Dead as #Adodo

This is the full, unedited, untweaked, unadjusted email I just received from Dell in what seems like the last act of the #Adamo saga. It’s so good I thought you’d enjoy it too. This is a blog, not a whinge site, but I’ve always featured customer service issues that strike me as noteworthy. I just happen to have had a couple of my own in recent days.

For a short time at least I was getting personalised, helpful, and well-crafted communications from Dell. Then, four days after the (unmarked) expiry of the expected date of delivery I’d been given, came this:

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Dear Customer,

Your Dell order [24443227] has been cancelled

Because of a problem with the combination of components we cannot complete the order.

Please contact your sales person to place a new order or to arrange a refund.

Thanks,

Dell

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Short and sweet. Awesome, no? “The combination of components” – an interesting translation of “a completely standard laptop”.

Filed under: Uncategorized , adamo, customer service, dell

When customer service is nearly, almost, adequate…

Lost iPhone. But good old O2 were very quick off their blocks to send me this email:

Good Evening Paul [Nice touch - quirkily homespun and personal]

I’m sorry that your iPhone is lost. I can understand this must be upsetting for you. [ I'm buying it so far]

Paul, you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve place [hmm. typo. but don't arf make it look human] a restriction on your mobile phone and SIM card to prevent it from being misused.

I’ve also ordered a new free of charge SIM card for you and this’ll be sent through first class post. You’ll receive it within 1 to 5 days. Please note that your mobile number too will remain the same.

I see that you’ve insurance on your phone. I’ve validated your details [ooh - I LIKE THAT!] and passed them to O2 Insure who will process your insurance claim. O2 Insure will phone you in the next 24 hours and if they’re unable to speak to you they’ll either leave a voicemail message or send a letter asking you to call them to discuss your claim.

You should be ready with the following details: [and here follow 9 simple fields of inforamtion, all but one pre-populated from information they already hold. This is going to be eeeeasy!]

Please allow 24 hours before you contact either O2 Insure or Customer Service, as your details may not be registered on their systems [hey? - so what was that 'validation' all about then?]. Our Insurance team will be able to tell you when you’ll receive your replacement iPhone 3G S.

You can also call our Insurance team on 08706 003 009.

Wow. It sounds alright this, doesn’t it? An out of hours call late on a Saturday, responded to on a Sunday by what appears to be a hooman using email. I’m impressed. Expectations initially low, but being seriously exceeded here. Being not quite sure how they intend to call me given my circumstances, I call them.

Oh. Dear. This is where all the #fails start. But I’m putting it up here to illustrate just how much worse a customer experience can be when expectations rise and fall suddenly, and where there is absolutely no coherence to channel strategy whatsoever.

Number rings for ages… And is the general O2 enquiry number. No options mention insurance, or even loss. Next level down, the iPhone stuff, same story. Taking every “or press x for any other reason” gets me eventually to a Person. The Person is helpful, but not the right Person. More People follow, each preceded by a few minutes of jingle-jangle. Let’s just roll forwards to the 23rd minute: this Person finally admits that no claim exists anywhere. It’s all got to be created. By me. Using a form. A form which will arrive by email within 24 hours. I mentioned the email, which already had all the information. No sir, sorry, that’s not how it works.

So the email’s arrived. With a Word attachment. To be completed and posted back. Or faxed. Seriously. I reply to the email, observing that all our interests are served (and probably our security improved a little bit) by doing this stuff online, or by email or whatever.

No reply. Game over.

What an utter lash-up of a customer service process. Aren’t you embarrassed by this O2? Don’t you see how it might just look like you have total contempt for your customers?

Are you doing anything to improve this? Hire me – I’ll sort it for you.

Seriously.

Filed under: Uncategorized

An open letter to David Williams

David

As Chief Executive of Portsmouth City Council you’ve been closely involved in the recent decision to ban Facebook.

I won’t expound at length about the various pros and cons of social media in relation to legitimate local government activities: Ingrid Koehler makes some excellent points here, as do many others out there.

Nor do I think there’s much point raking over some of the bizarre reporting and misuse of the word ‘average’ that I think distorted the original story. An intelligent reader can work out what the statistics really signified.

Or can they?

Because I think there might be a story behind this story. Were there other, real reasons for the ban? Because I suggest that if there were you could do a tremendous service by being open about them.

Let me explain, and speculate slightly. Planner that you are by background, I am prepared to give you a fair amount of credit for making reasoned decisions. Would “six minutes a day per employee per MONTH” really be sufficient reason for you to take a step which you must have known would create a lot of waves?

I’m thinking not. And also thinking that averages could actually be quite misleading here. Facebook isn’t for everyone. Individual tastes in viewing/idling/networking (take your pick) vary widely. I’m speculating that you had a very few staff showing extreme patterns of usage. The hardcore infojunkies checking for new stuff every few minutes. We’ve all seen them, or know of them, across most organisations.

So, this story, which hasn’t been told, would be one from that old favourite genre – managers not managing, performance systems that don’t – or can’t – do their job.

If this hypothesis is true – big ‘if’, I know – you’d come under even greater pressure than you have already to act. It wouldn’t be a general ’stop the slackers’ message – it would be a witch-hunt of those who’d transgressed. And this in turn might lead to some very difficult questions about why your organisation hasn’t – or can’t – act as it needs to within the processes and culture that it has.

But until questions like this are faced up to we’re going to see even more misinformation in this area.

I could be wrong. As I said, I’m speculating. But I’m basing that speculation on a fair bit of behavioural observation in this area. And something in my gut tells me there’s more to this story than has so far met the eye.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Facebook, local government, Portsmouth, social media

Driven to distraction

I’ve done a lot of work for the Directgov team. I love its core proposition: comprehensive, authoritative, readable information, all there in one place – without bouncing through portals and between different sites, and avoiding confusing journeys through lots of separate brands. But there’s a difference between understanding how it works in theory, and experiencing it…

So when I realised I’d lost a V5 (log book to you) registration certificate for a motorbike I’d just sold which was being picked up the next day… I became a real customer of a real government service.

Firstly, I was very unlucky. No, not just because I’d lost the V5, but because my crisis day happened to be 1 September. New registration day for ‘59′ plates. Anniversary of millions of registrations. First working day after a Bank Holiday. First day of the month. It was going to be very busy. Probably as bad as it could be. And I needed that certificate very, very quickly. Great.

So, what happened? First stop: online. And I didn’t go to Directgov. Horror! Me, a convert, as well. Why not? Because I was being normal (sort of). I searched Google for “replacement V5”. Now, a few results down is the Directgov stuff (and DVLA Personalised Registrations – interesting! – well done on optimisation, but not a natural, or indeed useful, place to find out about V5 replacement). But what’s at the top?

Wow!

This! And it emphasises the word ‘fast’! I click through and see a good question, and a seemingly good ‘Best Answer’. Remember, I’m being a real person now, and I am looking for an answer I want to find…

And below the “Best Answer” – even better:

Fantastic! Over the counter. “There and then”. But ‘0 votes’. Hmm. Need to check this. So, now to Directgov to confirm…

Oh. Where’s that over the counter service then? I can see a link to the nearest office; perhaps that’ll tell me. Nope. (And out of interest, when did V5 become V5C – am I in the right place at all here? Perhaps there’s a completely parallel description of the V5 process, including over the counter. Erm. Not that I can find.)

Alright, deadlock and uncertainty online. Time to shift channels. I’m not going all the way to the nearest office in Wimbledon without checking first.

Phone. 90 seconds of messages (I’m paying on an 0870 here – I haven’t used saynoto0870; look here for more on this…) about how I can find what I need online – grrrrr how I hate that – and then: Thank you for calling. Goodbye. Click.

They terminated the call? Not even the chance to hold (at my cost) to be answered? Dear. Oh. Dear. Oh. Dear.

Well – busiest day of the year, I guess…

So it looks like I am now going all the way to Wimbledon without checking first. Thanks to Mr? Silva and his handy “personal experience”. I want to believe it’ll happen. I really do.

Vroom vroom. I get to Wimbledon. Doesn’t look good. Three rows of seating, mostly full. Eight windows, five in operation. A door-greeter though – excellent.

-Hello: quick question – I need a replacement V5. Can I get one issued over the counter here?

-No [Damn!]

-Will it be quicker to get one by queuing here to put in an application, or by using the phone service?

-There isn’t a phone service. You have to apply here or by post. [Oh bloody hell. #fail etc.]

-I think there is a phone service – I saw it on the internet.

-There’s no internet service [sic] – you have to queue here. Take a ticket. [Big smile though. He did care. Noted.]

I took a ticket. Half an hour passed. I listened hard to the greeter. Amazing how many people were coming in just to renew tax discs. TAX DISCS. You don’t even need a DVLA office for that – I wasn’t expecting them to all go online, but I did wonder if they’d ever noticed that Post Offices… I could see quite a few were paying in cash. I almost got out the laptop and dongle to set up my own unofficial direct.gov.uk/taxdisc booth there and then. For cash, naturally. Might I even charge a tiny little mark-up for a faster service? Yes, Brent Council, I did notice…

But that was definitely going to lead towards Making A Public Scene. To an extent that even I was a bit twitchy about

At the counter (thick security screens):

-Hi – here’s my application form for a replacement V5. Would it have been quicker if I’d done this using the phone service?

-No, it’s exactly the same. If I press my button here it triggers the printing in Swansea just the same as if the call centre do it. [Brilliant – a full, accurate answer! At last!]

-Your chap on the door doesn’t know there IS a call centre.

-Really? Ok, thanks, I’ll tell him [score a point for process improvement]. It’ll print tonight. Takes a week to arrive in the post though. They go Second Class. And there’s strikes and that.

A week. Strikes. Game over. I clutch a till receipt for my £25. That might keep my buyer warm if I show it to him. And grovel.

So what? Why have I written all this (and tweeted most of it at the time)?

Well… You can’t eliminate random, possibly misguided, advice. But you can recognise it, and adapt accordingly. And you can always think of ways to put the customer’s interests first, particularly if you do have a shonky phone service that sometimes can’t take calls…

What if there’d been a few tweaks to the Directgov content? Could these have helped?

1. Near the phone number – “at very busy times we can’t take calls. If this happens, you’ll hear a message straight away when you call us, telling you that your phone call won’t get through. But if you want to stay on the line you will hear some recorded information which may help you”. Needs a tweak to the automated voice system, sure, but you get my point.

2. Catering for the effects of the Mr Silvas of this world. Covering the bases. Add a description of the third way of applying: Apply in person at a DVLA Office. You won’t get your replacement certificate any faster than if you apply by phone. It will still be posted to you, but you will get a receipt for your payment over the counter. This may be useful if you want to show someone that you’ve applied for a new certificate. The receipt isn’t an official motoring document, and you can’t use it when insuring a vehicle, for instance, but it might still be useful to you.

Or going even further: We’ve seen that some advice websites mention that you can get a replacement V5 over the counter at DVLA offices. This isn’t a service that we offer, but we are looking at ways that we might be able to offer it in future. We’ll let you know here if this changes.

And yes, I would have paid the extra 9p for First Class post. Really, I would. C’mon…

Filed under: Uncategorized , channels, customer service, directgov, dvla, government