An IKEA idea

According to one writer in a Detroit newspaper, "Good customer service by companies is a matter of providing a better customer experience and connecting to their customers on a human level."(Seidman, 2007)

I recently had the opportunity to attend a business workshop with my fiancee at (all places) an IKEA store. You know, the place with household and furniture products with strange Scandinavian names that Americans cannot pronounce nor seem to live without. Well, the group attending the workshop was shown the way into the employee conference room where the workshop presented by SCORE - Counselors to America's Small Business was taking place (By the way, if you are a small business person and haven't taken advantage of the free workshops and business counselors at SCORE, I highly recommend them!). Before the workshop began, my fiancee and I were looking around the room. We noticed a mission statement of sorts on the wall. It was written by IKEA's founder, a man named Ingvar. It was entitled, "Ingvar's 9 Points". Here they are:

1. The product range and identity
2. The IKEA Spirit - strong and living reality
3. Profit gives us resources
4. Reaching good results with small means
5. Simplicity is a virtue
6. Doing it a different way (It was written upside down)
7. Concentration - important to our success
8. Taking responsibility - a privilege
9. Most things still remain to be done - A glorious future!

I thought they were worth jotting down. They give great insight into the IKEA business philosophy and how business is done at a very successful organization. Then, I looked around the room again and saw another list. It was entitled: "4 Goals of an IKEA Store". They give even greater insight to why customer service is so good at these stores;

1. To act as a highly efficient, and staffed sales mechanism
2. To show home furnishings solutions full of home furnishing ideas
3. To serve as a well qualified home furnishing specialist
4. To provide a day out for the whole family

In both lists (not really meant for public viewing) it is possible to derive a connection between a better customer experience through good, interesting products, and connecting to the customers on a human level. In this fast changing, shrinking world, the company that consistently adheres to a pledge of customer service and human connection will succeed. A unique product simply is not enough anymore. A customer wants to feel appreciated, not so much in "we appreciate you business"; this statement seems quite empty when not followed up by relevant action. We want to feel the service is sincere.

As a customer service expert, I am constantly amazed at how companies choose to entice customers with rewards and sales, but take them for granted once they are captive, either in the store or on a contract. Because while being a fantastic company is more than half the battle, the best thing a company can do to retain a customer is to give customers a reason to trust them. Business should follow the IKEA philosophy to out-behave the competition in not only product, but by action - adhering to an ethos of excellent customer service and the human connection.

DJC

Putting the "I care" in IT

In follow-up to my last posting, I spoke about the Information Technology (IT) specialist and the deserved or undeserved perception that most of these professionals are poor customer service providers. One IT professional responded with great insight and seemed to take offense to my statements that disparaged her cohort. I hope to hear from others on this subject.

According to Labor Market Information (2003), A Computer Support Specialist provides technical assistance and training to computer system users, investigate and resolve computer software and hardware problems of users, answer clients’ inquiries in person and via telephone concerning the use of computer hardware and software, including printing, word processing, programming languages, electronic mail, and operating systems. No wonder your computer support person always seems overworked - they ARE overworked! I believe, at least in the corporate world, that corporate leaders are to blame for this in many ways.

Today’s corporate leaders may or may not be aware of the patterns of interactions of their IT employees, and more specifically, the how, why, and when of these patterns. Today’s corporate leadership must recognize the importance of these knowledge workers, their perspectives, and how their relationships with customers affect customer satisfaction, which in turn affects the company’s welfare. Peter Drucker wrote, “The most important contribution that management needs to make in the 21st century is to similarly increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers” (2003). Interestingly, poor customer service can also be driven by new technologies, which is what Ellie alluded to in her comments on the last posting. With the incredibly rapid changes these technologies facilitate, it is difficult for IT professionals, let alone users, to keep up.

Also, an important goal of software and hardware designers and businesspeople should be to keep human purposes in mind as they design and deploy technology for the consumer. For me, authenticity in relationships is a human purpose. Technology sometimes tends to make authenticity a gray area. As previously stated, the value of the computer information technology professional is increasing. Significant research in this area could be critical if improvement in customer satisfaction is to be a feasible goal for corporate leaders. Having an IT staff that understands the business and its customers’ needs is one key to improving customer satisfaction. Improvement of customer service in the corporate computer IT sector may lead to better company cultures, happier customers and even a better financial performance for companies.

I would love to hear from you corporate types.

DJC

Fix my computer - ah, please?

How do you feel about your computer service person at the office? In the last several years, there have been many initiatives by industry to promote the construction of a global information infrastructure. (It is vital that today’s corporate leadership recognize the importance of understanding the perspective of the knowledge workers known as Information Technology Professionals (IT or IS Pros) and how they affect customer satisfaction. In a article entitled, Survival Skills for the IS Professional, Longenecker & Simonetti said, "IS [Information Systems] groups, which have always been under the gun to get things done more quickly and more cost effectively, now face distrust, disrespect, and disdain when projects are not completed in accordance with customer expectations".

The poor customer service skills of the IT professional have even been portrayed as the villain in comedy sketches (remember "Nick the Company Computer Guy" on Saturday Night Live?). Are these comedic portrayals good examples of a typical IT professional in a typical corporate setting, or just a Dilbertesque exaggeration of what frustrated writers may have once experienced? IT customer service may be the brunt of jokes and comedic writers, but many of us are familiar with the following scenario.

We’ve all come across the IT person from hell. But just in case you’ve drawn a veil over the memory, here’s a typical scenario: A confused user calls for help and tries to explain their problem. When they stuttered to a halt, they then get a look or, if it’s over the phone, a deep sigh that indicates the user’s intelligence level is considered to be not much higher than a primordial protozoan. At last, showing deep reluctance, the IT person stoops down from their pinnacle and delivers a stream of techno babbles in response. We’ve all experienced it, but such behavior is fast becoming unacceptable.

My statement may not be based on researched fact, but a community cannot practice its trade without some set of received beliefs. Do IT professionals experience more customer service problems than those in other professions? Probably not, yet, the very nature of the unique communications challenges faced by the IT professional can be more complex than those impacting other professions; and communications, as I have stated before, is the key to customer service.

How do you feel about your IT professional?

DJC

"How are you guys doin'?"

My problem lies within this title. I have heard this line from waitresses, waiters, clerks and other so-called customer service people when I am in a public place - with my lady! Maybe it is a California thing, I don't remember hearing this in the Midwest where I lived until 15 years ago. I was brought up to treat a woman with respect. I cannot imagine my father letting anyone refer to my mother as a "guy". When I hear this from anyone (especially other women) when my fiancee is next to me, I do a double-take. Where is the other guy? I wonder. I think I hear this more from young women more than men. I am not advocating going back to calling all women "Ma'am", but even "folks" works better for me than calling both individuals in a couple - "Guys". Is this as abrasive to you as it is to me?

Thanks for letting me vent.

Here is another gripe I have that you may be familiar with; Customer-service lines purport to solve problems, but present a bigger one: reaching a human being. Your so-called "important" call ("Your call is important to us. Please hold for the next available operator" - while you listen to our on-hold Muzak or worse, our promotional messages) is really not that important. Pressing zero rarely gets you an operator these days. Some computer operators prompt you to speak a request. Then a recorded voice says, "I'm sorry, I did not understand your message. Please repeat it clearly.", as if "I" was a real person!

Here are a few of tips from the Toronto Globe and Mail to outsmart the customer-service phone lines: 1.) If you talk nicely and act confused you're more likely to move to the front of the queue. 2.) The Website - Gethuman.com lists the keypad codes needed to bypass the automated systems of hundreds of companies. 3.) When you do reach a representative, take note of the conversation, as well as any you may have with a supervisor. If all else fails, call the head office and ask for the VP of customer service by name. He/she will probably not answer the phone, but the executive assistant will and that person often has authority to settle problems.

Complexity, uncertainty, and interdependence place demands on an organization to process information in order to coordinate its activities by increasing the communication load carried by that organization. If the meaning of customer service was broken down to one single word, that word could likely be communication. Technologies can set up conditions for organizational conflict. If that is true, then technologies may actually contribute to a break-down in communications. Computers, telephones, the Internet are technologies that are not likely to go away soon, and I'm okay with that. I love my computer, cellphone and what did we do before the Internet, but the human factor gets fuzzy or even invisible at times when it comes to serving us - the customer. However, it's as my father use to say, "Sometimes you have to take the bad along with the good."

Nice talkin' to you guys.

Service = Success?

I am fortunate to have met someone who also loves to observe great customer service. Duchess and I have spent a lot of time watching the actions of someone, either helping us or someone else, that exemplified our collective definition of a great customer service provider.

In fact, I have learned from my fiancee Duchess, to always take the time to recognize anyone that gives you exceptional service. I have often seen her ask for the manager or supervisor of the person that "went the extra mile" to make people happy in a service situation. Duchess is one of those people who actually find the time to write to companies to make sure that the powers-that-be also recognize an employee who gave her a reason for continuing to do business with their organization; whether it was the Starbucks' barrista, the waitress, the Apple Computer Store IT specialist, or someone she spoke to on the phone about a problem she was having with their billing, or any other product related aspect. Do Duchess' efforts to have someone recognized as a provider of great customer service really influence a company to strive to continue to provide this kind of positive service? Does good customer service actually show up on the company bottom line?

Stanford Research Institute and Harvard University have determined that business success is 85% people skills and only 15% technical knowledge (New Straits, 2003). This would seem to suggest that most customers’ needs cannot be satisfied by technical brilliance alone. Communications skills, a customer service mentality, and knowledge of business strategies and issues must be an important accompaniment to technical skills in the development of a customer service professional. Customers seek to do business with value-producing companies. Only organizations that develop symmetry in its relationships with customers can be value producing entities.

It is the strong feeling of this blogger that if corporate leaders gather information from internal and external customers and employees, and use the new found truths to the betterment of the organization, needed change in the poor customer service reputation of their organizations can occur. When individuals interact on an ongoing basis and collectively reflect on the results of their actions, organizational learning can take place, followed by needed change. Having people like the Duchess Dale's of the world who give companies feedback on the quality of their service should be worth a fortune to a company that is serious about succeeding in business.

“Real leaders empathize fiercely with their followers and care intensely about their people’s work. They’re also empathetically ‘tough’. This means giving people not necessarily what they want, but what they need to achieve their best” (Goffee & Jones, 2000, ¶ 9). Every organization continually must ask themselves if they could improve, not only in customer service, but in overall processes.

Do you think one person can affect the financial success of the company for which they work? Let me know some instances in which you have gone back to an establishment, or continued to do business in other ways, because of one person's customer service efforts. I look forward to your comments.

Be Inspired! - DJC