Did You Know You’re Telling Customers “Come Here…Go Away?”

Lynda Partner — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:46:39 +0000

The other day I was doing a website review for a client. They were very pleased that they’d incorporated some social features on their site – not just anywhere on their site but prominently positioned on their home page.

When I asked why they put them on their home page, they looked puzzled and asked “Why not on the home page? We want to show people we are social media savvy, its part of our brand.”

This customer has a Facebook page, a rather nice one, but one that is targeted to a small subset of their website visitors. By putting a prominent “Follow us on Facebook”, they were encouraging every site visitor to immediately leave the website and go to the Facebook page, where most of them would discover that the content on Facebook was not of interest to them. Human behaviour suggests that the majority of them would not go back to the website, they’d simply leave.

It takes so much effort to drive visitors to your website, you owe it yourself not to drive people away once they get there. We helped this customer think this through, and ended up moving the Facebook link into the task area that this audience went to most often. Their bounce rate went down dramatically which means that more people were actually moving through the site instead of leaving it.

Even when we moved it into the right section, the Facebook follow request wasn’t optimized. Each company on Facebook uses it in their own unique way, and usually we can’t know for sure what we’ll be seeing on a Facebook page until we get there. Tying a Follow us on Facebook message with a reason for doing so just makes sense. It’s a lot like signing up to get email from a company – there are so many different types of emails sent out by companies that I only sign up if they tell me what kinds of information I am going to get. I can’t afford to get more email unless it’s really relevant. Facebook is no different. I want to know why I should follow you on Facebook before I get there. We as site owners should make sure they only go to the Facebook page knowing ahead of time they won’t be wasting their time and their clicks.

Most of us are too close to it to see our websites clearly. We need to step back and use fresh eyes at least once a year so we can really see what behaviours we are encouraging and whether they are the right ones for us and for our visitors.

Dear Customer, we really don’t value you.

Lynda Partner — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:00:20 +0000

I am a customer service nazi. I admit it. I admire those who deliver great service and I take great offense with those who don’t.

I like nothing more than acknowledging great customer service, and I have been known to make job offers on the spot to those who have given me great service because they are the type of person I want working for my company.

I almost always take the time to tell companies when their service falls short. I choose to believe they simply aren’t aware that their people need more training. I know its difficult to monitor everyone who delivers service, and in their shoes, I’d want to know if service isn’t what it should be.

Training for great customer service is difficult because great customer service requires three key attributes: empathy, creativity and good judgment, and admittedly these are difficult to teach. However “good” customer service can be taught, and when I see the basics lacking, I wonder, not about the people delivering the service, but about the culture of the company and it’s senior management who have clearly lost touch with the most important people of all – THEIR CUSTOMERS!

So this story of my experience with a park warden on my canoe vacation is a reminder to all managers to 1) check in with your customers and ask them how they feel about your product or services, 2) read as many emails, letters, blog posts and tweets about your company as you possibly can, 3) dip in to your customer service organization and sample what they are offering – use a mystery shop service, listen to the voice recordings of their calls, or check out their emails in your CRM system.

How will you know if you don’t take time to listen?

Here is a story that illustrates what I am saying.

The other week, my son and I and 7 friends went white water canoeing for 6 days in the fabulous Algonquin Park. Good campsites are few and far between in the back country and about 3 days in we found our reserved campsite taken by 4 park workers who had not radioed to see if it was taken and who 1) did not feel it was necessary to acknowledge that we were the customer, 2) did not offer to vacate the site in favor of their customer, 3) did not come up with any other suggestion other than for us to continue on down river. We finally suggested that we share the site with them and they reluctantly agreed.

The next morning they came over and issued us a $90 ticket for having 4 tents. Apparently the maximum is 3. No warning, just a ticket for $90. We showed them our reservation receipt made out by Park Staff that accepted and listed our 4 tents which suggests that it was not against the “rules”. Did any of this matter? Nope.

So, we all wrote to his supervisor, polite emails explaining the situation and suggesting that the judgment used in this case was perhaps not the best. We also pointed out that this rule was not posted anywhere. We did not mention that the justice of the peace agreed with us and that the ticket was thrown out when we went to court to fight it.

Here was his answer.

Dear Ms. Yeomans and Ms. Partner

Thank you for your e-mails concerning your recent trip down the Petawawa River and the issue of 4 tents on the campsite at Bypass Falls, it has been forwarded to me to investigate further.

When reserving interior campsites, in most cases it is not possible to reserve a specific campsite. When a reservation is made, a campsite in a particular zone (area) of the park is reserved. Sites in that zone are then occupied on a first come/first served basis. Not all of the sites in a particular zone are reserved/sold, to allow campsites to be available for emergencies or unforeseen circumstances. In the case of Bypass Falls, the sites at either end of the 200m portage are considered to be in that zone of the Petawawa River.

When the Ontario Parks staff arrived at the falls, both campsites were empty and they chose to set up at the site at the bottom of the falls. You indicate that when you arrived, the upper site had been occupied by a camp group. The group could not have had a permit for Bypass Falls.

After considering the time of day and the time required to break camp and safely find another campsite downstream, the Ontario Parks staff decided to vacate the site and set up for the night in the area behind the site.

The park warden indicated that at this time he over heard a discussion concerning the setting up of 4 tents at which time he issued a warning that only 3 tents were permitted on a campsite and that only three tents should be set up. It has been a long standing park regulation that only 3 pieces of shelter equipment are permitted on a campsite.
The next morning he observed that 4 tents had been set up and issued a Provincial Offence Notice for the offence.

A summary of park rules and regulations is printed on page 30 of the Algonquin Park tabloid, which is available at all park access points. In that summary it indicates that the limit of 3 pieces of shelter equipment applies to backcountry and campground campsites.

Should you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Brent Frederick
Achray Group Leader
Algonquin Provincial Park
613-732-5553

It’s not the fact that the warden lied about giving us a warning that got me upset.

It’s not the stupidity of suggesting we should all read at least to page 30 of a tabloid at the park entrance after we’ve registered, packed our gear and driven several hours to get there

It’s the utter lack of awareness of us as the customer, much less a valued customer. Note to file: ALWAYS acknowledge the value of your customer, without them you don’t have a busines.

It’s the “not my fault” attitude suggesting that the people on the other campsite were to blame. Note to file: Blaming other people NEVER makes the customer feel better.

It’s the lack of judgment in taking an uncomfortable situation for everyone (we certainly didn’t like asking them to share the site) and then making it worse by issuing a ticket instead of a thank you for sharing and have a great trip. Note to file: Your job is to make the customer feel better, using your best judgment. Choosing to punish the customer is almost always the wrong decision.

You owe it to yourself to check in on your customer service team – chances are they could use your help.

Lynda Partner's Marketing Morceaux » customer service

Did You Know You’re Telling Customers “Come Here…Go Away?”

Dear Customer, we really don’t value you.