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The other day I wrote about my friend and her Eddie Bauer Credit Card.

Today I heard how it went when she called the World Financial Network National Bank (WFNNB), the company that owns the Eddie Bauer Credit Card.

To recap my earlier story:

• My friend was told she could pay her Eddie Bauer Credit Card online. When trying to register she discovered she needed a US social insurance number - and a zip code - and thus, being a Canadian living in Canada, was unable to register and pay online.
• The clerk at the Eddie Bauer store had told her she would be able to pay online. When my friend pointed out that she was Canadian she was told she could still pay online.
• I commented on the customer experience going from good to bad because of this episode

Today WFNNB confirmed what my friend already had figured out - she would not be able to register online. This also meant that she will not be able to pay her bill by credit card but would have to send a money order in US funds to them.

WFNNB apologised and said the store had made a mistake. They promised to attach a note to the account so she would not be charged any fees for any delay of the current payment (due to mailing of money order). They also suggested she take this up with Eddie Bauer.

The “mistake” continues to degrade the customer experience for my friend. Let us look at the process (from purchase onward):

• finding items she wanted to purchase (+)
• promise of discount when signing up for credit card(+)
• time needed to sign up (-)
• uncertainty about how to pay bill from Canada (-)
• promised that she could pay online by credit card (+)
• taking time to register online (-)
• discover not being able to register online (-)
• having to call WFNNB (-)
• discover not being able to pay over the phone (-)
• promise of no “late fees” (+)
• have to call Eddie Bauer to complain - WFNNB cannot help (-)
• next step???

As I suggested, a pretty negative customer experience - all due to a “mistake”.

When I write “mistake” it is because I’m not so sure this is a mistake. Rather, I think it is a lack of good business rules and proper requirements planning.

A mistake is when someone inadvertently do something they shouldn’t have done - for example by inadvertently breaking a rule. I think the clerk at Eddie Bauer was trained to follow the business rule of “up-sell to use of credit card”. “Mention that online payment option is available” is just a subset of that rule. Thus, in my humble opinion, the clerk did not make a mistake, but the business rules were poorly designed AND/OR the staff poorly trained. If a mistake took place anywhere it was during the design and training of rules/issues related to the credit card.

It’s easy to make such mistakes - especially when you do not think through the processes the customers will have to go through. I’ve seen it many times before - for example when a travel insurance company listed a single contact phone number, a number that could not be dialed from Europe even though the insurance policy required travelers in Europe to call the company if they had any problems that might require an insurance payout.

So now my friend has to spend extra time and money to be able to pay her bill. Will she ever use her Eddie Bauer Credit Card again? Probably not!

Another problem here is that WFNNB could not take ownership of the situation. This is a typical problem when dealing with sub-suppliers. “It’s not our fault. You have to talk to them!” (Note: WFNNB did not use those words, but politely suggested my friend take the issue up with Eddie Bauer).

In this case, if the WFNNB web site had allowed for Canadians to register this would have been a non-issue. Instead, the “Eddie Bauer Customer Experience” is impacted because of WFNNB is not allowing Canadians to do register.

What can Eddie Bauer do about this issue? Here are some ideas:

• Stop offering credit cards to Canadians (Business Rule Change)
• Alternatively make it clear that the invoices cannot be paid online though the WFNNB site (Training Issue (?))
• Work with WFNNB to allow Canadians to register and pay online (Process Change)
• Apologise to my friend. Compensate her for her trouble! (Customer Relations Management)

Have your company thought through the impact on the customer of the business rules and processes you follow? (Which reminds me about the mall that chose to close bathrooms for cleaning at lunchtime!)

Comments welcome!

roar at roarweb dot com

A good friend of mine has a Eddie Bauer credit card.

When appying for the card at a store, she was told she could pay the bill over the internet, using her own credit card. As my friend lives in Canada, and the store was in the US, she asked if this would work from Canada. No problem the clerk at the store replied.

Turned out the clerk was wrong. When trying to register online to make a payment my friend was met with a requirement to supply both a US Social Security Number and a zip code. As the fields were required, my friend gave up, and said she probably would never use her Eddie Bauer card again.

Many companies make the same mistake. First they make it easy for the customer to shop (and even get a discount), a good customer experience, then they loose most of the goodwill through not living up to their promises. In this case, while it works for those who lives in the US, Eddie Bauer has effectively shut out those in Canada from the same service level.

Maybe they did not intend to? As for many other companies, the Eddie Bauer credit card accounts are not owned and operated by the company itself. For Eddie Bauer, the operator is the World Financial Network National Bank (WFNNB). It’s at their site the required fields can be found. In any case, the end result is that my friend so far has been unable to pay the way whe ws promised, and that impacts her Eddie Bauer experience.

Customer Experience Management looks at all parts of an organization and how they interact and impact the customer. In this case Eddie Bauer - and their credit card supplier - allowed for Canadien customers, but forgot to make it easy for them to pay their bills.

My friend is hoping that she will be able to pay by credit card when she calls the credit card company’s toll free number. We’ll see how it goes.

By the way, can you really make money as a credit card company when you first carry the purchases interest free and then let someone pay for it with a credit card?

Even though this credit card company failed in making it a great customer experience, they do care about their customers. When looking at the payment company’s site, it was interesting to sit here in sunny Vancouver and see the message that came up. I know Texas is a long way from here, but we do not live in igloos and we’ve had no bad storms lately. See image below.

roar at roarweb dot com

Vision is critical when you try to manage the Customer Experience. Good research tools are critical to enable proper Customer Experience Management (CEM).

Over at Vision Critical, the latest Angus Reid project, they have been busy building new market research tools. According to a quote from Dr. Angus Reid, CEO of Vision Critical (and “Industry Icon” according to their web site), they have “..squeezed the functionality of a large research enterprise into a software system..”.

Vision Critical’s products include:

Panel+ , an Internet based panel management system that will take care of everything, from profiling to surveys to reporting.

Fusion, a complementary suite of rich media applications that include interactive visuals, streaming video and 3D virtual environments.

FasTrac, a service for those who want to outsource the development, programming, and hosting of their online surveys.

Their efforts are starting to pay off, and Much Music, one of their clients, was recently named “Brand Of The Year” by Strategy Magazine.

I have tried Vision Critical’s demo of Fusion Online Shelfset. I like the idea, but not the interface. Instead of requiring an user to click on arrows to navigate around, I’d prefer an Ajax[Wiki] like application interface where you can move around using your mouse pointer. Google Maps is a good example of such an application.

Unfortunately I don’t think Ajax would be able to provide the needed data for proper analysis of what takes place during a session. [Please let me know if such tools are available!]. And without data your research results aren’t that good.

For those interested in Ajax Applications and the customer buying process: In New Zealand Tim Haines has invited to a “blogversation“ to see “…how AJAX could be used to improve one part of the shopper’s buying process”. Elsewhere, Dan Grossman [A Venture Forth] has a list of “Top 10 Ajax Applications“

Good research information and analysis is important for proper management of the customer experience So is the usability[wiki] of interface (tool) facing the customer.

Bernd H. Schmitt, in his book about Customer Experience Management (CEM), suggests there is a five step process to connect with your customers at every touch-point.

· Gain original insight into the customer’s world
· Develop an experiential strategy platform
· Create a unique and vivid brand experience
· Provide dynamic interactions at the customer interface
· Innovate continuously to improve customers’ lives

The tools from Vision Critical will be helpful for those trying to develop a successful CEM strategy. A note of caution though, to all those trying to develop better relationships with their customers: Not all customers are equal! Some will be profitable, many not. Do your research and then develop your initiatives focused on those that will help grow and sustain your business.

roar at roarweb dot com

Technorati just introduced changes to their ping page.

Now you can see when Technorati last visited your blog and submit a ping for your claimed blogs with one click. Cool.

roar at roarweb dot com

Technorati Tags: Technorati, ping, roar, roarweb, technorati+news

Forbes writes in an article that Intel Chairman Craig Barrett [wiki] dismisses the $100 laptop of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) association as a gadget.

The laptop, which will feature a wind-up power supply, is still not in production and has been described as follows by the association: “This rugged laptop will be WiFi-enabled and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.”

OLPC plans to start shipping the laptops in late 2006 or early 2007 with the goal of equipping 200 million of the world’s poorest children. Initial test markets include China, Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa. It is intended for distribution through Ministries of Education of developing countries and minimum orders will be one million units.

I think Barrett is missing the point. This is not about a computer, it is about enabling education and learning. And to produce a really low-cost computer you have to make some choices. While this $100 computer may not be a big hit in developed countries, a market for which it is not intended, I’m sure it will work quite well other places. In fact, I probably could use it myself as a back-up option for places where power supply is limited.

It’s easy to get blind-sided when you focus on specifications and not the intended usage. Bill Gates is reported to have said, back in 1981, referring to computer memory, that “640K ought to be enough for anybody”. I remember thinking 128K was high.

Personal computers and their applications have changed the way we communicate, the way we learn and how we spend our days. While the PC of yesterday is slow and lack features compared to many of today’s high performance machines, it was still able to impact our lives.

Gadget or not, this is an opportunity to help change lives. It will also create business opportunities here and in developing countries too. After all, we’re looking at - to start with - 200 million people with some kind of computer knowledge.

Since Barrett doesn’t like this gadget, maybe he can help produce something better?

And, as an afterthought, I understand it takes quite a while to prepare computers for space travel - I wonder what they have reached for specifications at this point? Are they at Pentium 4’s yet??

roar at roarweb dot com

Last night Seattle Times posted an article on Wikipedia prankster confesses. It was picked up by Google and caught my attention when scanning the news.

It’s a story about Brian Chase from Nashville, Tenn. who put false information about John Seigenthaler Sr. in a Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia has its own entry on the controversy.

In short, the false entry was made in May, taken off in September. Unable to track down the person responsible, Mr. Seigenthaler wrote about the issue in an article on USA Today on November 29th. By December 11, 2005 Mr. Chase admitted he was responsible.

It’s not the first time misleading information has been found on Wikipedia. In November, Norwegian newspapers reported that, Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway, was descibed as as a pedofile on the Norwegian version of Wikipedia.

In response to the Seigenthaler incident Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales instituted a new policy preventing unregistered users from creating new articles on the English Wikipedia.

On December 7th I wrote about trusting what you find on the Internet. Wikipedia is probably of the more trustworthy sources and this underlines the importance of “User Beware”. There are many blogs, forums and websites out there where misinformation is spread on a regular basis.

I wrote that products like Sxore may be a part of the solution. I support Wikipedia’s new policy and hope that others will follow. While most of us still want free speech we also want some kind of accountability.

The bottom line? As a user - always double-check your sources! As a publisher - demand accountability from your editors or risk loosing accountability as a service.

roar at roarweb dot com

Sometimes you wonder about the results you get back when performing a web search.

Some search engines are better than others in finding relevant content. Even so, most people accepts the results that Google returns as the ultimate answers. I use Google as my home page, but still like to double-check their results with other search engines. And I do find additional information other places.

Tonight I’ve come across two situations where Search (in an expanded way) did not return the expected results.

Troy Angrignon describes some of the “long tail [wiki]” of search phrases used to guide readers to his site. Troy, who describes himself as an Adventure Capitalist, has had search phrases like “ some photos for hairy females armpit“ lead searchers to his site.

For those that wonder, Troy’s site is not about the female armpit. A more typical post would be Web 2.0: When do you use a forum, a blog, Jotspot, Writely, a wiki, or a full web 2.0 platform. My guess is the searcher did not find what he or she was looking for.

The second result was my own profile on zoominfo.com. In the right column ZoomInfo lists what they call “Colleague & Associates” This service is currently in a Beta. On the expanded “Colleagues” page it reads:

Colleagues lists are compiled automatically by ZoomInfo using natural language processing technology to determine relationships. For example, individuals we have found on the public Web who have served on the same management team can be labeled as colleagues by ZoomInfo.

Additionally, Colleagues are marked with icons as either “verified” or “unverified”. By default, all colleagues that ZoomInfo creates are unverified.

It’s Beta allright. Just as a poorly designed search phrase in Google is unlikely to return what was really searched for, so has the rule of “same management team” resulted in ZoomInfo filling my list with people I do not know. While they may have been with the same organizations(s), they were not there at the same time as me and thus I would not label them Colleagues.

While I understand that Beta stage services often have “room for improvement”, companies like ZoomInfo must consider how using such services on a “major page” (my profile!) impacts the customer experience. Now that I know some of their search results is gar… let’s say not that good, I have to take this into consideration when looking at their service in general.

To me, any customer interface must be seen as a part of the customer experience. In ZoomInfo’s case the result is a lowering of my trust in their results.

For many companies the problem with search engines are that they actually work, that they allow people to find their company site. It’s a problem if your site is not up to date, or the information found is incorrect. A company web site is, at least for me, an image of the company. I once suggested to a software developer that a few linking errors on their otherwise nicely done web site should be fixed. A few days later I was told off by a senior manager from the company - my unsolicited comments had upset his development team. I learned something about giving advice that day, but I still think that a software developer that does not care about easy to fix coding errors on their web site may be a developer to leave off your list of potential suppliers.

The bottom line is that Search returns results. These results are often not be what we expected. And this impacts the Customer Experience.

• It impacts the experience of using the search tool, often leading to a reduced trust in the results (which may be good as we should judge what we find).
• It also impacts the customer experience when a company cannot be found (either because they do not have a web site or because other companies has done a better job in content development and in search listing under specific keywords).

Even what we find impacts our experience. A web site is a part of the customer experience that helps us develop an image of a company and what to expect in “real, off-line life”. What do people find when they search for your company?

roar at roarweb dot com

Give the people what they want!

Sounds simple, right? Well, it’s not!

To be successful, in blogging or in business in general, you will need an understanding of your market (or readership). Through segmentation you can find out where to focus and thus produce the highest ROI.

For many, the question will be “how do we do this?”.

It depends on your objectives!

“Give the people what they want” has two major elements - “people” and “want”. Both of these needs to be defined and understood before you will be able to develop a successful strategy.

The “people” in most cases are your customers. Sometimes there are other groups to take into account as well. But who of your customers should you focus on? Focus on those that brings you a profit - whatever “profit” may be for you. The 20/80 rule most likely applies, and that means, if you “twist it a bit”, that over half of your customer may not contribute to your “profit”.

While loyalty is important, you may not want to spend too much money on those loyal customers that never contribute to your profit.

Pro-bloggers must follow the same rule, but also take into account how business is built. Say you have advertising on your site. Two types of people contribute to your bottom line: 1) Those that buy something through your links, and 2) those who help you market your site through mentioning it and linking to it. You need to make sure both these groups are taken care of. Which means focusing your message on these target groups and thus “finding your voice”, your own style of interesting content and commentary - of interest to these groups, something they “want”.

roar at roarweb dot com

Did you know that forgetting to claim your mail-in rebate has its own name? So does not cashing your rebate cheque. According to an article by Dave Lieber of the Star-Telegram (Texas) , consumers who never file for rebates are considered “breakage” by retailers. while rebate cheques that are not cashed are called “slippage.”

Lieber’s article tels the story about Mike Cooper that bought a $300 camera from Office Depot and was promised $150 in mail-in rebates.

When not receiving his cheque Cooper called the rebate centre, then visited the store and finally wrote Office Depot corporate offices. In most cases he never heard back. It was not until “he called the rebate center and, …, threatened to contact the Better Business Bureau and the state attorney general. He also promised to return the camera and never shop at Office Depot again” that things were taken care of.

Turns out the error was at the rebate processing centre that Office Depot had contracted to do this work. The complexity of trying to provide good customer service in an environment that includes outsourcing shines through. The processor no longer do business with Office Depot.

Reading between the lines we can also see there are larger issues here. While the processor was at fault, Office Depot Corporate Office says the local store should have taken ownership when the problem became clear. The local store has no comment.

Developing good procedures for customer complaint management can be hard. My guess is the local store only followed the policy of “call the rebate centre”. While I agree the local store should have acted earlier, I think it is shameful that Office Depot Corporate Office blames them. Remember that the Corporate Office did not reply to Cooper either? By blaming their local store, even if it really was their fault, Office Depot has only managed to show how little they really care about the customer. Blaming someone is not, at least in my humble opinion, not a good PR strategy. It’s a discussion they should have had internally.

Is your organization prepared to handle customer complaints?

roar at roarweb dot com

Do you trust everything you see on the Internet? I hope not!

The University of New Brunsvik (UNB) library offers some suggestions on “Judging What You Find”.

UNB suggest you look at Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Use.

Being careful is always a good idea when judging what you find. But what if you are the publisher? How do you develop your reputation?

In the Internet 2.0 world there will be thousands of small web sites, the “long tail” of sites. This blog is one of them. How do we, as publishers, develop our reputation?

Dick Hardt has suggested that Sxip’s Sxore product may be a part of the solution. By using a common login ID on many sites you can develop a reputation that follows your ID. As they say it on their site: Get a reputable peer-generated digital identity. By the way, for each of your personalities you can have a different Sxore ID.

Sxore is currently holding a private alpha test of a WordPress plugin. It’s by invitation only. For those interested, they will soon expand their alpha program.

Sxore is a two-in-one solution. While allowing you to build your reputation when you comment on others work, it can also be used to moderate comments to your own blog,

So, are we all going to end up with a digital reputation, maybe something similar to ebay’s “member reputation“?

Probably not. We already have services helping you bypass registration on sites, bugmenot.com being one of them. Privacy issues, real or perceived, will probably stop many from adopting an online identity.

Applications like Sxore will help building a reputation based on comments left on other blogs. Maybe what Sxore does is to make it easier to build a reputation. Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Use, the UNB’s “tags”, are still needed - with or without Sxore. If you keep these “commandments” in mind, and add consistent use of login names and e-mail addresses or web site URLs, then, when you publish anything, you’ll should be well on the way to develop a digital reputation.

I guess it boils down to being relevant, honest and consistent - in addition to present. ebay members do not earn a powerseller reputation by good products and fast shipping alone. They also need to provide a high volume of interesting items to sell.

This brings me to a side of your “online identity” that you might not think about that often - your “offline world”. To be able to develop a good online reputation you need to be able to organize your offline life such that you are able to live up to the promises , and hopefully a positive image, you have given/developed online.

roar at roarweb dot com