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Everyone is your Customer
Author: Luis Serpa
November 3, 2006
A few days ago, I was reading a Tom Vander Well’s blog post titled "When Customers are Co-Workers" on QAQnA.
The article reminded me of someone I met a few years ago. She worked in the research department of a big global company and after complaining to me once too often that no one valued her work, I offered her advice on customer experience tactics. I was rewarded with the retort, "I don’t need any of this, because I don’t deal with customers!"
Then it hit me… She didn’t understand her work as providing a service to several other departments in her company. No wonder her co-workers didn’t respect her work; she never considered them her customers and her work reflected that.
The blog author suggests that you should think of co-workers as customers, but I will go even farther and say that you should think of everyone as your customer.
Think about it! You are always providing some type of service to someone. Your boss, your co-workers, your friends, your wife, your kids—absolutely everyone—in one way or the other, expect something from you. It doesn’t matter if you are more than happy to give them what they want. They often count on it; they frequently demand it and most of all they will resent it if you fail to meet their expectations. But if the service you provide is good enough for them the majority of the time, they will remain with you and will pay you back in your desired currency: friendship, love, trust or respect.
Customer experience tools can be applied to everything in your life. The lesson is pretty simple: If you really care for your customers and make a sincere effort to understand their expectations, they will love you for that and will be loyal to you while you are loyal to them.
How to Deal with an Angry Customer
Author: Luis Serpa
September 15, 2006
I just read a entry on Seth Godin’s Blog that can be very helpful for people working with Call Centers and Customer Services.
As always, Seth’s guide is quite simple and obvious, as it is supposed to be. But again, it may not be so obvious, given the number of companies that still have no clue on how to do it right…
Security Breaches: Trash to Treasure?
Author: Luis Serpa
September 13, 2006
Several shocking security breaches, compromising the personal data of millions of customers, have been reported lately. Below are just a few of the most flagrant cases:
• Chase trashes 2.6M customer files
• Second Lifers’ ‘first life’ hacked
• Wells Fargo leaks personal data)
• AT&T deceptive on data theft )
What amazes me about these breaches is not only the scope and impact of the leaks, but the way in which they occurred. Most of them have been caused by an improper use of data by employees (like the now infamous case of the US Department of Veteran Affairs). Others were caused by losing control of how personal data was handled by companies’ partners or vendors. Chase’s customer data was mistakenly thought to be trash and thrown out. Quite a treasure trove for identity thieves.
Although most corporate reactions to leaks have improved by becoming more forthcoming and transparent, the breaches are still a huge blow to costumers’ trust. How can anyone believe a website’s Privacy Policy or the company’s Safety Statement when such egregious security gaps abound.
Transparency is good, critical even, but is not enough. Sooner or later, companies will have to start taking security lapses seriously. And it better be sooner, because as the saying goes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Everyone’s a Publisher
Author: Jack Borland
August 28, 2006
I was reading a recent study by the Patricia Seybold Group (posted on ATG’s website) and was struck by a comment by Susan Aldrich:
"In 1995, unbeknownst to almost all of us, the majority of businesses in the world were catapulted into the publishing business."
It’s true that burgeoning online communication channels make it more and more obvious which companies do not understand how to make it easy for customers to interact with them. And the wealth of self-service channels, and easily available content makes it imperative that companies put some strong analytical thought into publication systems, processes and measurements.
I would contend that, like a top-notch human resources practice, having a well defined publishing model for business information was a necessary competence for well-run companies prior to the internet. The internet merely made it more transparent and obvious when a company is not customer-centric. Both the digitization of information, and customer expectations of self-service empowerment, now, more than ever, require that companies continuously investigate customer goals, and the processes customers would like to go through to acheive those goals.
In other words, good companies think critically about the customer experience, and design processes, content and interfaces to make that the best experience possible. Is that such a surprise?
