This link has been bookmarked by 86 people . It was first bookmarked on 20 Feb 2007, by Marc Derome.
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20 Jun 09
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Seven steps to remarkable customer service
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ne: it’s crucial that tech support have access to the
development team. This means that you can’t outsource tech support: they have
to be right there at the same street address as the developers, with a way to
get things fixed. Many software companies still think that it’s “economical” to
run tech support in Bangalore or the Philippines, or to outsource it to another
company altogether. Yes, the cost of a single incident might be $10 instead of
$50, but you’re going to have to pay $10 again and again.
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16 Jun 09
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23 Apr 09
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24 Feb 09
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Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The
superficial and immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But
when you think a little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to
prevent this particular problem from ever happening again. -
One: it’s crucial that tech support have access to the
development team. This means that you can’t outsource tech support: they have
to be right there at the same street address as the developers, with a way to
get things fixed. - 8 more annotations...
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The cheap call centers have no mechanism for
getting problems fixed; indeed, they have no incentive to get problems
fixed because their income depends on repeat business, and there’s nothing they
like better than being able to give the same answer to the same question again
and again. -
Many requests for a customer to check something can be
phrased this way. Instead of telling them to check a setting, tell them to
change the setting and then change it back “just to make sure that the software
writes out its settings.” -
when someone calls Fog Creek, and immediately gets through to a human, with
no voice mail or phone menus, and that person turns out to be nice and friendly
and actually solves their problem, they’re apt to think even more highly
of us than someone who never had the opportunity to interact with us and just
assumes that we’re average. -
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express
my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.“Ah. It’s my fault,” he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault” completely defused
me. That was all it took. -
It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s my
fault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angry
customers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re going
to have to sound like you mean it. -
You may think that admitting fault is a
strict no-no that can get you sued. This is nonsense. The way to avoid getting
sued is not to have people who are mad at you. The best way to do this
is to admit fault and fix the damn problem. -
Here’s what I think. I think that our customers are nice
because they’re not worried. They’re not worried because we have a ridiculously
liberal return policy: “We don’t want your money if you’re not amazingly happy.” -
A tech support person
at Fog Creek can’t get by on canned answers to common questions, because we’ve
eliminated the common questions by fixing the software, so tech support here
has to actually troubleshoot which often means debugging.
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07 Feb 09
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26 Jan 09
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06 Jan 09
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24 Nov 08
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16 Sep 08
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29 Aug 08
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07 Aug 08
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Fix everything two ways
Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The
superficial and immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But
when you think a little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to
prevent this particular problem from ever happening again. -
Every time a plane crashes, they send out investigators, figure out
what happened, and then figure out a new policy to prevent that particular
problem from ever happening again. - 6 more annotations...
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Let me tell you a story. We needed some shirts for a trade
show. I called up Lands’ End and ordered two dozen, using the same logo design we
had used for some knapsacks we bought earlier.When the shirts arrived, to our dismay, you couldn’t read the
logo.It turns out that the knapsacks were brighter than the polo
shirts. The thread color that looked good on the knapsacks was too dark to read
on the shirts.I called up Lands’ End. As usual, a human answered the phone
even before it started ringing. I’m pretty sure that they have a system
where the next agent in the queue is told to standby, so customers don’t
even have to wait one ringy-dingy
before they’re talking to a human.I explained that I screwed up.
They said, “Don’t worry. You can return those for a full
credit, and we’ll redo the shirts with a different color thread.”I said, “The trade show is in two days.”
They said they would Fedex me a new box of shirts and I’d
have it tomorrow. I could return the old shirts at my convenience. -
They paid shipping both ways. I wasn’t out a cent. Even
though they had no possible use for a bunch of Fog Creek logo shirts with an
illegible logo, they ate the cost. -
By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten
me to remark about it. -
“It still doesn’t work?” he asked. “Let me see.”
He looked at it.
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express
my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.“Ah. It’s my fault,” he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault” completely defused
me. That was all it took. -
The solution is to memorize some key phrases, and practice
saying them, so that when you need to say them, you can forget your
testosterone and make a customer happy.“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t accept your money. The meal’s on me.”
“That’s terrible, please tell me what happened so I can make
sure it never happens again.” -
There is only one way to survive angry customers
emotionally: you have to realize that they’re not angry at you; they’re angry
at your business, and you just happen to be a convenient representative of that
business.
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28 May 08
Bob PotterHere are seven things we learned about providing remarkable customer service. I’m using the word remarkable literally—the goal is to provide customer service so good that people remark.
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28 Mar 08
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23 Mar 08
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07 Mar 08
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29 Jan 08
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28 Jan 08
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Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The superficial and
immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But when you think a
little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to prevent this
particular problem from ever happening again.
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24 Jan 08
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13 Nov 07
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02 Sep 07
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13 Jul 07
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12 Jul 07
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They outsource their tech support to
the cheapest possible provider and end up paying $10 again and again and again
fixing the same problem again and again and again instead of fixing it once and
for all in the source code. -
. Take the blame
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Memorize awkward phrases
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Practice puppetry
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There is only one way to survive angry customers
emotionally: you have to realize that they’re not angry at you; they’re angry
at your business, and you just happen to be a convenient representative of that
business. -
Greed will get you nowhere
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04 May 07
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14 Apr 07
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Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The
superficial and immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But
when you think a little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to
prevent this particular problem from ever happening again. -
For us, the “fix everything two ways” religion has really
paid off. We were able to increase our sales tenfold while only doubling
the cost of providing tech support. - 9 more annotations...
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Many requests for a customer to check something can be
phrased this way. Instead of telling them to check a setting, tell them to
change the setting and then change it back “just to make sure that the software
writes out its settings.” -
And now I tell this story to everyone who needs swag. In
fact I tell this story every time we’re talking about telephone menu systems.
Or customer service. By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten
me to remark about it.When customers have a problem and you fix it, they’re
actually going to be even more satisfied than if they never had a problem in
the first place. -
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to actually make
something go wrong, just so we have a chance to demonstrate our superior
customer service. Many customers just won’t call; they’ll fume quietly.But when someone does call, look at it as a great opportunity
to create fanatically devoted customer, one who will prattle on and on
about what a great job you did. -
And, here I was, on this planet for forty years, and I
couldn’t believe how much the three words “it’s my fault” had completely
changed my emotions in a matter of seconds. -
Good for you, I thought. Here’s a 60-something year old man,
owner of a diner, and you won some big moral victory against a little old lady.
Are you proud of yourself? How macho do you have to be? Does the moral victory
make you feel better? Did you really have to lose a repeat customer? -
The bottom line is that this is not good for business, and
it’s not even good for your emotional well-being. When you win a victory with a
customer by firing them, you still end up feeling riled up and angry, they’ll
get their money back from the credit card company anyway, and they’ll tell a
dozen friends. As Patrick McKenzie writes,
“You will never win an argument with your customer.”There is only one way to survive angry customers
emotionally: you have to realize that they’re not angry at you; they’re angry
at your business, and you just happen to be a convenient representative of that
business. -
Here’s what I think. I think that our customers are nice
because they’re not worried. They’re not worried because we have a ridiculously
liberal return policy: “We don’t want your money if you’re not amazingly happy.” -
We
really don’t want your money if you’re not satisfied. I’m pretty sure we’re
running the only job listing service
around that will refund your money just because your ad didn’t work. This
is unheard of, but it means we get a lot more ad listings, because there’s
nothing to lose. -
A tech support person
at Fog Creek can’t get by on canned answers to common questions, because we’ve
eliminated the common questions by fixing the software, so tech support here
has to actually troubleshoot which often means debugging.
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13 Apr 07
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30 Mar 07
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28 Mar 07
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27 Mar 07
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26 Mar 07
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24 Mar 07
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23 Mar 07
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09 Mar 07
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03 Mar 07
Alan Levineeven things we learned about providing remarkable customer service. Not the business angle stuff, but some great stories about working with people
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27 Feb 07
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26 Feb 07
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24 Feb 07
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23 Feb 07
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22 Feb 07
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Seven steps to remarkable customer service
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21 Feb 07
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Daniel AndrlikThis is just a great guide to customer service for any company. Hopefully more organizations will start to understand the value of this approach soon.
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20 Feb 07
Marc HarrisonAs a bootstrapped software company, Fog Creek couldn’t afford to hire customer service people for the first couple of years, so Michael and I did it ourselves. The time we spent helping customers took away from improving our software, but we learned a lot and now we have a much better customer service operation.
Here are seven things we learned about providing remarkable customer service. I’m using the word remarkable literally—the goal is to provide customer service so good that people remark. -
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“Instead,†Chen suggests, “say ‘Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?’
“They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, ‘Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.’†...
They said, “Don’t worry. You can return those for a full credit, and we’ll redo the shirts with a different color thread.â€
I said, “The trade show is in two days.â€
They said they would Fedex me a new box of shirts and I’d have it tomorrow. I could return the old shirts at my convenience.
They paid shipping both ways. I wasn’t out a cent. Even though they had no possible use for a bunch of Fog Creek logo shirts with an illegible logo, they ate the cost.
And now I tell this story to everyone who needs swag. In fact I tell this story every time we’re talking about telephone menu systems. Or customer service. By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten me to remark about it. ...
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.
“Ah. It’s my fault,†he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault†completely defused me. That was all it took.
He made the key a third time. I wasn’t mad any more. The key worked.
And, here I was, on this planet for forty years, and I couldn’t believe how much the three words “it’s my fault†had completely changed my emotions in a matter of seconds. -
“Instead,” Chen suggests, “say ‘Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?’
“They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, ‘Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.’” ...
They said, “Don’t worry. You can return those for a full credit, and we’ll redo the shirts with a different color thread.”
I said, “The trade show is in two days.”
They said they would Fedex me a new box of shirts and I’d have it tomorrow. I could return the old shirts at my convenience.
They paid shipping both ways. I wasn’t out a cent. Even though they had no possible use for a bunch of Fog Creek logo shirts with an illegible logo, they ate the cost.
And now I tell this story to everyone who needs swag. In fact I tell this story every time we’re talking about telephone menu systems. Or customer service. By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten me to remark about it. ...
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.
“Ah. It’s my fault,” he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault” completely defused me. That was all it took.
He made the key a third time. I wasn’t mad any more. The key worked.
And, here I was, on this planet for forty years, and I couldn’t believe how much the three words “it’s my fault” had completely changed my emotions in a matter of seconds.
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19 Feb 07
Page Comments
Here are seven things we learned about providing remarkable customer service. I’m using the word remarkable literally—the goal is to provide customer service so good that people remark.
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