Corgi Tails; Stop Measuring Meaningless Metrics!

My wireless service provider has once again been ranked at the top of the heap in yet another prestigious survey.  I would agree.  I had to call them last night, in fact, because my aircard was malfunctioning, and the representatives were polite, respectful, as knowledgeable as one would expect depending on whether you have been transferred to a service specialist or are dealing with the tier one rep.  They asked for an alternate callback number at the start of the call so that they could reach me should we become disconnected.  They respectfully referred to me as Ms.  They verified all information, were patient with my lack of technical savvy, walked me through each step of the process as they tried to resolve my issues, offered alternate solutions and reviewed next steps. Finally, at the end of the call the lovely woman assisting me noted that I might be receiving a follow up call and asked me if I would be able to agree that she 'tried her best to help me?'  I honestly and heartily said 'yes'.

My contract will expire in March.  I will be switching to another carrier.

Why?  In the 21 months I have been a customer of this company, I have had to call at least a dozen times, had my aircard device replaced a half dozen times, experienced more dropped calls than I can count and lost hours of valuable time trying to conduct business using their service.  Oh, and I clearly told both of the reps I spoke with last night that I will be taking my business elsewhere.  They each sincerely apologized... so what.

Here's the deal.  I am as passionate about service delivery as a person can be.   I have file cabinets full of customer sat surveys done by my clients that prove that I know what excellent service looks like and how to train reps to deliver it... problem is, we at Radclyffe have realized that we in the customer service industry have been measuring the wrong things!

Look at a typical call monitoring form.  It's a glorified checklist of did they or didn't they?  Did they use the standard greeting? Ask permission to hold? Use the callers name?  Blah, blah, blah.  Measured against that, everyone can 'meet' their service objectives.  But what about from the customers perspective?  

Ask me if the rep did everything she could to resolve my issue and the answer is 'yes'.  But ask me if my issue was resolved and the answer is a resounding 'NO'.

We owe it to our customers to start measuring the success of our interactions with them based on what matters to them.  To do that we need to look at the 'pivotal behavior',  that fork in the road where the call either headed off into the stratosphere of success, or took a turn down 'OK' Lane.  It's time to tear up the '50 point check list call monitoring form' and realize good enough ISN'T good enough. The only way to do this is to involve, empower and train your service people to not just respond to the stated issue, but to uncover and resolve the core issue.

Last night my issue was not that my aircard wasn't working... it was that it wasn't working AGAIN and I was in danger of missing a critical deadline at work.  I said it, three times... but neither of the polite, friendly, NICE reps heard me.  Well, they won't be hearing me in March, either... one of their competitors will. Oh, and I KNOW why they ask for that 'alternate' callback number... it's because even they know that if I am calling from my cellphone we are pretty darn likely going to get disconnected.  Hey, at least they position the request positively!

That's my rant for today.  Oh, and I promised to answer the question how fast does a Corgi wag its tail in the next 'Corgi Tails', if you really want to know, leave me a comment.