) So, it’s not so much the fees - it’s the way they’re doing this. We passengers think of ourselves as people. Airlines see us as big fat whining bags of cash.

P.S. Any bets that the next time you or I fly - we’ll jump through these hoops then get on the plane and be smacked in the head by people blithely waddling on with bags the size of a Mini-Cooper? No fees, nobody stopping them. Nahhh…I wouldn’t take that bet.

P.P.S. Based on my past experience with American Airlines - they’ll probably now just beat us overweight slobs to death…
but they’ll do it while calling us “sir” or “m’am.”

Related Post:
Air Travel - Speaking as The Cow

Tags: emarketing, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, United, Airline problems, American Airlines customer service, American Airlines problems

Tech glitches happen to the best of web businesses. The key is always having a plan B so your customers can still do business with you.

I like Hotwire. Since they’re all about the web biz - I’ve (usually) found the travel site easy to use, fast and economical.

So, I was puzzled last week when I went to their site and saw “Sorry, we’re doing maintenance.” I wasn’t in any great hurry so I waited for a few days - but wonder how many people didn’t?

Yesterday, I decided I’d better get serious about my 50th birthday trip to New Orleans next month - so back I go to Hotwire. Great! The first choice of hotel/air package fit the bill. But, I wanted a different set of flight options. Nope. We’re not going there. I kept getting “We cannot process your request…It may be because you have multiple browser windows open.” (I didn’t.) Then they give me the “continue” button…which took me back to the starting point. That’s not continuing.

I tried refreshing, restarting and using two different browsers. I could get a little further in Safari than Firefox - and - oh, wait a minute! I got to the next screen…no, oops, “Sorry, we can’t process…”

I abandoned Hotwire and went to both Travelocity and Expedia. However, neither had quite a good a deal - and I’ve sworn to never fly AA again (at least not as a paying customer) so several options were out.

I go back to Hotwire and give it another go. By this time, I’m hoping Mr. Server has gotten over his glitch. Nope. So, I hunt for the customer service number and call them. (By now, I’m in full “on a mission from God” mode.)

To make a long story short - and to Hotwire’s credit, I got to a live person almost immediately. The nice lady got me booked on our first choice and a confirmation email landed in my mailbox while we were still on the phone.

Here’s what Hotwire should do: Have the 800 reservations number on all error pages. Absolutely positively have to be down for maintenance? Post something like, “As with all web sites, sometimes we’ve got to refresh and retool. And we can give you friendly, fast service at …..”

The main reason I persevered in giving Hotwire my business is that I refuse to fly AA. But, if I were Hotwire, I wouldn’t base my biz success on unhappy AA flyers (granted, there’s a growing number of us, but…)

P.S. Here’s a little math for AA.
Two round-trip tickets, Albuquerque to New Orleans: $508.00 (lowest average fare)
Baggage Fee: $50.00 (that they insisted on charging and keeping for my “overweight” luggage coming off an international flight.)
Net Loss: $458.00 (So far. I’m going to Chicago in May and we’re planning some more weekend trips this year.)

Want to browse through all my posts? Go to The Idea Pool. Everything I’ve written since I started blogging.

Tags: emarketing, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, customer service, American Airlines, American Airlines problems, American Airlines customer service, Hotwire, Hotwire problems

My blogging buddy Susan Getgood recently did a riff on “customer service is the new marketing” and made excellent points. However, I’d submit that customer care has always been the right kind of “marketing.”

Service: Keep that line going! Transaction, transaction, transaction, transaction - out the door. Whew! NEXT!

Care: Genuine concern and commitment to giving customers what they want: efficient service, effective communications…and respect. That means:

1. You put a lot of thought into production and operations to make it as easy as possible to do business with you.

2. You make sure you have something real to talk about - not blow money with a newly anointed “Word-of-Mouth” expert (Old-line creative agencies who are desperately trying to retrofit the “new marketing” into their hoary screamin’ yellin’ control and command model.)

3. When things go wrong - and they will - you don’t treat the customer like the enemy.

4. When a customer has a problem and is asking for help, you step up. You don’t say, for example, “We’re just a credit card company” as an Am Ex rep did when I was at wit’s end about an issue with American Airlines. (Note: I escalated to Am Ex CEO office and they finanly issued a “good customer relation” credit, but only because I didn’t give up and after they explained “our hands are tied legally.”)

5. You always allow escalation. Sure, some customers are bad to the bone, but most of us aren’t born bad. We degenerate into screamin’ hostile maniacs after being ignored, bounced and dissed. Then when we do finally reach a “live” person (”live” being debatable), the person should never ever say, “There is nobody higher than me.” or “It won’t do you any good to talk to anybody else” or “We’re not allowed to give out that information” when asked for the CEO’s name and contact info. (Those CEOs are only a Google search away in any event, and are often on the company’s web site.)

Quick “Service Vs. Care” Sanity Check for You:

Have you called your own company lately? What happens? How long does it take for somebody to answer? How long do you stay on hold if you call customer service?

Have you read the fine print in your contracts lately? Would you sign them? Or, would you feel insulted and belittled?

What about those “special offers?” If you were the customer, would you think they were special…or a sleazy con?

Keep yourself honest! Are you focused more on the person’s wallet (service) than the person (care)?

Read More: Steve Yastrow, Ask yourself this questions: Did our relationship improve?

Related Posts:
Marketing Predators: I’d Rather Do Business With Tony Soprano
Smash and Grab Marketing
The Never-Ending Rebate Wars
Shaming Companies Into Good Service
Customers - Service Versus Processing (Yep, even the way you process your invoices is marketing.)
Do You Have A Director of First Impressions?

Want to browse through all my posts? Go to The Idea Pool. Everything I’ve written since I started blogging.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, small business marketing, customer service, American Airlines Problems