5 Things Your Customers Should Never Hear

I'm shocked at how some companies seem to have divorced the word "service" from the word "customer". What has happened?

Just recently, my customer experiences with a well-known brand have been frustrating and unpleasant. Here are the five comments I heard from this company that finally drove me to a competitor. And, I was thrilled to be paying twice what I would have paid otherwise because the experience was so incredible.

It's Not My Job: I don't care about your job description. If you are speaking to me and I didn't get through to the night watchman by mistake, at least make an attempt to be helpful. Your voice mail system is friendlier but it can't help me.

Those Are the Rules: I'm the profit center or hadn't you noticed? I'd like to give you $1000 but your rules are getting in the way.

That's Another Department: Your silos don't interest me. Your web site said I could have that color.

We Don't Know When That Part Will Be Available: Then why did your web site let me build a configuration with that part?

My Supervisor Will Just Tell You the Same Thing: Let's see what s/he says when I Twitter and blog about this experience.

Somewhere along the line, this company thought it could get by with third-class service but no one can afford to do that these days. Maybe it was a cost-saving measure but skimping on service is a losing strategy.

Clearly no one at my former technology supplier thought to connect those moments of truth that roll up into a customer experience otherwise the web site would have been in sync with its supply chain. How can you let that happen when you've promoted a build-it-yourself-you-can-have-it-in-three-days experience as your competitive advantage?

I don't blame the sales/service representative. After all, those are the rules. And, he sounded as dejected as I felt by the end of our painful encounter. Someone at that company lost two customers; never to return. I wonder when the higher-ups will notice that a rush for the door is impacting earnings. I cannot be alone by the looks of their competitor's store when I walked in to buy my new laptop. People were stacked up like cords of wood.

Service isn't something that's nice to have: it will make or break all of us who sell something (which is all of us). What are YOU doing about your service? What are the things you never want to hear from your customers? Here's the one thing I don't want to hear: Good-bye.

Too Loyal to Fail: 4 Ways to Inspire Customers

Ray's Candy Store stands on the corner of Avenue A and Seventh Street in New York City. It's an all night slice of life on the east side of Greenwich Village that for the past 37 years has delivered all kinds of food 24/7 -- essential if you've ever lived in Manhattan.

For the past few weeks, customers have been helping out at the store, running deliveries and staging two fund-raisers to help the owner, Ray Alvarez, pay overdue bills. Other customers are helping to sort out an insurance issue by providing the labor to install a necessary piece of equipment so he can continue to provide his Belgian fries, a staple of his operation.

Ray Alvarez has built up a huge store of social capital in his neighborhood. At a time when some businesses are "too big to fail", others struggle to survive. Businesses of all sizes should stake stock of their own stores of social capital if they are going to enjoy the kind of customer loyalty today that will fuel growth. Ray Alvarez's tale holds lessons for all of us who run a business, no matter what size it is.

Know Your Customers (And Let Them Know You): Nothing makes us buy more and tell people about it than companies who make us feel special. When people feel a business knows them, it creates an important emotional connection. Customers buy from companies they've researched (so feel they know), have heard about or have experienced. How are you connecting with customers? Are they part of a larger community you've created for them? Are you using social media to be part of a networked customer base? It's much more than slotting buyers into marketing segments.

Give Customers an Experience They Can't Get Anywhere Else: What experience do your customers expect from you? Does your culture support an experience your customers deserve? Ray's delivers any time of the day or night and has created an oasis of old New York in a neighborhood taken over by expensive wine bars and chain coffee shops.

Customers' Memories Are Long; Don't Forget It! The adults who now are rallying to preserve Ray's Candy Store were the children and teenagers who remembered getting a break from the owner when they didn't have the money to pay for their orders. What memories of your company do you create for your customers?

Don't Squander Your Social Capital: Over the years, Ray has employed people from the neighborhood and they've stayed for decades. His customers describe his store as "an icon of our childhood" and think of him as a friend. Even Ray's landlord, who could have attracted another trendy retail outlet to his building, is working with his tenant to ensure that the store remains part of the fabric of the neighborhood.

Social capital is a currency that is easily devalued by the memory of poor experiences and a sense of buying from a company that acts too big to care.

How are you creating memories, networks and connections for your customers? Do you really know them? Do they really know you?

Late Night Showdowns: Lessons in Leadership

Whether you are Team Conan or Team Leno, playing out a dysfunctional company battle in public shines a light on the role of leadership and strategy in a situation like this. As long as we are being asked to be voyeurs, maybe there are some lessons to be learned and applied in our own organizations.




1. Hope is not a strategy; arrogance is no substitute for intelligence: How much research and analysis went into the ultimately disasterous decision to opt out of 10PM prime time drama in favor of a bland copy of a great brand? Strategy doesn't have to be a dusty, hidebound process of number crunching and Death by PowerPoint presentations until the next cycle in a year. Strategy is the means by which we decide how we are going compete successfully; it's a dynamic process that continuously examines the larger external world along with the opportunities and pitfalls that are present.


2. Listen, gather feedback and act: What input did customers -- in this case, the affilitates -- have to the decisions that were handed down from 30 Rock? Were other key people with a vested interest in the ongoing health of the network asked for their insights? What about other employees and viewers?



3. Creative destruction + Risk assessment = Success: Any bold company has to engage in some creative destruction otherwise it ossifies and becomes a dinosaur. In this case, did anyone at the top ever throw out the crazy idea that risk as well as reward should be investigated?



4. Loyalty is a two-way street: it seems there was a cavalier idea that the two key employees would loyally support decisions that would not benefit their career aspirations. Money isn't always the answer. If you want loyalty, be trustworthy.



5. You Know Where the Buck Stops: the key executive in this drama did own up to the mistake, albeit somewhat late in the day and with many caveats. Another key executive, however, displayed monstrous ego by savaging one of the star players in the media. Inexcusable. You get the big bucks; you fall on your sword when the situation warrants it. You and your company will be better for it.



The behavior of the two key players was insubordinate but I believe they reacted to poor leadership and a failed strategy.


A strategic mistake is an opportunity to learn valuable lessons. If no risks are taken, no innovation is possible. Are there other lessons we can learn from this sad situation? Did you ever make a mistake that became a great opportunity?