What happens when customer are just 'too good'

I've been an Egg credit card customer for many years. I also loved the brand so much I bought shares in Egg when it was floated several years ago. I'd seen what Mike Harris had done at first direct and bought into that as a great customer experience and could see the same future for Egg. Not the best reason to buy shares I know, but companies that think about the customer experience think about their staff as well and that makes a big difference to delivering that customer experience! In fact when it was launched back in 1998 Egg had the stated purpose of "revolutionise the customers experience of financial services driven through unleashing the power of people."

In an article in MyCustomer.com in November 2006, John Jennick, Head of Customer Experience and Action at Egg said "Strategically Egg has set out since 1998 to be a bit different. We try to have our customers at the heart of everything that we do."

As a credit card customer I admit that I am probably just 'too good'. When I was OFFERED the option to pay off my balance monthly by Egg, I took up that option. I probably took credit increases as well, but managed my card too well, so rarely needed them. I have several other cards in my wallet but when I wanted to use a card, I used the Egg card.

My renewal was due last month and I discovered, when trying to use the old card, I hadn't received my replacement. I rang Egg to chase it up, only to be told that my account had been reviewed by the Renewals Team and that I had been switched to a 'repayment only account'. When asked what this meant I was told that I could only make repayments of balances not purchases.

"So you're closing my account you mean?" I questioned. The response was "no, just changing it to a repayment only account which you don't need a card for". That's the same thing in my book!

Now I know Citigroup as the new owners of Egg want to make something out of this business and have a few subprime mortgage problems to deal with. So 'good' customers who pay off their balances, are not going to set the profits racing. But they didn't even have the courtesy to contact me - NO LETTER, EMAIL or CALL. Just NO CARD! It would have been nice to add an Egg card back into my wallet alongside the 4 other Citibank accounts I hold. But clearly, I'd be asking too much for that them to notice that little fact.

The MyCustomer.com article provides a lot of detail about the new survey tools that had been implemented at Egg. I wish I had been asked to be surveyed today after my call. The lack of empathy and explanation was astounding. "We normally do write to customers to tell you" I was told. My emotional state was easy to read (ie angry!) but the agent still failed to adapt to the situation. We finished the call with no resolution but an offer from the agent - "Is there anything else I can help you with today". The fate of my relationship with Egg was sealed.

There could have been a positive outcome for Egg if it did think I'm not being profitable enough. A call or email to ask me to use the card more, selling me the benefits of the card, the low rate, the cashback... Instead I've told 10 people already what has happened since I discovered the situation today, plus all the people who overheard me on the train this morning. In terms of wallet share from me and my family, Egg has just blown it. Glad I got rid of the Egg insurance last year as well.

So what happens when customers are just too good? Businesses try to get too clever with segmentation, get hung up on numbers, loose sight of the customer and do dumb things to them.

If this is a broken process then maybe the survey tools Egg are using could pick it up. One thing's for sure, that agent knows how much frustration I feel about the situation and needs a way of getting the feedback back into the business it not for my sake, for his, so he can avoid another Monday morning like the one he had today.

We have put in continuous closed loop improvement processes at other banks that have taken 80% of the contact and loads of these dumb things out of the business. Amazon.com did this (77% in 3 years) with processes like Skyline and WOCAS that track contact, engage the frontline in telling the business what's not working for customers and make sure the right things get fixed. They save money and give the customer more time to work out what to buy next from you.

So if John or anyone from Egg wants to investigate this situation and reassure me that this is an isolated case then I'm happy to hear from them (david.naylor@budd.uk.com). Perhaps the 1998 goal of "revolutionisng the customer experience" in the right way can yet be achieved.

I don't want a relationship with you

C&G sent me a text this morning to welcome me as a new customer. I was only barely aware that I was. I’ve just remortgaged through a broker I’ve used for the last 4 years and now I’m on my third mortgage and third different provider. The only contact I needed with my last provider was to sign the form and then ring them to ask what was the best deal they could offer me at the end of the fixed rate period. It was a smooth process but not a relationship. My relationship clearly exists with the broker who takes all the hassle out of the process and has managed to get me great deals – yes I did check the market and realized that after 2 hours surfing the websites I was wasting my time trying to find a better deal. For me, choosing a mortgage is therefore just a matter of price.

At Budd we’ve talk for a long time about customers not wanting a relationship with their bank, or any financial service provider for that matter. So what can companies do to address this challenge? Still focusing on the basics is a critical factor. Sending a welcome text is not going to change my behavior in 2 years time, especially if they mess up on the straightforward process of processing my new application. In fact, in 2 years time I’ll probably look around for a new mortgage and if they can come close to the same deal I might stay with them. So how can they be competitive on the product? By being competitive on customer service. Reducing unnecessary contact, as we have talked about for a few years, is not just about reducing your costs but improving your service – as Amazon and others are demonstrating with Skyline more and more. Reduce costs to enable more competitive products, then wow me with basic service that works and I might still be a customer in 3, 4 or 5 years time (maybe longer!).

A tale of two credit cards: 1 contact vs 23 contacts

Why is it always me that gets cloned? Well at least a useful comparison was possible this time....

My HSBC business credit card was cloned several weeks ago. By my reckoning the first call took place on the 2nd October. It's now the 17th November and the replacement is still not set up properly. There have been more than 20 contacts so far.

My first direct personal credit card was cloned last Saturday the 10th November and the replacement was with me and working by Wednesday 14th. It would have been Tuesday but I was away.

First the right way to do it. I'm shopping with my daughter in London and the first 2 transactions bounce so I call first direct. They transfer me to the fraud unit and a lady abroad ( sorry forgot to ask whether it was Malaysia or India - betya it's an HSBC centre though) asks me if I've tried downloading songs from iTunes that morning which I haven't. So bang goes the Xmas shopping on the credit card. I wasn't happy.

She tells me the card will be with me within 5 to 7 working days and I'm thinking "oh yeah?" given what I'm going through with the business account. Anyway I get home Wednesday to find it there and I've had no problem using it subsequently. Bingo - one very satisfied customer.

Could it have been better. Well yes. They could have called me before I had the embarassment of a snooty waitress at Harvey Nicks bouncing my card. They could have had the first person I called ask me about the iTunes transactions, rather than a rather lengthy transfer tying up me and the agent. The second agent could have spoken more clearly and been more understanding at my protests of being without a card for a week. They could have said that the card would go out same day and be there Tuesday and I'd have thought they were really trying to make it quick.

What about HSBC then? I'll try and remember as many of the contacts as I can.....

1) The first call came at about 9pm from an Indian sounding lady saying she was from HSBC and could she have my credit card number, date of birth etc. Strangely enough I said "no - she couldn't until she could prove she was HSBC and not some "phisher"". We got nowhere as the process says she can't talk to me til I've been through security and since security was evidently silly I wasn't willing to and they should get somebody sensible to ring me (lucky I had that glass of wine or I'd have been uptight by now !)

2) & 3) I then had a call from my colleague who'd had an earlier call from HSBC about the card. He'd told them they'd have to ring me. He explained they'd told him the card had been cloned.

4) Another Indian gentleman called me and attempts to take me through security again. I again refuse and ask him to go through my security checks. Tell me which company name is the card in? He can't tell me anaything until I've been through security. Tell me the HSBC phone numbers on my credit card - he gave me 2 and both failed my identity check. So we parted company there.

By complete coincidence I had a conference call the following day with the nice guy at HSBC who runs the offshore centres and gave him the feedback on the security process.

Then I did nothing for a couple of weeks. The bank did nothing. Exactly as a phisher would do. My card stopped working though so heh maybe they were real. I just starting using another card from another bank.

Two weeks later on the 17th October I was speaking at the Institute of Customer Services Conference. I use several real examples of "dumb things" and this was at once added to the repertoire.

5) At the end of my talk, no less than the Customer Service Director of first direct comes up and wants my details to sort it out. He may not be HSBC directly but he takes it on personally - that's fabulous. At the end of the conference I pick up my voice mails.

6) The first direct guy has called the right person in HSBC
7) He or she has obviously called Claire....
8) & 9) .....who has called me and left 2 voicemails whilst I have been in the conference
10) I return the call but she's not there so I leave a message and...
11) ....she returns the call and we speak. She's taken up the case and will sort it out. No security checks required, I notice.
12) & 13) When I get back to email, I find that Claire had emailed me to. I mail back and say thanks

I wait for the card over a week but nothing comes. In fairness there's a postal strike.

14) Eventually I call Claire again and she checks it has been sent and it must be in the post.

15) I wait some more and eventually it arrives. At my colleague's house. I get it next time we meet in a few days time. Then I wait some more for the pin number to arrive.

16) & 17) I email Claire again. She emails back. The card was preset up with the same pin so no need to have waited at all ! How dumb do I feel? But heh it didnt say that on the letter with the card....

I use the card and it works... YES ! But wait.... I try to use it on the web to pay for wireless access. This requires my address. The card bounces again. I try again. No. It bounces.

18) & 19) I ask my PA to call the number on the card and get the address corrected which she does. Of course they cant take her instruction as she cant pass security. So she passes the phone to me, but the computer says no. No I cant have my own address on my own card as I had before. Her insistence that it has never been possible drives me to distraction and I pass her back to my PA to escalate to the supervisor. After 20 minutes on hold she hangs up.

20) & 21) So she emails Claire at my request. Claire emails back to say she can't take my PA's instruction as she's not a named contact on the account.

22) I email her back and confirm the instruction to have me on my address. And not to swap my colleagues onto my address!!!! No security but it apparently happens.

23) Last week my existing pin number arrived in the post under one of those sticky flaps in the letter! Not something I was happy with from a security point of view, since as with many people I'm sure, its the same one I use on my other cards.

I haven't yet tried to use the card with my address details so I don't know whether it's really fixed. But I won't be surprised if it doesn't. And I wont be dsurprised if a colleagues card stops working.

Have I complained? No, I've done enough work. Will I move banks. No - its tons of work and wont be any better. I've used many banks and see no differences.

And do I feel like putting our insurance business thro HSBC? You guessed it - about 23 times less likely than going to first direct. Oh when will they start business banking !! Then it would be worth moving.

So an extreme story? - I dont think so judging by our personal experiences of dealing with banks. And we have further evidence from our work with the Amazon Skyline processes. One of our banking clients has reduced their contact rate by 81% in the past three years. Another US client has quadrupled the size of their business and decresed their contact support headcount by 20% at the same time.

If you work at HSBC and want to talk about how we can save you up to 80% of your operating budget then contact me on 07802 793515 or peter.massey@budd.uk.com

If you work at first direct and are reading this - fabulous, thank you and yes - when are you going to start business banking ! ??

If you are just a blog reader - Hi, thanks for reading and you can get more in our white paper "100 things you can learn from first direct"in our library

Accountability – who’s responsible for it?

As I sat on a train heading out of London Waterloo today I knew we were in for few problems with emergency engineering work on the line ahead and the departure boards looking decidedly void of useful information. Past the departure time the Guard announces that the train will not stop at 3 of the usual stations, including mine. As we hurry off the train clutching coats and laptops we meet the said Guard and naturally bombard him with questions. With a very uninterested look on his face he lifts his arms and answers “don’t know” to all the questions. “Go and ask someone” he says, pointing back to the harassed looking team on the station information desk.

You get the picture. Accountability is something we all need to take responsibility for. The customer experience we design, so carefully and at great cost, is not worth the investment of effort if it all falls apart when something goes wrong. When the areas of the business which cause the problems fail to learn from them, the frontline start to pass the blame. When the frontline pass the blame, the reputation of the whole organisation and trust of customers is damaged. In day to day operations, everyone needs to take a shared accountability for delivering the best customer experience whether things go right or wrong. But this will only happen if the business take accountability for fixing the root causes of problems.

Watch the Customer!

Remember the old movies when a guy taking a picture used to say ‘watch the birdie’ and everyone promptly stared at the stuffed bird held in the photographer’s hand?
Usually it was only for a very short time, then with a bang and a flash it was all over and hey presto you had a beautiful picture (well something in sepia anyway) to keep the customers happy

I sometimes wish delivering customer service could be so visual and dramatic, where you could wave a magic wand and it would be fixed instantaneously to the customers delight. How different it is in real life

Normally it is down to the detail of how you respond to, and manage, peoples expectations, being able to meet changing demands and thinking on your feet

A small event happened to me this week that emphasised the need to keep an eye on your customer at all times and remember that the customer is the primary reason we are here (they hold the money after all)

I made the mistake of driving to Gatwick Airport and trying to park in the short term car park. This is always very busy, irrespective of time of day, and has a row of automatic barriers where you take your ticket, the barrier machine waits for a period of time, obviously doing some detailed electronic analysis of you, your car, number plates, painting it’s electronic nails etc and then lets you in to the hallowed sanctuary of the car park

Well on Monday one of the barriers had broken and the attendant was trying to fix the machine. A lady in her mini was stuck at the barrier entrance as the bar would not lift, and the weight of traffic rapidly built up so she could not reverse. The traffic then got so bad it started to block the entrance road. Chaos and tooting horns, very embarrassed lady (not her fault) grumpy commuters going to miss the Gatwick express to London and general travellers lost at the start of their journey. (It’s amazing how bad tempered we become when something gets in the way of our routine commute)

But back to the attendant, who at that time represented NCP. Did he let the lady through? Did he try and manage the traffic? Did he call for assistance?

No. He did the very human thing of doing what he was most comfortable with, trying to fix the machine, then as the pressure got worse, carried on trying to fix the machine and ignored the increasing chaos around him. It was much safer with the machine than trying to calm a load of frustrated customers of NCP!

Simple message, but get it right it’s a powerful one, train and enable your staff to look after the customers first, not the machine or the process. You can (normally) fix them afterwards. Think of the positive impression that attendant could have created if he had taken control of the situation and kept the traffic flowing. Those people involved would have praised NCP, not muttered some of the comments I heard!

Is your despatch note real?

Whatever you do, if you talk to my Dad this week, don't mention Marks and Spencers.

His church has recently had a lovely new extension, including a cafe and bar facilities. They were looking to furnish it with some good value but contemporary chairs and discovered that M&S were offering a £16 discount on a set of four dining chairs, an online offer of the month. Bargain - they ordered 6 sets (24 chairs). An email confirming the order was received immediately. Two days later, notification of despatch and an estimated delivery period was given. Brilliant - they'd all be there in time for the first hall booking, a 70th birthday party three days after the end of the delivery period - or would they...

Not having received any communication from a carrier by mid-day on the last day of the delivery period my Dad rang customer services to ascertain progress. That was apparently the wrong number to ring, he was given another number that dealt with furniture deliveries. On calling this number the agent couldn't trace his order and Dad was given the name of the transport company. They did their best to help but could find no record of his order. This agent talked to her supervisor who informed her that they didn't actually deliver furniture for M&S.

I could sense just a tiny bit of frustration in Dad's voice as he called the furniture section of M&S again, only to be redirected to the first number he had called. On talking to a different agent on the customer services orderline number she again tried to redirect him to furniture. When he pointed out that he was now embarking on the same cycle of five phone calls that he'd just completed she promised to look into the problem and call back. To be fair she came back quite quickly but only to say that the items were out of stock and not expected to be in until the 4th November. No-one had any idea why he had an email telling him they'd already been despatched. Dad wasn't exactly pleased but didn't have much option but to accept it. Who needs chairs at a birthday party anyway?

Imagine his surprise at 7.00 the same evening when he had a call from HDN (Home Delivery Network - if you google that the results are also very revealing) informing him that they had his chairs and would deliver them three days later. Dad asked them why they couldn't be delivered in the original time period and they said "Well, that's only an estimate."

Three days later the carrier turned up... with four out of the six packs of chairs!

The whole cycle of phone calls was repeated yet again. One agent was so insistent that he should speak to someone in furniture and not the customer services orderline that she transferred him mid-protestation. Dad's had enough - 3 hours in total on the telephone and a letter to Customer Correspondence which hasn't been replied to 14 days later. In actual fact it's probably the carrier that let M&S down but at no point could an agent find out what had happened to the order or take control of the query.

Today someone at church just asked Dad to order two more packs.......

Bite sized chunk!!!

The Budd team celebrated the arrival of our new addition Vicky ( new PA) to our Budd family with a celebration lunch at a nearby Spainish Tapas restaurant.
Peter ordered a recommended selection from their extensive menu, as the six of us sat down expectantly, ravonously hungry and generally joining in the lovely chatty hulabaloo that circled our table.
The good old restaurant must have thought that we looked like the type of customer who needed a little team building and initiative test, free of charge of course, because they sent out most of the dishes with only 4 items in each pot! So how do you divide 4 pieces of squid into 6???
Please don`t send answers on a postcard because there is no prize! But equally we wont be giving the restaurant a prize for making their customers experience one of simplicity and calmness! But I must say the bite sized chunks were delicious!
Just a thought about a lack of thought
Sue

Customer experience - it's the way managers manage

I've been struck lately by the correlation between 2 things:

• The people who return (or have returned for them) their phone calls and their emails
• The type of experience given to customers in those same businesses

One of our Chief Customer Officers, who is excellent with his personal communications despite being very busy, told an interesting story of Marks and Spencers.

He had a bed ordered to be delivered on a particular day in a new house, because he had guest coming to stay. It didn't get delivered when it should have been so he escalated it of course only to be told it couldn't now be delivered and that, no, there was no one he could raise it with.

Not happy. Our man isn't one to take that lying down (joke, oh do keep up !!). He was going to go through all the various folk needed to get what he wanted. Ultimately the fruitless trail led all the way to the customer service director. He was told the customer service director does not speak to customers! Imagine his fury and his vehement retelling of this story. Of course he, the story teller, does speak to customers. It's part of his job to be responsible in person. And it keeps him real. Maybe that's why he returns his calls. Because he cares even when he's busy.

M&S came up again in our weekly meeting - interesting things that have happened this week. Jo's dad spent Saturday afternoon on the phone to M&S..... I expect the customer service director at M&S is a nice guy or lady. They'd probably cringe at the thought that they "don't talk to customers".

To quote one of Amazon's Jeff Bezos sayings: "Be very afraid of our customers. They're the ones who have the money". Perhaps the customer service director was very afraid...

So who is in charge of representing the customer at M&S. I took at look at their board. It isn't clear that there is anyone. Lots of product and logistics and so on. Now that can be a great thing - the customer is everywhere. Or it can be a bad thing - no chief customer officer to listen to, aggregate and prioritise what customers want done across the business and represent doing the right things for customers.

I know, I'll mail this to Stuart Rose. Now he does talk to people. He even responds to mailshots to say no thank you. That's the kind of eye for detail, care of your brand and personal responsibility that makes great companies great. I bet he returns his calls or has them returned.

One cannot expect great customer experiences from your company unless one represents that ethos personally.

Jeff Bezos' secrets of success

I loved the Oct HBR interview with Jeff Bezos especialy where he said: “Years from now when people look back at Amazon I want them to say that we uplifted customer centricity across the entire business world”

Of course, we are intent on helping that happen by sharing some great Amazon processes such as Skyline and WOCAS.

He comments on the strategic significance of such processes:
“..we know that when we put energy into defect reduction which reduces our cost structure and thereby allows lower prices, that will be paying us dividends ten years from now.”

And on what we in Budd call "the best service is no service" - the name of the book to be published in April next year:
“…that execution factor is a big factor and you can see it in our financial metrics over the past ten years. It’s very obvious when, for instance, we look at the number of customer contacts per unit sold. Our customers don’t contactus unless something’s wrong, so we want that number to move down – and it has gone down every year for 12 years"

And relative to our common sense loop which says the customer knows best:
“when we can’t decide what to do, we try to convert it into a straightforward problem by asking “what’s best for the consumer?””

And a lovely quote relative to why these processes are so important to get on with:
“I think most big errors are errors of omission not commission. The times when they were in a position to notice something and act on it…and yet failed to do so”

Thanks Jeff