Case 1: wrong shipment, late, from a company from whom his wife has often bought. Worse: no calls returned.

Case 2: Capital One, the credit card company with a huge ad budget, not returning calls about adding more cards! In Johnson’s words, “I’d be more productive trying to hoist the goods from Fort Knox.” What’s in your to-do list, Capital One?

Commenters drive home the takeaways. Richard Turcott, Chief Marketing Officer of Ratepoint, says

Healthy businesses focus on delivering a great experience to their customers, an experience that their customers will be delighted with and want to talk about. Marketing, support and product quality all influence customer experience…

And commenter Tim Orr adds

This is exactly what Emerson meant when he said, “What you are shouts so loudly I cannot hear what you say.” …Marketing and branding are an inside job.

Hey, marketing execs: is bad service slashing the results of your outreach, while you get blamed?

(p.s. For a sweet postscript, three weeks later Johnson notes that the opposite happened when his wife’s bracelet broke. Nice.)

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine RDS032354

For the past two years businesses have dug in, deepened the trenches, reduced staff and cut costs to the bone. Now, in 2010, economic progress reports suggest the time is coming to start building and growing again.

But you don’t need to hire new employees or add a lot of costly equipment to turn these resolutions into realities. Every one of them has been attained by real companies using web-based appointment scheduling software. Read their stories in our case study library, and then make some resolutions for your own business in 2010.

Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Public domain Image by Ivan Akira courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Paco Underhill, consultant and author of the book Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, notes that 90 seconds is the limit to how long a customer accurately perceives the duration of his wait in a line. After 90 seconds, perception goes off track, and two minutes seems like three and three minutes seems like five.

At a certain point, Underhill says, waiting will be seen as a separate activity rather than part of a process, such as making an appointment.  Underhill notes simply: 90 seconds or fewer = success. More than 90 seconds = not success.

People online have an even shorter attention span – about 4 seconds.  Picture a potential customer waiting for a page to load on a website.  After four seconds, according to research conducted by web consultants Akamai and Jupiter Research, customers start to leave a slow website.  The only things consumers like less than waiting are high product prices and expensive shipping.

According to a post in callcentermanagement.com, call center operators shouldn’t concern themselves with how long people will wait before they hang up the phone when trying, for example, to make an appointment.  It is far more important, according to the site, to track and manage first call resolution – the percentage of callers taken care of with just one call.

What lesson can we draw from all this?  The key to customer satisfaction – whether on the phone, on line, or in line, is to take care of them fast and get it right the first time.

Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine TEMP2341

Here are some top benefits for personal service providers:

• Expanded hours for scheduling appointments. Most salons are open five days a week; three to four weekdays and one to two weekend days. Clients who call on a closed day to schedule an appointment will need to call back on a day when the business is open. Loyal customers will. New customers may just call another salon. With appointment scheduling software, clients can go online whenever convenient for them, and book their appointments.
• Fewer missed appointments. When clients miss appointments, businesses lose revenue. With scheduling software, the beauty salon can automatically set up appointment reminder emails.
• Greater efficiency = more clients serviced. Some personal services require a set block of time. For example, a massage is usually 60 or 90 minutes. Other services, such as hair coloring, can vary in time based on the client’s requirements, individual practitioner and number of concurrent appointments. With a scheduling software solution in place, the salon owner can get information on average times for appointments by various factors (day, stylist, etc.) and use that information to maximize the number of appointments per day.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine FAN2034838

Recent posts on consultant High Scalability.com’s website and that of software company 37Signals describe interviews with Amazon.com’s Chief Technical Officer and the writings of early company employees on the secrets of the company’s success.

Amazon.com has embraced technology – that great multiplier of all things good and bad – as a way to provide the best possible experience for its customers.   Here are some of the things the company does to use that technology to redefine that customer experience:

• Software developers spend time with customer service so they understand what customers want.
• If you build it, you run it. That means direct contact with customers.
• Measure. Test. Change. Repeat. Don’t guess about something if you can measure it.
• Your customers will tell you what they do and don’t like. Listen to them.
• Innovation comes from the bottom. People closest to a problem are the best ones to solve it.
• Keep groups small and empower them to solve problems as they see fit.
• Stuff fails.  Learn to fix it when it does.

In an interview posted on GoodExperience.com, Maryam Mohit, Amazon’s V.P. Of Site Development notes that passion about customer service flows through everyone’s veins at Amazon.com.  When asked for the secret of Amazon’s success, she replied “I wish I knew.  I do think that the relentless focus on creating a great experience has to be part of it.  It’s not just a great experience on the website, because we think about it as a 360 degree experience, which includes what happens after you click to order.  What’s the experience of waiting for the order to arrive, of getting the box, what happens if something goes wrong?  Each of those is part of the customer experience.”

Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine RDS106306

In both 2005 and 2006, Mercedes ranked #8 in the same survey, due in part to poor survey results from both Consumer Reports and J.D. Power.  According to Automotive Fleet.com, Mercedes launched a worldwide initiative three years ago aimed at improving customer satisfaction.   The car maker made a concerted effort to improve the quality of its cars, implementing an “intensive, continual and long-term” training program for employees.   To date more than 150,000 Mercedes service-department employees have been through the training.  The company climbed to #6 in 2007, #4 in 2008 and finally to its current #1 spot.

For a manufacturer, quality or resale value may be the key this year, price or dealer incentives the next.   But for any service-based business, the convenience, speed and ease with which customers can use a company will always be of paramount importance.

Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine U23209699

• Lifetouch Portrait Studios, which operates more than 700 Target and JCPenney photography studios, surveyed customers and found ease of online scheduling is the #1 guest “satisfier” for their business.
• Another international portrait studio chain, with 3,100 retail locations, used online scheduling to reduce costly call volumes by 23%.
• Ritz Camera has realized a significant drop in customer no-shows, which they attribute to online appointment scheduling with automated appointment confirmations.
• Petco, which offers pet grooming services in addition to products, offers customers online appointment scheduling, enabling the pet grooming specialists to focus on customer service, not administrative scheduling.
• David’s Bridal chose online scheduling software to smooth traffic at peak service times.
• Janovic, a subsidiary of Benjamin Moore, provides in-home custom window treatments.  With online scheduling software, Janovic has streamlined the scheduling process and allows the company to better track the locations of their installers.

These retailers demonstrate the significant benefits of online appointment scheduling software. And they’re all TimeTrade customers. For more information, see our customers page and our case studies.

The biggest benefit of all could be repeat business from happy, satisfied customers.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine AM11021008098

It is worth noting that the iPhone – which can only be used with AT&T right now – was the highest-rated phone in the survey with 98% of users saying they would buy it again despite having to use AT&T.  Given this dissatisfaction with AT&T service, questions are already being raised about what will happen to AT&T when its exclusive deal with Apple ends, or another company offers the next top contender.

The takeaway from this is that having the hottest new product or a more attractive price than a competitor can only take you as far as your customer service record.  If long wait times, poor scheduling and misinformation are the overriding theme, the shiny new product can really only hold a consumer’s loyalty until they can get the next new and better thing.  Something to ponder, indeed.

Rich Silverman
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: PTG00462034

A good customer survey that reflects your particular business and customer base can be more challenging to write than it would first appear.  Thankfully, a number of resources are available online.  For instance, Susan Ward over at About.com has put together a sample questionnaire that can help stimulate ideas for creating your own effective survey.  Or, for a step-by-step approach to writing a customer satisfaction survey, check out Christina Hamlett’s contribution at eHow.

Then it’s just a matter of getting it to your customers and encouraging them to respond.  Then listen to what they say, so you can make real improvements to customer care that will produce real results.

David Hill
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image credit: InMagine PCRF006883

In July our post The Psychology of Waiting Lines cited a classic paper whose introduction notes that “The bitter taste of how long it took to get attention pollutes the overall judgments that we make about the quality of service.”

Business consultant David Spark wrote recently about his experience waiting for technical service on a paid customer support line. His saga begins with “Why I love public transportation and hate HP” and continues with “HP responds to ‘Why I love public transportation and hate HP.” It may appear to be a complaint about a long wait on hold, but it’s not.  His complaint is really about not knowing how long his wait would be.

Thankfully, some organizations are recognizing this new customer expectation: to have reliable information on  how long their wait will be. This lets the customer decide if they should stay (on hold, in line) or go.  Organizations using technology to communicate waiting times include public transportation (subway signs saying “Next train in 4 minutes”), DMV offices, etc.

Providing customer wait times is not only respectful of a customer’s time, but it is also becoming a hallmark of excellent customer service.

Kelley Kassa
TimeTrade Blogging Team

Image Credit: InMagine SMP0013233