Posts Tagged ‘how to handle customer complaints’

Public Relations: How Starbucks brews up customer conversations

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Many companies make it difficult to reach them when you have a comment or problem. You often have to dig deep on a website to find a contact number or email address. Not Starbucks. I’ve always been impressed with how the company goes out of its way to solicit customer feedback and engage in conversations. I was in a Starbucks recently and noticed a small brochure that said, “Share your thoughts with us.” I liked its message: “It’s how we know we’re making your experience at Starbucks the best it can be. So please tell us what’s working, or if there’s anything we could be doing better. Don’t worry. We’ll take it personally.”

Beyond that, I was impressed that Starbucks creates custom feedback brochures for each district that gives customers many ways to provide feedback:

  • Main customer service number
  • http://www.starbucks.com/customer-service/contact (a number of ways to reach Starbucks online, through social media conversations, etc.)
  • Mailing address
  • The name of the district manager (yes – you read that right)
  • The district manager’s phone number (yes, really!)
  • The district manager’s email address (yes, really again!)
  • The store number you visited.

 

Beyond that, Starbucks takes the whole customer feedback and conversation strategy to the next level. Have you heard of mystarbucksidea.com? It’s an online forum that allows customers to share ideas on products, experience and community. Customers can post their ideas, comment on ideas (Starbucks does, too) and vote on ideas to give them points. Starbucks lets you know which ideas are in action via blog posts written by actual Starbucks corporate employees.

Do you know of any companies using great techniques to solicit customer feedback?

See our related post on Costco’s approach to customer feedback.

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Public Relations: Handling Customer Emergencies

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

I deposited cash in an ATM. The cash door closed and the ATM coughed out my card. That was it. The ATM never asked if I wanted a receipt or to complete another transaction. My money disappeared into the machine and I had no clue if the bank deposited the cash in my account.

I walked into the bank and explained what happened. Everybody was polite and apologized for the trouble. The bank allowed me to use one of its offices to call the “claims department,” which explained it would credit the money to my account by the next morning. As long as the money shows up in the morning, the bank overall handled my situation well.

When I first explained the situation to someone inside the bank, he gave me two options:  I could talk to a personal banker or call the claims department. He explained the personal banker was busy and he couldn’t fit me in for several hours. That’s why I decided to call the claims department. I suggested calling from the bank. I feared the claims department might send me into a black hole. Leaving the bank and calling from home might diminish my chances of someone sympathizing with my situation and resolving it quickly.

When the man inside the bank told me the personal banker was not available to assist me with my matter for several hours, I could feel the tension and adrenaline within trying to convince me to break my promise of keeping calm. I almost blurted out “You need to fit me in considering your ATM just took my money!”

Telling a customer the problem your company caused can’t be resolved face-to-face for several hours is, in most cases, a big blunder. Most of us have watched other customers piercingly make clear in a store or business how they feel a company screwed up. Everyone listens and stares. When someone walks in still in “calm” mode and respectfully explains your company’s slip-up is costing him both time and money, solve it. At least try to resolve it. Telling customers they need to wait in line or call someone else sitting in a cubicle at an unknown place is asking for trouble. People, especially these days, live on short fuses, and you don’t want other happy customers Tweeting about the guy screaming in the lobby.

We all appreciate schedules. But you shouldn’t plan a trip so you arrive at that important business meeting with one minute to spare. You build in extra time. So you shouldn’t staff your office and schedule their hours in a way that prevents your business from handling unexpected issues. Customers often become your biggest fans when you handle tough situations fast and fairly. Don’t fail that test. The next guy who walks in worried his hard-earned cash just disappeared into the magic money machine may otherwise decide to address the situation with a few four-letter words no one really wants to hear.

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Indiana Jones and the lost art of public relations

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

We called a company to request what the industry refers to as a “courtesy credit. ” We first navigated the phone system, which requires the talents of Indiana Jones minus the hat and whip. The feeling of finally finding a real person must be similar to Indiana’s relief when he’s defeated all obstacles and the treasure is safely in hand.

What we didn’t anticipate was a customer service representative who, intentionally or not, liked to lay down some verbal booby traps. He explained our account didn’t qualify for a courtesy credit. Why? He listed possible reasons. Which reason applied to us? He didn’t know.

We asked if we could speak to someone else who might further assist us with our request. He said yes, but our statement apparently wasn’t clear enough. After some silence, he asked whom we were interested in talking to. “Your mother! We would like to talk to your mother and explain you’re being difficult.” We actually asked for a supervisor, which we thought was obvious but clearly needed to spell out in more detail. After another pregnant pause, customer secret agent man double-checked if we wanted to speak to a supervisor now as if scheduling a call for next month might be an option. When agreeing to make the connection, he couldn’t help but point out moving up the chain might not help.

When the supervisor later joined us, she might as well been his mother. She was nice, sweet, professional and granted our courtesy credit as if she was handing us a batch of chocolate chip cookies with a glass of milk. Her son seemed more like Dennis The Menace or Mr. Mayhem we see in those insurance commercials laughing at us at the other end of the line. Yes, we got our courtesy credit but after how much frustration and time wasted?

Give your front line employees some authority to make simple decisions that require mostly a strong dose of common sense. If employees can’t give what customers want, give them the tools to specifically explain why. If customers want to speak to supervisors or someone’s mom, train employees not to treat the request like an act of Congress. And don’t encourage those on the customer service team to discourage customers from seeking a supervisor’s help. Employees often tell us supervisors may not offer us a different result but they almost always do.

We don’t have an Indiana Jones hat handy. But sometimes we desperately feel like we need one.

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Target and Breastfeeding: How to Communicate a PR Problem Internally

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

Let’s take a look at The Flip Side of our last blog post about how to turn a PR problem into a positive using Target’s example about breastfeeding. Because we’re not employees, we don’t know how Target communicated internally about the string of events and how they advised their employees on how to handle customer complaints and questions in stores. We can, however, use it as an example about how companies can stick to some guiding principles to proactively communicate with their employees when a PR issue or crisis arises.

Be timely:  Get the word out to your employees quickly. Don’t wait for the storm to get worse or blow over. Your employees should hear about important events affecting them and their company from an internal source rather than an external one. Well-informed associates can serve as informal ambassadors of the company. Proactive communications with your employees helps them better communicate with customers who might ask them questions. Tactics can include:

  • Check in with your cross-functional team of go-to people from HR, Operations, Legal, Marketing, Social Media and of course any leaders who need to know. Keep them in the loop of your communications plan of action and get their input on communications. Don’t forget external communications folks if they are in a separate department. They should be integral partners. Internal and external communications should be aligned.
  • Let your employees know about the situation through your regular channels as soon as possible. Keep them in the loop on an ongoing basis. Even if you don’t have all the facts, communicate this is what we know now. We’ll keep you updated when we know more.
  • Create a central source of information on your intranet. Don’t bury information so employees have to search to find it. All communications should be visible here and should point employees to this central location for all the info they need. Post a link to important documents like the company policy involved to reinforce the correct actions.

 

Be open and honest. Let your employees know what happened. Don’t leave out details you think your employees can’t handle. Transparency builds credibility. Be forthright. Let them know if the company screwed up. Tell them what should have been done and what will be done to handle the situation. Tactics can include:

  • Make your top execs visible. Think about a thoughtful and sincere CEO blog or video addressing the situation with employees.
  • Arm managers with tools such as talking points to inform and discuss the issue, explain how the company is handling it, reinforce the company’s policy and where to get additional information.
  • Create talking points for frontline employees who speak with customers in person or on the phone. How should they handle customer questions or complaints? Keep the message consistent and clear companywide.

 

Two-way:  Keep the lines of communication open. In the face of a serious issue or crisis, employees will have questions and concerns. You need their feedback to know how to communicate differently or better. Tactics can include:

  • Create a central point of contact to field questions and concerns. Depending on the PR issue, you might want to create a special internal email box or hotline.
  • Ask managers to forward any questions they are getting from their teams.
  • If your intranet platform lets employees post comments, use them to gauge how well you’re communicating.
  • Refresh your communications if you see a pattern of questions or comments.

 

Sometimes PR problems bring out the best in a company. As mentioned in our previous blog, they can help establish your company as an industry leader and give your employees a chance to shine under pressure. If you hear about an extraordinary example of how an employee handled a situation related to the issue, share the story with the rest of the company. It shows appreciation, boosts morale and lets employees know they can make a difference even during difficult moments.

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