34 Heritage - Failed Customer Service

This is a cautionary tale of what poor customer service can lead to. 

I first bought a pair of 34 Heritage jeans from a men's clothing boutique in Portland, ME. The jeans were dressy and fit well. I loved them. They became my favorite jeans brand. Since then, I have purchased a couple more pair of jeans from the same men's clothing store via telephone orders. After that, I began purchasing them directly from 34 Heritage. Recently, I purchased two different pair of navy dress jeans. When they arrived, one pair was correct but the other pair was a washed out light blue casual pair of jeans, something that I would not wear. I immediately wrote 34 Heritage to make them aware of their shipping error. We exchanged email messages for about a week but ultimately, they would not exchange the jeans because I had cut the tags off the jeans, something in retrospect I would have been wise not to have done. I understand that 34 Heritage might have a process that guards against potentially fraudulent exchanges, however it was clear that the customer service representative thought I was lying throughout the customer service process. That was apparent in her written responses, which were curt, unfriendly and even sarcastic.  

It didn't bother me as much that they would not exchange the pants shipped in error for the ones I ordered, but rather that they would not own up to their mistake, but instead accuse me of lying.

I can understand that not every company lives by the philosophy "the customer is always right." But not to accommodate me in any way and to be curt with me in writing when I was only trying to report a shipping error is inexcusable. I would have been a lifetime customer, but my patronage of their brand has now ended. If they had accepted the return they would have seen that the light blue jeans had never been worn and they would not have been out any money at all (well, except for shipping and restocking, but that would have been a result of their error). And, most importantly, they would have kept me as a satisfied customer.

The lifetime value of any satisfied customer can add up to a significant amount. And, in my case, because I have a substantial online presence and audience, this story could have a multiplier effect on lost revenues for them. It is a shame that 34 Heritage did not handle this differently. But these types of customer service experiences happen all too often with so many different brands. One failed touch point can have more of a negative effect than one might imagine. I personally believe that every brand's operating philosophy should be "the customer is always right." And customers and potential customers should always be treated with great respect. This helps build a strong brand franchise. Ultimately, the emotional connection to brands results from the quality of interaction at each point of customer contact with those brands. And when errors are made, quick and satisfying recoveries are essential. 

Other blog posts on customer service:

• Customer Service and Brand Perceptions
• The Moment of Truth for Brands
• Creating the Total Brand Experience - Starbucks
• Emotionally Connecting with Your Customers
• Customer Service Comes of Age at Insurance Companies
• Fast Food and the Customer Experience

Customer Service Comes of Age at Insurance Companies

In 1999, BrandForward conducted a comprehensive study of brand equity and brand perceptions in the insurance industry. The study gathered metrics on more than 200 insurance brands. The results were not flattering. All insurance companies but one (State Farm) disappointed their customers when it came to claims. This contributed to a lack of loyalty, focus on price and insurance company switching.

Fast forward to today - 19  years later. If Allstate is an example of how insurance companies have evolved over time when it comes to claims processing, they have been careful students of creating the total brand experience and customer touch point design.

I hit a deer last week. Upon calling Allstate, I was instructed to download the Allstate app to my smartphone so that I could file a QuickFoto Claim(R). The app instructed me to take the appropriate photos of the damaged area, each corner of the car, the VIN and the odometer. That took 5 minutes at most. Based on their conversation with me over the phone and these photos, they processed my claim in less than 2 hours and then downloaded the difference between the claim amount and my deductible in my checking account through my bank's debit card. The money was available instantaneously.

Meanwhile, they helped me locate a local collision shop and had already sent them my claim information. The collision center sent a tow truck and has kept me informed about the process and schedule.

Allstate also called the nearest Enterprise car rental location and had procured a loaner car for me while mine was in the shop. This cost is covered by my insurance policy. Enterprise stayed open a few minutes late (past their 6 pm closing time) to accommodate me and then upgraded my car. They followed up with me a day later to make sure my rental was satisfactory.

To me, this is an example of a carefully designed customer claims processing experience and an integrated system of interaction with their strategic partners, including the smart use of mobile technology. This has significantly improved my perception of Allstate and has cemented my loyalty to them. And this should be equally beneficial to them as I have six personal and business policies through them.

As I do not have claims very often (perhaps once every ten to twenty years or so), I cannot attest to how other insurance companies handle these situations. However, I can attest to how Allstate has handled their claims processing and my hat is off to them for an excellent job.

Mystery Shoppers

Brands succeed or fail based on the experiences they deliver. That's why it makes sense to monitor and provide constructive feedback on the experience. One way of accomplishing this is through mystery or secret shoppers. These people are trained to experience the brand as a typical shopper would, while taking notes on the brand experience itself. 

This is very useful for retail and other location based brands, but can also work for online and telephone shopping and customer service experiences. 

Here are some of the things mystery shoppers should look out for:

• The length of time they had to wait to be served
• How many steps it took to be served
• Whether the first person they encountered was able to get them what they needed or whether they had to go through several people
• Whether they were able to get what they came for
• Whether all of their questions were answered well
• Whether they were treated with respect
• Whether they felt listened to
• Whether they were made to feel special
• Whether the sales or service people were polite
• Whether the sales or service people were knowledgeable
• How complicated or simple the transaction was
• How many times they had to provide the same information or repeat themselves
• The ambience of the place
• Adjectives to describe the experience - entertaining, energizing, nurturing, calming, engaging, educational, informative, boring, maddening, etc.
• The emotions evoked by the experience
• Whether the experience enhanced their perceptions of the brand, detracted from it or had no impact at all

If your brand provides any type of customer experience, you should know what kind of experience it is delivering and if it is not delivering what you had intended for it to, how to fix the problem and improve the experience. I wish you much success in this endeavor. 

More information on mystery shopping and other research approaches, read the brand research chapter in Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

Customer Service and Brand Perceptions

I travel a lot for business and pleasure. I have been to many countries around the world, including many third world countries, some dictatorships, a couple communist countries and some religion-based states. I just returned from Cuba. Staying at hotels and resorts and eating at restaurants throughout the world has led me to experience many different degrees of hospitality and service, including the complete lack thereof. 

In the USA, we have grown accustomed to a fairly high level of personal service when we interact with brands. Most people know the mantra, "Right or wrong, the customer is always right." Ghandi said, "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." Going back more than thirty years, companies have hired consultants to help them create "legendary service" cultures and "aha! moments" for their customers. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Ritz-Carlton employees are empowered to offer each guest up to $2,000 per day to make things right with those guests.

We expect happy greetings, smiles, civility, politeness, deference and responsiveness in our interaction with service people. And we expect their patience and understanding when we are slow in our interactions with them. We even have grown to appreciate service people who anticipate our every need before we do ourselves - refilling water glasses, pulling a shade down to reduce the sun's glare in our eyes, replacing a dropped napkin, carrying our luggage for us, etc. We have grown accustomed to positive brand experiences delivered by well-trained and pleasant service people.

This is not the case everywhere. I am generally very civil, pleasant and perhaps even annoyingly cheerful in my interactions with others. Which is why it surprises me when I find that a service person completely ignores me or yells at me or tells me to do something myself. I have even had service people respond, "So what?" One waitress spilled wine on me and then started laughing. I recently witnessed a concierge shouting, cursing and shaking his fist at a customer. 

Don't take good service for granted. It is an important element of a positive brand experience.

What is Your Brand Delivering?

Storytelling

Brands tell stories. They create myths. They engage people. They entertain people.  What story does your brand tell? Is it engaging? Does it create an emotional connection to the brand?

Experience

What experience does your brand deliver? Does in connect with people through one or more of the five senses – touch, smell, sight, sound and taste? What feelings does it evoke? Does it calm people? Does it exhilarate them? Does it make them laugh?

Values

Brands often stand for something. They embrace a set of values.  What does your brand stand for? What values does it embrace? Does your brand express the values of its intended customers? Can they wear the brand as a badge of their values? Can they use the brand as a self-expression vehicle?

Personality

Brands have specific personalities. What personality does you brand have? Is it trustworthy? Is it reliable? Is it friendly? Is it smart? Is it innovative? Is it entertaining? Is it compassionate? Is it rugged? Is it stylish? Is it quirky? What personality should your brand have?

Service

How does your brand serve its customers? Does it have a service ethic? Does it strive to anticipate customer needs and exceed customer expectations?  Does it try to surprise and delight its customers?

Archetype

What is your brand’s archetype? What drives it to behave as it does? What is its primary motivation? Does it like to guide others? Is it trying to save the world? Does it like to achieve? Is it a nurturer? Is its motivation to create the next big thing? What drives it to be the brand what it is?

Personification

In what ways does your brand take on human qualities? As listed above, does it have a specific personality and does it hold certain values? Is it trustworthy? Does it make promises to its customers? Does it connect emotionally with its customers?

Promise

Finally, what is your brand’s promise? What does it promise to its customers? Does it promise unique and compelling benefits or shared values? Does it consistently deliver on those promises? If it fails to deliver on one of its promises, does it recover from that failure and even turn the failure into a victory?

Summary

This then is what a brand does.  It tells stories. It creates experiences. It holds a specific set of values and it shares those values with its customers. It makes promises. It delivers on those promises.  It provides services to its customers. It has an archetype and a personality.  And it can do all of this because it is the personification of an organization and its products and services.

Hollow Claims

Increasingly, I have encountered brands that make the following types of claims:

• We are the quality leader in the X category.
• We are the innovation leader in the Y category.
• We are the service leader in the Z category.
• We are the leader in the XYZ category (which is the worst of all claims).

Is quality important? Yes. Is Innovation important? Absolutely. Is service important? Of course. Is it desirable to be the industry leader? Sure. However, in more and more categories, as I perform brand audits, I find that large numbers of companies in many categories make these claims—so much so that the claims have become hollow. “Leader” means top, number one, not one of many striving to be top and number one. Don’t claim an aspiration unless you can uniquely deliver on that aspiration.

Regarding quality, who is the leader in the hotel industry? Is it the Ritz Carlton with its “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” service, or is it the Four Seasons, or Mandarin Oriental, or Peninsula, or Amanresorts, or Shangri-La, or InterContinental? With this list of high-quality hotel chains, should Hyatt or Westin or Marriott or Sheraton or Hilton claim quality leadership? Who makes the highest-quality shoes? Who makes the highest-quality kitchen appliances? How about the highest-quality kitchen knives? Who makes the highest-quality shampoo? Why? Based on what? Is one independent ranking enough to make it so?

Are some companies real innovation leaders? Sure. Who would argue that Apple is not an innovation leader in its category with its introductions of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad? If your company is claiming innovation as its primary point of difference, is it as far ahead of its competition in reality and perception as Apple is in its category? Or is it in a pack of companies, each of which has introduced a comparable number of innovations? In the grocery store business, Wegmans has been widely recognized as the innovation leader time. Trader Joe’s is also innovative, but with a different formula. In the auto industry, which company should claim innovation leadership? Toyota because it was the first with a significant introduction of hybrid cars? GM because of its introduction of OnStar? BMW because of its constant innovations? How about Honda or Porsche?

Do some companies stand out as service leaders? I would contend that Ritz Carlton and Nordstrom would vie for this position in their respective industries. Who is the service leader in banking? In wealth management? How about in insurance? In restaurants? In hospitals? How does service leadership relate to quality leadership? And what does it mean to be the overall leader in a category? What is the metric for leadership? Market share? Distribution? Dollar sales? Unit sales? Customer loyalty? Leadership is a fairly vague term. Leadership, but in what? How important is quality to leadership? Service to leadership? Innovation?

I would contend that quality, service, and innovation are critical to most companies in most industries. Every organization should try to continuously improve its delivery of each of these performance areas. However, unless you are the undisputed leader in one of them, you should not claim it as your primary differentiating benefit. I would never try to claim industry leadership. It is a title that can only be conferred through general consensus by outside observers over time. And I would only claim quality, service, or innovation leadership if the following hurdles were cleared:

• Your brand is the undisputed leader in this area as evidenced by customer research, independent rankings, specific proof points, and truly measurable differences.
• You consistently deliver against this measure across all of your products and services at all of your locations/distribution points.
• You are, at least, perceived/recognized by your primary target audiences as a market leader.

Finally, if I made one of these claims, I would make sure that I had the resources in place to ensure consistent superiority in this area for a very long time. Don’t manage a brand that contributes to the hollow claims of quality, service, or innovation leadership. Rather, manage a brand that claims something truly unique, compelling, and believable to its target audiences. The organizations that can convincingly claim leadership in one of these three areas (quality, service, and innovation) are rare indeed.

© 2015 Brad VanAuken, Reprinted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here or here.

Brands and Service Consistency

I have recently personally encountered several brands with hugely inconsistent service quality, so much so that the inconsistency has changed my perception of those brands. Here are some of those examples:

• I have a favorite place to go to receive a therapeutic massage. The lead massage therapist at that establishment delivers the best massage I have ever had. I have had massages by others when she is busy and all of those massages have been excellent too...until a few days ago, when one of her fellow massage therapists gave me one of the worst massages I have ever received. It was absolutely terrible. I aways recommended this establishment to everyone, raving about the quality of massage. I have stopped doing so and I am more inclined to try other massage therapy establishments.
• There is a coffee house that I frequent if I am in a certain part of town. The baristas have always been friendly and the coffee has always been quite good. Recently, I ran into a surly barista who somehow made a sub-par cup of coffee. Given that there are so many coffee houses around town, most of which are quite good, I am now more inclined to seek out another coffee house to frequent in that part of town.
• We live in the woods surrounded by a very diverse biosystem. To keep the less desirable elements of that system out of our house, we use an environmentally-friendly pest control service. They typically explain everything that they are doing, stay well away of our herb and vegetable garden, and do not treat anything on our property that has no direct impact on our house. We are reluctant to use a service like this, but due to the prevalence of carpenter ants in dense woods, we carefully selected an environmentally sensitive service. We have been impressed with the service until the most recent treatment in which the person they sent was spraying everywhere, even killing a bee colony, which made us exceedingly sad. One of our cats got sick a day later and was listless for several days. We think she ingested some of the poison, which that person carelessly left throughout our house. My opinion of this service has declined significantly. I really don't want that one employee to come back to our house again.

I could cite four similar examples, one being a house cleaning service and the others being a roofing company and two professional service firms, however I think you get the picture. Brands' reputations can be destroyed by one bad experience. Usually this involves a service employee who should not have been hired or who was poorly trained. Sometimes, it involves a temporary worker who was used when demand had gotten too high for the regular staff to adequately meet. Given the number of competitive options in today's world, one mistake can have a huge impact on a brand's reputation. Maintaining consistent quality across service providers is essential in a service business.

To take my first example again, I was hugely impressed with the massage therapy brand I had found. I told everyone I knew that they should try that brand. I considered it to be exceptional in its quality and its value. After my most recent experience there, my perception has changed significantly. I will no longer recommend the place fearing that a friend of mine might not get a massage from the competent massage therapists but rather from the person who didn't know what he was doing.

Be very very careful in maintaining consistent quality, especially in the service part of your business. One bad experience can significantly tarnish your brand's reputation.

Products & Services Matter

I have said this before and I will say it again. Outstanding branding only goes so far. It builds awareness, creates a consistent identity for encoding and decoding brand associations in people's minds and can imbue products and services with emotionality. That is, it can make products and services more admirable and more likable. Having said all of that, the products and services must be adequate at a minimum, but preferably innovative and superior. Outstanding products and services overlaid with outstanding branding is an unbeatable combination. 

The Moment of Truth for Brands

Most brands promise useful benefits. The majority of brands are aesthetically pleasing. Most appear to be high quality. Most seem as though they will meet your needs well. Many have great reviews. Some promise long lives. Others offer unconditional guarantees.

None of this matters at the moment of truth…the moment your brand is called into action and fails in its delivery. What are examples of this? A new roof that leaks. An insurance policy that is reluctant to pay your claim. An expensive pair of slacks whose seam rips. Performance clothing whose zipper fails. A computer whose hard drive crashes. A newer car that won’t start. A restaurant entrée that has a hair in it. A waiter who completely messes up your order. A shoe whose sole becomes detached. A barber who makes a mess of your hair. A power outage. A cup that begins to leak. A parking attendant who scratches your car?

Have you ever had one of these problems? If not, maybe you have experienced a different type of product or service failure.

What does the brand do at its moment of truth, when it experiences a failure? Is it aware of the problem? Does it remedy the problem? Does it make a repair or provide a replacement? Does it provide discounts on future products or services? Is it able to convince you that the problem is an isolated occurrence? Does it surprise and delight you with its response? Does the response reinforce your previous positive perceptions of the brand? Does the response make you want to do business with the brand again?

Ritz-Carlton employees are empowered to spend up to $2,000 (without further authorization) to solve any guest complaint. How has your brand planned for a successful recovery from product or service failures? Customers can become even more loyal to a brand if they have experienced outstanding recovery from a failure.