Here in the Philippines, Christmas time equates a mad rush of shopping frenzy. Parking lots overflow into the streets, and so expect terrible traffic jams!

So if you were to test an establishment’s customer service, this is the best time to do it. Is there grace under pressure?

I went to SM Makati last night, and as I expected, the mall was packed, the lines to the cashiers are long. But I have to hand it to SM for the following:

1. Their sales personnel are on the floor ready to help shoppers.
2. The sales people are very friendly; greets shoppers and really go out of their way to help, find, dig up sizes of shoes, clothing, and what have you.
3. Plenty of checkout counters are placed in strategic areas of the department store. I like it that in every counter, there is a box of Christmas wrappers, Christmas paper bags, ribbons, and small greeting cards. It makes things so convenient.
4. Their cashiers ar fast, may your transaction be in cash or credit card!
5. SM has practically everything you need in one place.

From my experience, SM people have really been trained well when it comes serving shoppers. If they sustain this, they’ll be assured of repeat business with happy customers.

Interestingly, I stumbled upon an article, titled Good Customer service is Key to Capturing Holiday Shoppers. According to the article, 60 percent shop more often at certain online sites, and 50 percent shop more often at specific retail stores, because of a good customer experience. You can read about it more here.

As companies go online to expand business and reach customers, customer requirements, on other hand,  have become more demanding.

There is now a competition between which company is timely at giving feedback to customers. Social media has made that possible. This is in fact good for customers.

So, Business2Community, an independent online community focused on sharing the latest news surrounding social media among other things, comes up with seven virtual customer service tips.

Over communication. Just like with your virtual workers, your clients cannot look over their cubicle wall to see if you are busy at work.  Once you accept an assignment let them know. This can be through an automated message or a personal one. Another form of this is “thank you for your order” confirmation emails.

Timely Response. In addition to letting clients know that you have accepted their order be sure to ask any questions or return items in an appropriate time span. For example, as a content writing service we ask clients questions during the first 24 hours of accepting a project. That way a client knows we have not only accepted the project but are actively working on it. Imagine having a 5 day turnaround and then asking questions 3 hours before the deadline. That speaks volumes to your client.

Read more…

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During the past month or so, I have observed quite a number of customer service faux pas. And I could only sigh and say, “this is not the way you treat your customer!”

Thus this blog post is born. I want to list instances where you are not serving your customers. Let’s start.

Choose the options for them

Popular notion has it that if you do everything for your customers, they will feel like a king. And true enough, you often hear customers gushing about not lifting a finger, yet get the best service there is. However, this does not work all the time.

Let’s take the CebuPacific website as an example. When you book for airtickets, all options are ticked—from insurance, baggage fees to the pre-seating. Well, yeah, there is that convenience but it comes with a price, of course. What about the budget travelers who choose Cebu Pacific in the first place because of cheaper rates? The seat selector is quite unwieldy. If you are not that techie and patient to figure out how to de-select the seats, then you will end up paying more. I spent hours to figure out how to “de-seat myself.” The safest way to do it is to know your customers first and find out if what you’re doing for them is what they want you to do for them.

Serve them eagerly

I often experience this in the department stores or specialty shops. I walk in and salespeople start swarming. It’s fine actually, but it distracts me from choosing or even making decision, because somebody is there looking and giving suggestions.

Strictly follow company policy

This phrase “We can’t do anything about it, it’s company policy” really irks me. The policy is there as guide. Unless the customer demand or request brings you business down, you should be able to give considerations to your customer.

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), one of the top local banks in the country, recently rolled out the paperless transaction using the BPI Express Assistant Machine.

The BPI Express Assistant Machine is like the other automated machines where you choose the kind of transaction that you are going to do.  Based on what I did the last time I went to the bank and used the machine, this is how it went:

1. Touch the window screen choosing your type of transaction: Deposit, Withdrawal, Bills Payment
2. I chose Deposit.
3. I was then asked if I were going to make a check or a cash deposit. I chose check deposit.
4. I was asked to key in the issuing bank, the check #, and the amount.
5. After a few buttons, I was asked to input my account #.
6. Done.
7. The machine then spits out a paper indicating my priority number.

(Too bad, I can’t use a mobile phone inside the bank, I was not able to take a photo of the machine.)

The procedure, I think, took me only 15 seconds or so. I didn’t need to fill out a deposit slip. Holding my priority number, I took a seat and waited for my turn for about a minute or two.

When it was my turn, I gave my check to the teller. A few seconds after, I got my already filled out deposit slip.

Easy does it.

As far as I know, it is only BPI that uses this paperless transaction. It makes for a good, efficient, and fast customer service. Much improvement from their old system of lining up and waiting for hours to be served.

Let me also tell you about BPI’s convenient banking online. I can send funds, pay bills online and mobile instantly!

Congratulations on this one, BPI! Yes, you take us farther!

According to the Consumer Reports survey of almost 1,000 consumers, experiencing bad customer is fact of life. It happens every day even to the best of us.

The results show how the respondents reacted to bad customer service:

Read the full story here.

While it’s true that between bad and good customer service, we often  hear more about the bad than the good experience. But that is largely because we share with more people our bad experience.

In any case, I wouldn’t want bad customer service become a fact of life. Never!

I purchased a pair of flat shoes from Cole Vintage, The Ramp, Crossings in Glorietta 3 Makati, about November last year. After using the pair for only a couple of times, I noticed that soles of one pair had a break in the middle. Thinking it was only a few months old, I brought it to Cole Vintage nook in The Ramp and asked the salesperson if they accept repairs. To my surprise, the lady took the shoes and told me that she would have them repaired. I asked for a sheet of paper as proof but she said, “no need, Ma’am.”

I was impressed by the ease of the transaction. It reminded me of the time when I had to bring in my iPod to the Apple Store for a check up. No fuzz!

I went back to the store after three weeks, as I was told. And surprise! The salesperson said that she couldn’t remember me or anyone bringing in a pair of shoes for repair. While I was describing to her how I brought it in, even showed her a pair of shoes in store of the same style, she kept on denying it as she flipped through her notebook (This extended sentence somehow describes how I felt that time). I was aghast.

She could only tell me to come back again in a week after she checked with her team and their main office.

It was nearing Christmas and I got so caught up with Christmas and New Year that I was not able to go back. I sent a message though asking about the shoes, and I got a reply saying that she’s still looking for it. Sad.

I felt at that time that I did a time travel and was almost convinced that maybe I didn’t go there and gave them my shoes. But every time I would recall, I was really sure that I brought my shoes there for repair.

Finally, when the holiday season died down (You know how Christmas and New Year’s are here in the Philipplines, we have a long celebration.), I went back. It was almost Valentine’s.

This time, when the salesperson saw me, she was smiling and happily told me, “Ma’am we really can’t find your shoes, but we’re giving you a new pair!” Whoa!

She handed me a box and in it a new pair of flat shoes.

What else can I say but, all’s well that ends well.

If you are in the business of sending files—big files—over the Internet, then most likely you have heard about YouSendIt. Its site, yousendit.com, has been so successful that many people I know use their services.

If you are in a similar online business, then you need to learn from YouSendIt and find out how they convert their visitors into customers.

The first step was to add promotional elements when people sent files. “We used to do zero promotion as you sent a file,” says Koon. “Now at a critical moment, like you’re trying to attach a second file, we’ll say a multi-file [transmission] is a premium service and click here to upgrade.”

Lesson 1: Hit people up for paid conversion when they need a service you charge for.

Continue reading…

Guest post by: Anna Marie Cabagsican

Business is not merely marketing and gaining profit. In fact, it is about real-time experience that should last for a lifetime. With start-up businesses, this is something they often fail to foresee. On the other hand, this could be a thing missing in big companies who have already taken a name in the industry. They might somehow lose the enthusiasm they had on the first onset of the company. They are popular so people would go after them – a big No No. Whether it’s a small or big  business, it isn’t always about money. One impressive way of handling the market is to build good relationship with your customers. So, this would mean having well characterized customer service and representatives.

I’ve read an article from Social Entrepreneur, The Secret to Entrepreneurship is to Give More Than You Get, which talks about entrepreneurship as creating value. Right away after reading the item, I was directed at looking into customer service on the other side. The side that is usually blocked by the idea of customer service as giving assistance alone. It somehow made me realize that customer service takes in a lot of values usually found and needed in our daily venture.

Here are some of the quotes of values taken from the article that really struck me:

• you  must give to get
• give before you expect to receive
• you need to give the earth a number of seeds so that crops my grow in your field
• you need to give your business nurturing so that it may bear fruit in the way of profit and value for other people

I know these quotes of values are familiar to you and even graders could know them too. But sometimes we miss the point of why we demand for a good business on our employees or expect higher sales from consumers. Andrew Mennie of CRM gave it a point: Ever wondered how much customer satisfaction is worth? We all know and accept that it is a strategic goal for all organizations involved in the delivery of customer service? Definitely, customer satisfaction is hard to attain, maintain, and measure.

However, the Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos  also once said, “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

Marvin Ellison, the executive vice president of U.S. stores for The Home Depot, took his VP post at a time when Home Depot’s customer service dipped and people had stopped spending.

The challenge to improve Home Depot’s customer service and get people to visit Home Depot and buy was really daunting. But Ellison seems to have helped Home Depot made the turn around.

BusinessWeek checked on Mr. Ellison in May 2009 and learned a lot from him. A few insights follows:

1. The best way to grow is to get more customers who are promoters and fewer who are detractors.
2. Define the associate’s role in taking care of the customer first.
3. The recession gave Home Depot an opportunity to revamp its supply chain, improve merchandising systems, and focus on serving customers better.
4. If you combine a compelling merchandising offer with outstanding customer service, you will get improved transactions.
5. Simplify things for the stores, giving them three primary things to focus on: remaining in stock, store appearance, and customer service.

Read more…

When I read this part of the article, I said to myself, “now this is serving with the heart.”

In July, the mother of four spotted hundreds of teens milling about the Milton GO station well after service had halted for the day.

The teens didn’t know better. They’d been at a rock concert all day and now they were stranded.

Fleet immediately called her supervisors. “I told them we needed extra assistance,” she said. Soon, a rescue mission was in the works as drivers, volunteering to work on their day off, took the teens home.

“They’re the customers of our future,” said Danielle La Plante, a GO safety and training instructor who personally drove two teenage girls home in a company car.

“I have kids,” La Plante added. “You don’t leave a 14- or 18-year-old in the middle of nowhere.”

Proc said that’s the kind of pride and care for customers that GO has been attempting to instill in its staff during six months of training.

Read more…

I am a mother, too, and I so I know how it feels to worry about kids not home yet when they should be. All sorts of scenarios would often cross our minds: they could be stranded, or worse, held up by bad people. It’s heartwarming to know that there are people and institutions out there who serve with their hearts.