Your interactions with customers define their perception of your product’s quality. The best designers in the world cannot overpower a jerk salesman or inept tech support worker. People will become confused, and things will break – they will call. Having a knowledgeable, empowered person to take their calls is what turns an ordinary product into an extraordinary experience.

Linksys is amazing at this. Networking is tricky – standards change, passwords get forgotten, and devices interfere. No problem, every time we call, someone (yes, in India) picks up and walks us through to a solution. Taking a customer from raging to raving in 5 minutes seconds – can your call center do that?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Build a vast, easy to navigate knowledgebase. Enable customers to use and update this database, at least by interacting, asking questions, and rating answers.
2. Train your employees to use the knowledgebase as humans, a point of reference – not a script!
3. Empower your employees: Let them take a customer’s number so they can call back if needed, let them investigate the issues and ask questions of the user (Linksys reps make us follow steps we take for granted – they are always right).
4. Go beyond – solve problems caused by systems other than your own. If the client thinks it’s related to your problem, then in their mind, you’re the problem. Fix that. Companies that help their clients, get helped in return.

There are many messages out there telling you to click for a prize. They’re digital Ed McMahon’s. You don’t believe them, and you wouldn’t share them with friends. Here’s an e-mail that’s different:

Dear all:

In honor of World AIDS Day, Bristol-Myers will donate one dollar to the National AIDS Fund for every person who clicks the link below and moves the match to light the candle. There is no cost to you in doing this, other than the brief amount of time it takes.

https://www.lighttounite.org/

I hope you will take a moment to light one, and pass the word on.

Thanks for your time,

Maybe most of your clients aren’t college students who have all day to setup petitions and community groups berating your latest innovations… but here’s what would happen if they were: (more…)

Perhaps we need to add a category, ”it goes without saying“. If not for brainless acts of wannabe trendsetters it’d be a category, well, with nothing said.

But here we innaugurate this category with a sad act: giving a terrorist group a pet name. (more…)

If you want to kick your innovation into high gear, volunteer your work. There is no more challenging, creative and blue-sky client than a great charity.

Why? Charities understand more clearly than any business that their purpose is to connect with people.

Successful charities (and businesses!):

1. tell an emotional story
2. connect with each person on a personal level
3. leave room for each ‘client’ to transform their own experience
4. help members share their experience with others
5. work with similar organizations on shared causes

(more…)