When it comes to customer service, it matters. It is one of those things that I have always been quick to notice… and lately I’ve come across some amazing examples of it.
In the past 30 days I’ve received remarkable, incredible, stellar…. unbelievable service from several companies I have new relationships with. Stunning!
Observation: Start-ups have better customer service because they have to. They see the connection between a happy customer and their bottom line. They know that a happy customer will tell their friends about a fantastic experience. Conversely, they know that a bad customer experience will spread like wildfire. Incredible customer service is a cheap marketing strategy!
But start-ups aren’t the only ones with great customer service. That’s what makes AT&T and Apple such a crazy combination for the iPhone! AT&T has has had horrible customer service for decades and they are so big they don’t care one ounce. They know for every 10 customers they lose to bad customer service there are 10 more who will create a new account. And Apple has created a culture of stellar customer service to the point where people will spend an extra 1000 for a laptop just because they know if they ever have a problem they can take it back to the store.
Southwest Airlines is another long-standing company with stellar customer service. I’ve purchased tickets with them before, not read the rules, and had to call to ask a refund… even though I didn’t deserve one. Not only have they given it to me, they’ve always done it happily even though it was my mistake!
Why does stellar customer service matter? In today’s marketplace a purchase is all about the experience. If you go the extra mile your customers will love you forever. They will wear your t-shirts and brag to their friends that they are your client.
Customer experience is the next great wave of marketing.
In the last 30 days I lead a big change in how we send emails at work. We ditched our old email delivery service for MailChimp. One small part of the decision was that MailChimp offered a better price. That was important– but the selling point for me was stellar customer service.
There have been a couple of times recently when they lived up to that expectation. Last week I was trying to do something and couldn’t figure out how to make it work. So I dialed up their live chat and explained what I needed. The person told me that their system couldn’t do what I needed it to do, but it should. So, while I waited, they created a solution for me. Yeah, that’s unheard of!
So I wasn’t surprised to see that MailChimp had earned a 5-star rating for customer service from their customers. My question for them was, “How do you keep it up?” Check out the comment that Ben, one of the head chimps had to say:
His philosophy is, “Don’t just answer. Explain.”
Explain what’s happening, so the customer learns something. People like to learn, so you just made them happy. The bonus, when you explain, is they won’t do it again.
So everything we do is based on “explaining things.”
All departments are focused on the customer experience. Here are some of the strategical things we’re doing in each department.
Design:
- Build the product so it “explains” while you use it. That’s ongoing and never ending. Help text, hints, intuitive interfaces, usability tests with customers. We’re hooked on clicktale, crazy egg, google analytics, yslow.
Hiring:
- Only hire people who are smart and who like to explain. No call center drones.
Marketing:
- This, IMHO, is the biggest one. Do our best to only attract customers who like learning, who have a good sense of humor, and who like to tinker. We call them “power users.” Scare away customers who need too much hand-holding (either because they’re too new to email marketing, or they think they know everything, but ironically, demand account executives to help them with everything). Big giant monkeys on our home page, and saying stuff like “reports that’ll make you poop your pants” tends to do the trick. 
If you attract the wrong people with the wrong expectations, they will never, ever be satisfied.
Webinars:
Weekly webinars that go over all the basics. Right now, Dan does them. Soon, every member of the customer service team will do them. Terror and stage fright keeps things fun.
MailChimp Academy:
- Videos teach people how MailChimp works so they can learn on their own time. They’re on mailchimpacademy.blip.tv, but also peppered throughout the product.
There are a million other things the customer service team is experimenting with, but that’s sort of a high level view of our strategy.
The question is… how does this philosophy work in the world you work in?
I am tired of my phone. I’ve rocked my HTC 8525 for almost 2 years and it’s pretty much outlived it’s usefulness for me. The lack of battery life and the size of it really don’t help. It does some funny things… like I have alarms set on it that won’t stop. And it has calendar items from my time in Romeo that I can’t seem to delete. And since I’ve dropped it a couple of times, it sometimes flakes out completely. It’s been a workhorse and I’m ready to put it out to pasture.
This has caused me to do some shopping. And I’m really at a loss of what to get. I like the idea of the Google phone, but I make it a habit to never by the first generation of anything tech. And smartphones are clearly out. So that leaves me with two choices, Blackberry or iPhone?
Of course this is all tied to a bigger question. Do we finally drop our 10 year relationship AT&T? I’ve been abundantly honest about the fact that their customer service is horrid. And when you couple that with their unique ability to jack my bill up higher and higher all the time, it may be time to move to another provider… thus making Blackberry my only real choice.
But here’s what I am thinking. I know I’m a power user. I also know that I’d love to have everything in my life be on a single platform. I wonder if there is any way they’d let me test drive both before making a decision? 2 years is a long time to hate a phone.
The big thing going for the iPhone in my book is that it’s an interface I’m used to and like, I already know how much AT&T sucks, it’s a fun toy, I could sell my new nano, and I know that if I jacked it up Apple would fix it. The big thing going for the Blackberry is that it’s a proven performer. It’s a workhorse like my current phone. What it lacks in sex appeal it gains in functionality.
Eh, I’ll probably sit on this one through the holidays. If I had to chose today I’d go with the Blackberry. I think the iPhone is cool. But at the end of the day, the iPhone doesn’t seem to be for power users.
It seems like every day I either have great customer service or horrible. Here are the last few that I’ve encountered.
- #1 Delta Airlines. To say that our flight from San Diego to Atlanta on Monday was a disaster is an understatement. We’re a family of four traveling together. Do you think you’d seat children with their parents? It would seem logical that a parent would be seated next to a 4 year old, wouldn’t it? But not on Delta. They seated Megan and Paul together and Kristen in the same row, just other side. Then they stuck me way in the back. Long story short, I had an empty seat next to me. I asked if the flight attendant could go to Megan’s seat and get her for me so that I could sit by her and then Kristen could move to sit by Paul. He said… “No problem. Actually, there is a way to all sit together if you move up to their row.” So I got up… and as soon as I got up he moved a lady/child into my seat and then told me he couldn’t really get us together. He tricked me out my seat to solve his problem. Thus putting me in a worse situation! I went from a window seat with an extra next to me to a middle seat surrounded by other adults. I said to the flight attendant, “You know you just totally screwed me right? I trusted that you were telling me the truth.” He went on to try to say that the other lady wouldn’t sit apart from her child and that it was the only way the flight could take off. When I, rather bluntly, told him that what he did was lie to me to prioritize that family over my own and that he was wrong… he tried to be empathetic with me and offered us “free videos” on the flight. Of course, being Delta even that didn’t work. So Kristen and I were roughly near the kids but not next to them. It gets worse… so we were scrunched next to people and the kids were alone. Of course, our seat mates promptly fell asleep so that no one could easily go to the bathroom. Then to make matters worse, the flight attendants spent 4 hours peddling food and credit cards to us! I can’t believe that in order to fly I have to listen to a credit card offer and buy $6 snacks. Give me a break Delta. Kristen got off the plane and aptly described the flight as “the worse flight of my life.” So if you fly Delta, look out for flight attendants who lie and peddle stuff to you the whole time. Totally annoying.
- #2 Semco Energy. This is our local natural gas vendor. Their billing system is totally jacked up. I never get bills from them anymore. I don’t even get late notices. Their phone system calls my cell phone all the time but doesn’t say anything… literally just blank air. The only time I hear from them is when they drop off a disconnect notice! The crazy thing is that I typically pay via their online payment system. Well, starting in May they started rejecting my online payments. I have no idea why. They keep telling me that my routing numbers are off… but they aren’t. (Pay almost all my bills online!) Then about 3 days after I try to pay I get this really ugly letter from them. Then I get a hand delivered disconnect notice. Calling their customer service line is nearly as much fun as calling AT&T. After 40 prompts and entering my account number 2-3 times, giving them my SSN a few times, and verifying my billing address at least twice. I get told the same thing over and over again. “Our system is fine.” The best part about our latest disconnect notice is that it’s for so little money AND our bill isn’t even late! So my bill is due 7/28 but they are going to disconnect our gas today. Brilliant customer service. Morons.
What about you? What companies are treating you like dirt?
