Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Yesterday I talked about two things not to do if you’re selling a homogeneous product in the context of comic book stores. Today I’m going to wrap it up with two more.
#3 - Don’t fail to manage expectations properly.
When I moved over to G&B Comics, they gave away Previews (a comic book catalogue) free every month, to the people who shifted over from Colin’s. No mention of time frame, no mention it was a temporary thing. That was one thing that won me over in the beginning. Then, come last week, after 3-4 months, I was suddenly told that they weren’t continuing it anymore because it was “for awhile only”. Really? When was this mentioned? If they had told me it’s just for 4 months, at least I could manage that expectation and be ready to pay for it in the 5th month, rather than get a rude shock when I’m physically standing at the counter expecting a free copy.
#4 - Don’t make it seem like all you’re in for is the money.
I understand that if you’re not making money, you’re not in business. But it doesn’t mean your customers have to perceive that all you care about is making money. For example, I’m heading off to Canada from September, so unlike the store, I thought it’d be good to manage expectations and tell them not to get my comics (and save them some money) for the next quarter. Here’s my email to them in it’s entirety:
Dropping you a mail to let you know I won’t be in Singapore from September till December of this year. Just to drop you some early notice so you can manage the future orders.
Speaking of managing expectations, must say I’m pretty disappointed that the free Previews for those who shifted over from Atomix was suddenly dropped. Came as a bit of a surprise that it was a “temporary” arrangement cos that’s not what it sounded like at the beginning.
And here’s their response:
Hi Daryl,
your membership number is 1586 correct? as we’ve a couple of membership number named under Daryl Tay. We need to put on a notice so that your comic subscriptions will continue during this period that you’re not in singapore.
Thank you.
All that email read to me was “Can we clarify your number (instead of your name), so that we can cancel your orders and save us some cash”. No further communication about the poor expectation management, Nothing. Did I feel like they cared about anything other than money? No, not really.
For the record, Colin, the owner of the previous comic shop, also had a few customers going by “Daryl Tay”, but he never got it mixed up. Why? Effort and giving names to customers instead of numbers.
If you’re dealing with products or services that are easily available elsewhere, do take note of these points. They’ll help to keep your customers happy and perhaps even loyal.
Tags: customer relations, customer service, expectation management, g&b comics, keeping customers happy, loyal customers, poor communication, Poor Practices, what not to do when selling a homogeneous product, what to do when selling a homogeneous product
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
You might have read the “About me” section that I put up on the blog maybe a month ago and picked up that I collect comic books/graphic novels. The thing about comic books (and to some extent normal books), is that they’re homogeneous. I could get them from any comic store (or book store) in Singapore (or the world, for that matter), and it would be the exact same product.
So what do you have going for you? Either a very competitive price, excellent service and customer relations, or both. (Singapore is pretty small and all the stores are centrally located, so I’ll leave location out of the equation).
I had to move to G&B Comics when the previous shop I went to closed down. Their prices are not terrible, but I’m paying more than I did at the old shop, and I can get some stuff at Kinokuniya at a better price. What really irks me is the customer service. So much so that I’ve had time to sit down and think of four things not to do if you’re in their position, of which I will share two today.
#1 - Don’t give your customers a number
The thing about this store (as opposed to previous stores) is that they don’t know who the hell you are. We go by numbers. So every week when I go to the store, I report my number like a prison inmate before I get my stash of comics. It’s not a great feeling.
#2 - Don’t employ the wrong people
In the previous store, Colin did everything himself, which means he knows a little bit about the comics industry. If you needed to order something, he’d take note immediately. The people hired at this store, aren’t like that and they’re literally like the checkout people at a supermarket. They’ll take your cash, but ask them about anything actually related to comic books, and you’re out of luck. It also doesn’t speak very well of the store if you’ve told the staff three or four times to help you keep a book, and they keep leaving it out.
After awhile actually becomes easier for me to just forget about asking them “Sorry I’m missing a copy of Manhunter” and just pick it up elsewhere instead. If they can’t be bothered about taking note of my buying preferences, then some other place can take the money.
#3 and #4 coming tomorrow. By the way don’t take this post like I hate the store. I’ve just had countless negative experiences in a few months that have been bugging me, despite me giving suggestions on how to improve.
Tags: bad customer service, comic book stores singapore, comic books, competitive pricing, customer relations, customer service, Graphic Novels, selling homogeneous product
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
When I was contemplating a new laptop, it was between Dell and Sony. After Dell failed the customer service test (for now), Sony was next. I’ve had my laptop for just over two weeks and have had experiences with their service reps pre-purchase, during purchase and post-purchase, and it’s been pretty consistent. Consistently good, that is.
Pre-purchase I gave them a call to ask some questions about their extended warranty programme and the lady on the phone was pretty helpful, even if she had to ask somebody else for details a few times. When I went down to purchase the laptop, the salesperson, Johnny Guo, approached me to help very quickly. The laptop came with a free RAM upgrade and I love using technology, but that doesn’t mean I know how to set it up. So he was happy to help me with it, and spent the next 40 minutes setting up my laptop for it’s first run as well as answering a constant barrage of questions from me. Look for this dude if you want to buy anything from Sony at the Wisma Atria shop.
After that I had some problems with registering my online warranty and sent an email which was replied within a couple of hours by Nelson, who helped me very quickly and efficiently. The warranty was probably my fault (I couldn’t recall what the ID was) but he helped me fix it anyway without me feeling like an idiot.
(Sidetrack: Sony was offering a free two year warranty if you register it online, it’s a great way for them to build up a database with useful information like email and demographics at the cost of two years warranty.)
All in all this experience has been really good for me. I don’t know whether it’s a conscious initiative on Sony’s part or if I had the good fortune of interacting with great employees, but it’s left a lasting impression on me and one I hope is not tainted in the future.
The interesting thing is this. Sony has no snazzy “customer chat” that Dell has, but does the basic things right and portrays a consistent image across functions (at least those that I’ve interacted with), but it’s serving them better than it is Dell, at least in Asia.
Tags: buying a sony laptop, customer service, dell customer service, sony customer service, sony in singapore
Posted in Singapore | 3 Comments »
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Dorothy’s been looking for a place to host her blog, so I volunteered to let her park her domain on my host with Bluehost. I’ve mentioned before that Bluehost has a great customer service chat function which was really what closed the deal when I was deciding which host to use, and Dorothy has found that out as well.
Sure I’ve heard Bluehost has its problems and Dor is having some problems with Joomla scripts (sounds like an alien organ or something), but the fact that a handy Bluehost chat dude is on hand makes things better and opens the lines of communication.
If you have a website that gets a lot of questions, why not invest in a live-chat function? I’m willing to guess it’s easier to convert prospective customers that way, and keep existing ones coming back. We all want something that’s reliable.
Tags: bluehost, customer service, joomla, live chat, soulvations
Posted in Blogs, collaboration | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
#1 and #2 reasons why Plurk over Twitter are cliques and threaded conversations respectively. Cliques allow you to send plurks to specified subsets of your followers. I have a local clique, and that’s where all the chatter that is unique to Singapore goes to, instead of spamming it to everyone. Threaded conversations allow you to follow one conversation, unlike Twitter where replies are rather fragmented.
Let’s go on to #3: Organic Conversations.
Yesterday I posted about EA Games getting customer service. I posted about it on Plurk as well:
Within seconds of posting, NovelistKat talked about how they may get customer service, but not how to treat their employees. This went back and forth awhile until litford hopped in to talk about jPod and how it’s a spoof of EA and its programmers. (full conversation here)
Isn’t this how true conversations happen? Imagine talking about a shoe brand (no names) over dinner. “Man those new shoes I bought are comfortable“. Somehow the conversation meanders to “I hope that comfort is deserving of the child labour that it took to make it” and then after a little more it goes to “Did you see the new ad for the shoes on tv last night?”
Conversations have a life of their own. Seeing them grow organically has a lot of value. How many brands could listen in or participate in the EA conversation and learn from it? EA certainly. Douglas Coupland perhaps. The jPod network could’ve pointed us to a website to stream the first episode for free and get us hooked. The possibilities are endless.
I write this post partially in reply to @jonathank of Fabrikade who isn’t sure of the personal/business possibilities of Plurk yet, hope this is one step towards convincing you, Jonathan!
Tags: customer service, ea games, following the conversation, joining the conversation, organic conversation, Plurk, Singapore, twitter
Posted in Blogs, Plurk, Singapore, social media, twitter | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
Customer service is a big pet peeve of mine. So I’m always grateful (and sometimes surprised) when I’m on the receiving end of good customer service.
I had a problem with Mass Effect and dropped an email to EA Games Support in Singapore. I got an email reply in three hours (still acceptable) saying:
Greetings Mr Tay,
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts Singapore.
I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with the game.
If you are running on Windows Vista,
1. Click on the Windows button on the taskbar below your desktop.
2. Type in “dxdiag” in the search box just above the windows button and press “ENTER” on your keyboard.
3. On the DirectX Diagnostic Tool window, click on the “Save All Information” button. This will save a text file on your desktop.
4. Send the text file back in your email reply as an attachment.
We will then be able to advise you further on what additional steps you need to take to get the game running.
What they did right:
- a nice greeting, neither too formal nor informal
- expressing an apology that I had problems with their product
- a step by step guide on what actions to take and what to do next
How often does customer service do this for you? I’m betting not often.
What’s the big deal, I hear you say, it’s just a game right?
No.
Games are expensive. I paid S$64.90 for this game to get the proper validation code to play this game with no problems. If EA Games doesn’t convince me of the value I get from buying the original, they encourage me not to buy their games.
However, now I know the opposite and it pays to buy EA Games, it makes it much easier to make the decision to buy a game, knowing that you wouldn’t be wasting money or getting frustrated.
Now, if only every company took care of their customers and gave them a reason to remain paying customers.
Tags: customer service, ea games, ea sports, great customer support, mass effect, retaining existing customers
Posted in Singapore | 4 Comments »
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
My laptop died on me recently, so I was searching for a new one online. The review sites gave a Dell model pretty good reviews, and knowing how Dell is active in the social media space with their blogs at Direct2Dell, I thought I’d take the plunge and get one.
However, once I announced my intentions online, I got a few people telling me not to get a Dell because of their poor after-sales service (what’s new). So although I told them I felt that Dell had changed, I decided to give it a little test.
One thing I like on websites that I’m buying from, is a “chat” function where a customer service representative is on hand to answer any questions you might have. Bluehost did this really well and I purchased a hosting plan with them within minutes. However when I tried it out on the Dell website, it wasn’t convincing.
The gist of it was I said I liked the Dell model, and know they have great initiatives in North America, but was worried about it in Singapore. I then asked if after-sales was reliable and quick.
I was met with 6 minutes of silence (maybe the representative was flipping through a manual?) and got replied to me with “It’s reliable”. Not going to address my concern about it being quick?
I still think Dell is making good moves, but perhaps for a company as big as theirs it’s hard to train everyone internationally. However the bottom line is: if you’re communicating a change, you gotta make sure everyone the customer comes into contact with is living that change. I didn’t feel convinced, and ended up not getting the Dell.
Perhaps when I need to get a new laptop in three years I might try again, but right now… I’m just not feeling comfortable enough…. yet.
Tags: buying a new laptop, customer chat, customer service, dell, direct2dell, social media space
Posted in social media | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
This came up in a couple of conversations during Social Media Breakfast: Singapore 2. Who’s the hardest to persuade when trying to implement a social media initiative? I’m guessing there isn’t a singular person, but clumps of people:
1) The C Suite
I hear conflicting stories here. Some C Suite individuals are very keen to get into social media (whether they know what they’re doing is another matter). Others are firmly entrenched in the delusion that this is a fad and will go away, and that one-way messaging continues to work and that mass media is king.
2) The Marketing Department
This one I’m guessing. The social media budget has to come from somewhere, and the most likely avenue probably sounds like the in-house marketing/communications department. Money spent on social media = less money for them to by 30 second spots and billboard ads.
3) Customer Service
These are the low-laid, unmotivated staff that come into contact with customers every day. And these are the people who will be online joining the conversations. Speaking as someone whose job was to answer the phone and prepare medical records way back when, it’s really hard to persuade this class of people to care for the customer.
I’m sure I’m missing out some possibilities, so what do you think? Also, do you think the “culture” of embracing social media should come from the top (ie C Suite) down and enforced? Or bottom up? Is one way more effective? Or do different methods work for different companies?
Tags: 30 second spot, billboard ads, c suite, customer service, in-house marketing, marketing department, mass media is king, one-way messaging, persuading organisations to use social media, social media breakfast singapore, social media initiatives, social media is a fad
Posted in Marketing, social media | 3 Comments »
