Posts Tagged ‘what customers expect’

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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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Your customers’ expectations will decide their happiness. Do you have any idea what those expectations are?

March 1, 2010

I’ve worked with more than 100 different companies during the past 15 years, helping them provide great experiences for their customers. Prior to working with a new company, I usually go to their website or visit their offices and take a look at their mission statements or values statements. Invariably, the statements include something about aiming to “exceed customer expectations.” Then I look around the office or the website for the statements that list their customers’ expectations. And I never find it.

Customer expectations drive every aspect of their relationship with you. How can you exceed those expectations if you don’t know what they are?

I can hear you now – “We know what our customers’ expectations are! We just don’t list them on a plaque or on the website.” So let me ask you, are you sure? When was the last time you asked your customers – point blank – about their expectations?

I worked with a manufacturer that sold high-end products in jewelry stores. They hired me to teach their sales reps how to get the store’s salespeople to sell more of their products. The first thing I did was interview some of the company’s top sales reps about what the store salespeople want and expect. They gladly volunteered their opinions, many of which indicated that expectations were higher than the company could deliver.

I then interviewed managers and owners of the jewelry stores that sold the products and asked them the same questions about wants and expectations. It turned out their expectations were totally different that what the company’s sales reps thought they were. This disconnect was a major factor in the store’s salespeople’s willingness to push the company’s products. I had asked the questions the company should have been asking regularly.

If you’re like most people and companies, this conversation with your customers is long overdue.

We should be asking the customer about his or her expectations regularly – once a year or more. Questions could include:

  • What are five (or ten) expectations you have of your sales representative?
  • What do expect when you call customer service?
  • What kind of time expectations do you have when it comes to emergencies?
  • What do you expect when you open a new account with us?
  • What do you expect after the job is done?
  • What kind of follow-up do you expect?
  • How often do you expect us to keep in touch during a project?
  • What will make this project (training, product, event) successful for you?
  • What kind of information do you expect us to provide to you?

Additional questions should deal with particular issues depending on the product, service, company and situation.

Once you have gathered the information from these “expectations” questions, your team should get together and brainstorm how to meet these expectations, who is responsible for doing so, and the resources you’ll need.

Companies spend vast amounts of money after the interaction asking customers whether their expectations were met. It’s time we spent some time and money finding out their expectations before we worry about whether we met them or not.

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Are your people being trained on how to properly communicate by email?

January 27, 2010

As a manager, do you just assume your people know how to write properly? If your people are communicating with their external customers through email (as many are), are you risking long-term relationships by focusing on their telephone and verbal skills and ignoring their writing training?

The “e” world is fast becoming businesses’ favorite form of communication. To use computer terms, we are engaging in e-versations™.

Release 1.0 was email.

Release 2.0 was the online chat.

Release 3.0 is social media.

We are leaving our people to figure out the process, words to use and the etiquette of these three releases without any training or advice from management. This may be because many managers have never received any training themselves.

I used to teach “Business Writing.” As late as 2000, most business writing focused exclusively on letters, memos, and reports. In 2001, Cingular Wireless contracted me to provide them with a customer service email program. But my appeals to other companies fell on deaf ears.

The world of e-versations™ has only become more complicated since then. To answer this complicated landscape, many companies have reverted to the forms that made their telephone conversations with customers seem stilted and impersonal: scripts.

If I’m going to talk to a customer service representative or any of your employees, I expect to be treated as a person, not as a situation you can address with a script. If your people are talking to their customers on the phone, you would expect that talk in a conversational way. Now, they are increasingly talking to customers by email and chat. Customers expect the same conversational, non-scripted responses. If you don’t think your customers can see that your “chat rep” pressed a key that threw a pre-scripted response on the screen, think again.

As e-versations™ become more popular in most cases and the norm in many, your people need training in how to write conversationally and to be more customer-centric in their responses. This is essential as the world of customer communication moves forward.

Throw away the scripts. Train your people. It’s not rocket service™.

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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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Customer Service Hero: Lori Ray, Olympus America, Ltd

October 14, 2009

Lori Ray, customer service representative for Olympus America saved my day. For that, I have named her a Customer Service Hero.

I had just finished recording a client’s words for a writing project I’m working on and went to transfer the remarks from my Olympus VN-4100PC digital voice recorder to my PC. The Olympus Digital Wave Player showed it recognized the recorder but was being very stubborn about transferring the files.

I checked out the recorder’s manual and found nothing. I even looked under “troubleshooting” because I was in trouble, though when I didn’t find my answer, I thought of shooting something else other than trouble. When a telephone number for customer service was not immediately findable on the Olympus website, I began to feel like someone dropped in the middle of a strange city without knowing how to get out. As the sweat began to appear on my brow, I found a number and called it. The voice recording indicated I had called Olympus Imaging products (Cameras) and I hung up. I rechecked the number and though it was the same, I tried it again. This time I stayed on long enough to hear the prompt for voice recorders.

Lori answered the phone and demonstrated everything I teach in my customer service course. She answered with a pleasant greeting and expressed a desire to help me. She asked me what the situation was and when I told her about the frustration of seeing that the software recognized my device but refused to transfer the files, she replied with an attitude of “Well, let’s see what we can do about that.”

Though I thought I must be missing something myself, she never made me feel like I was technically ignorant. She asked me several questions and had me repeat the various steps I had taken before I called her. The way she asked made me feel as if she was feeling the same frustration as I was, but she was going to figure it out no matter what. Her voice never showed the frustration but did show empathy. It probably helped that I remained calm, but I think she would have remained calm in any case.

Lori stayed on the phone with me for an hour (or so it seemed), tried this, tried that, and then, unlike so many others, she actually asked me if she could put me on hold and went to check with someone else. She made the conversation totally about me. She had asked what version of the software I had and apparently, there had been an update to solve the problem.

While she was telling me about the update, she was writing an email with links to the software and the update. She could have had me go to the Olympus website, navigate through the pages and find it myself. But no, she sent me the link while she was explaining so that when she got finished, the link was there for me to use.

I uninstalled the old software as she said and downloaded the new software and the patch. When my computer took a long time to shut down and reboot, I apologized and she assured me it was no problem (twice). After I rebooted, she had me reconnect my recorder, which opened the new software. Then she told me to try to transfer the files again and it worked.

Then she again exceeded my expectations while the files transferred. Apparently, I still had quite a few files on the recorder from previous uses and it was taking quite a while to transfer. Suddenly, I realized there was probably no reason for her to stay on the phone with me and offered to allow her to call me back after the transfer. She commented, “I probably won’t be here.” I looked at the clock and saw it was just after 5:00, but she had given me no indication that she wouldn’t have stayed with me for the duration. Finally, we agreed that I would email her when I saw it was alright. And it was.

In my customer service class, we show a video with a character, Maria, who does everything right. Some of the people in the class tell me Maria is “too perfect.” I ask, “Are there people who do what she does?” and they sheepishly say yes. After working with Lori Ray, our Customer Service Hero, I can honestly say I have met Maria in real life.  She is a customer service hero.

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It’s not rocket service!

August 17, 2009

Here’s a great exercise you can try to create outstanding customer service.  Get an easel chart with a pad. If you’re a manager, gather your people together. If you’re not, you may want to do this with some co-workers or friends.

Break the group into two or three smaller groups and ask each of the groups to remember when they were customers. Then tell them to write down the things they hate about dealing with customer service or customer situations, whether on the phone, in person, on email or anything else. Tell them they have to come up with at least 10 things (this should be pretty easy considering the stories I hear every day). If they can come up with more than 10, that’s even better.  Make sure you join in with one of the groups to add your two cents.

Stop the group when it seems they’ve listed enough items or when five minutes passes. Then go to the easel chart and taking one item at a time from each team, list the items on the pad. I want you to take one at a time because there will be repeat items. If the items fill up the easel chart page, hang it on the wall and start another page.

Once you have exhausted everybody’s list, ask them if there are any other items they want to add.  After you are sure there are no more items, have somebody (if not you) read the items aloud. Then say the following:

“These are the actions you said annoy you to no end when you deal with customer service. They drive you up a wall. So when dealing with your customers, DON’T DO THESE THINGS! Why? Because these things annoy people!”

It’s not rocket service. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or any other genius to figure out how to treat customers. We all know what it’s like to be a customer. We all know what it’s like to get good service. Most importantly, we all know what it’s like to get bad service, and as the great Hebrew sage Rabbi Hillel said in the 1st century, “What is hateful to you, don’t do to other people.” The golden rule of “treat people the way you want to be treated” is all well and good, but even more important may be “don’t treat people the way you don’t want to be treated.”

Most problems with customer relationships would go away if most people and companies followed that rule and did the exercise above. People who deal with customers aren’t stupid and they know what’s right but are too often affected by poor work environments, lack of authority, and policies that force them to decide whether to treat the customer well or treat the customer quickly. Most people I know would like to have their problem solved quickly, but if given the choice, they would appreciate it more if it was done right.

What do your customers say about you when you’re not listening? Are they accusing you of the same things you put on your list? Here’s what you should do:

  • Take the list you made from the exercise above.
  • Turn it into a code of commandments (you can even use the “thou shalt not …” expression). Make the list extremely difficult to avoid in your office or other workplace.
  • Review the list at team meetings.
  • Show customers the list and ask them to let you know when the team (or you) has fallen down on the job.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. It’s not rocket service.

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Survey says: Great customer experiences are more profitable

August 10, 2009

For 14 years, I’ve been preaching the benefits of creating outstanding customer experiences. The companies I work with seem to understand on an emotional level that better customer experiences bring loyalty from customers. But then they ask, “What is loyalty? What does it mean?” Behind those questions is skepticism that there isn’t really much to the whole concept. I’ve heard the line, “Our customers only care about price and they’ll remain loyal as long as our prices remain low” more often than I can count. In this economy, I’m hearing it more often than ever.

Now comes the 2009 Customer Experience Consumer Study from Strativity Group, Inc.  (http://bit.ly/GVH8I) which backs up the emotional understanding of exceptional customer experiences with one based on consumer opinions of their own experiences.  Based on surveys of 1,994 consumers, Strativity found that “Consumers … indicated they penalize companies that fail to deliver the desired experiences either by demanding discounted prices or by terminating their relationship altogether.”  The numbers show that:

  • 52% of unhappy customers say they will continue doing business with the company that made them unhappy only if it offers a discount of 5% or more. When we make customers unhappy, they want something in return.
  • Even in today’s difficult economic times, 40% of loyal customers (customers significantly happy with their customer experiences) are willing to pay an additional 10% or more to continue purchasing from the companies delivering great experiences. And while the study says only 9% of unhappy customers are willing to pay more, I see it this way: 91% of customers who are continuing to do business with you even though you’re not making them happy will bolt for the door if you raise your prices for any reason.

The study also notes that exceptional customer experiences result in significantly lower customer attrition. According to the report, “Loyal customers with exceptional customer experiences are almost three times as likely to continue doing business with companies for another ten years or more than the dissatisfied customers.” In addition, “Customers who received an inferior customer experience are ten times more likely to cease doing business with companies within the next 12 months than loyal customers.”

What does all of it mean? As Strativity puts it, “consumers want the maximum value rather than the lowest price.” If exceptional customer experiences are not among your competitive differentiators, you’re going to find yourself losing customers or selling your products and services at a lower price than you would like. In this economy, when revenues are down significantly already, can you afford to charge one penny less for your goods and services than you should? Deliver exceptional customer experiences and you not only won’t have to, you’ll probably be able to charge more.

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Are companies throwing marketing dollars out the window?

August 3, 2009

I ran across an article in Telephony Online with the intriguing title, “Are marketing billions being wasted?”(http://telephonyonline.com/global/news/service-provider-customer-retention-0803/)  It told of a survey of Chief Marketing Officers at telecom service providers in which the CMOs admitted that their efforts to gain and retain customers (are being) crippled by internal barriers (and) IT inefficiencies.”

Yes, they are. And it’s not just telephone and wireless companies who are doing it. It’s what I call being “pennywise and billions foolish.” The article might as well have been called, “It’s Not Rocket Service: You’re Wasting Your Marketing Dollars.”

A few years ago, I was teaching a customer service course to a wireless telephone company. The company had 23% turnover in customers over the past 12 months. I told them, “Having 23% churn means that at least 23% of your marketing dollars are being spent to replace customers you already had and could have kept!” What a waste! Telcos and other organizations skimp on hiring the right customer-facing people, keep wages of those people low in an effort to cut costs, create bureaucracies that stop customer-contact people from having any authority to fix the customer’s problem, and have no idea what the customer expects. And then when churn is higher than they want it to be, what do they do? They increase the marketing budget and invest in advanced CRM systems that tell them everything about the customer except the way he or she wants to be treated.

Three things popped out at me from the survey by the CMO Council and its Customer Experience Board: One, more than half the CMOs said “their companies need to improve their responses to customer pain points” two, 89% said they need to handle and respond to customer problems better, and three, “more than half believe their organization is not culturally or organizationally aligned around the customer.” And they wonder why they’re seeing higher rates of churn.

Sadly, these numbers are not unique to the telephony business. The same range of numbers comes out in survey after survey in industry after industry.

The answer is twofold:  One, figure out what roadblocks are stopping your customers from having the experience they expect and deserve. People buy again and again because they like the experience – the experience of using the product and the service they get when they buy and need help with the product. In the article, writer Carol Wilson talks about using news forums, blogs and other social media to track what people are saying about the issues with the products. Customer surveys won’t tell you half as much as finding out what people are saying online.

The other answer is to invest in hiring and training truly customer-caring people and paying them well. Then, give them the authority to fix customer problems the way the customer expects. Yes, it’s going to cost more, but if you don’t spend it on increased service levels, you’re going to waste the money on marketing anyway.

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Welcome Back, Home Depot

July 1, 2009

About 18 months ago, I did a presentation where I ripped Home Depot for abandoning its customers and its legendary attention to the customer experience. Today, I’m ready to say, Home Depot is coming back to its roots. Good for them!

Founded by Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, Home Depot was well known for its attention to the customer, especially customers like me. Arthur and Bernie live in the Atlanta area (where I live) and are known to be super guys who truly care about other people. Their philanthropic efforts are well documented (Bernie built the Atlanta Aquarium, the largest in the world). I happen to know several people who have personal relationships with Arthur and they say you couldn’t find a nicer, more giving man than he is. His integrity is beyond reproach.

This same attitude permeated their stores. Employees and managers felt empowered and the driving force behind Home Depot was to provide hands-on advice and service to customers whether they knew what they were doing or not. All of this changed in 2007, when former GE executive Bob Nardelli came in to be CEO and started running the company by numbers and data and made a fatal mistake: he forgot that retail (as much as any business) is a people business. For Nardelli, productivity per hour per employee was much more important than whether there was an “Orange Apron” walking the floor to help people. He slashed store employee headcount and took away manager responsibility for buying and providing the right products for his or her unique customer. Customer service ratings for the chain, which were once among the highest in retail, tumbled in unprecedented ways.

Phenomenal service at a home improvement store is extremely important to me because if I have to choose between fixing/building something and doing … well, just about anything else, I’ll choose the latter. So when I absolutely must do something that involves using tools, I’m out of my league. The last thing I want to do is ask a friend, a neighbor, or anybody else I know how to fix something. So I need a place where I can go where I can find help easily in an area outside of my expertise.

Home Depot used to be the place to do that and I’m happy to report that it is becoming the place again. This weekend, I went to the Home Depot in Alpharetta, GA for the second time in several weeks and found a complete change in attitude. I walked over to hardware with a request. The hardware employee, stationed at the key-making counter, took care of my request and then told me where to find weather stripping, which I needed for my basement door. I went to the area and couldn’t figure out which stripping I needed. So I walked out of the aisle, expecting to be looking fruitlessly for help, when the same employee saw me. He excused himself from his customer, asked me if he could help me with anything and then took me back to the aisle to show me the specific stripping I needed. He then went back to his customer, apologized, and resumed his help.

After finding the weather stripping, I started eyeing the aisles for air conditioner filters. A woman in an orange apron walked over to me (SHE walked over to ME!) and proceeded to walk me to the aisle where I found the filters. I’d say it was unbelievable, but I know a store that used to do that all the time. It’s called Home Depot.

Home Depot’s customer ratings went into freefall when its leadership forgot about the people – employees and customers. When you take people out of the equation, you lose. Welcome back, Home Depot.

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