Customer Satisfaction and Reputation Management

ForeSee runs a ecommerce survey of on line retailers twice a year. Here are some of the winners and losers. Top performers were Amazon, Avon and J.C. Penny online stores. At the bottom of the heap were Gap.com, Overstock.com and Buy.com. The biggest loser was Netflix, down 8 points from last year. Netflix drop is being attributed to its change in pricing and business model earlier in 2011. It’s fall from grace was swift. Get the full story from ForeSee. Link in the blog post.

Just a few days after FedEx had a delivery fiasco go viral on Youtube, UPS was caught in a similar situation. While not as extreme as the FedEx error, the driver was quite intentional in his action. The driver gave the camera that was recording him the’ third finger salute’ and then threw the box on the customer’s doorstep. The box appears to be from Zappos. It is possible that the contents were shoes or clothing which were not likely to break but Zappos do sell accessories which might be damaged. Here’s the video which has been seen far fewer times though other sites also are showing the video. Notice the difference in how the crisis was handled by UPS compared to Fed Ex.

On Dec 19, 2011, a Youtube video was uploaded showing a FedEx Employee delivering a monitor by throwing it over the fence. It went viral. As I write this post it has been seen more than 5.7 Million times. Imagine the embarrassment of FedEx! FedEx responded with a video of their own with 11 elements worth noting. Alas the video has only been seen by about 5% of those who saw the first video.

It is a well know fact that customer satisfaction can have significant impact on the business bottom line. So when we hear that a company goes bankrupt, we, as customer satisfaction professionals, should check how the company was perceived in the marketplace. According to a report, published in October, 2011, by Amplicate on US airlines, American Airlines was Americas most hated airline on social media for the previous 12 months.

Conversocial has released two studies this year, one for the UK and another for the US, showing how well retailers are responding to customers on Social Media: Facebook in particular. According to the US study, Retailers did not respond to 65 percent of complaints and questions on their Facebook pages during a five-day period in September 2011.

Sony and Apple have been hit with customer dissatisfaction recently: Apple for it location based data being stored on iPhones and iPads and Sony for its Playstation Network Data Breach. In each case, while the company responded to user concerns, they did so late, later than customers expected. During crisis situations, responsiveness is key to maintaining customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

In a recent Toronto Star automotive article titled Phone Apps connect Customers, Dealerships, highlighted an example of how a smart phone application can do away with the need for a customer to call for a car service appointment, thereby eliminating the customer service representative on the other end of the phone. When the customer arrives at the dealership, the service staff is waiting avoiding line ups and paperwork. At the end of the repair, the customer can use a smartphone to pay.

IBM has recently announced new software portfolio called IBM Customer Experience Suite. According to Fast Company in an article called Why IBM could be bigger than Facebook in Social Media , this software announcement is a clear indication that social media has changed the business landscape. However, a key tool and process does not seem to be part of IBM’s approach.

United Airlines is in the news again. After the fiasco with United Breaks Guitars, a video that went viral on Youtube about a damaged guitar, United lost a passenger’s luggage and even after 6 weeks, refused to refund the $25.00 baggage fee they charged. The passenger filed a small claims complaint in a US court. He also wrote about it in Yahoo Finance.

Toyota’s customer satisfaction woes continue to climb. On April 5, 2010, Toyota US may face a $16.4 Million fine for the delay in announcing the recall of Toyota vehicles over accelerator pedal flaws. The US government claims that Toyota was hiding the defect and was slow to report it. This action will also be a warning to other auto manufacturers and manufacturers in general about the seriousness of dealing with customer satisfaction and safety issues.