Articles on Service Matters:

Bad Service?...No, More Like Bad Attitude!

Happy New Year!

At least that is what I expected when I went into an M1 Shop at Vivo City on New Year's day. M1 also known as MobileOne Limited is a public listed telco company in Singapore. It is one of 3 major telco companies providing various telco services to Singapore.

I wish I had never stepped into that shop on New Year's Day. I thought I had a bad case of hangover or at least I thought the ones that are serving me had one. Simple basic service gesture has just gone out the window.

I am an M1 customer for approximately 10 years. About this time of the year it is time to do my ritual very two years...that is to change a new mobile (cell) phone and renew my contract on my mobile (cell) phone with M1. I was on a happy New Year's Day shopping with my family on the first day of 2007. I saw an M1 shop and told my wife, it is time for me to renew my contract. Before I went in the shop, I browse around for the latest mobile phone. A young and very attractive lady approached me and ask, "Can I help you"?

Hey I thought it was suppose to be Happy New Year or something like that. No smile greeted me but I am having a great time with my family thus far so I will not let that affect me. So "Yes", I said. "What are the Nokia phones on offer and I would like to renew my contract if that is possible."

The young lady then pointed to me on an advertisement board and said, "Over there". So I went "Over There" and took a look and I narrow it down to 2 phones that I might like but could not decide at that moment so I ask, "Can I take a look at the 2 phones, please." She then said to me, "Take a seat."

So I sat down and within a few seconds she came out with 2 boxes. She took the 2 phones out of the boxes and pass them to me. So like any shopper you like to get a feel at your future purchase and that was what I did, I touched, have a feel and I was curious about the weight of the 2 phones, so I asked the young lady, "Is that the exact weight of the 2 phones"? Now this it where it gets to me. She looked at me (didn't seem happy) and her hands went into one of the box and took out a small cell phone battery and SLAPPED in on top of one of the phone.

Stunned. Both me and my wife looked at each other and just gave a little shook of our heads. So I took the slapped phone and began to feel how heavy it was. I ask her about the weight of the other phone and the same thing happened - SLAPPED, the battery was on top of the other phone. Now I am beginning to feel very uncomfortable but I was thinking to myself - let it go, it is New Year's Day. At this time she then ask me for some details to proceed to check if I am eligible for a contract renewal. So I gave her the details. After the check she gave a nod of the head which I presume I qualify.

Me and my wife made a short discussion on which phone to purchase and finally decided on one. The young lady then proceed to do the documentation and then I ask if I can trade in my phone as I showed her my current phone which was a Sumsung. She picked my phone up and check that I could do a $60 trade-in and the new phone I chose is $98, so if you make a simple calculation, I only need to pay $38. That made me smile for once in the shop.

What I was concern next was my data. I ask her if she could help me by transferring all my data and pictures somewhere so that I could keep them. She then said, "I don't think so, because a Sumsung phone could not...". I don't really understand what she was saying about all those technical jargons. She then signal a Sumsung promoter of the shop to help her. As the Sumsung operator browse through my, she too said she could not do anything.

Concern I proceed to ask her what else can I do. She said I got to manually write down all the numbers and re-installing into my new phone. I was thinking to myself, a stupid pig would not want to do that and I am certainly not one. I got impatient with such attitude and I said to her since it is so inconvenient I will not renew my contract. Sensing my discomfort, she tried a little harder this time and said, it is only 15 datas that I need to copy down and transfer it manually that was because the rest are on the card memory and the 15 names are on phone memory. But she still could not do anything about my pictures. The only other solution she told me was to MMS to my wife's phone.

By this time I had enough and I said, "If it is so inconvenient, forget it. Thank you." And I stormed out of the shop. I never got a reply. How rude?

What made me sick was not the poor service the staff gave for both me and my wife. But what made me sick about it was a 10 year loyal customer just walk into a completely problematic attitude environment. If it is just poor service we can understand, Singapore is extremely poor with that. But if it is poor attitude, something is seriously very wrong here.

Basic service gestures like Thank You, Please and with a Smile are all missing. We were not made welcome at all, in fact we felt like we the customer are more of a hinderance than an asset to M1. I just have not experience something like that before. And this is a complete opposite of what I experience when I was in Kuala Lumpur recently. The service staff are always attentive and there was one instance when I really like a shoe and it was the last piece but just did not have my size. I told the service staff sorry I really like the shoe but you did not have my size. Instead he replied back, "We are very sorry we could not provide a shoe in your size, thank you and please come back again." Wow! That is Knock Your Socks Off stuff man.

I would suggest M1 to seriously considering terminating these bad hats because loyal customers like me and my wife are switching companies. It is no use employing pretty young ladies who do not smile and give customers a hard time. It is no use to have brawns with no brains.

Calvin Yeo
A Totally Unsatisfied Customer of M1
Singapore
01 Jan 2007

Disclaimer: The facts stated here are the opinion of the author through his experience with M1 and by no means an opinion of others. This incident only relates to the author and by no means relate to anybody for that matter. This incident only relates to that very instance and very day and by no means an indication that it is a precedent for any other instances on any given days.

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Creating Customer Value

The purpose of business is to create and retain a customer.

Much has been written about customer orientation, customer relationship management (CRM), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) metrics, Customer Centric organization models, customer retention, customer care…add any high sounding word with ‘customer’ preceding or succeeding that word and you have a new model, a new theory. Headline hitting books, celebrity author seminars and training till another theory comes along.

And we see the poor customer is still the most dissatisfied lot (that includes all of us specialists too, as customers).

What a manufacturer or service provider often thinks as a market or value proposition, customers respond in a diametrically different fashion. Why does it happen?

While business thinks in terms of products and derived values, customer is looking at satisfaction. The key question is whether all the strategy, product features, add ons and value creation lead to ultimate customer satisfaction.

Now this may seem a little contradictory. To illustrate it better let’s take the example of Cell phone services. Companies are rolling out a new product every fortnight offering more value, in their perspective.

Then the point is why does the customer keep switching over to different service providers and products or packages so often, if the products are offering value.

The key here is more value propositions are being rolled out without looking at the very basic. Whether the value proposed gives satisfaction to the customers. If not it is not valuable.

The customer is buying satisfaction. Highest value is derived when the customer is fully satisfied with his purchase.

Some common myths in Value Creation

Myth # 1 More is often considered value
Buy one get one free schemes are rolled out. There is of course an instant sales push. However at the end of the scheme the customer feels that he had all along been paying 100% more for the products and perceives that very product as costly once the scheme is withdrawn. May switch to another product at the same price.

Conclusion: Dissatisfaction leads to value erosion

Myth # 2 Price is value
Many business considers lower price as offering more value. More often than not lowest price products end up as the second best with a higher priced product with similar product attributes leading the market. The simple reason is the higher price product may be offering a higher satisfaction due to perceived values and imagery. Car markets are a prime example of this syndrome.

Myth # 3 More Features or add ons are value
Businesses load a product or service with more features thus offering a higher value. While this may be attractive if the features are not backed by adequate supports the satisfaction may be less and value is reduced.

We encounter this everyday. A customer buys a product with many features but not demonstrated properly or may not be serviced properly. Enquiries may not be handled effectively. Airlines offereing add ons like free overnite accomodation are still not favored if the services, like enquiry handling, reservations, and time schedules are poor. Cell phones companies may be offering plenty of add ons like national roaming or free incoming calls etc. However if the billing is poor and billing enquiries are not addressed properly the customer is dissatisfied and leaves the service for another provider.

Myth # 4 Products are competing with similar products
This is often true in the leisure industry. A movie theatre may not be competing with another movie theatre. If the customer is not satisfied with a theatre or movie he may look at options to other entertainment sources, for instance an amusement park. We may call them discretionary time products. Highest satisfaction levels are very important in this type of business.

These are some of the examples of how businesses can go totally wrong in assessing value. While it is all good to talk of value creation some thought must go into the majoe ingredient in value that is the customer satisfaction.

And are business really serious about customer retention. As even a novice to business knows it is far cheaper to service and retain existing customers. The cost of acquiring new customer is very high.

Now how many business have consumer satisfaction index to monitor this prime factor in customer value creation

R.G. Srinivasan
12 Mar 2007

R.G. Srinivasan is founder of Born To Win Forum. He is a certified trainer and consultant in training design & methodologies, focused on personal effectiveness and motivational training. He is also the author of ebooks, publishes 2 ezines on success and motivation and Home Business with an international circulation. His articles are published in more than 50 portals and websites across the world. He is featured as an Expert Author in Ezinearticles.com . Check out his home business ezine at http://home-businessleaders.tripod.com.
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