Can I Breathe Now?

We use a lot of long distance around here so when I got an offer from Skype for their unlimited US/Canada Internet phone service for $29.95 a year we decided to give it a try. We really like Skype's IM function: V and I, though our desks are just a few steps from each other, still often prefer to use IM to avoid inappropriate interruptions in each other's work.

That was two days ago. Although my charge was processed moments after clicking submit I am still Skype-phone-free.

V pointed out "The Skype logo on their homepage says 'take a deep breath.' How long am I supposed to hold this?"

I wandered into the Skype forum and found an insurrection in process. The closest thing I found to a calming voice was a post with a link to the following email:

"We have been experiencing longer than usual delays with payments made by credit cards. These payments stay listed as Pending in our system as we are processing them. Normally, credit card payments should be processed within 15 minutes but in some cases it has taken a lot longer.

You can view the status of your orders here:
https://secure.skype.com/store/myaccount/orders.html

We are working hard to process all the orders quickly and apologise for the inconvenience that this has caused

Kind regards,

Skype Customer Support"

Can't you just smell the condescension?

I have no idea where the person got this email, though she seems to keep reposting it time after time. (She apparently runs a "Skype Based Business" and calls herself a "skype hugger".) All I have received is an autoresponse saying, in effect, got your money, sit on your hands which is supposed to make it OK that the word "pending" on my account status page is starting take on a decidedly stale and moldy appearance.

Here was my response to the above post:

I signed up for Skype a couple of days ago and after experiencing the same mixture of aggravation, confusion, and finally anger people have been venting on this forum I started poking around in here.

Ma'am, I know you are a Skype based business. I am certain you have had wonderful experiences with them or you wouldn't be betting the farm on them. But what is going on here reminds me of the recent debacle with Jet Blue. You have terminals full of tired and hungry travelers and no one is really in control enough to manage the apparent melt-down Skype seems to be going through. But there is one BIG difference. Jet Blue's CEO Tom Neeleman had the backbone to go on the record in public that they had screwed up and he fell on his sword over the debacle.

The people behind Skype are conveniently hiding behind autoresponders. Seems pretty spineless to me. At the very least, stupid.

Wherever you are, stop cowering and show some cajones. Tell people straight up what is going on, what you are doing to fix it or offer immediate and unconditional refunds. You have screwed up so step up and take your medicine.

For me, I expect to treat the $29.95 as if I lost it on a ball game. I will also sniff around forums like this a bit in the future before I get involved.

OTOH, I've got some GREAT material for my blog - this has the potential of turning into one of the big customer service SNAFUs of 2007.

Now, I really do like Skype, But REALLY!

(Vicki, you can breathe now.)

Some People Are Perfect for the Job

A recent post in Marketing Profs asks:

"Does your front-line staff embody the image that you want to project to the world?"

I think we could all look in the mirror and ask that question on a daily basis. But let's ask another question first, i.e., "What is the image we want to project to the world?"

I've worked with companies that want to hire to fill a position and, typically after they have suffered through some disastrous decisions, finally agree to let me help them profile the JOB first. I am not surprised when I get the feedback from various people within the company to find marked differences among the perceptions of a job's requirements. The ensuing frank conversation typically leads us to a clearer and more honest description of what the job requires, and then they are more likely to fit the candidate to the position.

But back to the mirror. What are we really telling the world about us on our front line? And are we consistent with it?

There is a brew-pub in my area that I used to patronize on a regular basis. I loved their beer. It was always fresh, and they have some great variety. But they had two major weaknesses in their operation that eventually drove me away.

First was the wait staff. You never knew what you were going to get, and it would just drive you crazy anticipating (sometimes dreading) what you might have to endure to get your order. I learned who the pro's were and always asked to be seated in their section. But even that didn't work because they might not be on the shift or they had just moved on to another job. The inconsistency was unsettling.

The second problem was the inconsistent menu. You might order the same menu item, say a cheeseburger, and one time you would get curly fries, another regular fries, and maybe another time fries more like chips. One time when I was there for Sunday brunch they informed me the cook didn't know how to poach an egg (they had to find a manager to tell him what it was), the English Muffin was replaced with a white cupcake with colored sprinkles, and to make up for the fact that the order took a VERY LONG TIME to fill they piled my plate with four times the normal portions of home-fry potatoes. I have not been back there for several years. It just got too bizarre.

There is another restaurant in the neighborhood (OK, it's a bar) called J. Gilligan's that does not brew but has a good selection and where you always know what you are going to get. Even when there is staff turnover there is still consistency to the way they handle your order. And you know what you are gong to get when you order your "regular."

Likewise with my local coffee house, The Coffee Haus in Arlington. I once patronized a local competitor who followed a similar path as the pub described above. I finally threw up my hands and found this great place right around the corner with great staff, reliable ambiance and free WiFi. I always know what I am going to get. See that smiling face up above? That's the way it always feels.

Thus, I keep coming back.

These people know who they are, get the right people to represent that, and do it consistently.

200 Calories (lower nutritional value with insult)

My darling husband is standing in front of a pastry counter late at night in the Neighborhood Wallyworld and side-glances at the equally exasperated guy next to him.

"Weren't you just behind me at the Krispy Kreme?" the guy says to him.

"Yea, quite an experience, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

Silence while both resume forlorn contemplation of the depleted array of 18-hour-old donuts.

I heard about this exchange after Michael returned to the car with what we had to settle for as our treat after several hours of sanding away at the 50+ years of paint on the kitchen cabinets in my late parents’ house. It's a miracle that the walls there never met since additional coats of paint were regularly reapplied to these cabinets but none were ever removed. (The fact that we've struck wood after a couple of weeks' work is a surprise and relief to us both.) We're renovating now, and when you go through that many layers of white-yellow-white-cream-orange-white-etc., it doesn't matter how evolved you are, you need treats.

So Michael offered me Krispy Kreme. My hero.

I can remember when Krispy Kreme first opened in Arlington, and there were lines blocking traffic on South Cooper. The donuts were hot. The personnel delivered service with a smile and a retro flair true to their calorific roots. Families stood in line to watch the donuts sizzle and glide through the deep fat and the white curtain of sugar glaze. The whole thing was an EXPERIENCE.

While we'd gotten over the newness, the treat quotient to the donut itself hadn't faded, so we headed there in spite of the hour to recapture that experience of friendly service and the self-indulgent sugar rush. We were putting down our money to buy that pat on the head that said we'd done well. We pulled up to the window and smiled at one another. Nothing. We waited, wiping the paint dust off our faces in anticipation. Nothing. Michael tapped gingerly on the take-out window. There was a pause, then a young woman walked to the window, opened it, and said the following:

"We got nothing. NOTHING."

Window slams shut.

Could you just weep?

You may remember along with me the little fiasco of publicity surrounding the Krispy Kreme expansion and stock price droop in the face of Atkins diet mania awhile back. The company rallied to defend their brand, but surely, nobody thinks there's a lot of positive to be said about donuts in terms of nutritional value, in spite of the fact that they publish it these days (http://www.krispykreme.com/nutri.html), so what do they think they're selling here?

It's the experience, guys, and nobody's looking to have more doors slammed in their faces these days!

I wish that I could report that this is an unusual occurrence, but it would not be true. Too often, companies spend gazillons on advertising then populate their prime advertising space - the people on the front lines of their businesses - with surly, under qualified (and thus unhappy), unsupervised people who don't even know they're in the business of selling. In an economy where you can get your cellphone in any flavor and your clothes from any continent with the click of a mouse, where services of every type come and go faster than their business cards can be printed, it's important to remember that everybody's selling and that it's the experience that brings the customer back to you or convinces them to seek abroad. It won't be hard for them to find an alternative.

I lay this more at the feet of management than anywhere else. After all, they're paid to be the official smart people. As a revered former acquaintance would have said, "If you're going to run the company, then run it."

That means paying attention, day by day, to the experience you're responsible for providing. Whether you're a large operation or a solopreneur, your customer needs to be able to rely on the fact that interacting with you is going to be a great thing. They need to have a consistent sense that they can go to you to get the smile back on their face.

Or they'll look elsewhere.