Note to Comcast - Get Real

Last week I was feuding with Comcast. My fight with their robot-like customer service is not the issue I'm writing about, however. I'm writing about the company's choice to "hide" the real people in their company.

It started when I got a form letter from Ralph Martinez, Area Vice President, informing me I needed to get a new box and that "at no additional charge" I would be able to enjoy "over 10,000 On Demand titles and new channels...(etc)"

I called and got the box (the web site would not let me do it online), then activated it via chat (the web site would not let me do it automatically), BUT I was specifically told I could NOT get On Demand. So I wanted to write and protest to Ralph Martinez. But, no phone, no email, no address.

A company in hiding. I could go to their web site, contact anonymous customer service, chat with an anonymous drone who is provided with stock answers, or write their east coast headquarters, but not contact Ralph Martinez.

I found his HOME address on the Internet, but never his business address. Eventually, several days and a cranky chat session letter, I got the correct box. No apology. No explanations. No effort to sooth an irate customer.

It rankles me when executives hide...it says the company has so many complaints that its local executives have to stay in hiding.

Telling the story to two of my neighbors (bad news makes a great "over the fence" story), both of THEM also had recent (within 2 weeks) complaints and problems with Comcast. All three of us agreed, this is why we cannot trust Comcast with our "triple play" business (internet, phone, tv).

Truth is, I LIKE my tv service. It works. But I have incredible distrust for Comcast. Get real guys.

What Consumers Want

Another report well worth the time: Sterling Commerce and Deloitte issued a report, What Consumers Want in Their Shopping Experience, that discusses what consumers want in online and traditional shopping.

While geared to retail, the findings also have applications all small businesses should put into play. Come to think of it, most of us could name some big dot com companies that would do well to keep these expectations of customer service in mind

Key findings:

• Both online shoppers and offline shoppers had three major areas of dissatisfaction with their shopping experience: Lack of information availability, out-of–stock items, and lack of assistance/poor customer service from store personnel.
• Consumers ranked online notifications higher than product rating and review features. Consumers also chose proactive notification of delayed shipments as one of the important features that increases trust in a retailer.
• Tracking an order across channels is also a necessity, with 57% of consumers stating that it is important for them to be able to monitor the status of their order via the Web, a 1-800 number, or through customer service in a store,regardless of whether that order was placed online, through the catalog, or as a special order in a store.
• Seventy-two percent of consumers say that finding sale items out of stock decreases their willingness to shop with that retailer. That is a huge number.
• Sixty-nine percent say it is important for a retailer to be able to locate an out-of-stock product at a different location, and then provide the consumer with various delivery options.
• Consumers are becoming more familiar with the experience of a single retailer offering products across multiple channels. They expect the communication and service options related to these products to be seamlessly merged.

More Bad Customer Service - This Time It's Best Buy

Reading Susan Gunelius great marketing blog tipped me off to a situation, which she titled Bad Customer Service Negates the Best Marketing Plans. It's a tale of pathetic customer service, originally from a blog post by Antonio Cangiano titled, The Ugly Truth about Best Buy Refunds.

In short, Cangiano bought a defective computer from Best Buy and got the run-around when he tried to make the situation right. Like my own experience at Home Depot, Corporate Campaigns - Sunk by Morons, Cangiano's story prompted me to think about the pathetic state of customer service in retail today.

Are we simply bad consumers, unwilling to hold retailers accountable? Is it bad corporate policies, bad training at the store level? Perhaps a little of all three.

I was shocked when, after my experience at Home Depot, I heard from two store employees that three other customers had come in earlier and - like me - been told the store would not honor the rain checks. But I was the only one who had stood my ground, and the only one whose rain check had been honored.

Cangiano is right to beat the drum loudly in his complaint. And while I respect that sometimes consumers do try to get something for nothing, Best Buy handled this badly and that should be a cause for us to remember the old slogan, "Buyers Beware."

Building a Business - One Customer at a Time

John Sumser of Electronic Recruiting News, (a newsletter for the recruiting industry) wrote a great blog post about his hunt for "Caramel Balsamic Gelato," in which he ended up finding the product he wanted as well as discovering a great example of a small local company that knows how to treat loyal customers.

John's point -- after a pleasurable email exchange with the president of Gelato Massimo -- was that, "When the talk turns to building intimate relations based on attraction rather than promotion, this is a good model of how to do it. A good product and a willingness to build your brand are the required ante."

Small business owners are always time-crunched. Over-extended. But in business, as in life, small things make a difference.

Wanna Get Real? Look at Online Retailers

Online retailers know that what really matters is sales...not "what's easiest to build," not "what brand will pay us to promote them," and not "what spin to put on our PR." Ringing up sales means thinking about consumers first.

(The real marketing element of this = think about your users first, a lesson that countless "local search sites" and "pay per call" providers still haven't figured out...they keep trying to build a base of paying advertisers without really meeting consumers' needs.)

Anyway, like any good marketing maven, I keep an eye on internet retailing. These are companies working to make the online experience truly useful. In the SJ Mercury News coverage (June 9) of the recent Internet Retailing Conference., one paragraph had me yelling, "Hooray - yes!"

Streamlining the checkout process to a single page should be a priority, said Gene Alvarez, analyst at the Gartner. "Anyone here ever complete all your information, get something wrong, hit the back button and it's all gone?," Alvarez asked conference goers. "Imagine the checkout being a sidebar on the Web page, so no matter where I go on your Web store, there it is."

This isa real-world, practical application...good marketing as well as good sense.

I'm happy to link to the entire Mercury News article - though I have a bad feeling that after a short period of time the MN sticks their posts behind a paid archive service, so if that's what you get, complain to the Merc, not me. Full Story

Corporate Campaigns - Sunk by Morons

The best corporate campaigns are often sunk by morons in management.

Take Home Depot. When Frank Blake took over as CEO earlier this year, he promised that he'd work to change the chain's rep for lousy customer service. On a recent trip to the Home Depot in Sunnyvale I assumed that was why employees throughout the store were wearing big "I'm empowered" buttons.

I was there to purchase an item advertised on sale...a 10' x 10' canopy, which I hoped would eliminate the problem I had of sun on my deck reflecting into my bedroom and turning it into an oven every afternoon. I was there the first day of the sale, but there were no canopies in stock and a nice "I'm empowered" employee checked the computer and said they hadn't received their shipment. He kindly offered me a rain check, called the assistant manager for authorization, got said approval, and with a smile and an apology that their sale item wasn't in stock handed me my rain check.

Three days later I called to see if the item was in stock, was told the canopies were in, but...the store manager was refusing to honor rain checks because the ad had stated "Limited Supply." Fortunately I had kept the ad and it said no such thing.

I went to the store, asked to see the manager. She wouldn't come out. A man who wouldn't tell me his name or title came instead. He argued with me! He was surly, argumentative, and rude. I showed him the rain check, showed him the ad. Explained that if nothing else, he should honor his employees' word and the fact they didn't have sale merchandise in stock. My actual thoughts were, "Idiot, you should not be arguing with a customer over this."

He disappeared into the back with my ad and my rain check. It took 20 minutes before he returned with my canopy. Altogether it took me almost an hour before I got my canopy. A friendly sales associate nearby told me I was lucky: other customers who weren't so persistent had been turned away.

Considering it took me two trips, combined time of an hour-and-a-half, and an extremely unpleasant experience, I didn't consider myself lucky. I considered myself ill-treated.

So you tell me. Is this what the "I'm empowered" campaign is all about? Giving managers the freedom to be rude to customers, and allowing them to sink both the corporate campaign and the confidence of their own employees?

Even good marketing can be sunk by morons in management.