Manhattan Marketing Maven

DELL Hell 3: Calling Manilla

It took me 28 minutes of torturous conversation with Dax and 7 automated menus to get a replacement black ink cartridge for my A960 printer.

And while somebody somewhere at DELL has factored the idea that X number of parts are defective or fail, no one has cued the people who interact with customers. The first challenge was getting through a series of menus. Laughably, one recorded message suggested I go online and do a Live Chat session -- ha!

Seven layers deep -- somewhere around customer support, non-technical issues -- I hit a segue which was signaled by two beeps, 8 seconds of Muzak and a tentative greeting by someone with a discernable accent and a tenuous grip on reality.

I explained my problem: I got a bad cartridge and want a credit or replacement. Dax insisted on getting my printer tag number. When I asked what my printer tag number had to do with a defective ink cart he read me some techno-blab and claimed that knowing this number would provide me with the "best possible solution." I demurred saying that knowing the printer tag had nothing to do with replacing my ink. I held my ground and evidently stumped the band. Dax backed off.

Then I heard a million clicks and beeps as Dax worked his way through the screens and bitched about how his system wouldn't take his data.  All the while he was reading me pat phrases, even though during the 15 full minutes of processing I wasn't sure he was even there as I yelled "hello" into the phone.   

If this is the turnaround in customer engagement and expedited service that Michael Dell is talking about -- fuggedaboutit.

Motivating Magical Customer Service

Everyone has had a rotten experience whilst interacting with a brand. Most of us shudder at the prospect of talking to a Customer Service Representative because we know they are low-level players who are motivated and judged like rats running through a maze who are often ignorant about the products or services they represent and generally snarly. Even the friendly voices frequently act like robots reading scripts or enforcing "policies" without concern, discretion or power to solve our problems.

Into this fray leap Diane Berenbaum and Tom Larkin, owners of Communico, Ltd, a customer service and training consultancy, who have authored a new book  titled "How to Talk to Customers." 

They present a teaching approach toward training CSRs and improving customer service called MAGIC -- an acronym for Make A Great Impression on the Customer. This elementary approach seems hokey and leaves me cold but probably works to organize the material and engage customer service reps and their managers.

Part call for a return to civility, manners, courtesy and common sense and part CSR work book this 209 page tome is written in a folksy textbook style. Each chapter has a MAGIC Moment -- an example of something done right -- a Tragic Moment --what not to do -- and a MAGIC Maxim summary of the take-away points. The underlying premise is that treating people well requires a change of mindset to " relate to people in a way that is respectful and accountable."  The stretch objective of the book is to orient CSRs to think and act so that "every interpersonal contact should contribute to the desire to be in a continued relationship with the other party."

Changing the focus and the success metrics from quick one-call transactions to profitable multi-touch relationships over time is the stated aspiration of every customer facing business. Getting there has a lot to do with the financial, management and technical infrastructure as much as how well reps are trained. 

There is nothing here that's new or revolutionary and there are many recycled cliches. That said for most organizations its easy to talk the walk but excruciatingly difficult to deliver superior customer service. Organizing this material in an easy-to-read book with a dose of pedagogy has some utility and will probably be a useful selling tool for the authors' business.

Cold Calling Works

The latest data is in ... cold calling is the second most effective lead generation technique behind referrals according to a survey of 731 professionals conducted by Michael Schultz of Rain Today.

Dubbed "old fashioned, unloved yet effective" by MarketingSherpa and reported by B2B Magazine the oldest and most despised sales tactic, when used properly, is a remarkably effective tool to open up a sales conversation.

Yet the key lies in how cold calling is done. Jill Konrath dismisses the "hit the phones" injunction as "pure bologna" arguing that in a complex B2B selling environment "making 100 quick calls can only lead to greater discouragement since you are virtually guaranteed to fail.

According to the survey, critical steps in planning cold call campaigns are:

1. Know something about the prospects. Say things that are current and relevant to prospects. Tailor the spiel to account for who you are talking to.

2. Make an offer. Don't just prattle on about who you are and what you do. Instead make a relevant offer that speaks directly to some pain the prospect faces. Prospects want the results even if they're not sure they want you or your service. The offer bridges that gap and conncts you to their challenges.

3. Link the call with other tactics. Preview the call with a postcard or an e-mail. Follow-up with a white paper or other interesting information in PDF or PPT formats. Place the cold call in the context of an on-going communication stream from your organization to theirs.

4. Remember that the call opens the conversation it does NOT close it. Cold calling sets up a meeting to listen, gather information and introduce yourself and your services. It does not cram every sales argument into 90 seconds nor does it even attempt to close a sale.

The results, say the survey respondents can be impressive. Cold calls "act like a newsletter but get to an audience blocked by spam filters" and for some "75 percent of more than 250 meetings" were generated by cold calls.

But the absolutely critical variable is the voice on the phone. You need a high quality individual who knows the business, can listen carefully and respond intelligently dynamically. If all you have is a robot reading a script, you're dead.