Feedback & Customer Loyalty
Author: Tracie Thompson
Recently I purchased a new home and moved. In the process I had to set up new services, cancel old services; all the stuff that comes with moving.
In the process a certain company (I will call them Company A) tried to sell me services I already had with another company (hereby known as Company B). I respectfully denied Company A’s service and told them I already had the service with Company B. Company A acted all shocked. They claimed: “but we offer the same service better and for cheaper!”. I chuckled at this and again respectfully declined. I’m perfectly happy with Company B. Company A asked me for some feedback on why I was declining. I asked if he wanted my honest answer. He said yes.
My Answer: Company A has provided me with services for several years. In that time I’ve had to make dozens of calls, submit dozens of trouble tickets, and have had nothing but headaches, frustration, and wasted time in my dealings with them. If Company A did not hold a monopoly in my region for the services they provide, I would have long ago sought service elsewhere. Company B on the other hand has never let me down. I’ve had to call only once in the many years I’ve had service with them and they were able to resolve my issue in less than 6 hours. (Company A’s resolution time is about 3 days IF you’re lucky!). I’d rather pay more to have excellent customer service than get a cheaper deal somewhere else. “You get what you pay for!”
I decided to take this a step further. I wrote an email to Company A and gave them my feedback. I felt it was important they know why I would not pay less for their service. I also wrote an email to Company B and let them know how great of a job they are doing and that I plan on remaining a loyal customer for many more years to come. I received a personal reply from Company B within a few hours thanking me for my feedback. It felt good to know that they recognized and welcomed my feedback. It’s been three weeks and I have not heard from Company A other than the auto-response that my email was received. The lack of any type of response proves my case against Company A.
As a customer support manager, I see a lot of feedback. Both the good and the bad. I take this feedback seriously. If it’s good, I let my staff know. If it’s bad, they know this too and I offer ways to improve. If a customer wants something we don’t provide, I make sure this is noted and researched. Sometimes we can offer what they want, sometimes we can’t. Every single bit of feedback we receive is reported to the managers, the director of technology, sales and marketing, and even our CEO. And most importantly, we respond to our customer’s feedback personally. Whether good or bad we let them know we have read it, taken it in, are looking into it, etc. We will even come back to them later to provide an update if applicable. It’s important customers know that a company cares!
I’m proud to work with a company that takes feedback from their customers so seriously. After all, we wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for our customers!
March 9th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Well said Tracie. I too am proud to work with the awesome people that make up this great company.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
*puffs out chest
;)
Well written Tracie
March 9th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Great post.
In this day and age, though, simply being reactive to feedback isn’t good enough. Companies need to be proactive in seeking feedback, complaints, and suggestions.
As crazy as it sounds, companies need to ask, or even demand that their customers complain! They need to try and pry every little annoyance out of them. Some of them are easy to fix and can be fixed immediately – others are harder to fix and be considered for later.
Responding to feedback is tough. It simply isn’t about a “Hi, we got your email” type response. That doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in competitive industries. Customers want to hear your pain because they aren’t happy and they want to know what you are going to do about it. They want to see you post about their pain and fix it.
Obviously, that can’t be done for every issue, but the point is customers need to feel that you take their issue just that seriously. They want to know that you, Amy, Chad, and Ron are losing sleep over it, or at least concisely thinking about it. If they know that, they know they are in good hands and that Lunarpages cares.
Perhaps the whole thing could be better described as “Let the person know that her issue and her as a customer are extremely important and Lunarpages is dedicated to making their experience the best it can be.”
Company B seems to be a great organization. Their support is reactive, which is usually “acceptable.” They handle it well, which probably boosts them up a grade or two. Company A isn’t even reactive, which makes them “bad.” Imagine if there was a Company C, though, that called you once every few months and said “Tracie, I’m just calling to make sure you are happy with Company C. We value your business and want to make sure you are 100% satisfied.” Wouldn’t that be a “great” company?
Customer service, in its best, is proactive instead of reactive. If they can make the process like that, where Lunarpages is actively trying to improve and letting customers know about its efforts, they will grow to appreciate the company more.
You don’t necessarily have to be perfect, but the customers want to know that you are on the case and that you are trying. If they know that, they will be happy. If they are happy, they’ll continue to refer you to their friends, family, and colleagues.
That was much more philosophical than my average writings. Hopefully it made sense!
March 9th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
They want to know that you, Amy, Chad, and Ron are losing sleep over it, or at least concisely thinking about it. If they know that, they know they are in good hands and that Lunarpages cares.
–
OMG they are SO MEAN!! How can they be happy knowing they are affecting my beauty sleep? ;)
But seriously.. great take on it as usual DougSTAR!
March 9th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Amy,
That’s why I included the “at least concisely thinking about it” bit. I thought losing sleep over it was kind of cruel. They wouldn’t want to affect your beauty sleep!
Appreciate the compliments! Glad it was helpful!
March 9th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Thanks, Doug!
Lunarpages strives to be Company C. We are pretty proactive about feedback with our retention calls, feedback forum, and questionaires for customers.
As for losing sleep, I’m with Amy! ;)
(not while sleeping..) … (the part about losing sleep) … (you know what I mean!)
March 9th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Tracie,
Glad to hear that LP is heading in the right direction. :)
Try being proactive after being reactive. Does that make sense? For example, a month or two after a ticket is closed, pick a few random ones and send the customer a note asking “Just checking in to make sure everything is okay with your Lunarpages account” or even better, call them. I guarantee it’ll impress them.
Other things you can do is have an open feedback form (I posted about this on my blog – email me if you’d like the link) or an easy way for customers to provide feedback. I know you guys have something, but I don’t think it’s dead obvious like it needs to be. It needs to be in the customer’s face all the time.
If customers post on the feedback forum or are at a point where they are dealing with retentions, it’s too late. You need to get to them before that happens. Squash the problem before it occurs and it’ll save everyone (customer and company) time and headaches.
Keep up the good work guys! It’s the little things like these that are the toughest to do!
March 10th, 2007 at 5:22 am
[...] The latest story about Customer Service from their blog tells a lot about what it means to keep customers. In this case, it was interesting that Company A was cheaper than Company B but the customer still kept on with Company B. [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 2:31 am
I completely agree. Back when I did web design I had set up several websites with Lunarpages and always received prompt quality responses. And after almost two years working here we’re still doing a bang-up job.
April 6th, 2007 at 7:27 am
The clients value relies more on the fact that you are going to help them on their business.