“...for customer service, press 7”

Imagine a time in the future when you call your cell phone company, and instead of speaking with someone who memorized a script, you end up with someone who can program custom features into your phone.

Customers customize. They buy skins for their iPods, they buy colored shells for their phones and the put personalized plates on their cars.

Hardware providers, and their after market competitors, understand that people want a unique product, something that suits them. The automobile industry, a mature technology in our time, has millions of possible combinations of vehicles and features to choose from. If the manufacturer does not offer a personal feature you desire, there is surely an after market company that does. And if you have a specific automotive need, there are companies that can make anything your heart desires, Hot-Rod anyone?

The iPod is a good example of a customer oriented device. It’s accessory options are nearly endless. Customers can change it’s color, turn it into a small stereo system, play music over their cars speakers, plug it into the house when you get home and hear the music in every room, and most importantly you can change the music.

In fact the iPod is so popular Dennis Lloyd can make a comfortable living just reviewing products for the iPod on his web site, iPodLounge.com.

The ability to change the contents and exterior of the iPod makes it a vessel that can be filled by each individual that owns one.

Like the iPod, your cell phone is also a small computer. It can be loaded with features like call waiting, call forwarding, pictures and text messaging. Everything your phone does is part of it’s software, and some clever person wrote that software. How great would it be if you called up your cell phone company, spoke to the programmer, and they could change the placement of the banners? Take the ring tones you’ll never use out of the memory so you could store more pictures? Add a unique feature you find useful?

How hard is that? Not very. Large corporations, and the people who play golf with the Chief Executive, already have this service. The key is to place the people who have the talent and training to meet or exceed the customers goals within reach of the average customer.

The current customer service model places people between those in the know and their customers. How often have you called a service center with one problem and hung up with two? The problem you started with, which remained unsolved, and the new problem of having to deal with someone who has no clue what your first problem was, much less a way of solving it?

Many companies don’t provide real customer service because they don’t have to. They take the position that you can’t hurt them so why should they do anything for you?

This authors experience with Verizon Wireless’s customer service suggests the the purpose of customer service at that organization fills the same purpose as the knee high concrete walls at the foot of the stage in some Alaskan bars - A barrier to hide behind when the customers get to shooting the place up. And there is more than one wall to climb, you’ll find barriers all the way to the top, only they call them “Executive response teams” when you get to the top tier of management.

Some companies get the customer to provide their own solution, or pass the customer to a third party supplier who has a remote connection to the end product so it looks like they’re doing something to solve the problem. How many of us hire independent computer specialists even though we still have product support from the manufacturer? Why do we do it? Better customer service!

Dell computer shot past the compitition with it’s front line customer service and according to a new study by TBR (Technology Business Research Inc.), of Hampton, N.H, Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. were neck-and-neck (for first place) in customer satisfaction during the first quarter. However, if you Google the words “Dell” and “customer service” you will find many examples of where Dell has left customers with much to complain about.

There has been a lot of press recently about Nordstoms, about their customer service and now many other companies are claiming to be “The Nordstroms of ...”. However, if you really want to be the best, you need to think Ritz-Carlton.

“I realize there are skeptics out there who have written off total quality management as outdated and even irrelevant. They dismiss it as a concept not worth the time and resources commitment to reach seemingly out of reach goals like Six Sigma. To them I say, if you are not in total quality then your company will merely survive—not prosper—in the years ahead. And for those who dismiss the service industry as not as valuable to the American economy as high tech or healthcare, I say good service is here to stay. Without delivering good, quality service, your customers will not continue to be your customers, whether they are standing in line or waiting on line.” These remarks were made by Horst H. Shulze, President and Chief Operating Officer at Ritz-Carlton when accepting the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

In the new customer service model, the first line of customer service, the Joe Friday level (just the FAQ’s ma’m) has the talent & training to answer the most common issues and questions. And, most importantly, knows when to pass the customer to the next level.

The next level of service, the General Schwarzkopf department, has the talent and training for solving more complex problems. They can provide custom features many of their customers desire.

The top level of customer service, the Genius in Resident, has the talent and training to provide unique solutions to less common requests. In the same way that an Architect gets to know their customer and designs for them a house that suits their unique needs, the top level of customer service will be able to program the features you need in your wireless device and send them to you within hours of your request.

Smart companies will realize their hardware/software product is simply a vessel for the customers imagination, and place knowledgeable people within easy reach of their customers. Then they will reap the benefits of happy loyal customers, the kind of customer who is willing to pay a premium price for this premium service.

All business needs to decide is if you want to keep the customers you have, or constantly look for new ones...

Can you hear me now?