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Where are the true believers?
My fingers are burning up the keyboard as I type, melting the space bar with this question: Are there any true believers left? I really want to know. And I know it's old-fashioned for me to opine in more than 140 characters ("I really want" maxed out at 140), and even now I've lost half of everyone who started this paragraph, but that right there is partly my point. Is anyone left?
I went onto Twitter this week to post a complaint that JetBlue would see. They charged me $100 to click a button on their website to cancel a flight. This was days in advance of the flight, plenty of time for them to rebook the seat, a situation that Southwest Airlines charges zero, zilch, nada for - and why would they? - it costs the company nothing and makes customers happy.
So I posted something to that effect, and pow, there's JetBlue's quick (if vague) response, cheerfully stating the company line - "cancellations do impact." And here's a URL to send feedback via the website.
We're now in 2009 and socially enlightened enough to have companies answering Twitter posts - what an advance! Well, except that the Twitter post says the same thing that an airline would have said over email ten years ago, or the phone line twenty years ago, or postal mail thirty years ago. We've built an adorable medium - love those bird graphics - that repeats the same old message.
I really don't mean to bash JetBlue, who is right in step with most airlines, charging gotcha fees because they can, because customers have no leverage in the situation. Much like a patient in the maze of health care bureaucracy these days.
Ah, the healthcare parallels. A friend in that industry recently bemoaned the lack of executive support for any investment in patient experience. Everything comes down to the short-term bottom line. Charge the maximum, for the most tongues depressed, at the lowest cost. That's the end of it, and patients should just say thank you.
Should HMOs and hospitals get on Twitter? Should we deliver a peppy Company Line 2.0 to keep the patients at bay?
Or should we invest $50 billion in a new electronic medical record? That's the proposal from the government, and I can't imagine it changing anything. (These writers agree.)
New technology + same old thinking = same old outcome with a buggy interface.
What we need is new thinking. We need some true believers to stand up and say: we're going to serve the patient, serve the traveler, serve the student, serve the customer, rather than follow the script of the past. No longer will we make them pay, or wait, or suffer only because we can get away with it. Now we will work in their interest, because it's the right thing to do for them, and it's the right thing for us in the long run.
There are bright spots. Via Creative Good I'm working with a major health care organization right now that is investing seriously in the patient experience. I've worked with travel companies (though not airlines) that try to help their customers. And I'm on the lookout for more companies who will invest in customer-centered improvements - I know they're out there.
But today at this tough moment, I look at airlines, I look at hospitals, I look at where our taxes are being invested, and I have wonder: really now, where are the true believers? Is this the best we can do?
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P.S. If you're one of those true believers, your community awaits. This is the last week of regular tickets to the Gel 2009 conference, the world's leading gathering for anyone passionate about creating good experience.
A couple of weeks ago we were very impressed that Southwest changed our tickets to Austin to leave a day later, no charges, no hassle, no fee increases. We sent the rep a box of chocolate.
I don't totally get what you mean by "true believers" but it's nice to know there are some true delighters left!
Susie
Mark, Hospitals and health systems are extremely interested in improving experience. Lots of management types are going to Marriott seminars to learn some tricks. Your work here would be very well received and profitable. Good luck.
I love your succinct "new technology + old thinking = same old outcome". When my co-founders and I decided to have a transparent fee structure in how we do talent-on-demand, people in the "staffing" world thought we were crazy...but staffing is old thinking, and professionals working "on demand" through a new way of working that McKinsey called 'talent aggregators' redefines the old thinking and allows us to serve our customers better -- our customers being both our consultants AND our clients!! Customer experience at it's essence can be oh so very simple.
I love this: "New technology + same old thinking = same old outcome with a buggy interface." Exactly.
Ultimately, it's an ethical issue, isn't it? Which means you can't just put the bean counters and lawyers in charge without restraint.
If you take a pure marketplace perspective, then you say, "Well, the customer can always go elsewhere--fly some other airline--if they don't like the experience." But in many circumstances, as with internal IT systems, the "customer" has no choice whatever. In such cases I believe we have a ethical obligation to not inflict misery.
Hi Mark, don't know if I am a true believer, but, like you, I am sick of the same old same old when it comes to the interface with too many companies. And I have tried my best to convince the corporate branders of this world that listening -- and hearing -- not just what customers, but all stakeholders, want to say to a company, is the key to building a great corporate brand. Every time somebody bothers to give you feedback and you respond to it with a canned message, nevermind the medium, you kill a little of your brand. When a company invests so heavily in building up their reputation, why do they insist on then tearing it down again? If we put this in terms of costs, maybe we could get someone's attention out there (e.g., the $100 you got from Mark just cost you $1000 worth of negative reputation). But the cost focus is probably what got companies into this situation in the first place, so maybe not. Hooray for Southwest and others like them who value their critics and their fans above maximizing profits. The irony is that they are the ones whose profits are rising in the long run. Keep up the good experience!
I does seem that people are spending less time reading blog posts (or anything else for that matter) in lieu of Twitter sound bites. Don't get me wrong... Twitter is a useful tool and I'm as guilty as anyone for not keeping up my blog and spending more time with tweets.
Thanks for the airline refund observation and the shout out for Southwest Airlines. It is even worse when one has no choice but to use connecting flights on different airlines. It seems the only way to use your partial credit is to rebook using both airlines. Ugh!
And don't get me started on Verizon...
Yes, there are other true believers and we are Ironworks Consulting are among them. There is lots of work to do.
Powerful words, Mark. We (major bank) are finally getting on twitter today! Our intention is to serve customers, but it can be tough to defend every action the corporation makes - and that is when then PR line is used, as Jet Blue showed you. But, it's so obvious it's disingenuous and it doesn't matter if the communication platform is twitter or just an old-fashioned call center. I am a "true believer" and intend to build up and fervently give my business to companies who demonstrate through action a cooperative and caring relationship with their customers. (Zappos rules!) It's time our economy wildly rewards companies with that credos - that is how the rest will follow.
Mark, As cancer patient rights advocate I am very interested to see what can be done to improve the usually awful user experience these patients have at hospitals, doctors practices, diagnostic centers. Why don't devote some time and effort to bring out the bad patient i.e. customer experiences? How we can all work together to change the situation. I am sure that all patient support groups around the world will back up any serious efforts to bring changes.
I was just talking about this last night and how companies just don't get it. I'm highly annoyed with how companies have started using social sites like Twitter to just blanket their statement in yet one more place where people are.
How about offering something of value to users/customers?
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend about the new Verizon touch screen blackberry adds - they're just like the Apple iPhone ads. The difference? Verizon/Blackberry doesn't have the same philosophy that Apple does when creating these products. In fact, these other companies are just trying to keep up with Apple - and the end user's needs get compromised in the end.
Funny how the simplest question gets lost in the end...if designers/companies/anyone just kept that question in the front of their minds at all times: "Who will be using this?"
Bruce Temkin has a geat related article that discusses how loyalty factors correlate to customer experience based on Forrester data for the airlines and other industry sectors. http://tinyurl.com/c6o5tx
I'm a believer that a "good user experiences" can still happen. At the end of the day, I'm looking for providers that *care*.
That's not something you can fake.
I'm a believer! Seems like a lot of companies lose it at task 1 of the 4 CEO tasks outlined recently by P&G CEO A.G. Lafley in Harvard Business Review.
Task 1 is about "defining the meaningful outside". For P&G, that means "consumer is boss". The article claims that when there's a conflict among external stakeholders, P&G resolves it, "in favor of the one who matters most: the consumer" - http://tinyurl.com/c9ec8v [PDF]
I had a similar airline experience with American Airlines recently, but one involving trying to use my miles. A supposed benefit to the customer, right, in thanks for my prior, many purchases of tickets? I tried, and failed, to secure a basic ticket to Michigan four months from now without sacrificing my entire balance. I called to ask why it was so difficult to use "my" miles, why it seemed that more intentional roadblocks are put up to make them impossible to use. The rep actually told me that it was possible to use my miles for that trip. Truth is, it would have taken four connections including one 8-hour overnight layover in Chicago. Wow, thanks! That is extremely customer-centric thinking.
Today I switched my credit card to get rid of my American "[A]Advantage" program. The only power we have as consumers seems to be to stop doing business with these companies -- even with the airline industry where choices are so limited.
Thanks goodness Creative Good continues to shine the light on these matters. Thanks, Mark!
Belief may not be enough any more. I think we need to become zealots for the Customer Experience 'cause'. Because in many places lame company policy still rules, CEO's still can't see that CE is way more profitable - short and long term - and most importantly it isn't that hard to fix. I was at an Brisbane airport (is there a theme here) this week and it was raining. The newly designed and constructed passenger drop off area is now on the other side of a roadway that you now have to cross to get to the terminal. It's not undercover, there is not enough drop off area in busy Friday night times and your bags now need to be carried across the roadway, which is very busy.
Why? Because what's directly outside the terminal building is the taxi rank.
Ok whinge over. Here is the thought that strikes me when crap experiences happen. Someone designed this to be this way - on purpose! Did the person who designed this ever use it, or actually think throgh how it would be used? The answer is usually obvioulsy not. Thank God for the Imagineers (well done Disney).
I too love your quote. It has some variations. In this case 'new design + poor thinking = situation worse than before they 'fixed it'.
Having said all that this is very exciting work. Watching clients coming to 'see the CE future' and then implementing that so their customer feedback and behaviours change for the better is very satisfying. Keep up the good thnking. Thank you Mark.
"They charged me $100 to click a button on their website to cancel a flight. This was days in advance of the flight, plenty of time for them to rebook the seat."
I have read your posts for years and this is the first time I have seen such a grotesque example of delusional consumer-centric egoism.
How do you know they had “plenty of time to rebook the seat?” That is a judgment you are making based on your ignorance of the airline industry and contrary to the contract you agreed to in the checkout process.
I run a dot com that looks “big” – we are in fact a small company. If we were to build into our pricing the losses for consumers like you who expect that there should be no rules, every decent consumer who abides by “basic consumer decorum” would pay a lot more. It reminds me of shoplifters.
I'm sorry that "anonymous" chose to throw a brick without signing their comment. Thought everyone might be interested to read it, anyway.
No insults here, but I do prefer to remain (relatively) anonymous.
Anyhow, Mr. Hurst, I think that there *are* true believers out in the workforce. The problem is, many of them are quashed by higher-ups who think only of today's bottom line. I'd write more, but right now it's 9:15 PM after a grueling day of school and rehearsals for a play.
Good night and may the Force be with you all.
Mark, I wonder the same thing about people's manners. Appalling.
There is one bright spot on the customer service front: Zappos.
Gotta love 'em.
From,
The woman who is staying in an all-suite Hilton chain that no longer offers complimentary lotion or shower caps.
As a parent of a child with special medical needs, I have lots of thoughts on how hospitals could improve their customer experience. Number one on my list is a more logical billing process.
I once received a $400 bill from the hospital and under "Description of Services Performed" it simply said "Bill." I wrote the President of the Hospital a letter comparing this experience to bringing your car to a mechanic and getting a bill that said he "fixed it."
Their response was that patients had to request an itemized bill because some patients had other people opening their mail and that those people didn't want the details of their services shown to others. They also told me what my $400 bill was for and included a $10 Stop and Shop gift card for my trouble (huh??) In response, I suggested they ask patients checking into the hospital "Do you wish to receive an itemized bill for your services today?" But, they have not implemented this suggestion and now for every trip to the hospital I get a generic bill. I have to then call and verify the details of the services performed.
So, no I don't want tweets from my hospital and I don't need gift cards to the supermarket, I just want a legible bill that I can understand.
I haven't been able to get into twitter. Small talk can be grating sometimes - experiencing it with multiple people I only know as online personas would just be too much.
Centralized medical records are an idea that should have been implemented years ago.
Bravo, Mark! You are delving into the things that matter. I hope you never stop that pursuit.
From our employee handbook: "You will never get in trouble for doing something to make a customer happy."
Fight the good fight.
I recently lost a laptop power cord on an airplane or at an airport (one or the other) and realized it while I was still in the airport. I called the lost and found number only to find that there was no way, no way at all, for them to see if a laptop cord had been turned in today. They apparently assemble lost and found items through a series of drop-boxes that get checked once a day. They have a phone number where you can leave a message about your item.
I'm sure this makes a certain amount of sense and it's my own fault for losing the darned thing, but it was a little glimpse into a system that was probably "good enough" back when our expectations were lower and seems ridiculously outmoded with the rapid exchanged of information we're used to today.
See you at Gel.
Definitely agree with your point that Twitter can easily become yet another channel for companies/organizations to barf out the same old stuff they used to barf out through the phone/e-mail. BUT it is also an opportunity for companies/organizations actually interested in using Twitter how it is meant to be used - as a conversation - to listen to customers/supporters and thereby reap the benefits (and then perhaps the other ones will follow suit.) Similarly Twitter can also be a place for people who are pissed off about (using your examples) the health care system, or airlines, to find each other and plot ...
Bravo all of you who believe service and retail industries should not treat consumers as disposable objects. A recent experience brought home the fact that I'm surprised when I'm treated humanely. Obviously, I have low expectations for encounters "out there."
This is how companies make money. In the airline industry, every cancellation costs money even if the seat is filled the same day. Just think about low-cost companies and how algorithms that decide for the seat price (they try to maximize the company revenues) could be affected by cancellations.