Owning The Problem

A few weeks ago, I was on the Kodak Gallery site ordering copies of pictures of my children for the 5 sets of grandparents. I wanted to simply pickup these items at my local CVS store based on the service promise of one hour pickup. I thought this was a pretty straight forward / no frills transaction. WRONG


It took me 2 drop ins to the CVS store, 5 calls, 3 different front line employees and some aggravation to get this simple order completed. On my first attempt, the young woman could not find the order in the system or in the store so I went home and realized I had to click on a button at the bottom of the shopping cart page. So, my bad but the site experience did not make sense.


Once I completed this, I waited and called CVS to make sure they had the order in the system. The young man on the phone saw the order but then proceeded to tell me that it would take 3-5 days because the order was being completed at a Kodak site and I would then have to come back in and pick it up. When I told him that the online transaction promised 1 hour in store pickup, he told me to call Kodak.


This is where the entire experience went downhill. Why should I call Kodak? This is a partner of CVS so my expectations would be that the front line team at CVS be empowered to own my problem and contact Kodak to resolve this issue.


Of course I called and a nice, but fumbling and not all that smooth of a call center professional assumed the responsibility and was able to get my order ready to be picked up. So Kodak absolutely recovered the situation but shame on CVS for not owning the problem.


Owning the Problem means finding a solution. Not every solution will be met with joy but it is a solution so ensure that you do not leave your customers hanging. Give your customers the rope and pull them back up.


Lessons Learned

• Teach your front line, no matter what their age, experience or pay level that they must own every customer problem. This is their job and if they do not exhibit these behaviors, it will be only a matter of time that their lack of support will be seen by management. This means that the the job profile, interview and training process must include and encourage this behavior.
• Use examples of solving the problem as stories for great service experiences. Highlight these in staff meetings, focus groups with the front line and in all forms of communications. 
• Surprise reward when possible. When seeing or hearing of a great experience, give a small reward and make a big deal about. 
• Use customer complaints as a learning tool rather than a form of punishment. 
• Teach empathy and patience to get through any problem.

Of course, not every good or bad experience will be known to the leadership team but the more aware the organization is of the impact of just one "owning the problem" experience, the chances are the staff will see this as part of their job function.


So I obviously will not be going back to the CVS in Springfield, NJ for my photo needs if I can help it. Kodak Gallery should spend some time training their partners on how to treat situations like these. 


I did not have time to do a CX Factor Score but I will and I am curious about what I will find with regard to this particular CVS store and the overall experience of Kodak Gallery users with the in store pickup experiences they have.

Take note Kodak!!

Michelle

The Customer Experience Factory

The CX Factor Score: Walmart vs. Target

A few weeks ago, I published the first CX Factor score for Target which came out to be a D. The report was based on 1 month of customer commentary found on various websites and 1 week's worth of commentary found on Facebook. While this score would seem rather harsh and probably not completely indicative of the average experience at Target, the information that one can read about a company can create a significant image of a consumer experience and can open the eyes of the average, non complaining shopper.

To compare their results to their largest competitor, Walmart,  the CX Factor score turned out to be the same grade, D for the same period of data. However, there were some interesting findings made.

• Target customers often complained of bad phone service experiences and poor results from return/exchange policies. Specifically, many comments were related to the offshore operations and considerable hold times and dial transfers.
• Walmart customers complained often of bad service due to rude and not knowledgeable  associates.
• Target shopping experiences in the store were mentioned as clean, organized while Walmart locations were inconsistent with their appearances.
• Walmart shoppers used the words fraud and criminals while Target shoppers did not voice as much concern about these words.
• Target customers complained significantly about the online experience 1 out of 4 comments while Walmart shoppers only mentioned the online experience 1 out of 7 comments. For Walmart, the biggest concerns were around the site to store experiences.
• Coupon redemption and price-matching were a consistent theme for both companies
• Of all the non Facebook comments read, Walmart shoppers often went online to complain (95% rate) while Target shoppers gave praise 24% of the time.
• Target's Facebook Page is not organized to provide online service commentary and Walmart leverages Get Satisfaction as their tool, enabling customers to easily voice their opinions and see action taking place.
• When customers mentioned that they were not coming back and that they were going to a competitor or down the street, Target customers mentioned Walmart but Walmart customers never mentioned Target.

CX Factor Voice: Walmart 

CX Factor Voice: Target 

Creating Jobs in the Service Industry

Last week, I went to Starbucks and picked up a brochure about how Starbucks is helping to create jobs. This was timely given the President's speech and clearly it is a hot topic due to the elections and the state of our economy. Over the past few months, I have given thought to this topic and I believe our government can not only create jobs, but they can develop careers and help corporate America boost their profitability which in turn can be further invested back into our economy. I call this plan, " A Career in Service".

 

A Career in Service 

Education

When one thinks of a job in a contact center or retail environment, a college degree does not come to mind as a requirement. Unfortunately, our country which prides itself on the concept that the customer is always right does not encourage the art of service as being a skill requirement for these customer contact jobs.  Other countries, specifically the Philippines, have created an education program for the contact center industry which prepares their students for a contact center job upon graduation and therefore gives their country a global competitive advantage.  

Suggestion: Local community colleges should offer a 2 year Service Professional program which teaches students everything about the service industry, the art of service, basic business skills, training/coaching skills, contact center technology, retail industry basics and customer experience. A four year program in this field would yield a Customer Experience business degree which is an emerging field that both marketing and operations students would be interested in. As part of the curriculum, these students would intern at local contact centers and  malls by working a minimum of 8 hours weekly towards their credits. Companies involved in the program would pay a student hourly wage and offer financial incentives for performance. During their internship, they would have a performance scorecard consistent with everyone in the program. Upon graduation, they would highlight not only their GPA but also their stats such as their average Net Promoter score on their resume. 

Incentives

In the contact center industry, countries that can provide wage arbitrage have attracted outsourcers and American companies in large numbers for the past decade. Many companies chose to keep their centers in the US because of tax advantages, premium service experience or regulatory needs. 

Suggestion: While offshoring is not going to go away, the government can do more to keep these contact centers here not by just providing a tax advantage, but by contributing to the salary of these employees and by investing in training and education programs. Employees who have strong performance scores can earn special federally funded financial incentives and all employees who are interested in a career in the service industry, can earn their degrees by being trained on site by local colleges.  

The Cool Factor

Reality TV has certainly helped bring attention to those tattoo artists, hair salons, pawn shops and those crazy housewives. Someone needs to highlight the world of contact centers in the US and not only in India. There are so many interesting stories that can be told and if the media world could pay attention to this industry, it may attract a different talent set and innovate the hiring process.  Companies that value the customer, value the people they hire for contact center roles and ensure that these people are the best and brightest in their field. For many companies, they view these roles as entry level positions and a must to establish their careers within their organizations.

Suggestion: The government can partner with the entertainment industry to bring the “cool factor” to this field to attract college educated job seekers and recent college graduates. How about a documentary on contact centers in America or a reality show where the viewers travel across the country visiting various contact centers and retail stores to profile the people working there. OK so maybe it isn't totally exciting but someone with a more creative lens can figure it out. 

Happy Employees = Happy Customers = Higher Profits

For anyone who has worked in a contact center or in a retail environment, most people there are only working for the hourly wage as opposed to investing in their career. The impact of this can be attributed to poor customer experiences. If companies are able to hire from a higher skilled workforce across all levels of their frontline organization, their ability to improve the customer experience will be strengthened and this will resonate with retaining customers, higher spend rates and reduced costs of marketing initiatives to acquire back their customers. Companies will not be eager to offshore these call centers simply to reduce costs because the revenue generating results will be difficult to match.

What Happens to those not so happy employees?

Clearly, when raising the bar on service, the employees who fall to the bottom of the performance scale will have to work harder to improve their results or be left without a job. If the industry collectively raises the bar and hires properly skilled workers, the choice of these customer not so friendly workers will be to get the proper skills or take on roles where they do not interact with the customer. This will would make us all happier customers! 

So the question is, how can we get started? 

Happy Wednesday!

Michelle

The Customer Experience Factory