Customer Experience

How Well does Customer Support Answer Questions?

How Well does Customer Support Answer Questions?

Over the last month and a half, I had quite the customer service experience with my car insurance broker and car insurance provider. All to get an answer to two questions on the renewal of my car insurance policy. Two questions…sound simple?

As you can tell from the duration of the back and forth, turned out to be far from straightforward. So many things went awry there are several blog posts I could write, and, today I’m going to focus on how their customer service did at answering my questions.

What abilities were the customer service representatives and customer supervisor lacking that resulted in their own manager being shocked once the escalation reached her?  Would customer service for the product / service you’re responsible for do any better?

Click Read More to:

  • See what:

    • My customer experience was

    • Abilities the customer service personnel below the manager were lacking

  • Reflect on these questions to see if customer service for the product / service you’re responsible for would do any better

How Much are you Driving Customers to the Competition?

How Much are you Driving Customers to the Competition?

Happy New Year everyone!

A few weeks before the December holidays, I logged into my email marketing tool to find a pink banner at the top stating: “Use of the marketing email tool has been suspended because your spam reports rate exceeds our acceptable thresholds. Marketing email access will stay locked for this account and this decision can't be appealed further. You can still continue to use other tools in the application and send 1:1 emails”. To say I was shocked was an understatement as:

  • This meant I was left in a lurch with my business as suddenly I could no longer email my distribution list / community

  • No warning had been given I was approaching a threshold

  • I had been careful about who I was manually adding to my distribution list

  • I had an email sign-up confirmation set-up on my website’s newsletter template to avoid spam sign-ups

  • I was unaware there was no appeal process for free accounts before using this company’s product

I had been under the impression this brand was the Cadillac of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools which is why I hadn’t bothered to look too much into their customer support model before using it. Boy was that a lesson learned given my customer experience in December drove me straight to a competitor’s product.

As change agents / leaders we’re frequently improving a product or customer support model. Reflecting on the product or customer support you’re working on or responsible for, click below to see the short version of my customer experience, and ask yourself these questions to see if you’re driving customers to the competition.

How Easy Is It for Customers to Use Your Product or Service?

How Easy Is It for Customers to Use Your Product or Service?

In the past few weeks I have learned way more about toilets and how toilet seats attach than I have ever wanted to. After having the plastic hinges wear out and break on a porcelain toilet seat on one of my toilets, I ignorantly thought, “no big deal, get a new toilet seat, unscrew the old one, and screw in the new one”. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

Why am I talking about toilets and toilet seats? They’re simply another product that we use. As change agents / leaders, frequently we’re focused on continuously improving a product or service. As you think about the product or service you’re working on or responsible for, ask yourself:

  • How easy is it for customers to use your product or service?

  • What is the customer experience when it comes to product maintenance / repairs?

  • How open minded are you and your staff to customer feedback on the above?

  • How well are customers listened to on the above?

After going through the below product experience with one of my toilets, I decided to write this blog post to illustrate how a company can frustrate its customers with:

  • Their product design

  • How they choose to respond to customer feedback


A Customer’s Experience of Group Practice Doctors in MA during COVID-19

A Customer’s Experience of Group Practice Doctors in MA during COVID-19

First I want to say thank you to all the doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and healthcare professionals in the hospitals right now on the front lines, doing their best to save lives with limited supplies while putting their own health at risk. You are heroes!!!

Second, to the doctors in group practices in Massachusetts, remember your oath and who your customers are. Ask yourself, how well are you really serving patients right now? If it was your mother, your father, your son, or daughter, would you really speak to them the same way you're currently speaking to your patients? Are you doing what’s best for your patient in these trying times? Or are you doing what’s best for you?

Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Effective in Bringing about Change