Don't lead your customers down a dead end.

I recently tried to lease a server from Dell. Here is what happened, and hopefully what we can learn as business people from the experience.

I placed my order through the Dell website, which was a fairly straight-forward process. I applied for the lease, and was approved.

Verification Required
Shortly after I placed the order I received an email stating that I would need to contact the Dell Financial Services verification department before my order could proceed.

No problem. I immediately called.

I was asked for my Dell customer #, name, tax ID, address and phone number and put on hold. Standard and simple.

Welcome to the Dead End
In the context of this discussion "dead ends" are places where the vendor leads a customer out to a point, and then abandons them. That's where I was about to end up.

After a few minutes on hold the operator returned and told me that "verification failed".

After four calls and speaking with a Supervisor, this was the dead end result:

• Credit is fine it is a "verification" issue.
  
• The account is locked indefinitely.
• There is no way to find out what information failed verification.
  
• There is no way to resolve the issue.
• There is no one else to speak with.
  

I asked the Supervisor, "So you are telling me that I'm at a dead end. You are locking my account forever because you cannot verify some information - but you will not tell me what that information is or how to fix the issue?"

"That is correct."

It's like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone.

Dead Ends: Tangible Effects
Customer Perspecitve: These dead ends produce feelings of frustration and helplessness - not exactly the adjectives you want associated with your brand.

Operator Perspective: Instead of being able to help, policies relegate them to repeating "I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to do anything". This leads to speaking with unhappy customers, and results in low job satisfaction.

Company Perspective: Since the answer seemed so unreasonable I persistently made four attempts. In doing so I kept 4 different operators and ultimately a supervisor busy for a total of about 1 hour. The hour of time that Dell Financial Services paid those combined employees was totally wasted, because it did not accomplish anything positive for me or DFS, and worse it had all of the above mentioned negative results.

Lessons to be Learned
In brief, don't create customer dead ends.

You probably have policies that need to be enforced. Your may need to perform identity verification or other serious processes. Identify possible dead ends, and fix them. Give your employees some way to help the customer back out. Provide some form of solution.

Remember that every interaction you have with customers is part of your marketing. What is the message you are sending?

What do you think?
Are "dead ends" inescapable, or is it simply a matter of bad business policies?

Biz on the Web: What is your response policy?

It is not uncommon for me to interface with photographers.

A local photographer had in the past been hired by my client to take photos of the exterior of their building. That client now was wishing to have those shots used on the website. I was to contact the photographer and coordinate the purchase of the necessary rights to use the photos for the web.

Sounds simple enough, right?

I originally called and spoke with an assistant. She explained that I would need to speak with the photographer. She took my name and number, and told me he would call me back that same day.

He never called.

I gave him a few days and called again. This time no one answered and I left a message.

Again, no response.

After another week I called, and spoke with the same assistant again. I explained that I had left a message with her and one voicemail, but never received a response.

"He isn't very good about returning phone calls", I was told. The solution? I was instructed to simply continue to call back until I was able to catch him at a time when he wasn't 1) at lunch, 2) busy with a client, or 3) "out of the office".

What does this response policy tell me about the business, or at least the photographer? Plain and simple:

• My business is not important to them.
• My time is not important to them.
• I am not important to them.

Perhaps they would change their attitude and response policy if they stopped to consider the message that it sends to others.

What is the "web" specific application of this little story?

Email and other forms of digital communication can easily become overwhelming. That being the case, it is easy to become like the above mentioned photographer and simply ignore it.

This is an approach that will never help your business. It certainly has potential to hurt your business.

Instead, take a moment to review or establish a response policy for your business. It doesn't haven't to be a long formal written document. Perhaps it is a few sentences or keywords. The point is to take a moment to think about how you will choose to handle email or other digital communications, and the message you wish to send by the way you do so.

Second, integrate that policy into how you and your co-workers go about their daily business. Include the necessary time in your schedule. Build it into your workflow.

Personally, I try to respond to all digital communications within 1 business day (although it is often much sooner). In the actual response I try to focus on what I can do, instead of what I can't. If solving a problem I try to provide more than one option. I try to avoid placing blame.

What is your response policy?
Do you have a policy regarding digital communication? If so, what is it?

Your Website: Is it handicap accessible?

Tuesday October 2, 2007 a precedent setting judgment was handed down in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, The Honorable Marilyn Hall Patel presiding.

The decision held that under California law websites, such as Target.com, are required to provide accessibility to the blind.

As a business owner you are already familiar with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). You likely have handicap access to your physical location. Rulings such as this begin to lay a legal framework to establish similar requirements for the web.

For more information, please read the article Court Ruling Says California Disabled Rights Law Applies to the Web in the Yahoo! Finance section.

Nuance9 would be happy to work with your business to help make your website more accessible to disabled users.