April 2005

How many "hands" does your company have?

by Cassie Woolley

Are you surprised when you receive good customer service?

Today I would like to discuss a topic that is dear to my heart.

Earlier this week I was at the Post Office and I overheard a conversation between a customer and a Post Office employee. The customer's PO Box had been locked for non-payment. The customer told the employee that the payment had been made the previous week, and therefore the box should be unlocked. The employee replied that the customer should bring her receipt in as proof that she had paid. Understandably, the customer was confused by this. She thought that the employee would easily be able to access a report showing her payment, but this was not the case. As I listened to this conversation, I recalled the old adage about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing and considered how this has impacted customer service in their organization.

As I pondered this interesting example of customer service in action, several other examples sprang to mind:

Recently we applied to a telecommunications provider to install broadband internet in our home. At the time we applied, we used their support email system to let them know about certain services that were in place on our telephone line, and asked if we would need to have them removed. We received an automated email in return indicating that we would receive an answer within 2 working days. A week and a half later we received another automated email telling us that certain services were in place on our line and that we would need to remove them before we could proceed. Obviously the various departments of this organization are not in communication with each other. Although we finally did get our broadband internet, we had to endure a month of unnecessary drama.

A while ago we purchased a new telephone from a large retailer, but they did not have it in stock. They told us that it should be in within the week. After four weeks we called them to find out that they had no idea where it was, and it was another two weeks before we finally received our phone.

At a department store recently I struggled to lift and lever a rather large box (think taller and wider than I am) containing some DIY shelving into my trolley, only to finish, turn around and find an employee watching me.

Do I have a point, or am I just having a whinge?

I have always said that I would like for once to receive the customer service that I like to give. Last month I met Steven Inwood, a garden landscaper. After my previous encounters with various tradespeople I was cautious about selecting someone to fix our backyard. Steven fulfilled his contract, kept us up to date with any issues, and then went beyond the call of duty and fixed up half our front yard as well.

I find it disturbing that I am surprised when I actually receive good customer service from a company.

I challenge you to ponder how your company provides customer service.

• Do you have a strategy for providing quality customer service?
• Do you reply to all enquiries in a timely manner?
• How many "hands" does your company have? That is, do your various departments communicate with each other to assist your customers?

Quality customer service is not about letting the customer have whatever they like. It is about fulfilling your promises and communicating well with your customers. As an email marketer, you can take the following measures:

• Ensure that product and pricing information in your email campaigns is accurate.
• Do research to determine whether your campaigns are actually useful to your customers.
• Ensure that all departments of your organization are aware of the content of the campaigns that you are running.
• Don't send campaigns containing offers that you can't supply.
• Respond to all replies, and unsubscribe and subscribe requests quickly, even if it is just to acknowledge the request and provide an estimate of completion.
• Ensure that if someone unsubscribes, that they are removed from ALL contact lists in your company.

If you are one of my customers, I'd love to hear your feedback about the service you receive from my company. Email me at cassie@sunacommunications.com.

A few months ago I asked you to share your email marketing disaster stories. Warren Welsh from Macarthur Cleaning Supplies shared the following story:

I worked day and night for 12 months getting my new company's image to a professional level. Countless times I changed things, sometimes I would look up and see it was daylight. I knew I was putting everything I could into this venture. The product sourcing, the business name, the web site , the yellow pages, the search engine advertising, the catalog ( this turns out to be the hardest part so far), the business cards, the logo, the faxes and etc and etc. I asked a industry leader who is the owner and editor of Australia biggest magazine in my company's field to come over for a look. I was eagerly awaiting his arrival and in my mind I was hoping to gain some advice on the way I was going about things because you see everything all the time and sometimes can't see the forest through the trees. The day had come. He turned up and I was nervous talking him. Rather like a wanna be pub rock band singer meeting Bon Jovi. He was impressed ( I thought ) . As soon as I could I asked him bluntly " what do you think I could do better?" He then asked me how many customers have I got on my Data Base. Um ? Database ? what data base ?. He said one of the keys to success is to database everything. After, when I thought about it, it made perfect sense. He also suggested I send a Newsletter out on a monthly basis to everyone. Great! I thought. That's it. He is right. You Beauty. I worked on my first newsletter for ages. I never knew there was software and companies like Suna Communications that helped you succeed with this. So, I wrote my first one, added some specials and converted it to a PDF . After data basing my first 20 customers, I was ready to send it out. I was nervous , but that's one of the good things about computers. Smileys don't show how red faced you really are!. The day had come, all this work and worry if it looked professional enough was about to be put to the test. I carefully wrote a nice introduction and attached the Newsletter, I sent it one by one to my customers. The next day, I was reflecting on my work while I realized I had sent it using the wrong E-mail account. So here is all my customers getting this attachment claiming to be my newsletter from some totally non- related address. Yes, I was kicking myself. The next newsletter I made sure it came from my company's name. I have now discovered there is company's that can take all the hard work and confusion ( such as wrong sending address !!) out of creating newsletters. The first one I subscribed to ( and paid good money) was useless. I couldn't even add pictures!. The second one I subscribed to ( and you guessed it , paid money) was better., but for some reason I couldn't import my pictures. So, I asked for some help from the creators, and was given the lame excuse that it must have something to do with XP service pack 2. ( like , get over it or get out of the industry Buddy! I thought ) and there is nothing they can do. ( I'm still waiting for my money back on that one!). So this is my experiences so far with Newsletters. I have just subscribed to Suna Communications to fix all my problems. Apart from keeping money ( their fees ) in Australia and not wasting it on some half baked wanna be overseas newsletter software producers, I really think this is going to work for me. I will let you know the outcome anyways. Warren Welsh Macarthur Cleaning Supplies www.cleaningshop.com.au 1300 659 518

We will follow up with Warren after a few months to see how he is going with his new newsletter.

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Cassie Woolley is the Technical Director of Suna Communications Pty Ltd, a company that provides software solutions to assist companies to engage in responsible and cost effective email marketing. This column is called "The Last Word" because Cassie's parents always said she liked to have the last word in any argument! You can contact Cassie at cassie@sunacommunications.com or on 07 3200 8490.