citizen Evangelist

Seth Godin responded to an earlier post by Joel Spolsky on the Customer Service. Now… unbeknownst to either of these guys is the fact that they are elite members of a team known as my virtual mentors. They have consistently demonstrated over the years that they are worthy of such an esteemed position…

That said, I’m some dissappointed in their posts on this topic.

Note the wikipedia definition of Customer Service:

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

In each case, Seth & Joel talk about Customer Service as being isolated to after a purchase. They also reference this as a lowly role that requires a career path and a escalation proces.

See.. that begins to speak at the heart of the problem here. Customer service is servicing the customer. It is the core of what business is and always will be about. It is not a lowly position, it is the only responsibility of an organization. Service the customer and the customer will compensate.

Last fall, I came across a box which really opened my eyes on what’s going on: Noise, by Bart Kosko, shows how it is often difficult to differentiate the signal from the noise, and that often times, the signal in one situation is noise in another. And yes, I realize my characterization of this makes it sound much more esoteric than it is. Consider this: There are too many things that can go wrong and do go wrong before, during, and after the purchase by a customer. In order to reduce the “noise” from the customer, organizations place “resistors” and “transformers” between the customer and the brain in the company. The job of these circuits is to suppress bad signal / noise and to route boost good signals.

The problem: they are disconnected from the brain, and this latency creates its own noise.

I won’t spend a great deal of time droning on because this topic is more than worthy of a book (and has been, many times over). But, I’ll leave you with this one thought: a real life mentor of mine has always taught me that the most important way to structure the organization is this:

Customer
People dealing directly with the customer
People building products / services for the customer
Management of people/processes
Board of Directors

Shouldn’t we all attempt to structure ourselves around the customer?  Once again, Kathy Sierra  (another wonderful vitual mentor) asks the right question:  Who’s wagging who?

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Now, that’s an interesting concept: “customers possess actual rights.”  It’s a sad thing that a company with as many positive attributes as JetBlue would need to react to a congressional intervention in order to construct their own commitment to customers.  The Bill of Rights the company published was far less than I hoped it would be.  There is no heart in the words.. and only minimalistic commitments that any reasonable customer would expect.

A few examples:

Opening statement:  JetBlue Airways exists to provide superior service in every aspect of our customer’s air travel experience. In order to reaffirm this commitment, we set forth this Bill of Rights for our customers.  These Rights will always be subject to the highest level of safety and security for our customers and crewmembers. 

This sounds pretty good.  Superior Service is a good aspirational goal.  What I read after that found its standard at “expected” service.  A far cry from superior.

Cancellations: All customers whose flight is cancelled by JetBlue will, at the customer’s option, receive a full refund or reaccommodation on a future JetBlue flight at no additional charge or fare.

Uhh … perhaps I’m missing something, but I would natually assume that if you’re going to cancel my flight, you’ll either return my money to me or make sure I can get where I need to go.  Failure to do so would be… fraud??

Ground Delays:  For customers who experience a Ground Delay for more than 5 hours, JetBlue will take necessary action so that customers may deplane.

The next time I have to spend more than 5 hours on a plane on a tarmac is the last time I’ll ever fly your airline.  Why not be more accomodating and set the standard at half that time?  And don’t feed me any rhetoric about costs.  Your costs are largely variable and you’re bound to suffer more if you don’t fill your seats.  I can guarentee that my customer lifetime value combined with my willingness to speak negatively about your services will have a far more significant impact that deplaning.  Think about it.

Now.. its unfair of me not to point out a few of the positive stances.  JetBlue does make a commitmentto compensate for certain issues.

Involuntary denial of boarding = $1,000
Departure delay of 1 to 2 hours = $25 voucher
Departure delay of 2 to 4 hours = $50 voucher
Departure delay of 4 to 6 hours = 1 way ticket voucher
Departure delay of +6 = Round trip ticket voucher
Ground delay of 30 to 60 minutes at arrival = $25 voucher
Ground delay of 1 to 2 hours at arrival = $100 voucher
Ground delay of 2 to 3 hours at arrival = 1 way ticket voucher
Ground delay of +3 at arrival = Round trip ticket voucher
Ground delay of 3 to 4 hours = $100 voucher
Ground delay of +4 hours = customer’s round trip ticket value

The only real problem with this: money doesn’t show me that you appreciate my business.  It doesn’t communicate that I’m important.  It puts my mind in a place where money becomes a lever to be used to get things done.  You want to earn my trust?  Don’t delay.  If you do, be sincere and let me know what is going on.  Provide me with information on when I can expect get on my way.  But, most importantly, find something to comfort me during this time of anxiety.  I’m guessing here, but I don’t think I can use those cash vouchers at the restuarant there in the midway… or at the bar.  If I can’t find a way to relax, I’m going to carry that anxiety on to the plane with me and it will add to the negativity felt by all of the passengers.

C’mon guys.  I have higher expectations of you than this.

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