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Keeping Communication Consistent: Case Study

 

When you have multiple communications channels within your company, whether it’s employee to customer communications or even internal communications, are you sure that the messages are being delivered consistently? Ensuring that policies are running smoothly and customers are getting accurate, consistent information across the board is key to customer satisfaction. Confused customers don’t stay customers very long, so you often times have one chance to make it right.

 

A friend recently shared an experience that drove home this very point. She was placing an online order for a gift for an out-of-state family member. This was her first visit to the online store and loved their products. She placed the order well in advance of the family member’s birthday, and quickly received an email confirmation that the order had been placed.

 

She became concerned when the delivery date was fast approaching and she didn’t receive further communication from the company, as she is used to with other online merchants. She pulled out the confirmation email, which had a tracking number. After reviewing the information, she learned that her order had been canceled “due to inventory.” She didn’t get an email notification about this, and had she waited, this could have turned out badly.

 

Because the family member was out of state, she had very little time to find another gift and had to pay quite a bit extra for rush delivery. In the end, the family member got the new gift item and all was well on that front.

 

Still upset with the experience, she sent an email to the company asking why she had not been notified of the inventory issue or the fact that her order had been canceled. After waiting several days, she got this response:

 

Thank you for contacting us.
 
Sorry that your order was cancelled. It was not an inventory issue, however. It was a discrepancy between your credit card and the information you provided. We are working toward informing people of these problems, but for now, it is considered a security issue and no email goes out. Sorry for the problems.

 

We value our customers’ feedback and appreciate the time you took to let us know that your most recent experience with us was not what you expected. I sincerely apologize that we have failed to meet your expectations.

 

She was clearly upset and expressed that she is doubtful that she would make a purchase from this company in the future based on this experience; however, that was ignored and there was no attempt to “make it right” by the company. Additionally, the fact that she was told at first it was an inventory issue, now to be told that it had to do with credit card information affected her overall trust in the company.

 

If there are known issues, such as the one above, it’s a good idea to have a Plan B in place to handle this. The company could send an email stating that there is an issue with the order, and to please contact customer service to have it resolved. At the very least, send an email that the order has been cancelled so the customer has an opportunity to fix the issue and have the purchase completed.

 

This is a good example of customers potentially falling through the cracks and loss of customers. Make sure your communications are in line with each other across all channels, and have backup plans for any known issues to make a customer’s experience as seamless and simple as possible.

 

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What’s Legal in Recorded Mystery Shops?

 

We’ve seen an increase in the number of clients choosing to conduct video shops and/or recorded telephone call shops across many industries. These types of shops are excellent tools for training purposes, and allows clients to see (or hear) the interaction for themselves.

 

When clients start either program, they need to be aware of the consent laws for each state they do business in. Some states are one-party consent, meaning that only one of the parties involved in the conversation – in this case, the shopper – needs to give consent for the interaction to be recorded. In two-party states, all parties need to give consent.

 

The list of states that are considered two-party states, where all involved need to have consent in order to be recorded, include:

 

* California
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Montana
* Nevada
* New Hampshire
* Pennsylvania
* Washington

 

The remaining states are, at this time, one-party consent. How do you go about ensuring that you are following the laws of your state when moving forward with video and/or audio recorded shops?

 

1. Review your employee paperwork. Is there a disclosure in the handbook or other paperwork that employees sign stating that they are aware that they can be recorded at any time? If so, you should be okay.

 

2. Does your call center have a recorded disclaimer? You’ve likely heard the statement “This call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes” when calling on various businesses. If your company has this in place, it’s a good disclosure to customers and a reminder to employees that they can be recorded.

 

3. Decide how to incorporate the disclosure into your new hire paperwork for future employees. You may need to create a consent form for current employees and hold staff meetings to alert them of the new process; however, make sure if you are mentioning that one of things that may be happening includes recorded mystery shops that you are presenting it in a positive light, just as you would when rolling out a traditional program.

 

Recorded shops bring mystery shopping to an entirely new level; considering this type of shop on an as-needed basis can really help pinpoint issues, gain information that can help in training procedures, and reaffirm the importance of utilizing a mystery shopping program within your company.

 

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Rue 21: A Great Example of Customer Service

 

As I’m deep into the customer experience industry, I am always aware of customer service as I’m out and about in my personal life. I recently had a wonderful experience with an associate at Rue 21 that I wanted to share as an example of employees who go above and beyond to assist customers.

 

My oldest daughter recently started high school. While this is already a nervous time for teens, it was impacted by the fact that she was moving from a small, private elementary school to a larger, public high school. She was not only going from a class of 30 that she’s been with since Kindergarten to a school of almost 4,000, but she has been wearing school uniforms for the last nine years.

 

As you can imagine, she was very unsure of herself when it came to back to school shopping. She didn’t know what other kids were wearing, and, I think in part, basing her perceptions on shows she watches on television. It was frustrating for both of us, until we visited Rue 21.

 

We had never been there before, so I didn’t know what to expect. As we shopped, we were greeted by associates and reapproached after several minutes of browsing, which I would expect from any retail store. Then something wonderful happened….

 

We approached the counter when we thought we were finished selecting clothes. The associate, doing her part, asked if we found everything okay and then pointed out that a few of the items we selected were “buy one, get one for $3.00.” This made my daughter happy, and she made a comment about being thrilled to be buying more items since she’s been “stuck” in a uniform for the last several years.

 

The associate heard this comment and started asking my daughter questions about her school, what high school she was going to, etc. She then made the comment that she must be nervous about clothes shopping for school for the first time. She then took the time to look through what my daughter selected and assured her that she saw many other teens buying similar items. It was taken a step further when she walked around the store with my daughter, making recommendations based on my daughter’s responses to her questions about likes and dislikes. She helped her make outfit choices and offered suggestions.

 

As we finally checked out, she told us her name and encouraged my daughter to ‘stop by any time” and she’d be more than happy to help her pick things out.

 

My daughter felt so much better after leaving the store and was reassured more than I could do for her as ‘just her mom’ who she probably thinks is out of touch with teenagers. Hearing these words of encouragement from someone who works at the store gave her a world of confidence and she felt much better about the entire experience.

 

The associate didn’t have to do this; my daughter was making the comment about the uniforms to me, not the associate. Even if she had overheard it, she didn’t have to go out of her way as she did to help my daughter. She did more than increase sales; she was reassuring and encouraging to a teenage girl. That was well worth any amount of money we spent that day.

 

It’s experiences like these that make customers loyal. This is now my daughter’s favorite store by far, and we will return on a regular basis because of how kindly we were treated.

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