Last week, Seth Godin wrote a post about his experience trying to rent a movie in London. The frustrating thing for Seth is that he didn’t care where he rented the movie from or what the movie cost, but the movie store employee simply said, “Oh, you’re from the US. You can’t rent here.” Seth goes on to explain that while he understands that companies have certain policies (as well they should), it would have been helpful (and perhaps easier) for the employee to offer a suggestion of where Seth could go to rent the movie, rather than say “no” and let Seth stand there and argue with him for a few minutes.
I’ve written before about the importance of removing the word “no” from your company’s vocabulary. While it’s true that your business can’t (and shouldn’t) be all things to all people, your business can definitely be helpful to everyone, even if it means sending the customer down the street to a competitor. Every opportunity your company has to interact with an individual is an opportunity to provide good service (and an opportunity to strengthen your brand).
I got a call on Friday from a gentleman who was looking to create a website with a video-chat streaming service, and he wanted it up “last week.” I don’t have experience with video streaming or chatting services, and my schedule will not currently allow me to take on rush projects, so knew that I would not be able to accommodate him. Rather than respond, “no, I can’t do that for you,” I thought about others I may know that can do this type of service. When no one came to mind, I made a couple of quick Internet searches and came across a company that licenses a product that is exactly what he is looking for. My response to the caller was something like, “Thank you for your call this morning. This is not really the type of service that I offer, but it looks like there is a company called (company) whose product you can license for your own website….”
Later that day, the caller sent me an email back saying, “thank you so much, you’ve been very helpful.” That’s a lot better than having someone frustrated with my company because I simply said, “no!”
So how have you avoided saying “no” recently and instead helped someone find the solution to their problem?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
A while back, I called in to Zappos.com asking if they had a particular model of shoe in a particular color. Zappos didn’t have what I was looking for, but the rep quickly searched other online shoe stores (a.k.a. competitors) and found what I was after. She volunteered the website address and phone number of the competitor and even told me the price, ready to send me their way!
I thought to myself that this is the kind of behavior that might get you reprimanded (or fired) at some other businesses. The next time I’m looking for some shoes, you know where I’ll be looking.
@Josh That is exactly what I’m talking about. Great example! Everything I’ve heard about Zappos customer service leads me to believe that this is the rule and not the exception.
If you’re interested, you should check out the Zappos CEO and CFO blog. They occasionally blog about their approach to customer service and how they train their staff, and it is amazing stuff. In fact, they even offer their employees $2,000 cash to resign after their first week of training, because they only want people who are truly committed to the Zappos culture!
Interesting debate, if we look at the Blockbuster example Seth suggests that he should be redirected to somewhere where he can make the purchase which is fair enough but it doesn’t tackle the fundamental problem the failure to train and empower Customer service agents to make decisions. We all agree that any CSA should be trained to deal with 90-95% of engagements without referral elsewhere. The other 5-10% should be covered either by a couple of principles and a no blame culture or the ability to refer the question elsewhere. Seth says he was ok with them not selling the product but this will not be the only time someone asked to buy a DVD, surely there is a replacement price or a cost for the amount of time it is not available to rent when awaiting replacement. The Zappo example is great they didn’t have the product but banked on excellent service meaning the individual remained a prospective customer. Blockbuster had the product but allowed the person to walk away, no doubt to the embarrassment of agent and the frustration of the customer. Not good enough in my book.
@Keith Excellent point, employee training is absolutely at the heart of this discussion. When empowered, customer service agents have the ability to make your day and make you feel like an important individual. When they are trained to follow lame company policies, everyone suffers: the customer, the employee and the company’s brand.
Drew, the Zappos and Blockbuster examples are excellent, but your own is not. You found the company to whom you referred you caller on the internet, and had no prior knowledge of that company’s performance. That’s a very dangerous move; it leaves your brand image and CS added-value in the hands of an unknown third party. In the other two examples, particularly the Zappos encounter, there was prior knowledge that the customer would be able to get the product and service level that they wanted.
If referral to another business has the ability to increase brand strength, it also has the power to demolish it.
@Dustman I appreciate your opinion, but I respectfully disagree in this instance. I didn’t post my entire response, but I made it clear that I didn’t have prior affiliation with the company. The recommendation was provided as an option to consider, not as a solid solution, and the caller I referred to appreciated my help because he was being stonewalled everywhere else. Hopefully I helped him get closer to his solution—it’s possible he hadn’t considered licensing software before.
You actually do make a great point about how the brands you associate with effect your brand, and I completely agree with you. I call this “complementary branding,” and I wrote a post a few weeks ago on that subject. Thank you for your comment!