Posts Tagged ‘upset customers’

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Warranty or the Customer? Who wins? It had better be the Customer

January 12, 2011

My friend Bart just spent some time in warrantee hell. His Dell laptop battery died after 12-and-a-half months on a 12-month warranty. As you can imagine, Dell refused to replace the battery because the warrantee was only 12 months. And rules are rules.

Bart is a sales rep for a medical practice software company. He uses a particular IT vendor for his own computer equipment and refers his clients to the same vendor for theirs.  Bart estimates that in the past year, he referred about $500,000 worth of Dell business to this vendor.

When Bart didn’t get anywhere with trying to get Dell to replace the battery (a battery which replaced another one which died after 16 months), he went to Chris, the IT vendor. He figured perhaps they would be more willing to push the rules for him, since he does quite a bit of business with them each year. No such luck. So Bart decided that Dell didn’t deserve his loyalty anymore. He called Chris again and had the following conversation:

Bart:      Chris, do you still sell, support and install HP servers and equipment?

Chris:     Yep.

Bart:       I would like you to quote HP equipment instead of Dell on all future deals I bring.

Chris:     Really? Over a battery?

Bart:      Yes. It’s not the battery; it’s the principle. I vote with my wallet. Please understand I am not mad at you. Feel free to share my emails with your Dell rep as well so he understands.

Chris:     I will share it with him now.

 

15 minutes pass and Bart gets an email from Chris.

 

Chris:     Your new battery will ship to us and you should have it by Friday or early next week. Oh, he asked me to ask you to please bring my next deal to Dell.

 

Amazing how that works.

Should Bart have expected that Dell would honor the warranty even though it had expired? My feeling is “yes,” and not just because he referenced over $500,000 worth of business to them each year. It should be “yes” even if he bought one or two pieces of equipment every few years, as I do. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.

It’s the right thing to do because life doesn’t happen by the calendar or the clock. Cars break down, batteries die, and stuff happens. The warranty period is really just an arbitrary number. When Dell (or any other company) warranties a battery for 12 months, it’s not saying that they expect the battery to last for 12 months and that everything else is gravy. It’s a way to say that the battery shouldn’t break down in the first 12 months. It could be 13 months or 15 months. But most companies tend to use years for a warranty period. It’s easy.

I think this is a case of it being a blue rule. I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that there are two types of rules: Red rules and Blue rules. Red rules can’t be broken under any circumstance. They usually deal with health, safety, legal, ethics, and BIG financial. Blue rules can be bent for the customer. This is a blue rule. I don’t know the figures, but I’m sure there aren’t that many laptop batteries that die between 12 and 13 months. Allowing the occasional customer to stretch the warranty to 12 ½ months isn’t going to result in a BIG financial hit for Dell or any major computer company. Never mind that losing Bart would also mean losing a half-a-million dollars in business per year.

TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank) opens its offices at 7:30 AM and closes at 8 PM, which is already a larger spread than most banks. But if you arrive at 7:20 AM or 8:10 PM, they’ll let you in – they just don’t advertise it. We’ve all had the frustrating experience of arriving at a store two minutes after closing and not being able to make a quick purchase.

Why does TD Bank do this when other banks don’t? It’s because they decided that their customers, big or small, were worth an extra 20 minutes a day of service. It’s because it knows that nothing always works the way we want it to work. And people sometimes show up a couple of minutes late.

If you owned a restaurant, would you refuse to accept a coupon and sacrifice a customer because it expired the day before? It would be a pretty stupid thing to do. It’s the same with warranties.

Don’t let your rules get in the way or customer experience. You’ll lose more than you know.

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Can 15,000+ Steven Slater fans be wrong? Companies and Customers need to question their own behaviors

August 11, 2010

From TMZ.com: “TMZ has learned someone created an (Facebook) fan page for (Steven) Slater less than a day ago — which already has more than 15,000 followers … and continues to grow by the minute. But the most interesting part is the comment section, which has been taken over by flight attendants across the country who wish they had the cojones to do what Slater did.”

Oh boy. For those of you who have not been paying attention during the past day or so, Steven Slater is the JetBlue flight attendant who had a meltdown after a flight where (it now appears) not one, but two passengers cursed him out; one, over a dispute with another passenger about luggage space, and another over being told to sit until the plane was at a complete stop. With the plane on the ground, Slater unleashed a tirade over the loudspeaker system, released the emergency slide, grabbed two beers and escaped. He was arrested later on several charges.

Now, Slater is becoming a sort of folk hero to thousands (if not millions) of people who have had to deal with surly, abusive, and unreasonable customers in their own jobs, and who have had to spend time in the increasingly uncomfortable and difficult environment that is air travel today. Like Howard Beale in the movie, Network, they’re “Mad as hell” and are cheering Slater for indirectly saying, “I’m not going to take it anymore.”

One post on the Facebook page said, “”Kudos to you, I am a former flight attendant and only wish I had the nerve to do what you did!!!!!!” And yet another — “As a former F/A, you made my fantasy come true–you just did what we have all thought about doing a thousand times! Good Luck to you! :) “

There’s a lot of pent up anger out there about the way we’re treating each other.

First, a few thoughts: Steven Slater is not a hero for doing what he did (even though many of us would have loved to do the same). He put people in danger.  By using the loudspeaker system, he accosted the other passengers on the plane as surely as the rude and obnoxious passengers he had to deal with earlier accosted him. Should he go to jail? I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t want him serving on my flight.

One of the reasons why Slater is being hailed as a hero is because all of us have had to deal with these passengers and fellow customers who make our customer experience more difficult and less enjoyable. As a frequent flyer, I have witnessed passengers abuse airline personnel who had the “audacity” to announce a flight delay. I’ve seen passengers argue with flight attendants over simple things like shutting off their computers. I’ve seen passengers who wait until the flight attendant passes to put their chair back in the reclining position even though the rest of us have obeyed the rules and now have this “special” passenger sitting in their laps. According to the New York Daily News, Slater commented on such incidents when he went on an aviation website in March and posted his frustrations about luggage issues, “”I hate to be a ‘bag Nazi,’ but when I work a flight, I feel if I am not, then I am letting down all those who cooperate.”

There is a growing movement in business to kiss certain customers goodbye — customers who abuse service people, demand more resources than they’re entitled to, and in general, make the company/customer relationship difficult. Such customers not only get in the way of employees trying to serve their customers, but also customers trying to get something done. The vast majority of service people and customers are polite, friendly and cooperative. As I would tell any company that providing extremely poor service should be grounds for discipline or dismissal, so I would say that a company has the right to “fire” any customer who stops the company from providing the service its other customers deserve.

JetBlue has a great reputation as a customer-centered airline, and I applaud their past efforts. And I can see why they might be a little perturbed about Slater being hailed as a hero – he is not. But once this story dies down, JetBlue should quietly inform the passengers involved (and they should know who they were from where they were sitting) that they are no longer welcome on any JetBlue flight.

I often joke that I’d love to give a course called, “How to be a good customer” but no one wants it. With some customers, it’s not funny. Just as companies should have service personnel who know what they’re doing and are polite and helpful, there is no excuse for customers abusing company employees over a service issue.  Just as I hold companies to a certain standard when it comes to serving customers, I believe customers have an obligation in the interaction too. They need to provide the same respect to employees as they expect employees to provide to them.

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The answer to increased business in this bad economy is simple. So why don’t companies get it?

July 9, 2010

During the past year, I’ve reported on surveys by the Strativity Group and Right Now Technologies that say that customers will spend more with companies that provide excellent service and that they feel duty-bound to tell others about bad experiences. This week, American Express released a new customer service survey that confirms and adds to the understanding that customers will base their purchasing decisions on how well they or others are treated.

If three surveys (and probably more) in one year are saying the same things, why aren’t companies getting it? Do they think that the attitudes don’t apply to their customer relationships? Or have they forgotten why they’re in business? (Hint: to serve their customers)

Here are some highlights from the U.S. portion of the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, which was conducted in the U.S. and 11 other countries:

  • Americans will spend 9% more with companies that provide excellent service (Strativity said 40% of customers are willing to pay an additional 10%)
  • In the current economic climate, only 37% of Americans believe that companies have increased their focus on providing quality service, 27% say these companies have not changed their customer service attitudes, and 28% say that companies are paying even less attention to good service than before.
  • One in five feel companies take them for granted.
  • 81% are more likely to repeat business after a good service experience and 52% will never do business with a company again after a poor experience.
  • 91% of Americans base their decision to do business with a company on its level of customer service.

As we also know, the internet has changed the landscape of communication about customer experiences, but here are some actual numbers from the American Express survey:

  • 48% use online postings or blogs to get others’ opinions about how companies treat their customers
  • 57% put more emphasis on negative blog and social networking reviews than on positive ones.

What are your customers saying about you?

Frankly, these statistics should not be surprising. All you have to do is have casual conversation about service with people you know. As a consultant in customer experience, I could write a book on how people feel about the companies they do business with based purely on anecdotal evidence. When people hear what I do for a living, they often say, “Let me tell you a story about what happened to me …”

The news isn’t all bad. Some 86% of customers say they’re willing to give companies a second chance if their previous experiences have been great and 50% of Americans say it usually takes two bad service experiences before they’ll walk away.

Worldwide, consumers in 11 of 12 countries surveyed feel customer service has become more important in the current economy (The only exception was the Netherlands. Maybe they’re too focused on the World Cup).

While we aren’t surprised, companies still can’t figure out how to claim that “Great customer service” mantle.  Maybe it’s because 80% of companies believe they provide a superior customer experience but only 8% of consumers agree (Bain and Company, 2005).

Here are some things you can do:

  • Analyze each of your customer touch points. Where do you touch the customer? How well are you doing in that touch point? What can you do to improve the experience during that touch point?
  • Make each customer feel that you are on his or her side. Be a customer advocate. If you’re worried about spending the company’s money, remember the statistic about how much more happy customers will spend.
  • Give your people the authority to act on behalf of the customer. Companies quash this authority with everything from overbearing, ridiculous rules to providing scripts that tell customer service representatives what they can and can’t say. We have all had too many experiences where we just knew the employee would do something right for us but was restrained by management.

The numbers in these surveys don’t lie. None of these surveys are outliers – totally different from the others. They say the same thing: Customers will pay more and do more business with companies who provide excellent experiences and they will gladly spread the word about companies who don’t.  If your company’s customers are not in the first category, you’re doing something wrong.

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What would you say if a Senator asked you if you served your customers’ best interests?

June 4, 2010

I was watching the Congressional hearings on financial regulation last month and was startled by the way the leaders of our financial firms dodged and failed to answer Sen. Susan Collins’s question, “Do you do things with your customers’ best interests in mind?”

How hard a question is that to answer? How arrogant do you have to be to not anticipate that question and prepare for it? Worse than that, how could they not be able to say unequivocally that they do?

Even if you’re a cynic and accept the idea that brokerage firms’ sole purpose these days is to make as much money as they can in any way that they can, it’s still not a hard question to answer. A brokerage firm sells financial products, offers financial advice, and facilitates investments. With each customer transaction or consulting agreement, the brokerage firm makes mucho money. If the customer is happy, he invests more with the firm or buys other financial products, making the firm even more money. If the customer feels she can trust you, she will trust you with her money, which allows you to use that money to make more money. So who is the most important person here? In whose interest should the firm be working?

Apologists for the industry, especially Goldman Sachs, have pointed out that investments are a gamble and if a client wants to take a chance on a gamble, who are the firms to stand in his way? Apparently, they have forgotten that I go to a financial “advisor” for advice based on the expertise she has that I don’t. If I want to make a stupid financial gamble, I depend on my “advisor” to let me know it’s a bad idea. She should have my best interests in mind.

A client asked me last year if I would be willing to condense my 8-hour seminar into 6 hours. Chopping two hours off of the program wouldn’t be a disaster, but it would take away some of the seminar’s effectiveness. I told the client, “I am willing to do that, but I must tell you that I don’t believe your people will get the same benefits, information and understanding that they would get if they attended the full 8 hours. If you’re okay with that, I’ll do it.”

While I felt the need to say this for a 6-hour version of the program, I would not have considered doing the 8-hour program in 4 hours. I would have told the client that I didn’t feel it would be in her best interest to remove that much content. That’s my job.

What are your customers’ best interests? Are you selling them products because you want to sell them or because your customers really want and need them? Are you twisting yourself into a pretzel in trying to explain why your latest policy change is good for the customer when in reality it is only good for you?

The week before the Congressional hearings, I laughed at the absurdity as I watched the CEO of Spirit Airlines explain why its new policy of charging $45 for carry-on bags was “good” for customers. He explained that with less bags going in the overhead compartments, people will get on and off the planes more quickly. So, he’s saying that by bringing a second bag on the plane, I am stopping other passengers from getting off the plane more quickly – it’s my fault! And because it’s my fault, I am penalized $45. He’s protecting the poor passengers who have to wait while I get my bag from above the seat. If you believe that …

The customer/provider relationship is a partnership. You provide products, services and advice with my best interests in mind, and I spend the money to purchase those products, services and advice. When you have my best interests in mind, I am happy and I continue to buy from you. When you don’t, I leave. And when you combine not protecting your customer’s interests, doing it in a shady way, and growing so big that you’re “too big to fail,” you shouldn’t complain when you’re called before a Congressional committee.

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Are customers stupid? No. They just don’t know what you know.

April 19, 2010

My confusion began when I picked up the key fob in my Nissan Maxima rental at the Las Vegas airport and found there was no key. All of the dashboard lights were on but the engine wasn’t running. And then I saw the push-button ignition. I had never used one before.

I pressed the ignition button and all the lights went off. This confused me further. So I pressed it again and the lights went back on, but again, the engine wasn’t running. I put the car in reverse to get out of the parking space, but the car wouldn’t go. I shut the car off again and decided to flag down the first Hertz employee I saw.

The employee was a young woman who got into my car, noticed that my car was in reverse and gave me a look that said, “Idiot, the car’s in reverse.” She then pressed the ignition button and the car started. Embarrassed, I thanked her, got in the car, and drove to my hotel. I thought, “How stupid was I to leave the car in reverse? Of course the car wouldn’t start!”

The next morning, I got in the car and attempted to start it again, made sure the car was in park, pressed the button and again, nothing happened. After almost 10 minutes of looking for the car’s operations manual (which wasn’t in the glove compartment) and a customer service number, I could only find a number for roadside assistance. In utter frustration, I called, vented to the guy on the other end and finally listened when he explained to me that I needed to have my foot on the brake when I pressed the ignition button. Sure enough, I did what he said and the car started.

I’m not stupid, but I felt stupid because I didn’t know how to use the pushbutton ignition, until I realized it is definitely not intuitive to know that you’re supposed to press down on the brake in order to make the car start.

I’m actually a big fan of Hertz. I find their service to be very good and I’m a loyal customer, so I offer the following advice to them and everybody else:

1)      New technologies come quickly these days. Don’t assume your customer knows how to use the new technology. I drive a 2004 car, which I like very much. I’ve also rented more than 20 cars during the past two years and this is the first time I’ve had this situation.

2)      Anticipate your customer’s ignorance. As a Hertz Gold Club member, I don’t talk to any employees before I get into the car. Since nobody would have the opportunity to tell me how to start the car, there should have been some instructions in the car. Had I had those instructions, I would have figured it out pretty quickly.  Like I said, I’m not stupid.

3)      Make sure your customer-facing employees know the products you are selling (or in this case, renting). A couple of winters ago, I found myself driving to LaGuardia Airport in the middle of a snowstorm. My rental was slipping and sliding all over the place. It seemed every time I hit the gas, the car would skid, which seemed strange to me because I had traction control (which I had never needed before). The police had to push me out of several snow banks. I called Hertz twice to ask them what to do and nobody knew what to tell me except the normal, “Take it slow, apply your foot firmly on the break and don’t accelerate too quickly.” When I had just about given up, I desperately looked for something else to do and for some reason, shut the traction control off. With that one move, my car stopped slipping and sliding.  Wouldn’t it be simpler to have a “frequent problems during a snowstorm” list available for those times customers are calling in panic?

At one of my seminars a few years ago, an attendee said, “Steve, you gotta understand. Our customers are really stupid!” After stopping myself from saying, “Actually you’re stupid,” I said, “Our customers aren’t stupid. They just don’t know what you know. And you know what? You don’t know what they know.”

We live in a world of expertise. Our customers depend on us to be experts at our business and products and to know what they don’t. Anticipate their needs by asking, “what don’t they know and what can I do to not make them feel stupid?” Your customers will thank you.

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Customer Service – More Important Than Sales?

February 9, 2010

As somebody who offers customer service/experience seminars, it always puzzles me why companies and people spend gobs of money on sales training but not on training the people who take care of the customers after the sale. The companies always consider the “customer service” department as a non-revenue generating necessity.

It’s not. Actually, it may be more important to the bottom line than sales.

Think of it this way: Sales and marketing help customers make the decision to buy in the first place. Customer service and all of those who serve your customers help customers make the decision to buy more. While it can be difficult to convince somebody to try your product or store, what’s even more difficult is getting them to buy again and again. And if they keep buying again and again, those customers are much more valuable to your business than those who buy only once. It’s not rocket service to know that you want more of those customers.

Have you ever seen what happens when a salesperson nabs a huge account? What a celebration! Juan (or Juanita) gets slaps on the back, congratulations from the boss, maybe even a little bonus gift for his efforts. His name goes up on the sales chart and everybody knows he’s DA MAN!

During the next year or two, the client contacts the company several times for situations big and small and receives remarkable service from Ingrid, David, Ariel, Hannah and the rest of the underpaid but conscientious customer care or help desk people. The client is very happy. At the end of his two-year commitment, he calls to renew the contract.

Odds are there is no celebration in the help desk area. Tracy, the customer service manager doesn’t get slapped on the back, congratulated by the boss, nor does she receive a little bonus. If Tracy doesn’t get these things, what do you think Ingrid, David, Ariel and Hannah get? Nobody in customer service gets the credit and what’s worse, the salesperson gets the huge commission on the renewal and the additional agreements the client signs because he’s so happy.

Do these customer care people deserve to get more? Yes, because in the long run, they can affect the bottom line more than sales can. In its 2009 Customer Experience Consumer Study, Strativity Group shows that “loyal customers who enjoyed exceptional customer experience are almost three times as likely to continue doing business with companies for another ten (!) years or more than dissatisfied customers.”

Which is more profitable, the initial sale or the ongoing business based on customer experience?

If that number doesn’t cause you to answer the latter, try these, also from the Strativity study.

  • 40% of loyal customers say they are willing to pay 10% or more to continue purchasing from companies delivering great experiences
  • More than half of dissatisfied customers say that in return for continuing to do business with companies that deliver inferior customer experiences, they expect at least a 5% discount.
  • Satisfied customers demand no such discount.
  • Customers who received an inferior customer experience are 10 times more likely to cease doing business with companies within the next 12 months than loyal customers.

There is no doubt that sales is the main driver of company revenue – if a customer doesn’t buy your product the first time, they can’t experience your company’s service. But that sale only gets them in the door. It is the service area that takes care of the customer after the sale that causes the money to keep rolling in.

The next time one of your customers renews an agreement, makes a repeat purchase, or buys additional products and services, I expect a celebration. I’ll bring the cake.

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Flyers hate TSA because of its policies; They hate companies for the same reason

January 5, 2010

Flyers are ticked-off at the Transportation Security Administration once again as the TSA institutes new travel restrictions in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack Christmas Day. The reason they’re upset is deeper than being inconvenienced during the last hour of an international flight. It’s the same reason people are angry at certain companies.

People accept inconveniences every day. We accept the idea of one-way streets and that we must accompany our children at the swimming pool and not just leave them there. We put out our recycling once or twice a week and think nothing of it. We also deal with TV networks that stop showing a particular TV show for a month or two before starting it up again.

Yet we get really annoyed when the TSA institutes new security rules in the face of a new terrorist attack. Actually, we were annoyed already, but now we’re even more annoyed than we were. Why do we pick on the poor TSA?

Flyers pick on the Transportation Security Administration because most of the inconvenient security measures they take make no sense to most people. We don’t understand why we have to take off our shoes, separate our liquids, and separate the computer and the jacket in separate trays. We don’t understand why we can take five 3 oz. bottles on the plane but not one 4 oz. bottle. We don’t understand because the TSA has failed to tell us why or the reason they give is not a good one.

“We’re keeping you safe” is not a good reason when you realize you’ve left your computer back at the Quiznos right after walking past the security gate to leave the basically empty airport and the three (count ‘em, three) TSA employees refuse to let you go back to retrieve it. One of those employees could have escorted me back to the Quiznos (about 500 feet away) but policy is policy.

So what does this have to do with customer service? Everything. As the airline’s customer, I am also the airport’s customer and therefore, the TSA’s customer. My customer experience comes from the combined efforts of all three, plus the various stores and restaurants in the airport, including Quiznos (who found the computer and put it behind the counter so nobody would steal it). And when I, or any other customer isn’t given a good reason for rules and policies, we become angry, frustrated and capable of doing irrational things we wouldn’t normally do, including yell and scream at customer service reps and managers of retail stores.

What policies do you have and how are you explaining them to customers? Does each of your policies and rules have a good reason for being a policy? If they do, explain the reason to your customers when they protest the rule – but it had better be a good reason. “We’ll lose money if the coupon is turned in a day late” is not anything the customer cares about. The customer only knows she couldn’t get there yesterday because there were six inches of snow on the ground.

People understand we need  rules, even those which are inconvenient.  They also understand that the customer/provider relationship is a two-way conversation: I will abide by your rule and accept the inconvenience if you tell me why it’s important and especially, why it benefits me. Keep that in mind when you’re telling a customer he has to wait or can’t have something because you have your rules.

I’ve yet to find anybody who understands how taking away our blankets for the last hour of a flight will make me any safer than I was the day before this incompetent would-be terrorist set his pants on fire. Until they explain that and all the other rules they have, people will continue to use the TSA as their favorite conversational punching bag.

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It’s never about you even if the customer’s an idiot

December 22, 2009

One of the sad facts of business most people choose to ignore (or never learned) is it is never about you. Interactions with customers are never about what you want, what you need, what you care about, or anything else having to do with you. If you want to matter to your customers, what you care about doesn’t matter. This is especially true when customers are upset – which is why you’re there.

If your customer is angry, deal with it. It’s not about you.

If your customer wants you to go the extra mile, do it. It’s not about you.

If your customer wants you to do something faster, do what you can to get it done fast. It’s not about you.

If your customer has had a bad day and is taking it out on you, it’s too bad. It’s not about you.

If your customer has his or her own way of doing things that is effective for him or her, try to work within that system. It’s not about you.

If your customer is a horse’s you-know-what, even then, it’s not about you (this doesn’t include abusive customers.

It’s always about your customers. They’re your best friends.

I had just finished speaking at a conference when a member of the audience walked up to me and handed me a pay stub from a recent paycheck. I wasn’t quite sure why this woman wanted me to see her pay stub unless it was to show me that she made more money than I did.

I looked at her quizzically, and before I could say anything, she said, “Look what it says on the bottom of the pay stub.” I glanced down and there it was: a revelation that told me this company “gets it.”

“This paycheck is brought to you by your customers.”

My eyes grew wide and so did my smile. This company reminded its people every other week just who was responsible for the company’s success and that without that success, there would be no company. And there would be no job.

They could have communicated this by putting a huge poster on the wall, but that wouldn’t have made the impact that seeing this statement associated with the employee’s pay had made. In other words, the food you put on your table, the car you just bought, the college education you’re paying for, the ability to pay for the mortgage, the vacation in the Bahamas, and that new videogame system are all brought to you by your customers. What nice people they are to give you this money!

Now, we know that you worked very hard and you’re very good at what you do, but in the end, if the customer doesn’t pay the bills, there’s no place for you to do this work.

Customers are your best friends. They make sure your salary is paid. Or, if you’re in your own business, they make sure you make a profit – and remain in business. That’s why it’s never about you.

Think about how you treat your best friends. If they’ve been good friends for a long time, you’re clearly doing something right. You’re probably putting their needs before yours, giving them the benefit of the doubt and sharing the responsibilities for whatever you decide to do together. In other words, when you’re best friends, you make it about them and they make it about you. Now think about a time when you got into a fight with your best friend. Odds are that something happened where you made it about you (or vice versa).

The customer isn’t always right. The customer isn’t always nice. But it’s always about the customer. So next time you begin to think, “Who does this guy think he is?” keep repeating “It’s not about me … it’s not about me … it’s not about me.” Then, make it a positive experience for the customer.

When you make it about them, they’ll make it about you.

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Tiger falls; Will your product be next?

December 14, 2009

Tiger Woods fools around. Okay … apparently, he fools around a lot. But ask any 10 people on the street if they think the super-golfer fools around any more often than many other male celebrities, and they’ll probably say, “no.” Then why is Tiger getting pilloried not just by the media, but by the very public that held him so highly just a few weeks ago? And why is he being criticized for actions that we know other celebrities do and that we ignore or look away from?

It’s really very simple. Our expectations of Tiger were incredibly high, and not without reason. Every message the Tiger publicity machine and the media that followed him sent to the public was that this celebrity was of a different breed – focused, clean-living, determined, clear-eyed, and a role model any mother could hold up for her children. He has a stunningly beautiful wife and a beautiful child and best of all, all of the kudos and acclaim were actually based on a level of accomplishment higher than most people reach in their lifetime. So we put Tiger on a pedestal and filled him with our greatest expectations.

Then he turned out to be human. Not only was he human, but capable of betrayal on a tremendously high level.  And so he has fallen … down, down, down.

Yet we know that there are celebrities who take part in such activities every day. We hear tales of entertainers who engage in sexual debauchery on a level far beyond the average male teenager’s fantasies and we just shrug our shoulders. After all, how many boys pick up a guitar because they heard it was a great way to meet girls? Why the difference?

The difference is we kind of expect our rock stars and rap stars to play the role the world created for them. We expect them to be that way and don’t think much of it when it happens. But Tiger was a different story. Our expectations were extremely high and those expectations caused the public to believe Tiger wasn’t capable of such things. So the public quickly pulled back its faith in Tiger when he turned out to perform far short of our expectations.

Is it fair? Yes, it’s very fair. Tiger has built a financial empire on the persona that created these expectations. Because our expectations of the product that was Tiger were so high, we rewarded him handsomely for living up to those expectations. And when the product (Tiger) didn’t live up to expectations, we became very angry and told the world. In turn, the companies that provided Tiger with celebrity are now deciding to go somewhere else.

Expectations drive the way we determine how we feel about celebrities but also how we feel about the products we buy and the services we use. Customers have certain expectations when it comes to the products they buy. And if you don’t live up to those expectations, no matter what they are, they will penalize you greatly. But if you do live up to those expectations, or exceed them, they will reward you handsomely.

Companies who charge a high price create high expectations just because customers are parting with large sums of money. Should a Lexus be held to a higher standard than Chevrolet? Considering I would be spending $85,000 for a car, I’m holding Lexus to a very high bar. If Lexus performs like Chevrolet, I’m going to be very angry and Lexus will experience my wrath. But if Chevrolet performs like Lexus is supposed to, I’m going to be beyond thrilled. If the Chevrolet performs like a Chevrolet, well, I have nothing to be disappointed about.

Tiger didn’t perform like Tiger was supposed to. In today’s commercialized world of celebrity endorsements, Tiger was bought like any product would be. The product Accenture, Gatorade, Gillette and others bought included the way he looked, the way he acted, the way he carried himself, the way he played golf, whether he won or lost and also, how closely he adhered to the standards – moral or otherwise – we attached to him. Your customers attach certain standards to your product and service too. They expect you to live up to a certain standard.

If you don’t, you’ll find yourself free-falling with Tiger.

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You can’t make all customers happy all the time … but try

December 8, 2009

One of things I teach is customers are more apt accept your answer or your policy if you explain why. But what happens if the customer decides not to accept your reason?

Shirley (not her real name) called me one day to tell me she had done exactly what I had told her, avoiding saying “policy” and instead explaining the reason. This particular customer refused to accept the reason and was very angry after Shirley said there was nothing more she could do.

The watch company Shirley works for accepts repairs in two ways: through the jewelry stores that sell the watch or directly from the customer. Both repairs end up in the company’s repair center, but the company doesn’t accept credit cards for repairs while the stores do. However, the stores also charge more than the company does for the same repair.

For this customer, Shirley explained that the number of direct repairs they get doesn’t justify the money the credit card company charges them. In other words, she was telling the customer he wasn’t worth the extra cost. Not only didn’t he buy her reason, he promised never to buy one of their watches again.

I understood her reasoning but asked her, “How do most people pay for things these days, especially when it involves sending something or ordering something through the mail?”

She agreed that most people pay with credit cards. She also agreed that they had a right to expect the watch company to accept the cards for repairs. But then she reiterated the reason.

The company didn’t encourage owners to send the watches directly because it wanted the jewelry stores to get the repair business – the direct repair was just a courtesy. So, the company made a conscious decision to accept repairs, but not to accept credit cards for the repairs, despite most people charging such things on their cards.

“I believe your reason is a good one,” I said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that most people expect to pay for repairs with their credit cards. The customer’s expectations are everything. People will decide whether they want to continue to do business with you based on whether you met, exceeded or didn’t meet their expectations.

In the end, every decision a company makes regarding policies and procedures has a consequence. You may be perfectly right in your reason but the customer didn’t think so. In the customer’s view, you weren’t being very customer-centric. Your reason said you cared more about the company’s bottom line than making it convenient for the customer.”

When faced with these types of situations, you’ve got to make a decision: Will I lose more money by disappointing a certain amount of customers than I will by doing what the customer wants? This company apparently decided they would lose more money if they did the latter. That’s perfectly okay, but the customer will still be unhappy.

Every organization has to strike a balance between making the customer happy and not giving away the store. Sometimes, the reason for the policy is valid and will hurt the company if you don’t enforce it. Other times, it’s worth giving up something to make the customer happy. You can’t make every customer happy all the time. But you do have to measure the consequences of not doing so.

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