Super Customer Experience: Give a Hoot to Give a WOW
by Kate Nasser | 1 Comment »
As large companies come to see that customer service is the new marketing, they succeed when they rethink how to give a super customer experience.
Tip: Give a hoot. To give a WOW customer experience, we must first care about it and the customer’s view.
A recent customer experience illustrates this clearly. It shows how simple steps can reshape the experience from frustrating pain to memorable ease.
Image by: SoonerPA via Creative Commons License
Give a Hoot to Give a WOW Customer Experience
The Story
Recently Cablevision announced to subscribers that every television in the house would need a converter box. Their marketing highlighted that the boxes are free and would provide better service to all. I picked up the boxes that came with coaxial cables and remote controls to operate everything. They also provided two booklets on how to hook everything up.
It’s what Cablevision didn’t explain or provide that showed it didn’t give a hoot and no WOW customer experience.
- The instruction packet for the remote talked only about itself. When I couldn’t get a remote to program to one of the TVs, the packet didn’t say what to do or how to use it in conjunction with the remote that came with the TV. I found out only after contacting a call center and speaking with a scripted rep who insisted on reading the booklet to me instead of understanding my exact need. If they had simply put in the packet: “If you cannot get this remote to work with your TV, use your TV remote for on/off and volume control and our remote to change the channels.”
Customer experience tip: Prevent frustration and wasted time with well written instructions that include what to do when things don’t work!
- No help for connecting VCRs. Yes, I and many other people still have VCRs and use them. When I picked up the boxes I asked the rep for help. She was wonderful and was able to find hookup diagrams on her computer screen. Cablevision had the information. However, there was no place for her to print it out and Cablevision had not thought to include it in the pre-printed instructions. I scribbled some notes as she described what to do. Nonetheless, it was far from a WOW experience. Cablevision’s official position: VCRs are not our boxes!
Customer experience tip: Think about how customers will use the products, foresee their struggles, and ease their way.
- Hidden bad news. After I hooked up the Cablevision boxes, TVs and VCRs, I could play tapes but could not program the VCR to record TV shows on future date/time. With no information in any of the Cablevision instructions, no knowledge from the call center, I turned to the Internet. I found out, much to my dismay, that the Cablevision boxes are not multi-channel capable the way the VCR is. So I cannot set the VCR to tape a show on a certain channel at a date/time in the future. I did find a cumbersome workaround — program the VCR to record channel 3 and leave the cable box tuned to the channel you want to tape.
Customer Experience tip: Be transparent. If the product you are now selling takes away capability the customers have always had, say so. They may not be happy yet you won’t leave an additional bad memory about wasting their time as they search for the answer.
Give a hoot to give a wow customer experience. Think outside your company’s box about how the customer uses your products and services in their lives.
You may not be able to provide all the answers yet your efforts will show you care enough not to waste their time.
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™
Related Post: Do You Wow Customers With Exception-al Service?
©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
Put this quote in stone “You may not be able to provide all the answers yet your efforts will show you care enough not to waste their time.”-Kate Nasser The word CARE being emphasized, so true!