Archive: Opinions

This week I am running a story about marginal customer support by Time Warner.  I don't think the company is maliciously making it hard to switch to your own cable modem rather than pay a monthly lease fee that started yesterday.  I think they simply didn't think it through, the result being that their support system is overwhelmed, creating long waits, confusion, misinformation, and harried phone support people.  While that was not among the best support experiences I have had, it certainly isn't even close to being the worst.

A few weeks ago I had one of the very best customer support experiences and one of the worst within a 30 minute period.  That got me thinking about how companies treat their customers, and about what customers want versus what companies actually do.

I drove to Destiny USA (the mall formerly known as Carousel Mall) in Syracuse a couple of weeks ago because of a problem with my phone, still on warranty.  I went to the Apple Store to get it taken care of, and then stopped at a Subway to get a sandwich.  I left the Apple Store with my phone problem resolved, feeling great about the way I was treated, the way they handled it, and -- my bottom line -- the fact that I now had a phone that works.  I left the Subway with my sandwich, but feeling angry and ripped off.

What happened?  Subway has magnetic-stipe loyalty cards on which they record points toward a free sandwich.  I had mine in my hand but the girl didn't see it.  When I proffered it after she rang up the sale, she said I couldn't get credit for my purchase because I hadn't given her the card before she rang it up.  Clearly that was that as far as she was concerned.  Not her problem.

Let me get this straight: Subway has a loyalty program.  They want me to feel good about Subway so they offer me a free sandwich if I buy some number of sandwiches first.  But to get the points toward my free sandwich I have to know rules that they don't tell me.  An employee who is obviously not trained to deal with customers tells me it's just too bad: I paid for my sandwich but I couldn't have my points.

Is it just me or is this a poorly designed loyalty campaign?  Subway used to have a paper loyalty card that they punched a hole in for each sandwich you bought.  When you had enough holes you got your sandwich.  The person who thought that up understood the customer experience.  It was much better than this credit card-style thing, because you could immediately see how many holes you had (and therefore how close to a sandwich you were), and it didn't matter when in the transaction you handed it over.

The new campaign seems designed to confuse customers at best.  You don't know where you are with these new cards, they are thicker in your wallet, and evidently there is a requirement to hand it over before cashing out.  I would be fine with no free sandwich card at all.  Make a good sandwich, charge a fair price, I'm good with that.  Subway started it: if they hadn't offered the card in the first place I'd probably like their brand a lot better right now.

Some of our local markets do the same kind of thing: the more you buy, the more gas points they give you until you get a gasoline discount or gift card.  But there is an expiration date.  I can't tell you the number of times I finally was ready to use my points, but they had expired.  If they are going to give me the deal on gas, fine, give it to me.  But when they take it away I get mad.  Best buy gives you loyalty coupons, but they, too expire.  Staples does something similar.

I don't think I am that unusual: I don't want to keep track of when I can shop.  I want to shop when I need something.  Aligning that to a cosmic expiration schedule puts too much work into shopping.  I already have plenty of work to do... at work.

However, I understand the logic behind these programs.  The store wants you to shop there a certain amount, and by expiring the points they think you will come more often to get enough points before they expire.  But that is how corporations think.  That is not how customers think.  So what looks like a great incentive program to the store looks aggravating to me as a customer, even though aggravation is not their goal.

Apple understands that technical support isn't about support or technology or any of the things we think it is about.  They know it is about the customer experience.  And that amounts to two things: how I am treated as a customer, and how well and quickly they fix my problem.

I read somewhere that Apple trains their people to be respectful of and empathetic with customers, so even when things don't go immediately right customers generally feel good about the experience.  Since reading that I have paid attention when I deal with their representatives, and they really do it.

Of course an actual solution to my problem had a lot to do with my satisfaction as well.  The way they do that also goes a long way toward making me feel good about dealing with them and trusting their brand.  For software problems they install fixes, but for hardware problems they sometimes replace the whole phone, which is what they did in my case.  Most places I have dealt with would have made me leave my phone there for repair, which would have meant two 120 mile round trips from Lansing to Syracuse and back, instead of one.  But my Apple 'Genius' decided to make my problem go away immediately.

Apple understood that my goal as a customer was to have a phone that works.  I wasn't after some special gimmee - I just wanted my phone to work.  Not to have a phone repaired.  Not to be told to restore my phone from scratch (I had already tried that twice).  Sure, those things could lead to a phone that works, but replacing my phone meant that we skipped all the processes and went directly to the result.  I am happy because my phone works.  They are happy because I am happy and because they get my old hardware and get to sell it as 'remanufactured' after they repair it.  And you can bet that they have me as a loyal customer.  Everybody is happy.

I'll tell you my other top customer support experience: my payment on my Radio Shack credit card had arrived a day or two late, and I was being charged a $25 late fee on about a $12 balance.  I spent at least an hour coming up with all the reasons they should wave my late fee, ending with my final salvo, which would be 'cancel my card'.  I really got myself worked up!

Finally I called the 800 number, and almost immediately got a nice lady on the phone who asked how she could help me.  I said, "I am calling to get a late fee removed from my account."  She asked me to hold for a moment while she pulled up my acount.  It really was only a moment, after which she said, "I have removed the late charge.  Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

After building up all those arguments I felt like a deflated balloon!  But I also thought: Wow!  I didn't even have to explain why I shouldn't be charged -- she took one look and got it immediately.  No arguments, not even a gentle admonition to mail my payments sooner.  Needless to say I am a big fan of Radio Shack.

In all fairness, my Subway visit was not the worst customer experience I have had.  Three companies tie for that honor: a contractor Dell once sent to my house to repair a computer who licked my phone with his tongue while calling Dell and ultimately couldn't fix the computer, though he did make a veiled, creepy threat to my daughter; Parallels Desktop software support when they emailed me a solution that I had told them three times I had already tried and then asked me to fill out a satisfaction survey; and a toll booth worker on the New Jersey Turnpike.  My Apple experience, however, was one of the best, if not the best I have ever had.  Yay Apple!

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out.  All it takes is looking at the store experience through the eyes of your customers.  If you don't like something, chances are your customers won't like it.  So you tweak your policy until you do like it.  The ultimate goal is to keep customers feeling good about coming back to buy more stuff.  Apple really gets this, and chances are excellent that when my phone needs replacement I'll go back to Apple to get another one.

As for Subway, I doubt I will ever go to the Destiny USA franchise again.  Those sandwich points were a bait and switch unless I used my psychic powers to know to insist their employee take my card before her fingers touched the cash register, and the employee showed no desire to make my experience decent.

I got the message: customer just aren't important.  News Flash For Subway: neither are sandwiches.  There's always Easy Wok!

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