With the real estate market and economy the way it is today, its very easy to blame ‘the market’ for the length of time on market.  Its very easy to shrug it off and say “it will just take time to sell.”

While its easy to blame ‘the market’…I do think part of the problem is the local market. We live in a neighborhood that is still building out.  We live in a town that has very high taxes compared to our neighbors (although the town is considered a very good place to live in the Dallas Metroplex).  We have a nice house on a corner lot with a good layout and quite a bit of room (over 3000 square feet of space).  We feel the price is right when compared to the other houses in the neighborhood, including the new houses being built.

But…

Is the price right for this market? Is the price right for us to actually be able to attract a buyer to our town and our neighborhood?  Do we have the features in our house to be able to demand that price?  We feel the answer is “yes” to all those questions…but…we still haven’t sold our house.  Or even had an offer.

So…what’s the problem?

Just because we think our home price is reasonable, doesn’t mean it is. Just because we want $X for our home, doesn’t mean its worth it….and a Realtor should tell us that.

That’s where a professional comes in.  Not just a realtor…but a professional.  A professional will tell us if we are wrong. A realtor can list a home…but a professional will sell a home.  There’s a difference between being a licensed Realtor and being a professional Realtor. In a market like we are in today, you can tell the professionals from the license holders.

Our listing expires at the end of December. We’ve decided that we are not going to renew the contract with our current realtor.  Why? Because I don’t see the value in what she’s provided to us.  This Realtor hasn’t gone out of their way to market our home. Anything that we’ve done (open houses, listing on the web, etc) has been done at our insistence and/or by us).

We’ll be listing with another realtor in January.  Will it help? Who knows. The market isn’t that great (see…there i go blaming the market again).

Before listing this time, I’m going to do my homework. I’m going to find a realtor that is a professional. I’m going to find someone that will tell me the truth rather than what i want to hear.  I’m going to find someone that will work their tail off to get people into the house and sell it.  They find a way to build a level of trust with their client.

There’s a huge difference in having a credential and being a professional. A realtor isn’t necessarily a professional because of the credential.  A project manager isn’t a professional just because they gained some experience and passed a test.   Sure…you can call yourself a realtor, project manager, doctor or airline pilot if you ‘pass the test’ but you won’t be successful unless you do the hard work that it takes to be a professional.

Something to think about.  Are you a professional or just a credential?

Receiving excellent service from a company / person makes me feel good…it makes me happy and makes me excited to revisit that company or person for future business.

The opposite is also true…I hate bad customer service.  I hate it with a passion.

I understand that great people and companies provide poor service occasionally. Every company has issues with their customer service.  Sometimes you catch someone on a bad day…sometimes you fall into a process ‘crack’ and your issue is missed.

The difference between a great company with great service and an average/poor company…is actually in the fact that the company / person realizes that they made a mistake and then how they respond to that mistake.  The difference is how a company recovers from bad service.

Recently I ran into a company that I’d classify in the ‘worst service’ department – at least initially. I’m not going to name any names here but I want to share the experience.

I ordered a device from this company to use for streaming shows and movies at home. Rather than order through a retailer like I normally would, i decided to buy directly from the company…big mistake on my part.

After a reasonable time, I received the unit. I unpacked it and plugged it in.  And nothing happened.  I unplugged everything and reattached it…again nothing.

I took the unit to another TV and tried it there.  Nothing.

After multiple attempts and much research online, I came to the conclusion that this unit was dead-on-arrival.  So…I went to the company’s website to find their support information to ask for help.

I submitted a support ticket…and was told afterwards that they’d be in touch within 48 hours.  48 hours is an awful long time to wait for a response…but I figured I’d give them a chance. 3 days later I still had no response.

So…I tried to call them.  Nothing…I couldn’t get to a live person.  So..I tried their live chat.  Nothing….it wouldn’t connect me at all.  So…I emailed them again.  Nothing.

Finally…I tried the last ditch effort…I went to Twitter.

Funny…after I ‘tweeted’ them that I couldn’t get any response, I received a response from their social media team.  It was quick, courteous and provided me with contact info.  Funnily enough…I also received a response from their Customer Service team within a few hours.

That response via email was short and worthless…it basically said ‘thank you for contacting us…please try to plug the unit in somewhere else’.  Worthless.

After a week of back and forth via email and attempted phone calls, I was still waiting for a resolution.  I’ve been told to call their 800 number to get an RMA for the power supply so I can get a new one…but I’ve yet to be able to get in touch with anyone at their 800 number.  Worthless.

So now I sit here waiting again. I’ve had this unit for a week with no luck. I’ve reached out to their service department multiple times with no luck.  Their social media team seems to be willing to help but I’ve yet to see any results from their intervention.

All i want is a working unit or a refund…but these folks don’t seem to understand how to respond in a manner that provides any level of confidence that they have a clue what Customer Service actually means.

This morning, I received a phone call from an engineer at the company who started the call with a profuse apology and asked for my address so he could overnight a new product to me.  He didn’t ask me for any particular details about the box that doesn’t work…he didn’t ask me to send it back or do anything else with it…he just apologized and said that I’d be receiving a new box soon.

With this one act, this engineer made a very bad situation much better. Has he redeemed the company in my eyes? No. Has he made up for their lack of service? No.  But…he has started down the right road.

This company is on the road to recovering from a really really bad situation…let’s hope they follow through on their promises and I have a new unit in my hands before the end of the week.

Still, the question has to be asked…can you truly recover from bad customer service? Although this engineer is working towards a recovery, will I ever trust this company again enough to order from them and/or recommend their products?  I’m not sure…we’ll see how the next few days go.

500px is a great website and has become a very popular destination and portfolio site for photographers with many folks proclaiming it as aserious challenger to flickr.

In addition to its great layout, design and feature set when 500px is compared to flickr, one of the interesting aspects of the 500px service is the ‘storefront’. This storefront allows a photographer to allow their photographs to be listed for sale using the FotoMoto service, which provides a fairly seamless way of adding a shopping cart to a portfolio of images.

FotoMoto has approached the market differently than others in the field of image printing and logistics. I don’t know of another service like FotoMoto where you host images yourself using whatever technology you’d like and then integrate the FotoMoto javascript into your website. Its a very interesting approach and different that competitors like SmugMug and Zenfolio.

The only complaint I have about FotoMoto is this – it isn’t seamless to the user. While most of the eCommerce activity (adding a photo to a cart, etc)  takes place on your site (or the 500px portfolio in this case), there is a lot of FotoMoto branding involved. In addition, the final checkout is performed through the FotoMoto website and the logistics are then handled by them completely.  Not a bad thing…but sometimes not ideal if you want to control the customer experience from start to finish.

That said, I do like the service provided. Its clean, easy to use and fairly straightforward.  Although I don’t use it on 500px, it is  a valuable offering to users. Or…it was a valuable offering.

The dreaded Finger Pointing

Yesterday, I received an email from 500px stating that the 500px / FotoMoto integration is coming to and end.  A copy of the email in its entirety is below.

Changes to the Store

Dear friends,

First of all, let me say a huge thanks to all of you — without you none of this would have been possible. This year 500px has seen tremendous growth and development, and although the ride was bumpy at times, our dedicated team members always stood behind the platform, solved the most challenging problems and did their best to offer our users the best experience possible.

There are many exciting things planned, you will see them live on the site in the nearest future.

One of the most requested changes is coming very soon — we are completely redesigning and redeveloping the photo store experience on 500px. The current 500px photo stores, provided by our partner Fotomoto, are not ideal. Its platform, although powerful and feature rich, does not quite satisfy our high demands for quality of the user experience. So, we will not extend our contact with Fotomoto, and they will end supporting stores on 500px on September 27, 2011.

We are working hard to make the transition as seamless and transparent as possible. Most of the features you are used to will be preserved in the new 500px stores. And the look and feel will be completely new and improved.

As always — great user experience is our top priority, this will never change. If you would like further information on our roadmap and future development, follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/500px

Oleg Gutsol,

President and Technical Director, 500px

After reading the email, I was a little sad to see the FotoMoto service leaving 500px but also interested in seeing what was coming down the road…good stuff it seems.

Within a few hours of receiving the 500px email, I received an email from FotoMoto.   A copy of the email in its entirety is below.

Dear Fotomoto / 500px members,

As you may already know, Fotomoto is going to stop providing service to 500px platform at the end of today. Unfortunately 500px didn’t meet their business and technical commitments. After several unsuccessful attempts and unanswered emails to solve their issues, we had to send them a notice last week informing them that we are terminating our contract with 500px (which is a slightly different from what they mentioned in their email).

If you have sold any photo(s) using Fotomoto, your Fotomoto balance is available to you at your Fotomoto dashboard. And of course, Fotomoto will still be available on your other websites and platforms.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. As always, we are committed to our members and to our product experience. In the next few weeks you will start seeing more print products and more features from Fotomoto, stay tuned.

Best regards

Ahmad Kiarostami

Co-founder and CEO

Interesting.  Two emails with two different approaches.

The first from 500px was professional and stated that 500px and FotoMoto were parting ways in a professional manner.  Contrast that email with the FotoMoto email. Within the first paragraph, they begin to point fingers and place blame.  Compare that to the 500px email – which starts out thanking users and praising FotoMoto but claiming its time to move on.

Whenever I see this type of finger pointing, I can only think poorly of the company doing the pointing.  In this case, FotoMoto has lost a great opportunity to take the high road. How nice it would have been to have the an email from them saying ‘we are parting ways but have nothing but good things to say about 500px – good luck.’  That would have been classy.

Instead, FotoMoto places blame on 500px.  They claim emails weren’t answered. They claim 500px is to blame. They are pointing fingers.

Here’s a little piece of advice for the FotoMoto team (and anyone else):

Customers don’t care who’s at fault. We just want to know what’s happening and how it affects us…and what you are going to do about it or what we need to do about it.

At the end of the day…I don’t care if 500px was at fault or if it was FotoMoto who messed up…all I care about is how this will be resolved so I can continue to use the service(s).

Don’t place blame or point fingers.  Take the high road….it might be more work and a longer trek, but you’ll be surprised at how far that road takes you.

For me – this episode was all it took to cross FotoMoto off my list of preferred vendors / services…a simple act by the CEO of sending out a poorly thought out email caused FotoMoto to lose me as a customer.

Image Credit: [Social Media Week] E se fossero i Social Media ad usare Voi? By Simone Lovati on flickr

Over the years, more and more of my purchases have moved to Amazon. I’ve bought books, coffee, electronics, camera equipment and just about everything else you can think of.  They have everything…and they are cheap too.  Plus…..the whole free shipping (with prime membership) and no taxes makes it that much better.

So…how can a brick and mortar store compete with Amazon?

The first way – the store is ‘there’ for those folks that need something NOW.     Another way – Price matching.  Yet another – service.

Competing with Amazon – Fry’s

Take Fry’s for example. They have a store that I can visit when I need something ‘now’.   I make a visit to their store once or twice a month when I need something ‘today’.  Even better, they’ve started price matching other competitors.  Now…I can pick up something from Fry’s and pay the same price as Amazon – which is nice for those things I can’t wait for.  Sure…I pay taxes but that’s not too bad usually.  Additionally, Fry’s staff are usually pretty friendly and helpful.

So..While Fry’s isn’t my first thought for electronics and computer equipment, it is #2 on my list (Amazon is #1 of course).

I don’t know how well Fry’s is doing financially, but I suspect they are doing OK…the local store is always packed so I suspect their revenue is decent.

Fry’s has found a way to compete.  They have brick and mortar stores, they have an amazing selection, have decent prices and provide pretty good service.

Will I always buy from Frys’?  No…I’ll look online first.  But…I’ve come to the point of checking Fry’s to see what they have.  They’ve done a decent job of getting ‘mindshare’ from me.

Now…let’s compare and contrast Fry’s with the disaster that is Best Buy.

NOT competing with Amazon – Best Buy

I’ve found myself really loathing Best Buy (BB) lately.

When i go into a BB, I walk around in a daze.  I can’t find anything as there’s not really any organization (at least at my local store).

I can’t find anyone to help if I have questions…what happened to all the Blue Shirts that could answer my questions?

The prices aren’t bad but they aren’t good enough to lure me back time after time.

An example – I visited BB this week to pick up a laptop hard drive.  I needed it that evening since my wife’s laptop hard drive had become corrupted.  The closest store was a Best Buy (and it was also next to another store my wife wanted to visit).  So…off we went to BB.

I dropped Tracie off at the other store and went to Best Buy.

I walked back to the computer area and began looking for hard drives.

And I looked.

And I looked.

I walked around every aisle with no luck.

I searched for a Blue Shirt but couldn’t find one…finally, I stepped into the break area in the back of the store to see if I could find some help. There were 10 employees back there doing what looked like nothing (I could be wrong…they may have been in a meeting but it didn’t look like it). I asked for help.

One of the blue shirts reluctantly agreed to help me.  I told him what i was looking for and he led me out to the hard drives. They were on the opposite side of the store from the rest of the computer ‘stuff’…poor location for sure.

Once I found the hard drives, I was surprised at the lack of selection. They had a grand total of three hard drives for laptops.  Not three different types…three drives that were all the same.  And…of course, they weren’t the size or speed that I wanted.

I asked the blue shirt if that was his entire selection and he said ‘Yes’.   My response to him was ‘how do you stay in business’.

Disappointed, I pulled out my phone, pulled up the Amazon.com App, found the drive i needed and ordered while standing in Best Buy (with the Blue Shirt watching me). I got a better drive (more space / faster drive) for about $50 cheaper than the BB small/slow drive.

After this latest experience at Best Buy (there were many many more disappointing experiences before this one), I have to ask myself…what is Best Buy’s focus?  Are they a computer store? An entertainment store (movies, electronics, etc)?  What are they?

Their focus is hard to discern.  But…Fry’s isn’t really focused either…and they seem to be doing OK.  So…what’s the problem?

I can’t answer that question…but I can say there’s a problem with Best Buy. If they are going to have a broad focus (computers, hardware, cameras, entertainment, appliances, etc etc) then they need to have the appropriate inventory and selections to be compete.

Not only does Best Buy not compete with Amazon, they aren’t competing with Fry’s.

There’s a broad lesson here…

If you’re going to compete, then compete. Don’t try to compete.

Don’t try to be all things to all people if you don’t have the capabilities.

In today’s world of electronics, books, computers (and darn near everything else) – you’re competing with Amazon.  To succeed, you’ve got to provide something of value to your potential clients. You’ve got to provide service and you’ve got to have what people want.

The same can be said for every other industry.

If you’re a social media consultant, what are you bringing to your clients that they can’t get elsewhere?

If you’re a professional wedding photographer who charges $2000 for a wedding, what are you doing to show that you deliver value over the $200 wedding photographer?

As a technology consultant, I pride myself on being much more than a technology consultant. I know technology, but i also know a ton about marketing, business, finance, HR and other areas of the business plus I understand the processes within those functions.  I deliver more value for my clients than other technology consultants do.

The main lesson here – if you’re going to compete with the big dog(s), you’ve got to be focused, you’ve got to deliver and provide top-notch service your clients.  Amazon is the big dog…they know how to do that. Fry’s has figured out how to compete.  Best Buy has lost the competive edge.

Are you going to be the Amazon, Fry’s or Best Buy in your industry?

Image Credit: Best Buy, You Disappoint Me By Rob Boudon on flickr

There are tons of professionals out there. Professional sports players. Professional money managers. Professionals in the medical and legal industrys.

Over the last 10 years, there’s been a move to make darn near every type of job a ‘professional’ type of job – “Professional” project managers (PMP), Professional HR managers (PHR / SPHR) and even developers / IT personnel have gotten in on the act with certifications like the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).

Now…there’s nothing wrong with the above certificates at all.  If you’ve earned a cert, be proud of it…but don’t expect to be immediately seen as a ‘professional’ just because you’ve got a piece of paper. Same goes for degrees too…go read a great piece by JK Allen that touches on this topic in a post titled Who Needs a MBA (or any Degree) When You Have Hustle?

But…if a piece of paper / certificate doesn’t make you a professional…what does?

Simple – an attitude.  Yes…an attitude.

Of course…don’t try to be a Doctor or Lawyer with just your attitude…you’d definitely need to have the requisite school/cert/paper there.  But…for most everything else in life – attitude works wonders.

A few examples of Professionalism

My wife and I recently listed our house for sale. While getting the house ready for sale, we noticed a few issues that would need to be fixed. A couple of our windows had their seals broken and needed to be replaced and a few sprinklers needed to be fixed.

We listed these issues on the Seller’s Disclosure listing and made note that they’d be fixed before selling.

We called out a Window repair company, a Carpet Cleaning company, an AC and Heat company and a sprinkler repair company.   I was really surprised to find that each and every person that came out to the house was a professional.  Not necessarily because of a certificate or license – but because of their attitude.

Their attitude was focused on service and professionalism. They all wanted to do the right thing for me…they also all went above and beyond.

The window folks – JJ’s Window Services in Dallas – did a great job.  Highly recommended.  If their website was working, I’d include the link…will add it if their website starts working again.

The Carpet guy - Infinity Carpet and Tile Cleaning – what an awesome job they did.  The owner, Michael Adkins  is a professional…..he spent way more time at our house cleaning our carpet than he really needed to.

The AC & Heat Guy – Dwight from Dwight’s Heating and Air – is a consummate professional.  I know that if I need any service for air conditioning or heating system repair or help, Dwight’s there for me. I’ve used him 4 or 5 times over he last 8 years…awesome service.

The Sprinkler repair guy – Mac from American Irrigation and Landscape – is just as awesome as the others.  Mac was a professional with a capital “P”.  I want to take a second to highlight what Mac did for…he’s actually the reason for this post.

Mac the Sprinkler Pro

Mac was supposed to be at the house between 5 and 6PM.  He called at about 5:30 to tell me he was running late and would probably be about 45 minutes to an hour late.  I wasn’t happy that he was going to be late – but at least he had the professionalism to call and tell me.

When Mac arrived, he immediately set out to solve my sprinkler problems.  First step though – a free sprinkler system tune-up…I like that

After the tune-up, he dug (literally) into the sprinkler problems.  I had one sprinkler head that had come loose and needed fixed along with a leak that had sprung from a capped sprinkler head under my patio.

Rather than stand around and think about the problem, Mac got to digging.  He fixed the first problem within about a minute and jumped over to problem #2.

While Mac worked, he kept me in the loop on what he was doing and why.  He explained why he was digging where he was digging. He explained why he was digging the way he was (because he wanted to save the top layer of soil and grass).

He fixed both problems within about 15 minutes.  He wasn’t slacking…he was digging and moving fast.    For a man / company that was paid by the hour, he was moving a lot faster than I expected him to.

In addition to solving my immediate problems, Mac gave me some hints on ways to not have these problems again.  He told me where to go buy my sprinkler heads and supplies (local irrigation supply store…don’t but them from Home Depot). He also gave me some hints on keeping the grass watered while not wasting water.

Overall, Mac was a great guy.  He solved my problems and he educated me.

He also made me a customer for life.

You see…it wasn’t the fact that Mac had a license from the state of Texas that made him a professional.  What made him a pro was the fact that he had the right attitude. He approached service the right way.  Sure…he was late….but he let me know he was going to be late before he was late.

The key to Mac’s professionalism – his attitude.  He was focused on doing the job and doing it right. He was focused on providing the best service he could provide too.

So..for everyone out there who’s relying on a certificate, degree or some other form of validation of your professionalism - you’ve gone down the wrong path.

Professionalism isn’t found in a certificate or piece of paper.  Its found in your heart and in your mind.  Its your attitude toward your job, life and the world.

Get the right attitude + some ‘hustle‘ and you’ll have it made.

Image Credit: Picture 079 By BurningQuestion on flickr

See…when someone in a support position tells me they can’t help me, i get angry. In this particular case, what tipped me over the edge and caused a couple of expletives to roll out of my mouth was the response from the company’s support rep.

They said:

I’m sorry but that isn’t a problem I can help you with.  You’ll need to go to our website and file a ticket to get help.

Listen up  support and call center managers –  if I’m on the phone with you, I’ve done everything i could do prior to placing that phone call. I’ve read all your support material, been through your support / discussion forum and done as much research as possible.   I’ve read about the other people having the same problem…and I’ve seen your lack of response to their online requests for help.

You see…if i thought your online support system actually worked and was a viable approach, I would have tried to submit a ticket there…but with the other people having the same trouble, I figured a phone call is in order.

Now…granted…many people don’t take the time to do the research before calling support, but I do.

Regardless, if someone is on the phone with you / your support team, the last thing you should do is to tell them you can’t help them and they will need to go file a support request on your website.

Why?

Because it tells that person that they aren’t important and their problem isn’t important.

Of course, your support model might be built on a paid support model and/or tiered levels of support.  Perhaps a user calls in to get support and they aren’t entitled to it – feel free to explain your support model to them and offer them an upgrade to be able to get support.

But…if that user has a valid support agreement, help them out. Please?

Rather than telling me to go to the website and file a ticket, the customer support rep could have easily opened a ticket and explained why he couldn’t help me on the phone and explained what the process would look like moving forward. That would have been helpful. I wouldn’t have gotten so angry with that approach…but instead, I was told to basically ‘go away’.

Will i continue to use this company’s product/service? Yes…but it will take a while before I pay them any more money…if i give them any more money at all. This one interaction with their support team has pushed me from being an evangelist for them to being someone that just might point people away from this company.

PS – I told a friend about this experience and she said “sounds like every phone call that I make to my IT helpdesk”.  There’s something telling in that…but that’s a post for another time

Image Credit: scream and shout By mdanys on flickr

“Just” a customer is someone you force to call an 800 number to get service.

“Just” a customer is someone that has to spend 10 minutes on the phone working through the maze of the automated phone system before talking to a real person.

“Just” a customer is someone that you tell ‘sorry…you are under contract and must pay $125 to cancel before your 1 year anniversary”…..when that anniversary date is 2 days away.

“Just” a customer is someone that you really don’t care about keeping.

I hate being “just” a customer.

If you treat me like “just”a customer, you can expect me to treat you similarly.

When I call you to inquire about my service and it takes me 3 phone calls and 30 minutes of hold time, don’t expect me to be receptive to your offers to ‘increase’ my service for your  ‘one-time special offer’.

Don’t treat me like Vonage just did and make me wait on hold for 10 minutes then connect me to someone with extremely poor phone service (vonage….you ARE a phone service provider, are you not?)  and tell me that I agreed to a ‘cancellation fee’ if I cancel within a year of my order date….and my year anniversary date is in 2 days.

Don’t treat me like Legal Zoom did either. Don’t use an under-handed technique to sell me on your service. Don’t offer me 3 free months of service than automatically charge me for a year of service without informing me that an annual charge is about to be placed.  Mind you…I wanted the extra year of service….but just remind me about the charge beforehand.

Treat me like Ooma did when I called them a few weeks ago.  Answer the phone and ask me how my day is going. Answer my questions quickly, clearly and with information rather than sales speak.  (I’m now an Ooma user..and love it).

Treat me like AppSumo did when they thought I’d unsubscribed due to something they had done.  They reached out and apologized (even though it wasn’t their fault).

Treat me like “just” a customer and you’ll be one of the first companies / services I cut when I want/need to save money.

Treat me like a person and you’ll be amazed at how quickly I open my wallet and how much money I’m willing to spend with you.

Image Credit: Customer Service By Here’s Kate on flickr

I didn’t unsubscribe willy-nilly though…I kept those that I found interesting and/or that I look forward to reading.

One of the newsletters that I unsubscribed from was the AppSumo notification service for new deals. Now…I’ve purchased a package through AppSumo in the past and definitely signed up for their email alerts and find the service to be pretty cool.

Why did I unsubscribe? Well…in the last few alerts I didn’t see anything that caught my fancy.  So…I unsubscribed.

Today…I received a short email from Noah Kagan from AppSumo apologizing for the email (since I’d unsubscribed from the alert service yesterday) and apologizing for the previous email.

Apparently, the most recent email alert sent by AppSumo was a bit long and a lot of folks complained about it and/or unsubscribed from the service after receiving the email.  Noah apologized for the email length and asked whether there was anything that he and AppSumo could do to improve in the future.

At first, I figured this was a blast email to all customers but it didn’t appear that way. It was short, honest and open….so I responded with my above reason for unsubscribing.

Imagine my surprise when i received an immediate response back from Noah.  Here’s a guy that’s busy as can be running this great little web company and he’s responding back to little ol’ me within seconds.

That response cementing my relationship with AppSumo. I immediately renewed my subscription to the newsletter and am looking forward to seeing what comes across my inbox in the future.

Lessons

There’s a lot to be learned from little event.

First, its a simple lesson in being human and admitting that a mistake was made (although I didn’t unsubscribe because of that mistake) and asking for feedback on how things can be improved.

The simple act of admitting that a mistake was made and asking for feedback on how to improve for the future occurs rarely today in my experience.

When was the last time you received a simple email like this at your office?  When was the last time you admitted you made a mistake?  We all make mistakes…why not learn from them and move forward?

When was the last time you reached to your client(s) and asked for feedback on how you can improve something that didn’t work out exactly as planned?

Or…even more importantly…when was the last time you asked your client(s) how to improve service after a successful project / interaction?

While its good to ask for forgiveness and feedback if you make a mistake, it can be just as good to ask for feedback when you do things right.

Kudos to Nathan and AppSumo.  Go check them out and sign up…they have some great applications. They’ve got a customer for life here because they took a few minutes from their day and sent an email  asking for feedback.

Image Credit: Customer Service By nffcnnr on flickr

CRM tools do not equal CRM (yes…I know…I’ve said it twice…but it IS important).

For the geeks out there, let me spell it out for you too – CRM tools != CRM. Or perhaps if you know your FORTRAN 77 (I taught it for 3 years…ugh) – CRM tools .NE. CRM.

Ok…now that we’ve gotten that out there…let’s take a second to look at the world of CRM.

Customer Relationship Management – CRM

According to the all-knowing wikipedia, Customer Relationship Management is defined as:

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support

Emphasis mine.

To put it more succinctly, CRM is a strategy for managing the relationship with customers using technology to automate & organize the interactions. Love it.

I’m a big fan of CRM. I think the idea has helped many organizations build stronger relationships…and CRM tools have helped drive customers away too.

A tool is a tool

Imagine you’re a project manager. Is the whole of your job wrapped up in the tool you use to manage projects? Can anyone grab a copy of Microsoft project and start managing projects?

Sure…they can build gantt charts and make schedules…but Microsoft Project is not Project Management.

The same is true for any organization using CRM tools. Sure, the tools are available and anyone can use them…but just because you use them, doesn’t mean you are actually ‘doing’ CRM.

True CRM is wrapped around strategic thought. True CRM is looking at methods to truly connect with your customer(s). True CRM requires a ‘think; do’ mentality (i.e.,  think about it first, then do it).

I’m always amazed when I see an organization using CRM without having put any real thought into the tool and the context in which the tool is used.

Let’s look at an example.

Using CRM – A Good & Bad (and worst?) Example

I’ve recently looked into getting a loan to refinance my mortgage. Our current mortgage is a 30 year fixed mortgage with a 5.875% rate. Not bad…but with rates as low as 4.5% these days, it makes sense to look at refinancing at a lower rate…and perhaps move from a 30 year note (with ~23 years left on the note) to a 15 year note. At current rates, the move to a 15 year note would keep my payments basically equivalent.

So…I decided to see what type of rates I could get. I contacted three mortgage brokers via email and got three completely different responses.

Initial Response

Broker #1 responded quickly to my initial request in a very personal and direct manner. He told me what information he would need from me and what the process would look like. He also said he’d be calling me later in the day to chat.

Broker #2 also responded quickly via phone. I happened to be busy when he called so he got my voicemail. He left a message stating that he’d call me back. I then received an email stating the same but in a very ‘automatic email’ voice. And then 5 minutes later I received another call from him. And another email similar in vein to the first. I emailed him back and told him I’d prefer that he call me later in the day. I received an automated response that was exactly the same as the first email I received. More on Broker #2 in a moment.

Broker #3 didn’t respond to my email.

Follow Up

Broker #1 called me when he said he would. We talked about my situation and what I was trying to do and he told me he’d get some quotes to me via email later in the day. About 20 minutes after the call, I received a nice email from the broker thanking me for the time on the phone and reiterating what we spoke about. This email was obviously from a CRM tool but was personalized to me and our conversation.

Broker #2 called me later in the day and put the full force sales pitch on me. This guy is the guy you think about when you think of a salesman. You know the guy…he doesn’t listen, cuts you off and just generally makes an ass of himself. After 15 minutes of him telling me how good he is, he told me he’d get me a few quotes for new loan options.

Broker #3 never called.

Follow Through

I received the quotes from Broker #1 and Broker #2. They were basically the same in terms of rates. I told them both that I’d need a few days to look them over and think about what I wanted to do.

Broker #1 responded to my email with a “thanks…let me know how you want to proceed.”

Broker #2 responded to my email with another canned response.

Over the next 2 days, I received 3 emails and 2 phone calls from Broker #2. Each email was the same and the phone calls were received at the same time of the day.

I finally called Broker #3. BTW – some background on this broker….they are all over the airwaves in Dallas about being DFW’s #1 mortgage broker. When I called them….I got a person on the phone who couldn’t answer any of my questions, didn’t seem interested in talking to me and when I asked if I could use a system online to fill out any forms he said yes…he would email me the info. I received an email from him the following day with a PDF attached asking me to fill out the information and fax it back.

Outcome

Its been 2 weeks since that first email to the three brokers. I’ve decided not to do anything just yet (we are thinking about moving next year and it doesn’t make financial sense to spend the money to refinance right now).

Broker #1 took the news in stride and said ‘call me when you want me to help with the new mortgage’.

Broker #2 didn’t respond directly but continued to send me canned emails generated from his CRM tool. These emails tell me what a great service he offers, what low rates I can get and how much he values his customers.

Broker #3 just called me back. 4 phone calls in 4 hours. Yikes.

So…the point of my story?

Broker #1 used a CRM tool…but he had a strategy for using it. It was a tool to allow him to manage the relationship.  He will get my business in the future.  If you need a mortgage in Texas…definitely call Brian Palmer at Pinnacle Financial Group at 972-529-6845.

Broker #2 used a CRM tool…but he saw it more as an advertising and marketing tool to ‘blast’ his customers. He hasn’t figured out that CRM is concerned with the relationship.

Broker #3 is an idiot, obviously.

In Closing

CRM, like most other things in life, requires some thought be put into the approach.  Just because you are using a CRM tool, doesn’t mean you are managing the customer relationship…it could just mean you are pissing off your potential customers.

Take a page from Broker #1′s playbook…figure out how you want to interact with your customers then implement a CRM strategy & platform to meet your needs.

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Well…today I’m going to praise PortfolioSitez, a Blu Domain competitor.    In our search for a web host for my wife’s photography business, a moment to keep photography, we ran across quite a few services.  Blu Domain was of course one of the worst customer service experiences ever…..and Portfoliositez has been the best!

Prior to signing up with Portfoliositez, we asked for access to a demo site to check out there service…we were provide a demo login and got a play around with the front end and back end system.  Its a great administration system and very very simple to use.

We decided to go ahead and sign up with Portfoliositez and within a day we had our system setup and ready to go.  My wife spent a few days getting the site setup and laid out the way she wanted it while I setup the blog (wordpress of course!) and client proofing system (PhotoCart).

We turned the new system live and we were running wonderfully…for about 3 weeks.  The day that she posted a new set of pictures from a recent wedding, the site went down hard.  I took a look at the system and could see that the webserver wasn’t responding…so I had to contact Portfoliositez customer service.

I submitted a trouble ticket at 8:45AM on Monday and called the helpdesk phone number and left a voicemail (their office hours are 9AM to 5PM M-F).

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Now….in situations like this, you really get a chance to test an organization/person.  Portfoliositez came through with flying colors.  With some organizations, we may have been offline for a few hours or days…with this wonderful bunch of folks, we were offline for less than an hour.

If you or someone you know are looking for a portfolio site for your photography work I’d strongly recommend Portfoliositez.