Customer is always right... yeah right!

But do we know if he or she is really right? How do we find out? Do we even need to know that?

Does it really matter?

To be honest, it does not. But it would however help if we had the tools needed to make sure what was it that went wrong or, dare I say, even plan in advance what might go wrong and do everything in our power to prevent it on time.

Let's get one thing straight:

?The customer is always right.?

If we want it or not. This basic rule of Customer Engagement lets us compare the actions of companies fucused on Customer Engagement to companies practicing Customer Service:

In order to achieve good customer engagement a company requires certain tools and knowledge. Therefore, experienced consultants, quality tools and a solid platform are your new best friends.

Two weeks ago I had to ship a parcel to Edinburgh, United Kingdom. I keep encouraging my daughter – a business student at the University of Edinbrugh – to research a company before doing business with them, and so I went by my own book. Excellent case of online marketing, strong presence on social media, frequent outdoor advertising – I was cooked by one of the Parcel Service companies. Easy-to-use web site, competitive pricing and off we go, the parcel was sent. With a guarenteed 4 working-day delivery, my mother-in-law carefully prepared and packed some potica in for her grand daughter.

BUT, of course Scotland is close to Ireland and Mr. Murphy jumped in. The first part of the postcode I've put on the parcel was a figure low (EH8 instead of EH9) but the contact number, e-mail address and the actual address (to which she is also registered) were all correct. Yet, the parcel was returned to the National hub to Stevenage (near London) twice and on its third attempt it managed to reach the correct destination. All I could say was: Wow! Eight working days instead 3 to 4, really?! The home-baked potica might still have been in a pretty good shape, but the lack of ?Customer Engagement? and the way me and my daughter were handled (as paying customers) was shocking. I mean it took my duaghter 20 minutes before she got to speak to an actual human being on the opposite side when calling the company to enquire about her parcel's whereabouts.

I support the idea of a Tracking software. It offers a pretty good insight to the process your shippment goes through. It also allowed us to know the parcel had been shipped to the sount twice, instead of heading north. The Parcel Service was surprised when I called and asked where the package was. They even blamed me for making the mistake (although communicated to them when parcel was still on the way from Germany to UK) in writing down the wrong postal code, what caused the delay in delivery. Yet when my daughter used the same ?wrong? postcode with her baking company, she was treated with respect and received her letter from them the following day. Strange... The difference between EH8 (or EH9) and AL8 – where our parcel had been twice - is some 800 kilometers, while between EH8 and EH9 it's merely 5 kilometers.

And what was the reason for the complete absence of ?customer engagement? in the case I talk about?

First, let me try to defend the employees a wee bit:

1.      Different business support systems used by different countries in the Group:

The Customer Care personel seems to have absolutely no idea what is happening with a parcel once it has left mainland Europe. The players on the island have a different business support system which is in no way integrated with the European one. Which leaves all the efforts of the Mainland Europe Customer Support guys unsupported by their UK collegues. How can then they remain proactive and improve the experience for their customers?

2.      The lack of an integrated platform for used communication channel aka. "silosed communication platform".

The Parcel Service employees had no idea what and who was answering our desperate-for-answers e-mails, phone calls, social media posts... they basically had no clue through which communication channel the company had been communicating with me. I found myself alone, with all the information, and there they were, sitting in three different communication siloses very far from each other. Had they gone for the old fashion screaming and using smoke signals to ship information they would fail as their communication channels were not connected.

3.      Knowledge base

I am pretty sure I was not the first customer to experience issues with the UK delivery system. But with a lack of a solid Knowledge base which would allow them to acknowledge a bug in their service and plan ahead to resolve it, reacting quickly and efficiently is pretty much impossible.

And the result?

Next week we have scheduled a presentation for the management of the Parcel Service company. The marketing manager understood the value of the Omnichannel Customer Engagement Platform after a short discussion, before she even had time to finish her esspreso. She was happy to hear that we, alongside with the services and solutions we offer, may be able to help them tackle the technological side of their issues as well as help them on the process and operational side. We had offered them what we believe they need – an omni-channel platform and expert assistance which will enable them to easily expand with new communication channels they had previously not been using: Chat, SMS, Web Shop, Mobile App, IoT,... Long story short, we offered to help the company  shift towards an improved practice of Customer Engagament which will hopefully result in many more satisfied customers who managed to ship their carefully wrapped, home-baked goods to the oppostide side of the world just to tell their granddaughters how happy and proud they are of them.

We do not offer a quick, over-night change. There are companies we have been working closely with for more than ten years, begining with offering support for the five internal business processes and today some of them have implemented more than 250 processes into our Customer Engagement platform.

You may ask my wife that I am always right... at least as a customer. And when I have the customer on the other side of the table, I understand that he or she is always right. I will leave you off with a simple thought which, if implemented correctly, could have great impacts on how we do and think about business on both sides of the table: The business world is lacking a notion of respect for the fellow human being. At the end of the day, business should be about people, but is it?

So the customer is always right! (yeah right!)