Tech Talk
The Best Companies Online
Columnist: Michael E. Duffy
May, 2009 Issue
Here’s what I believe should be true if your company has a website. It’s really very simple: Anything that I can do in person, I should be able to do online.
I want to be able to change my mailing address, set up an appointment, cancel my service (yup!), see when the delivery guy is going to show up, download a copy of my statement from five years ago, see a history of everything I’ve ever bought or ask a question and get an answer in real time. If there’s a form or a paper document, I want to download it, not have it mailed to me.
“OK,” you say, “That’s only natural; you’re a tech guy. You live online. But you’re an exception rather than the rule.” Tell that to my wife. She’s typically the one in our house who’s most frustrated by company websites, because there’s something she needs that the site doesn’t provide. She really appreciates being able to take care of things on her (busy) schedule.
For example, we had a custodial account for our oldest daughter, where we had chosen not to get paper statements mailed to us each month. Instead, our statements were available online. Unfortunately, when our daughter turned 18 and we closed the account, the online records all disappeared, which we only discovered when tax time came around. The company had encouraged us to switch to online statements (which saves them paper, postage and labor), but there was a hidden downside: We lost control of the physical record. Now we have to request printed copies. Ironically, we can’t request those copies online.
It’s probably fair to say that we should have printed out and saved our online statements (allowing the company to push the cost of paper and ink onto us), but I think we’re all coming to expect that having something online is as good as having it on paper (and sometimes better).
Here’s another beef. I love the American Airlines website when it comes to booking travel. And it will even thoughtfully let me cancel my flight online. But, when I cancel, the credit for my nonrefundable ticket goes into limbo. They have a record of it, but they don’t show it in my online account. As a result, I can’t use it to book a new ticket online. I have to call them up on the phone to use that credit. And if I somehow forget about it, they get to keep that credit after 12 months. I think this is just plain old sneaky.
Then there’s my friends at Citibank. When I go online to find a statement I misplaced, they prominently tell me that I can get up to 12 months of statements directly online. When I actually look at the list of available statements, though, there are only six monthly statements visible (even though I’ve been an online customer for years). So, I have to request a statement, which will appear in my online account in 24 to 48 hours. Worse, the statement I get in the mail, the statement that’s available directly online, and the statement which shows up from my request all look slightly different.
I suppose I should be grateful I can do anything online at all—and really, I am. The most common interactions (and the ones that result in the greatest benefit to the company) seem to work the best. But, as I said, anything I can do in person….
It’s not only about the Web, though. The other day, I got an automated call from a local car dealer. The call was to let me know that I had missed a recommended service. It took me a moment to realize that the call was for my daughter’s car, which is currently with her on the East Coast. I’m not going to be servicing it in Santa Rosa for a while. I appreciate the fact that the dealer wants me to know about service (of course, they benefit if I decide to come in), but I’d rather get this sort of notification by email. Alas, there’s no way to tell them I don’t need these calls, or call my daughter, or send me an email. And if I call the dealership, I suspect that whomever answers the phone probably won’t be able to help me.
The problem is there are different systems involved, and they aren’t well-integrated (or in some cases, even on speaking terms). The best solution is to have only one, Web-based way to get things done. In other words, the system that your sales people, managers and customer service personnel all use should be the same one used by your customers via the Web. Obviously, the customer shouldn’t be able to do all the things your people can do (like issue a refund), but you want to make sure there’s one set of data being used by everyone. That way, I can see my credit and use it to pay for a new ticket. That way, all my statements look alike. And that way, I can tell the car dealer that my daughter’s car isn’t here anymore (or at least that I don’t want phone calls about it).
If big companies like American Airlines and Citibank have trouble providing seamless integration, what’s a small business going to do? I don’t think there’s an easy answer, because most small businesses use a hodgepodge of software and paper-based systems to manage customers. And unless an owner sees value in making it possible for a customer to interact with them online, it’s pretty much a non-starter. Microsoft, Inuit and others have yet to jump this hurdle. My Google searches didn’t lead me anywhere.
Sure there’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. That’s for you to manage them. I haven’t heard of CRM software that helps customers manage their own information. That’s the whole problem: Most software ignores one side (the business needs for information) or the other (the customer).
If you have a customer, giving them the ability to go online and change their address or decide how they like to receive communication is another way of inviting an interaction. Interaction leads to trust, which leads to commerce. Consider, as a first step, just making it possible for your customers to do simple things online. Busy consumers are embracing self-service. Your prudent support of this trend will let you focus on the real part of your business, which is delivering value to the customer.
All things being equal, I’m going to give my business to the company that lets me take care of routine interactions on my schedule using an online interface. My wife agrees.
(Have you taken a look at the Tech Talk blog? I’d appreciate hearing from you if you have.)
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Michael E. Duffy