As you enjoy your long weekend in the States, something to think about in this post from seth godin today…
“Once you start compromising, when do you stop?
“If your goal is to be remarkable, please understand that the easiest way to do that is to compromise less, not more. And no, this wasn’t a post about breakfast.”
Tags: customer satisfaction, seth godin, whack.
Thanks to the associate who sent the link this morning to the article in today’s Seattle Times, “Firing of an e-mail? Make sure of your aim,” which offers a look at how an email exchange that lacks clarity can raise someone’s ire. (This in response to my blog posting yesterday on emailing Steve Jobs.)
I have seen my share of letters and emails on various issues and problems (even some notes of appreciation), some that are forwarded to me by execs to be routed to the right people in the product groups. I thought about what goes into a good email or snail mail note.
So here are a few tips I thought of this morning while the kids were happily eating their breakfasts and watching mindless cartoons.
Title your email appropriately. If you’re sending an email, make the subject clear and easy to understand, something like “REQUEST: Problem with Contoso Application” or include important info like “Customer Support: Ref#123456” if you have an open service request.
Keep it to one page, two at most (front and back). I recently received a letter which was five or six pages and it took a while to piece together what the person was asking for in their message. For email, you want the main issue and message in the first couple of paragraphs (We often say at the office that you need to make your message clear in the first “pane” of the mail window, getting the reader’s attention when they open the mail or see the preview.) If you do go longer than one page, use the back of the sheet as it’s easy to lose stapled or paperclipped pages.
Be clear on who you are, what the problem is, why you’re writing and what you want. One snail mail I forwarded on to one product team was a good example: the first paragraph briefly explained about the person writing the note, the second noted the problem, the third listed out the actions to date and the fourth and final paragraph clearly called out what the customer wanted us to do about it.
Include links or pointers to more information. So many people these days detail the issues they’ve run into and the hurdles they’ve run up against to get some help on their blogs and newsgroups, so take a moment and include an online reference. More and more companies these days have people who monitor the Web and popular newsgroups for feedback, often treating these as online, early warning systems. On MSDN and TechNet, the blogs and the feedback they generate are often good coalmine canaries.
Include the best ways for the company to contact you. If you send an email, many will assume that email is the best way. Be sure to include your email address in the body of your message, as it can sometimes be lost when notes are forwarded or printed. And include your address and phone number.
Sending it off: OK, you’ve written the message, now where do you send it? If you’re looking for help on one of Microsoft’s many products that you purchased for your PC, start your search on http://support.microsoft.com/, your first stop on getting the help you need with your Microsoft products. Microsoft provides two support requests submitted online (by email or IM chat) or by phone at no charge (see the support page for detail). See also a previous previous blog entry that includes several links to online assistance.
If that doesn’t work, look on MSDN and TechNet for people from the product teams and I’ve found that most if not all are very responsive and welcome feedback via their blogs and online forums. For instance, there’s the Product Solution Center on our Support Site and Office has the Office Discussion Group to “ask questions, share information, or exchange ideas with others, including experts from around the globe.” Xbox has the Xbox online support center and lists out their Top Troubleshooting Articles. I also like Blake’s “Ultimate List” of Microsoft Software and resources: we could certainly benefit by maintaining such a page.
If you feel like you’ve exhausted all avenues, escalate to your last contact’s manager or look for an appropriate contact via the Web: we list out information for our sales offices worldwide, our corporate headquarters and our executives.
Tags: Microsoft, support, customer support.
Often when meet and talk with our customers and partners, I hear some of the same concerns that impact their satisfaction with our products and services: PC security, quality and reliability of our products, and issues with email around spam and phsihing. Starting this weekend I am posting more info, tips and feedback on how we’re meeting some of these issues. I kicked it off on Friday with my reference to the anti-spyware addition to OneCare, and yesterday on Windows Defender.
Today, it’s about email and how to reduce spam.
First, just how much of a problem is this?
Microsoft IT reported in 2005 that the company received about 10 million e-mails per day via the Internet, with up to 90 percent filtered out as spam. In addition, a recent report cited that the company blocks more than 3.4 billion spam messages per day from reaching the inboxes of MSN Hotmail customers.
On an individual level, I read that average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of postal junk mail. This amounts to 560 pieces of junk mail per year per person. Recent research estimates that 80 percent or more of all e-mail sent these days is spam. In 2004, enterprise users reported receiving an average of 29 unsolicited messages a day, more than a four fold increase from 6.2 spam messages per day in 2002, and 3.7 messages in 2001.
So, how do spammers get your address? A couple of years ago, the The Center for Democracy and Technology released a report on their six month study, “Why Am I Getting All This Spam?” They found that e-mail addresses posted on web sites or in newsgroups attract the most spam, as spammers most often harvest addresses from the web. Just like the big search engines, spammers have automated web bots (called ‘spiders’) collect as many email addresses as possible from web sites. (Here’s a link with more details on how spammers get addresses.)
Now let’s make this personal.
A month or so ago, after grumbling about how much of our curb-side recycling was junk mail, I decided to take a closer look at what we receive in the post. And over the last couple of weeks, I kept a running total of how much mail we received at home, counting the number of pieces of mail and the aggregate weight. (Yes, my wife questioned my sanity, but I explained that it’s all in the effort to improve customer satisfaction.) I divided what we received into two piles: mail we wanted or had requested (bills, notices and the occasional letter) and mail that was junk (flyers, catalogues, credit card offers, solicitations from companies we’d never heard of before…).
Over the course of two weeks, we collected a little more than the reported national averages:
Now that doesn’t sound like much, but in comparison let’s look what came in just to my personal email address at home: 232 pieces of junk mail. That’s 149 caught by my Outlook spam filter and 83 snagged by my internet service provider. If that junk email were junk postal mail filling my post box, it would weigh close to 31 pounds. Over the course of a year, we’re looking at more than 6,000 junk emails, at a total weight of about 792 pounds.
Ouch.
At an average of two to three seconds per email, that’s at least four to five hours of my life a year just deleting spam mail (and that estimate is on the low side).
The Crabby Office Lady’s latest tip of the month includes a link to an entire site devoted to fighting spam and sharing news about those nasty spammers and phishers. Here is one of her favorite tips:
For information on how to do this in Outlook, read Change automatic response to read receipts.
We also have a section on our web site, Microsoft Security at Home: E-mail, which provides information and resources to help you reduce the risks of spam, viruses, identity-theft schemes, and hoaxes, while enjoying the benefits of email.
More info:
Tags: Microsoft, spam, antispyware, security, OneCare.
I read a blog entry on the http://retailstore.blogspot.com/ this weekend titled “Customer Service, Dell, Yahoo, Flames and Blogs”. It details a customer’s difficult journey to get support from an on-line company
I certainly agree with five of the six lessons in the post, which I paraphrased…
1. Train customer service reps to diagnose problems.
2. Respond quickly to email.
3. Don’t make online customers call.
4. Executive blogs should include contact information as an escalation path.
5. Search other customer blogs for info on how to correct the problem.
I’ll add my own: Jump through hoops: Remember that the customer on the line is a future repeat customer and your best advertising. It takes a lot less to keep a good customer than acquire a new one.
A couple of personal examples, as I have experienced great on-line support from Dell and HP. When we needed a part for my wife’s Dell laptop at home, I was able to quickly file a customer claim on their website (on a Thursday). A couple of days later — on the following Monday — the replacement part arrived via Priority Mail. Just awesome. My last PC purchase and endorsement to my family when looking for a new laptop? Dell.
And with HP, when my scanner had developed some quirks near the end of the one-year warranty, they quickly escalated my chat session to a manager who called me on HP’s dime and then initiated a full replacement for my then under-warranty scanner. To a more expensive model, with a new 1 year warranty. And at no cost to me. The last two printers I purchased? No surprise, both HP models.
As for our own support, I would like to replay this event from over the holidays.
I was standing in line at SeaTac airport, getting the boarding passes from the United Airlines automated system. Of course, the passes would not print, and a gate agent came to my aid, getting me the passes I needed for the family quickly and then checking in my bags directly.
The gate agent then told me of a problem she was running into on her new PC that she had purchased over the holidays: eager to make our flight, I handed her a Quick Assistance card and told her to call the number on the card for help, as I wasn’t able to diagnose the problem on the spot.
So, a couple of days later, the gate agent emails me, saying that she had spoken with our customer service folks and that they had solved her PC problem… as well as some common household chores.
You see, she also noted that having recently developed a leak in her home’s roof, she wished that roof installers offered such levels of support when you asked. Turns out the customer service agent was listening.
“I greatly appreciated the consideration of the Microsoft computer assistance… which came in handy (with my) new computer and Office XP.
“I’ll see what they say about roof repair! : )”
I’m not sure that the Microsoft Customer Service Centre handles home maintenance, but you never know.
You see, it happend that the roof repair the gate agent had mentioned was a tricky thing for the roofing contractor to diagnose, and the Microsoft customer service agent following up with her was able to assist there, too.
When the customer mentioned that they’d seen a dark spot on the ceiling of their room, the customer service agent asked if the spot on the ceiling was damp.
Yep, sure was.
Turns out the damp ceiling was a direct indication of where the contractors needed to focus their roof repair work, something they hadn’t been able to notice on their own. That saved the home owner time and money fixing the roof.
I’ve received some of the best advice on home networking and installation from the team. Next time I have to do some work on our kitchen, I think that I’ll call our customer service line.
Tags: microsoft, customer satisfaction, customer service.
