A few weeks ago, I received an email from the American Red Cross telling me they were improving the donation experience. I did not think much about it as most such claims are more hype than substance. But then I gave blood yesterday, and it was true!
A few years ago, the Red Cross eliminated the monotonous task of having the phlebotomist read all 45 questions for me to answer on-site and allowed the questionnaire to be done in advance on a smartphone. Today, I discovered they have eliminated the finger prick (the worst part!) and temperature-taking has become no-touch. The whole process has become more efficient, less intrusive, and annoyance-free.
Use the Red Cross as a reminder that small but continual improvements really do add up to make a big difference. Schedule your donation today and see for yourself!
Instead of a finger prick, a painless thumb squeeze!
I was having some trouble with synching between my iPhone and Mac so I called Apple Support for assistance. I spoke with an advisor who tried many, many things — to no avail. Through it all, she was delightful and kept apologizing for the delays, but after 90 minutes she relented and called in a Senior Advisor.
It took him about 5 minutes to get a remote connection and understand my problem — and then literally 2 minutes to fix it. Problem solved! After the farewell pleasantries, the total call was 9 minutes.
There is benefit in having enough grit to continually pursue a problem and seek a solution without giving up, but there is also merit in knowing when to ask for help. The wise person is in sync with what is appropriate for that moment.
Much has been written elsewhere about tipping and how it has gotten out of hand — but at the Old Spaghetti Factory in St. Louis, it really has gone off the deep end. Instead of options for the typical 15%, 18%, and 20% tips, its payment system offers options for 22%, 20%, and 18% (in that order!), plus the outrageous 30% and 40%. Who leaves a 40% tip?!
The fine print says: “Did you receive elevated service? Add a super tip!” It reinforces that a 20% baseline tip has become expected and if you receive what used to be considered elevated service for your waiter to earn that, you need to double it today.
Ironically, there is a button on the app for a “custom tip,” so if you were feeling uber-generous you could leave the excessive amount, so there is no need to make people feel like cheapskates with the 30% and 40% options. If you’re in a business that has tipping, here’s a tip for you: Keep your choices grounded in reality and pay your employees well enough so that they aren’t dependent on delusional tippers to make a living wage.
I used to be a raving fan of my car dealership, praising everything from the service advisor to the sales staff. I would have rated them 10/10 on a customer satisfaction survey. But recent experiences have me rethinking that assessment. It’s not that they have become “bad,” it’s just that there is no longer anything remarkable about their interactions.
My recent visit involved interaction with a service advisor who was fine, but not “my” advisor who knows my history and with whom I scheduled when I made the appointment. I was called “Elizabeth” throughout — as if they had no relationship with me and didn’t know I preferred Beth. Their marketing department recently sent me a quote — addressed to the wrong person with an incorrect trade-in vehicle — but failed to interact with me in person even though I spent two hours waiting in the showroom. (My arm could have been twisted!) And when I left, the not-mine service advisor handed me the paperwork, sending me on my way with no interaction from my requested advisor. They have become transactional instead of relational.
It’s never the big things that make a difference in establishing brand loyalty, just as it is the accumulation of little behaviors that can erode it. Once you set the bar high, it’s incumbent on you to work diligently to keep it there. “Average” is quite the plummet from “stellar.”
It is mostly a waste of time when the manager at a restaurant goes between tables and asks diners: “How is your meal?” I’ll bet that they most frequently hear “fine” or something similar. It is a non-question — just something to say rather than a request for a real answer. It interrupts the diner’s meal and I would guess that it pays a little dividend for the restaurants.
Such a lost opportunity!
What if instead, the manager asked: “What is one thing we could do to become better?” or “If you were the manager, what is something you would change?” or even “What was the worst part of your experience today?” These types of questions would force the diners to give more substantive answers and a savvy manager could track (literally or intuitively) the frequency of responses. It would allow them to take action in a way that was meaningful.
Instead of a token public relations sweep through the restaurant, managers would be well served to use the time to truly learn something from those who know them best. Whether of your diners, employees, donors, or clients, make it a point to ask real questions, not those that elicit an automatic, generic (non-) response.
Originally published in modified form on May 18, 2018
For many people, myself included, dictionaries are about the spelling and looking up how to properly do that vs learning what the meaning or root cause of the word might be. One of my very favorite apps is dictionary.com. It says a lot about how I spend my time!
Having an electronic version makes it nice that I don’t have to lug a big dictionary around with me, but what I really love is the “did you mean?” feature. When you look up words in a print version— presumably because you don’t know how to spell them, you are left with no assistance if you are off the mark. But dictionary.com will provide you with a whole list of related or possible suggestions — and presto you can insert it and be in your way.
Think about how your organization operates. Are you like the print dictionary where all the information is there and fully accessible to clients — IF they know what to ask or where to look? Or are you like the app where you provide all the same resources PLUS anticipate what your clients might really mean and give it to them in that format instead?
There is a reason the print version is yellowing on my shelf.
Originally published in modified form on December 12, 2017
I do a lot of customer service training and most participants think they do a good job of serving their customers. This may be true for their typical customer but they often fail to take into consideration those with differing needs.
Are you still providing great service if the customer is in a wheelchair? What if English is not their native language and the complex information you are conveying is lost in translation? Or maybe your customer is hard of hearing or has low vision — are you still able to meet their needs? Or perhaps your customer is simply technology-challenged — do you have a way to assist them in accessing their tickets or coupons?
Maybe you can rethink your service strategy from the perspective of different groups and consider what stellar service looks like for special audiences. Having great service for some doesn’t qualify as delivering great service.
I had my second visit today from the Postal Service (see dot #4334), with the carrier telling me that her supervisor said the stamp in question was 76 worth cents and the letter cost $1.66 to mail, so I had only 96 cents of stamps and still owed 68 cents.
There are three problems with that: 1) The stamp is worth 92 cents, not 76; 2) a square envelope only costs $1.12 to mail, not $1.66, but even if they were right about those two things, 3) do the math and it would mean I owed 70 cents, not 68. I pulled up the USPS app and showed my carrier that the stamp that “wasn’t a real stamp” yesterday, that today her supervisor believes is 76 cents, is actually 92 cents (first class + an additional ounce). She took a picture of my phone showing their website and said, “They don’t teach us that.”
That I can believe. Too often, we fail to teach or inform those on the front line things that the general public knows. We forget to tell the receptionist that an outside group is meeting on-site today or that an event has been postponed or rescheduled. We don’t tell the clerks that an email went out announcing a big sale, or let the front office know that forms are due today and should be delivered to X office. It puts those in customer-facing positions in an awkward situation and makes the whole organization appear inept.
As part of your onboarding or training, it would help everyone if you included a component that has your new hires interact with the organization in ways that the consumers will. It’s great for employees to know the back of the house, but also knowing how others experience you can help your service earn a stamp of approval.
Postage due crossed off at the Post Office when I was vindicated!
If you’re at a donut shop right next to the airport, chances are you are waiting on a flight to arrive or depart. One Dunkin’ near the Ashville airport took this into account and provided a flight tracking board inside the store.
Their responsiveness keeps customers from fiddling with a tracking app or rushing out earlier than necessary. Flight delayed? No problem; stay and have another cup of coffee and donut.
Monitoring flight schedules is outside the realm of normal bakery operations, but it provides a measure of service and convenience that customers can appreciate. What do your customers want to know when they are with you? Think of their questions and be the one to provide the answers.
I went out to eat with friends and one order of French toast was cooked poorly. It’s hard to ruin a breakfast but a piece of the entree appeared to be just plain toast — not coated or cooked in the egg.
When the waitress came by, she asked: “Is everything ok?” We told her it wasn’t and explained the situation. “So sorry. I’ll let them know,” she said. The same conversation happened when she came by a second time. “So sorry,” she said again.
When we left, the cashier asked: “Was everything ok?” No, it wasn’t so we explained the situation again, including that the waitress did not offer to replace the meal, discount the price, or make any amends. “So sorry,” said the cashier, and rang through the meal at full price with no further action.
“So sorry” isn’t a satisfactory response to a problem. It might be an opening line but by ending it there, you fail to effectively address the issue. If asking questions about service has become so rote for you or your team that you don’t really mean them, everyone is better off if you stop asking them. A hollow “so sorry” is worse than silent indifference.
