In the corporate world, it’s conventional to believe that the person answering the phone is the lowest person on the totem pole. Worse yet, many companies believe we can replace receptionists with automated attendants: ring the doorbell for service or dial by extension.

Me, I’ll always have someone answer our main line because most people calling Matrix Group are customers who need help or prospects who need our services. So you better believe I want a warm, friendly, knowledgeable and committed person answering our phones! And because it’s not always clear to people who does what in a Web agency (do you talk to the programmer or a front-end developer or the PM about an error on your admin site?), a good receptionist can field and route calls efficiently.

My Creative Director Alex Pineda says that every employee is a brand ambassador for the company. So my receptionist, as the person who perhaps has the most contact with the most people, is arguably the most important brand ambassador I have. Which is why her title is First Impressions Officer. The other admins in the office, who also share customer interaction responsibilities, are equally important brand ambassadors.

Scott Spandauer defines a brand as “more than just your company image. It also includes your customers’ experience and the expectation you set when doing business with your company. In short, it is (a) promise.”

As a CEO, I may set the tone for our corporate culture and brand, but it’s my staff who live and reinforce it with our customers. Company owners everywhere, remember that your customers’ experiences start with the person who answers the phone and greets people at the door.

I remembered an advertisement from Empire Today. The appeal was that they offered to come to my house, show me samples and install my carpet the next day. So I went online on Sunday night and booked an appointment for Monday night. The sales guy came on time, helped me pick a carpet and asked what time I wanted the installers to come the next day. Amazing. And I didn’t even have to leave the house.

This whole episode reminds me, once again, of the importance of meeting clients and prospects on their own turf. I’ve rarely landed an account where I didn’t take the time to visit the prospect’s office, meet the staff, walk around, and learn about their pain points. Yes, I can probably get good information over the phone and via Webex, but somehow, meeting prospects in their own office makes a difference.

I just came back from a client meeting in New York City. Yes, it took all day because of the train ride up and back, but we had a fun and productive 5-hour meeting. While I don’t necessarily recommend marathon meetings like that, we had to pack a lot into the day to make the travel time worthwhile. But guess what? Meeting for five hours in person was enjoyable because of the amazing information the client was sharing, the conversation and the socializing during lunch. There’s no way to replicate that type of connection via phone and no way to hold an effective multi-hour conference call.

When I get busy, my first inclination is to do a call instead of a face to face meeting. And e-mail is quick and easy when I don’t have time even for a phone call. But I fool myself when I pretend that I connect with staff, clients and prospects via e-mail and phone the same way I do when I meet them in person. I know it’s not practical or cost-effective to do all of my meetings in person so I aim for in person gatherings for the kickoff and midway through the project.

How about you? Do you prefer in person or phone meetings? Voice or e-mail? And how do we steer our interactions back toward face to face in this busy, time-starved, electronic age?

© 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved.

In honor of May 4, a sacred day among Star Wars fans (because George Lucas released all of the Star War movies on May 4th), I’m blogging about my Rule #1: Do or do not. There is no try.

Clearly, I did not make up this rule. It’s Yoda’s rule. But it’s a damn good rule, especially in business.

Here’s what I know: Clients don’t come to us so we can TRY to develop the complicated web application they need. They need us to do it. And they need to know that we will be successful and the end result will be close to what they envisioned.

I learned a long time ago that when assigning tasks that must get done, I don’t ask staff if they can do it. I provide background, then ask what they need to get the project done, what obstacles are in their way, and how I can support them. And when I get, “I’ll try,” I remind them that “I’ll try” is not a commitment and it’s not a promise, it’s a half-hearted “maybe” or a definite “no.”

Now, if we’re brainstorming, assessing options or exploring whether or not we can accomplish something, then I ask if we (Matrix Group) can do it. And it’s perfectly legit to say, “I’ll try.”

So what happens if someone (me included) doesn’t know exactly how to get the required task accomplished and can’t quite commit to it just yet? In that case, I ask people to give me a plan that details what they are going to do so they will know and can commit to a timeline and budget.

In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda lifts Luke’s starfighter from the swamp. An incredulous Luke says, “I don’t believe it.” To which Yoda retorts, “that is why you fail.” Like Yoda, my best developers, front-end developers, designers, admins, project managers (yada, yada) believe they can accomplish ridiculously hard tasks under ridiculous deadlines. That is why they succeed.

We called Boombah to complain that we ordered shirts with a sublimation process, which, incidentally, is what our e-mail receipt says. The Boombah sales rep said something to the effect of “the sublimation process is only available for the white and gray shirts. Our receipts say sublimation as part of the template, but it’s wrong. Our website is very clear that you can’t get sublimation with the black shirts.” (Don’t get me started on what happened when I asked to speak with a manager or the owner. It was not good.)

Okay, forget that the invoice says sublimation. Boombah violated what I affectionately refer to as JP Rule #3: Never let your client make a mistake. In my mind, if we had called asking for black shirts with logos, the rep should have made sure we were crystal clear on the concept that sublimation, which is the nicer printing method, is NOT available for black shirts. Knowing that fusion on black makes for a crappy shirt, the rep should have at least tried to prevent us from making that mistake. Yes, we ultimately placed the order and we take responsibility. We paid for the shirts and promptly ordered a batch from another company.

Whether it’s shirts or websites, clients rely on their service providers for expertise and recommendations. It’s up to us to educate our clients, make sure they understand the options, make recommendations, and warn them if we think they’re about to make a mistake. Yes, clients ultimately need to make their own decisions and they are big boys and girls, but if we hold technical knowledge they don’t, shouldn’t we at least make sure they are aware of the impact of their choices?

Case in point. A new client was implementing MatrixMaxx, our association management software. Our main contact told us that the association didn’t need any company demographics as part of the setup. We questioned this decision several times and he maintained that no, the organization did not need to collect company data outside of contact information. Knowing this is wrong and a waste of an opportunity to gather member data, we took the issue to the VP. Without making it seem like we were going over the manager’s head, we let the VP know that we thought the organization could benefit from collecting additional data as part of the member profile and membership application. We even suggested a package of fields. Sure enough, the VP, who has a bigger picture view, agreed on the demographics. We *could* have dropped the issue after confirming with the manager. We would have had tons of documentation showing that the client rejected the additional fields so that if the client came back to us a year later, we’d be perfectly justified in charging extra money for a change order. But that behavior would have violated Rule #3.

We try to live Rule #3 and we don’t always succeed. There isn’t always clarity about what’s absolutely right and what’s absolutely wrong. We don’t always realize a decision will be the wrong one in the long run. And clients don’t always agree with us. BUT, I believe that we have an obligation to our clients to at least give it the old college try and help them not make mistakes.

How about you? Got any stories of a vendor who let you make a mistake or saved you from making a bad decision?

P.S. I have a total of 23 rules. I’ll try to blog about them all in the future. If you’d like a copy of the list, let me know.

For my son’s Spring Break, my family spent a week in San Francisco and we flew round trip on Virgin America.  After two flights, I am a total fan, so much so that I told my husband that from now on, whenever possible, we will fly Virgin.

Just what makes the Virgin America user experience so different?

Virgin America doesn’t use different or larger planes.  The airfare was comparable to other airlines when I was booking on Orbitz.  We had to pay $20 to check our bags.  The legroom on the plane wasn’t more than on other planes I’ve flown recently.  The food and alcohol weren’t free.  And I didn’t get a blanket or pillow.

What made Virgin America different was the entertainment and how food and beverage were dispensed.

• The beverage carts only  made one pass through the plane.  But for the rest of the 5+ hour flight, if we wanted food or drink, we used our touch screens to place an order.  If I wanted water, I touched water and a flight attendant came by within minutes with a bottle of water – for free.  When my son wanted cookies, chocolate or a sandwich, I swiped my credit card, and the flight attendant came by with his order.  So for the entire flight, instead of just the couple of times the carts come around, we had access to food and beverages.
• There was Wi-Fi on the plan! For about $8, I could get wi-fi and check e-mail and surf the Web!  Unbelievable!  And each seat had regular AC power so I could keep my laptop plugged in during the whole flight!
• I loved the free Dish Network. No kidding, I caught an NCIS marathon the way to SF and a House marathon on the way back.  Truly decadent!
• There were also first run movies for rent and an awesome library of songs. I was able to make my own playlist of songs and listen to some great music!
• Perhaps most important, my son enjoyed music and shows appropriate just for kids.  He listened to Schoolhouse Rock, played games and watched videos for hours!  Hours!  While mommy and daddy enjoyed their own shows!  Priceless!
• And did I mention the purple mood lighting in the main cabin?

So here’s what struck me about the Virgin America experience.  Virgin didn’t try to change all aspects of the flying experience.  They focused on changing just one thing — entertainment — and ended up transforming the whole user experience. They also managed to get me to spend a whole lot more money, willingly and happily, than I have ever spent during a flight.

How about you?  What one thing can you change about your customer’s user experience that could radically transform your company and catapult you ahead of the competition?

• My friend Tanya runs a blog called NitpickyConsumer.com.  Tanya blogs about good and bad customer service, companies that don’t seem to care, companies that just don’t get it.
• This disillusioned Dell customer created a Dear Dell rant on YouTube that has garnered over 32,000 views and nearly 1,600 comments!
• Check this one out.  Dave Caroll wrote a song and created a video about United Airlines breaking his guitar.  The video has been viewed over 8 million and generated nearly 43,000 ratings (average 5 stars).  Ouch.
• And don’t forget the millions of updates that subscribers to various social networks fire off every day about their experiences.  Many are about lousy customer service.  Do a search on Twitter for “comcast sucks” or “verizon sucks” and you’ll never run out of tweets.

As marketers, we’re always trying to position or brand our companies.  But Harvard Business Review says “your brand is no longer your own” because anyone can go online and talk about your company and its offerings. And when our family, friends and colleagues talk, we listen.  A recent survey sponsored by Tealeaf.com found that “74% of online adults said negative comments read online have an influence on whether they will do business with a company.”  Wow.

What’s a business to do? My recommendations:

• Adopt an aggressive listening strategy so you know what’s being said about your company, by whom and on what platform.  Tune your Google alerts, Twitter searches and other social searches.
• Become nimble with your social networking strategy and toolkit so that you can respond quickly in the event of social media storm or viral campaign gone crazy.
• Make it easy for customers to give you feedback directly so that they don’t feel that their only recourse is to go online and rant.  And for God’s sake, take the calls and the e-mails and respond to them!

How about you?  Got a favorite customer service blog or video?  How do you voice your complaints and rants when a company has treated you badly?

This got me to thinking.  What are all the ways, big and little, that we make it difficult for our customers and potential customers to do business with us? Consider these examples.

• A few years ago, my husband and I were shopping around for a mortgage.  I called three bankers.  One was only available between 7am and 3pm.  Another sent me 20 pages to fill out about our assets.  The third asked me when it would be convenient to call (7pm), asked me to send bank and 401(k) statements so that he could fill out all the paperwork.  Guess who got the business?  At that point, I knew each banker would give us a competitive rate, but Craig Miller from BF Saul made it easy for us to work with him.
• During the planning for our office move, I called several vendors about office furniture systems.  One never called back.  One asked me to send her the architect’s drawings and information on what we wanted (I didn’t yet know what we wanted so I didn’t call back.)  The third, Michelle Ferrari from Office Images, offered to come by with catalogs, look at the architect’s drawings with me and discuss our needs.  There was no contest.
• I called a company to get a reference for someone applying for a job at Matrix Group.  It took me 3 tries before I could figure out how to leave a message in the general mailbox.  I couldn’t even imagine calling as a prospective customer.
• I’ve had a relationship with Insurance Designers for a very long time.  Every time I have a question, I call or e-mail Neal or Wendy Cohen and they get back to me promptly.  One time, Matrix Group was applying for some new type of insurance and Neal’s office sent over a very long questionnaire, which I couldnot figure out.  I called Neal and he said, “don’t worry about it, let’s fill it out over the phone.”  I love the guy.
• I was looking for a specific Thomas the Tank Engine train for my son and I found it for less money (than Amazon) on a small retailer site.  I had questions about the train (because a certain 5-year old had a specific request) but, for the life of me, I could not find a phone number on the Web site.  I gave up, ordered the product from Amazon and prayed that I had ordered the right thing.
• I love that live chat is available on so many retail sites these days.  I can get my question answered asap, place my order and be on my way.

The lessons for all of us who sell products or services?

• Make it easy for our customers and prospective customers to contact us the way they feel comfortable doing so (phone, fax, e-mail, Web form, smoke signal).
• When a customer calls your office, make it easy to navigate the automated attendant voice mail system.  Better yet, have a human answer the call, find out the caller’s need and route the call to the right person.
• Call people back (yeah, I know, this one’s a no brainer).
• Don’t put too many any obstacles in the way of you sending a quote and closing the deal. I’m legendary in the office for not being quite human before 9am, but if a customer wants to do a call at 7am, I’ll be on the line at 6:55am.  I’ll be in my PJs, but I’ll be on the line.

As a CEO, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier to say “yes” to Matrix Group.  We sometimes stumble, but for me, the important thing is to constantly look for ways to make life better for Matrix Group clients.

How about you?  What site or retailer do you love to do business with and why?  And who makes it impossible to do business with them?  Got any horror stories?

Me: Hello, Joanna Pineda, here for a 3:15 appointment.
Receptionist: Hello, please sign in. Has any of your information changed since your list visit?
Me: No.
Receptionist: Okay. Wait, you need to fill out new forms. (Hands me blank forms)

I sit down and sigh as I realize that I am giving my doctor all the information she already has.  Not one thing in my profile has changed.  I also have to agree to a 4-page HIPAA privacy statement, which infuriates me because I have about three minutes to review the document.  C’mon doctor, can’t you:

• Print out my information and let me confirm that nothing has changed or let me tell you just what has changed?
• Send me the HIPAA privacy statement ahead of time so that I can really study it?

Thankfully, because of my work, I’m familiar with HIPAA privacy statements and my rights, but what normal person takes the time to read and understand the document and his/her rights?

This doctor visit makes me think of how Matrix Group clients want and expect that we will know them, their organization, their contact information, their projects. It’s a joke around the office that many clients have achieved one-name status around here, kind of like Madonna or Cher.  All the receptionist needs to say is, “Rajani (Rick, Pat, Sue, Merla, or Adrianne) is on the line” and pretty much every staff member knows who she’s talking about.  Of course, more common names like Dan or Tim need a client name, but if you’re a frequent caller, our First Impressions Officer will probably know you by voice.

And when a client sends in a request for an enhancement to an existing design or application, they expect that we know the app inside and out and will think of all the nuances associated with the request.  Even if the app was created five years ago.  Only makes sense, right?

Remember Cheers?  The bar where everyone knows you’re name?  I think that’s what every client wants — to be known, to feel special, to not waste their time explaining information you should already know. So at Matrix Group, we’ve spent a lot of time on our systems, communications and intranet so that clients always feel known when they call or visit the bar called Matrix Group.

Of course, we stumble every once in a while.  A few years ago, when our current receptionist was new, she asked a longtime client the name of his organization, which of course he provided.  But when he got to me, he needled me about how the receptionist didn’t know him.  Mr. client was very sweet about the whole thing, but the message was clear: I’m a longtime client, your staff should know me.

How about you? What do your clients expect from you? And how do you make them feel comfortable that you “know them?”

I actually hear it all the time from friends, family and clients: why can’t this (insert name of site here) work like Amazon?  Okay, forget for a moment that that Amazon has spent tens of millions on their site.  Here’s what I’ve come to expect from Amazon and would love it if other e-tailers followed suit.

• Much as I hate to think that my shopping patterns can be predicted by a computer, the personalization on Amazon rocks. Yep, the site pushes all kinds of merchandise on me via e-mail and the Web site, but it’s not crap if I’m even mildly interested.  I’ve been introduced to new bands and authors, and I love that the related items often lead me to what I’m really looking for.
• Amazon fulfillment is lightning fast. I placed three orders on Black Friday and they all arrived Monday morning.  Meanwhile, another retailer tells me I have to wait 7-10 days for regular shipping.  7-10 days, are you kidding?  What are the people in the warehouse doing?
• Amazon embraces user-generated content. I rely on the reviews and ratings from my fellow consumers, esp. fellow moms.  And I’ve used lists created by Amazon customers for great gift recommendations for family and friends.
• Amazon does a great job of communicating the status of my order. I get an e-mail when I place the order and another one when the order ships.  I’ve never left guessing about where the heck my stuff is, and I have handy links that let me check on the order directly.

Some of my other favorite retailers embrace a lot of the practices above.  I think Land’s End does a particularly good job, as does Snapfish.  The smaller retailers, not so much.  Do I do a lot of my shopping on Amazon?  You bet, and the superior user experience on the Web site is the reason why.

Does your company have an online store?  How can you make the user experience more like Amazon?

In e-commerce lingo, my Snapfish shopping cart was abandoned because I left the site without completing the order.  Some of my clients consider it creepy to let their customers know that they know about the abandoned carts.  But here was a non-creepy, really helpful e-mail from Snapfish that prompted me to complete my order!  What made the e-mail reminder successful?

• The cute photo of a girl next to the large caption that reads “Did you forget something?” Yes, the girl looks like she just realized that she forgot something and she’s got a hilarious expression on her face.
• The friendly, personalized message.
• The links to complete my order and forgot password.

The Snapfish e-mail reminded of an e-mail I received from a newsletter publisher some time back.  I was trying to reduce the number of e-mails I receive and unsubscribed from one of their newsletters.  Instead of a regular confirmation e-mail, I got a message that said something like “We’re just crushed that you’ve decided to unsubscribe from our newsletter.  We’re wringing our hands and wondering what we did wrong…” The e-mail was hilarious and so well written that I promptly re-subscribed because in addition to serving up a funny message, they reminded me of the benefits of their newsletter.

Both of these companies remind me that providing customer services doesn’t have to staid or dry. We can talk like real people in our messages, we can express emotion, and we can use humor to get the point across.  Heck, our message will probably stand out in crowded e-mail inboxes full of jargon and marketing speak.

How about you? Received any fabulous customer service e-mails recently? Received any that made you laugh or angry?

Me:  Good morning, I want to order a birthday cake with the Thomas design.
HT staff:  Sorry, we don’t have Thomas cakes.
Me:  But you have a Thomas cake on display in your bakery section.
HT staff:  Sorry, we don’t have Thomas cakes.  I think that display is old.
Me:  I saw Thomas cakes in your catalog.
HT staff:  I haven’t seen the catalog lately.
Me:  Okay, I guess I’ll call Costco.

Lucky for Harris Teeter, I am a big fan of the store and was not to be deterred.  I went to the store, found a manager, showed him the Thomas cake on display and asked if I could please order it.  Yep, he was happy to take my order, especially since Thomas cakes are expensive!  I told him that I had called the store a few days earlier and the person said HT didn’t make Thomas cakes.  The manager apologized and said that perhaps the person I spoke with was new or didn’t know about the special order cakes.

Yikes!  How many sales has HT lost because of this bakery guy?  Could this happen in your company? I know this kind of “revenue leakage” has happened in my organization!

A few years ago, one of my Project Managers was telling me about a call she had just completed with a client.  The client wanted to know if we could help with an online voting system.  The Project Manager explained that Matrix Group did not do online voting.  You can imagine my jaw dropping at this; the conversation went something like this:

Me:  Um, why did you tell the client we don’t do online voting?
PM:  I don’t know of any voting projects we’ve done and my team hasn’t worked on any.
Me:  Uh, but you’ve only been here less than a year and you manage 1 of 4 teams.  How do you know that the other teams haven’t done online voting or that perhaps we’ve done online voting in the past?
PM:  Oh, I didn’t think of that.  Sorry.
Me:  Let me call the client and see what I can do.  (tearing my hair out)

Here were my take-aways from this exchange, reinforced every day by interactions with folks like the Harris Teeter bakery dude:

• We can’t funnel all calls to “trained” salespeople so it’s important that every person in the company what the company does. Clients and prospects talk to staff at all levels at Matrix Group and they ask them all kinds of questions, so staff need to know what Matrix Group does.
• This training needs to be reinforced regularly and staff need concrete examples they can relate to.  We do a lot of sharing at Project Manager meetings, staff meetings, and designer/developer/front-end developer meetings.
• Staff need to understand in broad terms what we do and don’t do. For example, we cover a lot of territory when it comes to Web, but we definitely don’t manage internal networks and e-mail servers.
• Staff should know when to say yes, when to say no, and when to say “let me check.”
• We store information about our projects on the company intranet, searchable by client, keyword, category and date range. I try  to remind staff that this resource is available and a must-use tool.

How about you?  What kind of revenue leakage is happening in your firm?  What are you doing about it?

Tonight’s focus group was amazing.  Nearly two dozen people gave up two hours of their day to discuss why they are members of an organization, what they like about the Web site, and what would make their jobs easier.   Some of the ideas were mind-blowingly simple, while others were flat out brilliant.  If half of the product ideas prove economically feasible, this organization has a product road map for the next year.

Speaking of product road maps, I am in the habit of calling a couple of customers after each release of our association management software, MatrixMaxx.  I call to check-in, get feedback on new features, and, most importantly, ask them for  the one thing they would like to see in a future release.  For the 9.1 release, the suggestions were all spot on, some were so easy to implement we wondered why we hadn’t done the work earlier, and some proved to be blockbusters.

But what do you do when you have zillions of customers and you get a flood of customer requests on a regular basis?  Google Moderator allows communities to post suggestions/questions and then vote on all ideas submitted.  President Obama used Google Moderator to accept questions for an electronic town hall meeting; citizens submitted and then ranked questions; the President answered the most popular questions.

Dell’s IdeaStorm allows customers to submit and rank suggestions to the company. The most popular idea as of tonight is to allow consumers to purchase a computer without an operating system.  Presumably, Dell will act on the most popular ideas.  Both IdeaStorm and Google Moderator are terrific ways to capture, validate and rank customer desires. I’m thinking of using Google Moderator to allow customers of MatrixMaxx to suggest and rank ideas for future releases.

How about you?  How do you solicit direct feedback from your customers? And how can you use a tool like Google Moderator to generate user feedback and validate the ideas via voting from the community?

As a business owner, I get to be manager of staff and projects AND client to our many vendors.  As the chief salesperson for the company, I interact the most with customers and users.  As a liberal arts person turned techie, I know enough to be dangerous, but I can’t write a line of CSS to save my life.  All of this means that I can more easily see a situation from a client’s perspective.   Here’s what I’ve learned over the years about clients:

• Clients are busy, the Web site is usually just a small fraction of their job, they don’t spend all day thinking about the Web site, and there’s a whole lot of  stuff going on that they don’t know and don’t care to know. We can never assume clients know that a new version of Internet Explorer is coming out and it’s going to be more standards-compliant, that title tags should not be more than 64 characters or Google will ignore them, and that a print style sheet is different from a printer-friendly page.

• Most clients are non-techies who need a technical solution. They seek a solution and a result.  We need to give them context for our solution, and enough detail so that they can make an informed solution, but not so much that they get overwhelmed.  We also need to communicate concepts using terms they understand.  For example, when a Web design has been approved and we have to now slice the design, I liken it to going to blueline.  Clients who have ever had anything printed are familiar with blueline; it’s close to a final proof and changes cost time and money.

• At any given moment, clients are cold on a project, which means they don’t remember every last detail of the specifications, prototypes or testing notes.  So again, we need to provide context, we need to bring clients up to speed quickly, and we need to let them know early what we need from them.

• When a site or application is turned over to the client, there better not be any obvious bugs; otherwise, we are wasting their time.  Nothing makes a client go nuts faster than an error message within the first few screens of testing.

• When providing an update, we can’t just report on what we’ve done.  We need to provide the big picture: what we’ve done, what’s not done, what’s next, what we need from them, immediate next steps, and ultimate deadline or launch date.

• Should does not belong in our vocabulary. Should makes me crazy.  It either does or does not.  If you don’t know, don’t say it should.

For all you clients out there, what else do you wish your Project Manager and team members knew about you and your perspective?  What behaviors make you nuts?  What actions make you love your team?

Why is it that going to the doctor is such a miserable experience?

I went to see a new doctor last week about a lingering chest cold.  The receptionist told me to arrive 10 minutes to fill out the required paperwork and I complied.  Okay, I expect to wait when I see a doctor, but I didn’t plan on waiting a whole hour to see the doctor.  And you know what, the admin staff acted like it was the most normal thing in the world that a patient would wait 60 minutes; nobody talked to me, nobody apologized, nothing. When the doctor finally saw me, she didn’t apologize or acknowledge my wait until I asked her point blank if I should expect to wait an hour each time I saw her.  To add insult to injury, she rushed the exam because she was running so late.  She said my lungs were clear but wrote a prescription, just in case.  Yeah, I felt all warm and fuzzy about this visit.  (Not!)

I went to a new doctor because my other doctor, who I had been seeing for four years, never seemed to remember me, always confused me with other patients, and kept trying to push asthma medicine for sinus infections I’m prone to get during the winter.

Does it have to be this way?  I think not.  When I lived in San Francisco, I had a great dentist. I looked forward to going to the dentist – the dentist!  Why?  Let me count the ways:

• If the dentist was running late, I would get a call from her office.  The receptionist would let me know how much the dentist was behind schedule and ask me to come later or reschedule, if my schedule did not allow for a later appointment.  Imagine, a dentist who respected my time!
• When I arrived, I was always offered herbal tea or a glass of water.
• During my actual time in the chair, I was offered the use of a Walkman (yeah, I’m dating myself) to drown out the drilling and other horrible dentist noises.
• When I referred a patient, I got a handwritten thank you note from the dentist or office manager.

So, what kind of user experience do you offer your customers when they call or visit your office?

I get nearly all of the photos for my blog from iStockphoto, an online photo service. There’s a good selection and pricing is great. A couple of weeks ago, I was dismayed to find that the iStockphoto Web site was completely down; all I got was a Service Unavailable message.

So what did I do?  I tweeted about the iStockphoto site being down, of course. Then I had a brainwave.  Surely other people were tweeting about the site being down; what were they experiencing and what did they know?

So I went to the Twitter search, which is a real-time search of all tweets, not just the people you follow.  I typed “istockphoto” and got a stream of tweets about the site being down.  Okay, so I knew I wasn’t alone and it wasn’t me.  But then I started seeing tweets from @istock.  Aha, perhaps I could get some answers there.  Sure enough, @istock reported that their site was under attack and they were down as a result.  I direct tweeted and got a reply back, apologizing for the downtime.

A few hours later, the iStockphoto site was back up.  I was still monitoring the tweets on the Twitter search and someone recommended changing your iStockphoto password.  I tweeted @istock and got a personal response back, agreeing that I should change my password.

Instead of customers being in the dark and a total PR nightmate, iStockphoto managed the questions and provided updates directly through Twitter. And because their posts were public, others could follow the threads and get information.  Wow.  After getting such a quick response, I wasn’t even mad that the site was down and I’m still a loyal customer.

In a related story, Katherine from Matrix Group had a suck-y customer service experience at Home Depot.  What did she do?  She blogged and tweeted about it, of course!  Well guess what, she was contacted by Home Depot directly via Twitter.  Someone from corporate then followed up by phone, apologized and offered her a $50 gift card.

Both iStockphoto and Home Depot evidently have a listening strategy related to Twitter. Chances are, they are using the Twitter search and have set up an RSS feed to alert them when their companies are mentioned in tweets.  And they are earnestly following up.

How about you?  Does your company have a listening strategy? Do you know what’s being said about you on Twitter and the blogosphere?

So I called Spirit Airlines and talked to a customer service rep.  He politely tells me that I must have made a mistake, that I bought non-refundable tickets, and he’ll have to charge me to change the reservation AND I have to pay all over again to check my bags and reserve my seats. “Are you kidding?” I ask him.  “Why would I make plans to be in Mexico for less than 1 hour?  Surely you can help me out.”  No luck.  The customer service rep was polite, but the supervisor was downright rude.  “There are no reported problems on the Web site,” he tells me.  “I’m reporting a problem now,” I tell him.  “I’m sure I didn’t select the same day to leave and come back.  And shouldn’t your Web site have caught that problem if I had been so stupid?”  No luck.  I’m being as nice as can be, but he’s getting more obnoxious by the minute.  “You can always report a problem to corporate,” he says.  Yeah, right.

So I hang up and weigh my options.  I called American Express because they have always, always, always helped me out. I talk to a terrific customer service rep who thanks me for being a “valued card member since 1989.” (Note to self: American Express CRM system shows how long I’ve been a member.)  He listens to my story, warns me that even American Express sometimes can’t help out when it comes to the airlines, but he’ll surely try.  He puts me on hold for a few minutes, then comes back and reports that he’s filed an investigation and American Express will try to dispute the charges on my behalf.  He can’t promise anything, but how do you think I feel?  Yep, I’m filled with love and loyalty for my Gold card and the company behind it.

You know what they say about customers telling 10 people when they have a bad experience?  Well guess what?  Customers today get to tell hundreds, even thousands of people when they’ve had a bad customer experience.  So far, I have tweeted, updated by Facebook status, and now I’m blogging about how Spirit Airlines sucks.

A search on Google for “Spirit Airlines sucks” brings back 39,300 results.  To be fair, a search for “United Airlines sucks” brings back 136,00 results, while a search for “US Airways sucks” brings back 352,000 results.  Egads, it must really suck to be in public relations for the airlines.

Oh yeah.  There’s even a Facebook group called Spirit Airlines sucks (yes, I’ve joined); this group has 119 members, while the official-looking Spirit Airlines Facebook group has 64 fans.

So now I have to rebook our tickets to Mexico and I’m possibly out $1,400.  Spirit Airlines just got another Spirit Airlines sucks story and they lost a customer for life, which they could have avoided for a few hundred bucks.  Who’s the winner here?  American Express, definitely. Me, definitely not, but at least I got a blog post out of it.

Imagine my horror when I clicked on the Magnolia home page this morning and found this message:

Dear Ma.gnolia Community Members or Visitor,

Early on the West-coast morning of Friday, January 30th, Ma.gnolia experienced every web service’s worst nightmare: data corruption and loss. For Ma.gnolia, this means that the service is offline and members’ bookmarks are unavailable, both through the website itself and the API. As I evaluate recovery options, I can’t provide a certain timeline or prognosis as to to when or to what degree Ma.gnolia or your bookmarks will return; only that this process will take days, not hours.

Magnolia has been down for most of the day and I’m devastated.  It’s not unusual for me to add one or more bookmarks each day to my Magnolia account.  And I refer to my bookmarks constantly.  For example, while preparing for my presentation on tech trends and their impact on small associations, I scoured my bookmarks under the tags of statistics and tech trends.

My husband says I should have used Delicious all along, but really, this outage could have happened to any of the free, hosted sites.

Matrix Group offers a hosted membership database solution for associations (MatrixMaxx) and we work very hard to and spend good money to make sure we have good, reliable and redundant back-ups.  Our clients expect nothing less from us because their applications and data are mission-critical.

But what kind of expectations can I have/should I have re: back-up from a free, hosted service like Magnolia? Can I really be pissed off that my bookmarks are gone when I haven’t paid Magnolia a dime?  And if Magnolia does recover, will I trust them with my bookmarks again?  Ugh.

The ensuing discussion was an interesting one. We decided that all talk of what we actually do aside (Web design, integration, content management, hosting, yada, yada), what ultimately makes a client a raving fan is whether or not they have certain experiences with us. Regardless of how much money they spend or the type of work they ask us to do, there are core customer experiences that are critical to a client’s happiness.

Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking non-stop about what constitutes an organization’s core customer experiences.  I analyzed my membership in the CEO organization Vistage.  Vistage offers members a number of services and benefits but the core experiences are: one on one coaching, world class speakers and issue processing with peers.  Ultimately, if I don’t feel satisfied that I am getting my money’s worth in all three areas, I’m probably not going to keep my membership.  In other words, no matter how good the Web site or the social events, if I am not supremely satisfied with my core experiences, I am going to bail.

I’ve been huddling with my team and working to define our core customer experiences.  (We must assume that clients want a fair price for our work, excellent work, and on time results.)  So far, we’ve come up with:

• Regular check-ins, during which we discuss how the Web  can contribute to upcoming events, campaigns, initiatives, etc.
• Visit to the Matrix Group office, which allows us to connect with clients better and lets clients meet team members.  It’s just plain harder to connect with a client who has never met the people working on their site.
• Annual review and assistance with annual Web budget, which we do at no charge and provides clients with a lot of value-added services.  Trouble is, not every client is interested in this service.
• Unsolicited ideas from a Director or higher, which shows clients we are proactive and understand their business well enough to give them new ideas.
• Attendance at Matrix Group seminars and trainings. We have clients who attend every single event, no matter what the topic!
• Hosting with Matrix Group, which means they have regular interactions with us on a variety of topics.

These all sound like good ideas, right?  And we should be engaging in every single one of them, with every single client.  But how do you “fund” regular check-ins and brainstorming for every client, including ones who aren’t doing a lot of business with you and/or who have very limited budgets?  And how do you get people to come to you when they’re busy, you’re always happy to come to them or they’re out of state?  Does this mean we can’t have a meaningful, relationship with clients who don’t host with us?

These are good questions, but over the next few months, we’ve pledged to identify the core Matrix Group customer experiences, get feedback from customers, come up with a systematic way of giving all clients more love, and make more of our clients raving fans.

How about you?  What customer experiences are core to your business?

So here’s the deal.  I wanted to send an e-mail and include a link to a page describing the cookies — that’s it, just the cookies.  Here is what I found (or didn’t find):

• The Girl Scouts site has a page on Girl Scout cookies.  The page makes a nice pitch for the program, but there wasn’t any information on the cookies!  I just wanted to know if there were any new cookies this year and make sure my favorites are still being made! At the bottom of the page is a link that simply says Cookies.  Turns out that this link goes to an FAQ page but the link doesn’t tell you that.  The FAQ page is full of helpful information, almost too much information, but still nothing about this year’s cookies!
• The Girl Scout Cookie site, as far as I can tell, only lets you enter your contact information so that it can be passed to a council in your area.
• God bless Google for leading me to Meet the Cookies, which describes the 2009 cookies — finally!  After visiting the Girl Scout Cookies site several times, I finally figure out that there is a link to Meet the Cookies in teeny text in the top left corner.  The page opens in a pop-up window so I can’t print the info; yeah, I can get around that, but a less Web-savvy person might not know how.
• Tell a Friend on the Girl Scout Cookies site doesn’t let me add a personal message.

It seems to me that the Girl Scouts Cookie site is stuck in the traditional model of selling cookies through your neighborhood Girl Scout, with all information coming from sweet Suzie Girl Scout.  But seriously, isn’t every mom and dad of a Girl Scout sending out e-mails to family and friends asking them to buy cookies?  If the Girl Scouts were smart, they would create a page just for those of us who want to use the Web and e-mail to market the cookies! Heck, why can’t I order online?  It’s 2009!

Okay, enough hammering on the Girl Scouts, who do a good job for millions of girls, after all.  Oh, and by the way, if you want to order Girl Scout cookies this year, my niece will gladly take your order.  Just send me an e-mail (jpineda-at-matrixgroup dot net) with what you want and how to get in touch with you.  Take your pick from this page:  Meet the Cookies.  My favorites are Tagalongs, Samoas and Thin Mints.  I’ve ordered some Dulce de Leche cookies, which are new this year, for good measure.  Cookies start arriving in January.  Yum!

The requirements were laid out easily and I appreciated the sample message to send to your Web host. Why can’t every technical requirements page be this easy to understand?

Last thing: I love how every page on the WP site has this simple phrase in the bottom, right corner:  Code is Poetry.

So I changed my card number but the Carfax charge comes up again.  Now I was really worried.  Does the thief have access to my personal accounts?    How did he or she get my new card number right away?  So again I called Amex and here is what I learned:

• Amex reversed the previous charges but did not instigate a fraud investigation.  Great, I didn’t get charged but the thief got away scot free for three months.
• Amex changed my card number but honored the recurring charge from Carfax, which turned out to be a subscription.  Amex routinely allows subscriptions to still be processed, as a service to card holders, but I specifically changed my card number to stop the recurring, fraudulent charges from Carfax.
• Carfax has very little protections against credit card theft on their site. The security number is not required and, according to customer service, they don’t validate against the billing address.  Which means any hacker who has the algorithm can generate a valid credit card number and use it on Carfax.  Okay, I know it’s not that simple, but Carfax sure could make it harder to use a stolen credit card number.
• There are thousands of fraudulent charges every day and the credit card companies, merchants and law enforcement simply can’t investigate them all, so the vast majority of crooks get away with their crimes.

Ugh.  So what’s a consumer to do?  A Web site of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Bank of America (IDSafety.org) has these tips:

• Protect your personal information.
• Share your personal information prudently; just because someone asks for your social security number does not mean you should share it.
• Eliminate paper and shred, shred, shred.
• Secure your computer; whenever I walk away from my laptop, I lock it.
• Secure your E-mail; again, lock your computer and use a strong password.
• Review your financial activities/Review all statements carefully.

With the economy tanking, crime is on the rise, so be safe out there in cyberspace!

I picked up the gingerbread train kit from Target, the manufacturer is Create a Treat, Ltd.  The cute box says: We want to hear from you, send a photo to myhouse@createatreat.com.

Now, I’m not one to send photos of my kid to various contests.  But I thought it would be fun to send a photo of our finished gingerbread train. So I sent a nice message with a nice story to myhouse@createatreat.com.  So what happened?  You guessed it: the message bounced back with this message:

The message you sent to createatreat.com/myhouse was rejected because it would exceed the quota for the mailbox.

Are you kidding me?  I sent two photos, each about 60K.  It’s not like I sent high resolution versions that were 4 MEG each.  I specifically resized the photos before sending the message.

So, Create a Treat screwed up three times:

1. They created a campaign but then didn’t have a large enough mailbox to support the e-mails; c’mon guys, gmail gives you 6 GIG of storage
2. They missed a great story that they could use on their Web site, marketing materials, yada, yada
3. They annoyed a mom who blogs (me!)

So retailers, if you launch a campaign where you solicit consumer feedback, please mean it and actually be prepared to receive it. At least act like you care.

When I ordered a new laptop three months ago, I asked for Vista as my operating system.  I figured it was time to get Vista; it’s been out for ages and resistance is futile, it was time to upgrade.  Alas, my brand new Sony VAIO laptop with 2 GIG of RAM was slooooow to boot up and slow to shut down, it took 5-10 minutes to recognize an ethernet or wireless connection, it crashed a lot, and hibernating almost never worked.

Maki finally got sick of my whining and asked me to hand over my laptop one day so that the network admins could downgrade my OS to XP. Wow,my laptop is now super speedy and I’m online within seconds after plugging in.  I’m still in hell because you know how it goes with a new system: you have to re-install all your favorite plug-ins, you need to set-up your Word templates, you have to re-synch your phone with your Palm desktop, yada, yada.

Now for my phone.  My beloved Palm Treo suddenly stopped working in August. It kept trying to synch with my laptop, even when it wasn’t connected to my laptop and it would crash often.  So I got the latest Palm phone, which I love.  It’s lightweight, it synchs with my laptop nicely, and I love the built-in apps.  Trouble is, the phone mysteriously stopped ringing. No, I didn’t drop it on the ground or in water.  It still vibrates, it’s just won’t ring.  I guess I’ll have to make a trip to the Verizon store where I will wait in line for an hour for the privilege of being poorly treated by a snarky sales rep.

I’m lucky.  Maki is an absolute wizard with hardware and he can make anything work.  At work, I have HT, who has the patience of Job and the skills of a Jedi.  I ask myself how people who don’t have network admins working for them deal with all these crazy technology issues. Do they buy Macs?

Matrix Group anticipated the typical human behavior — resistance to change — and recommended setting up live support to hedge off any frustrations when users discover that their favorite button is not there anymore or the link they always click on has been moved. We implemented LivePerson because it’s easy to set-up, user-friendly and inexpensive. The results have been terrific. Adrianne, the staffer behind the NECA live support function, reports:

• About 10 people initiate a live chat session every day; about half never responded back to her initial hello; the other half have questions about logging in, where to find something, or how to use a specific application.
• Visitors really appreciated the instant help.
• She loves seeing how many people are on the site, how long they have been on, and where they are clicking. Occasionally, if a person looks stuck on a page, she will initiate a live discussion to offer assistance. The reaction has been very positive.
• She does feel a little chained to her desk, but it’s easy to switch the message so that visitors can send a request for help, rather than initiate a live chat. She always turns off live support during lunch.

I wish more sites would turn off their live support when it’s not manned. It’s frustrating to click on ‘live support,’ then wait for a response (how long should you wait?) and wait some more…… until you realize there’s no ‘live’ body on the other side.

Several other Matrix Group clients are using live support to provide technical assistance for their Web-based applications and customer satisfaction has greatly improved. I guess there’s still a lot to be said for that live interaction. I only wish we could switch out the cheesy photo on the live chat page.