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Leadership and Service

Written by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: Customer or client service directly reflects the culture that exists in an organisation. This culture is largely determined and maintained by the leadership the organisation provides. Over some 7 years Douglas Long has proved that the right sort of customer satisfaction assessment - that driven by the customer not the supplier - can be used to improve profitability. In this article Doug Long uses an actual experience with a major computer supplier in order to illustrate the need for good customer service and good leadership. He provides some pointers on how this is done.

Leadership and Service

Leadership and service have a very close relationship. Sometimes this gets forgotten - especially as an entrepreneurial company grows and becomes a corporation. For many years I have been a very satisfied customer of Dell Computers, but now .... ?

Let me give you the facts:

On the Monday after Christmas my laptop computer got decidedly unwell. I know, I know! .. what was I doing trying to use the computer on what, in Australia, was a public holiday? Well it was raining in Sydney and, after a disastrous round of golf on Boxing Day I decided that further golf humiliation could wait until New Year's Eve when I might be able to play without getting soaked as well. So I decided to do some work.

Now I have a Dell laptop running on Vista. Some will now throw up their hands in horror and point to the combination of golf and Vista as evidence that I am past it. But be nice, please. I've had this laptop just over a year - exactly 2 weeks over according to Dell when I phoned them - and up till now I've had no problems with either the laptop or with Vista - the golf is another story.

On Monday the laptop would start ok - but it only went up as far as "loading windows" then gave me a nice black screen on which the curser could be seen and moved but nothing else was visible. However the icon that tells me the hard disc is working showed that Mr Dell's machine was doing its best to be cooperative despite some hiccup. Fortunately there are other computers in the house - and they're from Mr Dell, too.

After trying various options, including connecting to another screen, I decided to call Dell Service. Of course, being a holiday in Australia, no service was available. But the Dell webpage (which I must say is one of the most frustrating and unfriendly "service" pages it has been my misfortune to use) finally gave me a number to call. So I called it and eventually spoke to someone in, I suspect, some part of Asia. He was very thorough and took me through all the options I had already tried before we both agreed that the problem may be with the graphics card. He gave me a Journal ID as "a unique identifier for a log of my current trouble shooting session" and we agreed that I would phone Dell in Australia on Tuesday. So far, the score was Dell webpage - fail; Dell service technician - pass with credit. Me, mildly discomforted but not unhappy because the guy in service had been very good.

Then came Tuesday.

At around 9-15 am I phoned Dell service in Australia and, after some delays, wound up speaking to someone in Malaysia - I know it was Malaysia because I asked him and he told me. The first thing he pointed out to me was that my laptop was out of warranty - it expired on December 17 - and that following an initial diagnostic discussion I would need to accept a quote for service before anything could be done. He then told me that I couldn't have spoken with anyone in Dell service on Monday because it was a holiday in Australia - and the journal ID number I gave him was of no interest at all. So we went through everything we had done on Monday with, you will be amazed to hear, exactly the same result. I suggested that the graphics card might be a problem and he told me that this particular laptop doesn't have a graphics card - it has a graphics chip. He explained that I shouldn't be surprised at this failing just after the warranty expired because no one can guarantee how long these chips will last - and, no, he didn't have any knowledge of the consumer protection legislation in Australia and the Department of Consumer Affairs' views about essential parts failing immediately a warranty expires. He then said that I couldn't take it to a service centre because Dell don't have a service centre in Australia and they would need to send a technician out to see me and make the repair. Fair enough! However he couldn't give me a quote immediately, I would have to wait until someone called me back to arrange this. No, he couldn't give me any idea as to how long I would be without this essential tool of trade. But he did give me another reference number should I have to call back!

I waited! But I was not happy. In fact, as at 12-30 pm Tuesday December 29, the score was: Dell service - abject fail; me - very, very unhappy with Mr Dell in relation to this laptop but still happy with the other, older Dell computers in the house. The guy on Tuesday undid all the good work done by Monday's technician.

At 12-30 I phoned Dell to see what was happening. I tried what they listed as their local number in Australia and I was transferred through many different extensions before, at 1-45 pm, I spoke with someone who told me he wasin India and who gave me a different local Australian number. I phoned that and a very helpful person immediately understood my issue, told me who I should speak with, explained that the two possible people were not immediately available, and said she would get them to contact me as soon as possible - and they did. Within the hour!

For some years now I, along with two colleagues, have been working with organisations using what we call "The Value Framework". In this we work with a random selection of the organisation's customers/clients to ascertain what they use as criteria for assessing how well the organisation is meeting their needs. We then turn this information into a 5 point scale and the organisation's own staff use this in highly structured face to face interviews with customers to ascertain their satisfaction. The resultant feedback gives precise information as to leadership and service issues needing attention.

What we have found is that where ratings are below a 3.5 average, customers/clients have little or no "loyalty" to either the supplier or the brand and matters such as price, availability, and the like strongly influence buying decisions. This is an expensive place for a supplier to be as it means high customer churn and marginal profits - at this point, volume becomes paramount for the sales team. Where the customer satisfaction ratings average between 3.5 and 4.5 there is some loyalty but, given a "better" deal customers will switch. Again, price and availability remain important here and profit margins are lower than they need to be because customer finding and retention costs continue to be high.

At an average of 4.5 or above there is a totally different scenario. This is the point at which customers/clients are committed to their supplier and/or the supplier's people. At this point customers know that, no matter what happens, they will receive service and they know that the supplier sees them as very important people with whom relationships are crucial. This is a great place for a supplier to be as the costs of finding and retaining new customers is low - this results in improved profitability - in part because highly satisfied customers are recommending you.

We have found that the difference between obtaining a result below 4.5 from that of obtaining one higher than 4.5 comes down to leadership. The organisations that get averages of 4.5+ have cultures that totally support the customer - and that sort of culture requires the sort of leadership that creates an environment in which everyone involved - including the customer - is set up for success. One key factor in this is ensuring you are always easily available to your customers and that you are responsive to their concerns and issues. This requires that you empower your customer contact people to act appropriately - which, at times might mean "doing the right thing" rather than "doing things the right way".

If you carried out this sort of exercise with your customers/clients, how would they rate you? From a leadership perspective, what further could you do in order to help your customers be successful?

As an aside, how do you think I currently rate Dell Computers? In fact I continue to rate them very highly - mainly because of the responseI got whenI finally spoke with their Mr Buxton. The sad thing is thatthey should have given me this good feeling, and they should have had this high rating, all the time.

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Article Tags: computer supplier, customer satisfaction assessment, good customer service, leadership, profitability, value framework



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