Category: Positive Customer Experience

Haven’t done one of these outright positive experience stories for a while. This story was told to me recently and I just loved it. Hope you do too.

I think I just experienced perfect contact centre service. Thank you Jo Mountain of Howdens Insurance.

I wanted a quote for my professional experience. Howdens had been recommended. I phoned and got ready to read something while waiting to listen to the automated message that precedes the IVR to get through to any insurance company these days. Fingers ready for the phone to get through fast.

A lady answered straight away. A real one who spoke real sense and asked sensible questions. She explained the options and the implications. The costs were lower than I had been paying elsewhere. She gave me helpful advice about the level of cover I really needed. She told me the most they had had to pay out in twenty years. She didn’t play on my fears, just helped me take a business decision. She didn’t rush me and the whole transaction, including payment, took just over four minutes. I don’t think she was counting, but I was, for interest!

She was the right person in the right job, in the right culture creating real value.

Thanks again, Jo Mountain and Howdens!

Jonathan Wilson

Last week I began reading the much-lauded ‘How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie.  Having sold more than 15 million copies globally since its original release in 1936, I was intrigued to see how Carnegie’s tips on human interaction might apply to winning and keeping customers 78 years on.

Here are a few things I picked out for your consideration, though I would recommend the book in full.

Connecting with Customer wants

Put simply, we are all interested in what we want.  It affects our decision-making more than we realise. Henry Ford stated that the key to success was “the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle.”  A Customer, for example, may not want to be sold something, but if a salesperson can show how their goods or services can solve a customer’s problems they will want to buy it.

Carnegie illustrates this idea through his love of fishing.  Although he is personally fond of strawberries and cream, when choosing bait he defers to the fish’s preference for worms and grasshoppers.  The same common sense applies to fishing for customers or business opportunities, and yet how often do we see businesses adapting in this way?

Building trusted relationships with Customers

Here’s Carnegie’s essence of a trusted relationship.  These brief hints are covered in greater detail in the book:

1. Be positive and friendly.  Smile.  Never criticise or complain.  Avoid arguments, show respect, and never tell a Customer they are wrong.
2. Be appreciative.  It may sound like old news, but expressing sincere appreciation strengthens relations and taps into the human need to feel wanted and important.  Carnegie describes this as the secret to success.
3. Be Customer centred.  Show a genuine interest in the Customer and talk in terms of their interests.  Try to understand their point of view and sympathise with their challenges.
4. Be transparent.  If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.  People want to feel important, so are more likely to take a magnanimous view of your mistakes if you are open and contrite.  This is particularly sound advice if the alternative is to be rebuked by the Customer.

Passing the test of time

In the quest to win customers and influence people I would recommend the study and application of these principles. Ours are unprecedented times, with business relationships (both internal and external) coming under increasing pressure.  Inevitably new business models and methods will emerge, but in the field of human relationships, the value of understanding ‘How to win friends and influence people’ will surely outlive this crisis and many more.

I really like these two stories. Why? Well as our story teller says, the first is kind of (Post Office) counter (ha ha, please, no more I can’t take it) intuitive. It has a piece of cool technology in it too. The second tale is a good example of serious expectation exceedance, rapid fire responses (being uber critical just maybe they could’ve used the one email tho?).

I live in an apartment where, when someone rings my buzzer at the front door, it connects through to my phone. When I am not at home it diverts to my mobile. I was at a physio appointment and my phone rang. It was the postman, at my front door. He had a recorded delivery for me that needed a signature. I explained that I was just about to finish off the appointment and could be home to sign for the parcel in 15 minutes. I expected him to tell me to take a hike! He said he would wait. And he did!

Completely counter my expectation of the Royal Mail, but what great agility on the part of the individual, to deliver way above expectations. It probably also saved the Royal Mail cost of putting the package through the process of getting it to the sorting office, storing it and maybe even delivering it for a second time.

Justin Hastings

A few months ago i bought a wardrobe from m&s. It was delivered and assembled whilst i was at work. When i got home i decided it would have been a good idea for me to have measured the space for the wardrobe before ordering it as the wardrobe was too big and looked daft. So phoned m&s the next day and asked them if they would take it back and could i order the same wardrobe but in the smaller size. The call centre agent said that was no problem (bearing in mind it had been delivered flat pack, their delivery guys had spent over an hour assembling it in my house and it weighed a ton) and i then put the phone down.

20 seconds later an email came through to say my credit card had been credited with a refund. 10 seconds after that another mail came through to say my credit card had been debited for the smaller wardrobe and then i received a mail telling me the collectionm and delivery date. And it all worked. Fabulous service!

And don’t get me started on first direct – best bank in the world – wonderful, friendly, polite, proactive well trained staff. And open 24hrs a day. Shame about their overdraft charges but guess that’s my problem really….

Kay Joss