Making it Easier to Complain

Today, it is almost a cliche that brands want to “listen to customers”. They have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and myriad social media initiatives to supposedly ‘listen’ to customers and make the brand open and communicative. Unfotunately, this is mostly limited and as soon as a customer has a real complaint that needs a real solution, the company suddenly doesn’t feel so communicative any more.

AT&T has launched a nifty iPhone app that could a be model for companies that actually want to listen to their customers and use the complaints and feedback to improve the service. AT&T’s “Mark the Spot” application lets a mobile subscriber complain about dropped calls, low network coverage and bad voice quality. This is a location based app that uses aggregated data from many complaints to find and show areas in the AT&T network where subscribers experience the most problems.

This is a good way to let the customer vent their anger about a dropped signal, feel that AT&T is going to do something about it and at the same time provide AT&T useful information about problems in its network. The information is a collected in a way that is instantly usable rather than generic ‘feedback’ that usually finds it way to ‘nowhere’. This is also removes irritating IVRS systems and call centers from atleast a small part of the customer care function.

The only problem with this approach is that a customer could easily end up feeling that he’s sending complaints into a black hole (which is usually true even while talking to customer care), in the absence of a response or any updates on what happened to his complaint. This is standard psychology, you want a ’sense of progress’, a sense that someone heard you and they’re doing something about your problem. This is what responsiveness means (not just sending a auto-reply email acknowledgement). AT&T should take this forward and when the network problem in a particular area is fixed, it should send a short update to everyone who complained about the particular location.

I like this app particularly because it acknowledges the fact that most customers are not going to report dropped calls and network problems (from location) if it means opening up an email client and writing an email to a generic email address (complaints@att.com). Consumers have become too cynical to expect anything to come out of such an email. It is smart to acknowledge this and make it easier for customers to complain in a way that gives them a sense of ’specificity’ (as against the ‘generality’ inherent in writing to a generic email address or filling a web form).

DESIGN is the new TECHNOLOGY

A presentation I recently gave at the MIT Institute of Design, Pune to the students of their PG course in Design Management.

Clearly Good Experience

Cleartrip has been my favorite travel booking website since its launch. In fact, I’m so happy with the entire experience on the website that I haven’t even tried any other travel site. Last week they did two small things that reaffirmed my faith in their focus on customer experience.

First, they gave me a Rs.500 voucher for being a regular customer. When I saw the email in my inbox, I half expected some convoluted scheme where I could redeem it only if I was booking a flight to Bhubaneshwar or some such rider. And I expected some complicated way of redeeming the voucher with messy codes etc… But their offer was surprisingly simple. No voucher codes, no riders. Just book your next ticket by June 5 using the same account and Rs.500 will be credited to you in a week. No need to copy-paste voucher number or claim rebates etc… Couldn’t have been simpler!

The second thing they did was something I had been thinking of for a while. They added a ‘book a cab’ option once you book your ticket. Makes complete sense, most travellers in cities like Mumbai need to take a cab to the airport. Why not tie this in with booking the ticket and in the process get a little extra revenue? Their share of a customer’s total spend on travel increases and it offers the customer the convenience to book everything related to a trip in a single process.

However, there are some obvious improvements which I hope they’ll make quickly. For one, their rates for a cab are much higher. A ride from my home to the airport in a Meru Cab costs about Rs.225, but their minimum fare is Rs.350 (for within 15 kms) For a difference of Rs.125 I expect a lot of people would rather make a seperate phone call to Meru and book a cab. I haven’t tried the service yet (and probably won’t, I take a Rickshaw which is much cheaper), so I don’t know if they’ve tied up with a cab service. But that would make perfect sense. Just book cabs for an existing service like Meru and get a commision.

Right now, the way it works is: you give them your number, they call you in a while (actually 4 hours) and make your booking (however, its been about 48 hours and they haven’t called me yet!). With their history of creating good experience, I expect they’ll soon move this process online. Just put in your address and when you want to leave. They send this information to a cab service (which is basically what they ask over phone) and you get a SMS confirming the booking and cab driver’s number.

CASE STUDY: Influencing ATM Usage through Service Design

Today, we are proud to publish our first Service Design Case Study :-)

The Reserve Bank of India recently mandated that bank customers can use any ATM (not just their own bank’s) without any additional fee from April 1, 2009. Earlier, a bank would charge a customer anywhere between Rs.15 to Rs.50 for the use of ATMs belonging to other banks. This fee acted as a disincentive for customers to use the ATMs of other banks. In absence of this, customers will freely use any ATM.

When Bank A’s customer uses Bank B’s ATM, Bank B charges Bank A a usage fee of Rs.17-20. This was passed on to customers. Now that the bank cannot pass on this fee to the customer, it has to bear this cost for every transaction that its customers use another bank’s ATM for. A Bank with a small ATM network will be saddled with huge costs as customers start using the ATMs (of other banks) that are closer or more conveniently located.

“Influencing ATM Usage through Service Design” outlines how a bank can design its service to minimize the use of ATMs belonging to other banks by its customers. We analyze the different scenarios in which customers would use the ATMs of other banks and create a service model to deal with each scenario. We also studied the usage patterns and pain areas for customers in the current system to devise a new service that allows customers to record, track and account for cash expenditure, which otherwise appears as a single-line “ATM Withdrawal” entry in the bank statement, without providing any details of how the withdrawn cash was used.

Download a PDF of the Case Study here. (824 kb)

We would love to have your comments and suggestions on the process, content and presentation of this case study. Please comment here or write to abhi@gutse.in

The Marginal Utility of Choice

More choice is good. Customers feel happy when they have a choice of brands, choice of flavours, choice of serving size, choice of delivery medium… But ‘choice’ has a diminishing marginal utility. After a point, every additional unit of choice decreases in utility or value to the consumer.

For instance, I drink 2 cups of coffee in the morning. This makes me happy. Three cups would be nice once in a while. But, I might not enjoy the fourth cup as much as the third. Or the fifth cup as much as the fourth. So the value or joy I derive from drinking coffee, keeps decreasing after the third cup.]

Similarly, it adds to my service experience if a bank offers 3 different (like, really ‘different’) types of bank accounts or if while booking a flight, I can choose between a veg/non-veg meal and a fruit platter. But sometimes, companies don’t take into account the basic principle of diminishing marginal utility while offering choice.

Kotak Bank offers 7 types of saving accounts, each of them identical to the other, except some minor differences.

To top this, the names of the accounts (Ace, Pro, Nova, Edge, Classic, Easy…) are hardly descriptive of who the account is for, what’s different about it, why should I choose it.

The multitude of accounts aren’t just bad for customer experience. It adds to the complexity of management, service delivery, back-end software and training for customer-facing staff.

Jet Airways allows you to choose from 27 (yes twenty seven!) types of meals including options like non-lactose, low-purine, bland-soft, low-sodium and a ‘Moslem meal’! I’m not even sure how many of these are actually available.

So why is more choice bad? and what is the ‘right amount of choice’?

1. When faced with too many choices, people prefer making no decision rather than a complicated one.
2. Post-purchase regret is more likely if a consumer feels that he could have fared better by making a different choice.
3. Failure to understand or see the difference between the many choices causes the consumer to get confused and feel vulnerable.
4. Creates unnecessary complexity without adding value to the customer experience.

The right amount of choice differs from service to service. But a simple rule of thumb is that an additional unit of choice should cater to the needs of a large enough customer group, should have 60%+ different features or should have a substantially different customer experience.

Barry Schwartz, an American psychologist has written extensively about this and a few years back published a book titled “The Paradox of Choice: why less is more”. Here he gives a talk about how the increase in choices has made us paralyzed and dissatisfied rather than freer and happier: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

31Volts, a Netherlands based Service Design firm, talks about how a multitude of choice in ’service touchpoints’ is not always a good idea: http://www.31v.nl/2009/03/creating-a-better-service-experience-by-providing-less-choice/

Social Media (minus) Marketing

Most companies in India view social networks/media as another channel of marketing. Does social media have a scope wider than as a channel to deliver marketing messages targeted at the youth?

There is a lot of excitement about social media in marketing and advertising circles. Finally, they have something new to pitch to clients. Something beyond print, outdoor, television and online advertising.

But are they limiting the use of social media by making it synonymous with marketing. Isn’t there a huge potential for the use of social media beyond just brand building and connecting with customers?

For instance, any service company that needs to send short messages/updates to its customers can use Twitter. But I haven’t seen too many companies doing it in India. The value is very apparent. It can send these messages in a non-intrusive, automated way without worrying about managing a subscription system or a newsletter. The messages are instantly visible and if they are relevant and useful, the possibilities of them being further broadcast is much greater.

Why can’t they have a twitter feed that publishes trading calls during market hours?

A good example would be a stock broker (especially an online broker) who needs to send time-sensitive information to customers: buy/sell calls, trading ideas, market commentary and other updates. Why can’t they have a Twitter feed that publishes trading calls during market hours? or a feed for Investment Ideas that long-term investors subscribe to? or an open-to-all feed with market commentary?

Obviously, the number of your existing customers who use Twitter would be very low. But if you are targeting young, first-time investors through their advertising, doesn’t it make sense to create service features that appeal to this audience rather than selling them the same service you sold their parents?

Other comapanies that can meaningfully use Twitter include newspaper classifieds (subscribe to rent2BHK feed to find a house!), bookstores (new business books at Andheri store) and many other services. [A little disgression, but check the Twitter feed of S M Krishna (http://twitter.com/smkrishnacong), potential congress candidate from Bangalore. It is surprisingly authentic, even endearing!

Internationally, thousands of companies have already caught on to it and are using Twitter as a tool to keep customers posted (and also market their products/services). A good example is Dell. They announce discounts and deals on used product at http://twitter.com/DellOutlet. This is extremely useful to keep sending short updates to customers without bombarding their mail boxes or seeming intrusive. However, they also run a lot of other feeds which aren't that useful [http://www.dell.com/twitter]

Social Media will start to make sense and seem relevant when it is viewed as more than just a channel for marketing messages and Customer Relationship Management

In India, most old ‘new economy’ companies are on the ball when it comes to expensive implementation of technology, multi-year development projects and making efforts to build communities in their own little silos. But they are rarely seen embracing free, open and easy to implement/operate solutions like Twitter. Why?

I read an interesting summary of the recently held Indian Social Media Summit at sampadswain.com. Apart from the usual fantastic anecdotes (taxi driver marketing himself on YouTube :-D coming from the Social Media executives, some of the issues bothering executives from service companies are all centered around the reach and depth of social media

“how much is the target market reachable through this medium is the basic question?”
Ajay Kakkar, CMO, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group

“80% of the audience spends 3 hours on TV and just 3% spend 80% of their time on Internet.”
Sandip Tarkas, President, Cusomer Strategy, Future Group

What I gather from the current discussions about social media is that almost everyone views it as just a new marketing channel to target the youth. I believe that Social Media will start to make sense and seem relevant when it is viewed as a channel of service delivery, as another touchpoint for a service… not just as an avenue to reach customers with marketing messages.

In fact, as a marketing medium, social networks are very demanding and difficult to take advantage of. Users are much more in control of what they see. Unless you have a contextual, relevant and useful value proposition, your message won’t really get much attention.