Two weeks ago today I left my backpack on a train. A nightmare, it contained my digital life, PC, iPad and Kindle, plus a month's expense receipts.
Two weeks later I have obtained duplicates of most receipts and submitted my expenses to my 3 masters, replaced the PC with a MAC and all but recreated everything.
Yesterday I spent 6 hours completing the insurance claim, scanning receipts etc and today..................... well today I got a phone call exactly 15 minutes after I posted the insurance claim recorded delivery, to say my bag had been found.
My bag was pretty much intact, the iPad and some accessories are missing, a purse containing Danish Krone and a DSB travel ticket also gone, but everything else was there.
So financially I am worse off but I have now moved to the MAC and upgraded my kindle so not all bad. And what have I learnt?
- Be more careful
- Backups need to be automated (done)
- Record of all serial numbers in one place helps (done)
- Password Keeper needs to be software that is portable, I happily used PassPal which is no longer available and only for PC, so I had encrypted passwords and no access (moved)
- MS 365 does not allow you to sync TripIt or store offline emails (sucking it up for now)
In the process I have been through many organisations for help and thought I would rank them for CX or Customer Service - best to last
My friend Dennis Howlett blogged about poor service the actual day I lost my bag and encouraged me to do the same.
10/10 Apple - top marks, needed help twice (connecting to broadband and re authorising iTunes)
10/10 TalkTalk - didn't expect this to rank as high, but I needed to discount my broadband as issue, very helpful
10/10 Tesco service line for PC warranty - rang and got full prorate refund
10/10 HHonors - passed my requests to individual hotels immediately and copied me
10/10 Easyjet - you can get replacement invoice immediately online
10/10 Small hotels, all replied within 24 hours with duplicate invoices
10/10 SAS Radisson Hotel - replied within 24 hours with duplicate invoice
9/10 Tax Man - couldn't log into my account - really helpful but had to get replacement by post
9/10 HSBC Bank - security key fob lost - helpful but needed replacement posted
9/10 Insurance Company - helpful but needed paper claim, arrived 2 days later
9/10 Police Report - this is done online - but no-one looks for it and you pay £3.95
7/10 Hilton Hotels - took longer to produce duplicates and one needed 2 reminders
Other services scored lower
6/10 First Great Western trains - very unstructured lost property process but they did ring at 7 and 14 days to say no luck, listened to so many recorded messages before getting right department.
6/10 South Western Trains, similar process, listened to so many recorded messages before getting right department and when I finally got through they discounted any chance they would get it, closed file
5/10 Southern Trains, finally found bag, it was logged as black and red bag, no list of contents and form says found 26/10 - whilst i didn't lose it until 27/10. Because it only said bag they only charged me £5 when their rules say £20 for laptop. SO bag was found 27/10 almost immediately but took 13 days to be processed. They too had a really frustrating system for recorded messages.
5/10 Currys, PC World, Dixons - KnowHow - I had to ring them twice, once for MS mis-sell and then to cancel iPad warranty. Getting through to Dixons originally was a nightmare and I had to resort to calling them out on twitter, but once I got through to them they were great. Cancelling my warranty I was given 3 different versions of the process and again when I finally got through to the right person they were very efficient.
5/10 British Airways do not offer an online duplicate receipt service, in fact you have to ring to be given an alternative URL and then you submit your request and it takes unto 28 days! When I queried this on twitter I was told it was so customers got a personalised service.
5/10 Microsoft Store - frustrating, put through to so many people and given completely wrong advice about refunds (apparently law in US says you can, in UK it is up to individual discretion so down to the third party). When I had queries about how 365 works, I had better luck on google, agent did have tenacity and tried for an hour but didn't know the answer.
3/10 Worst experience by far was Guildford Train Station, I was really upset and stressed when I lost my bag and their approach was almost nil. At customer assistance desk I was given a leaflet for the wrong train company, with a number that had been replaced and no help or empathy whatsoever.
What I learnt was if an organisation is small enough to still be manual, you probably will get good service (with one big exception). If the organisation uses technology, it depends on the systems themselves and how the workforce is trained to use them. Manual processes do not work in large enterprises.
I also learnt that twitter is my friend and when the world is looking they will respond quickly, but it shouldn't be needed. I should get that service through the proper channels.
CX and Social is big business. Steve Miranda in his recent Oracle Profit article talks about the use of social in CX. If you haven't already seen it, watch his OOW video (last 20 minutes) were he interviewed Cloud Customers, especially Michelle LaPierre from Marriott Rewards at OOW and she talked about how important information is to customers who expect a digital and immediate CX.
So if I was an Oracle SaaS salesman I would be starting at the bottom of my list and working upwards.
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