You Know Your Customer Service Sucks When...

This is an Air Canada customer service response to a customer's complaint after the customer was bumped from four straight flights.

"We regret that you were dissatisfied with our response and our gesture of goodwill(the goodwill was 25% discount on the customer's next base fare flight)...while we understand that you are disappointed, we must remain consistent with our handling of similar requests for all customers".

Translation of last line: "We aren't going to do anything for you".

Here is what you should have done Air Canada.

Put the customer up in your Air Canada Lounge.

Buy them dinner and some beverages.

Upgrade them to business class when you finally put them on a flight.

If they are a frequent flyer bonus their account with miles for the inconvenience you caused them.

Offer them a free flight.

And to the tall foreheads at Air Canada, who wrote your customer service policy?

You don't ask a paying customer whom you have left a bad taste in their mouth to spend more money with you by offering a 25% discount on a full fare flight! That's not a gesture of goodwill, its an insult!

Tony Mariani

Pay Attention To Warranty Cards

Warranties. I often wonder if they are the biggest scam in the world. That little card when you buy a toaster, microwave or radio. I have even found one in a book shelf I bought. It warrantied the special screws.

Not that this is a a legitimate survey, but I asked 10 friends and co-workers if they have ever filled one of these warranty cards out. Zilch, zip, zero.

Take roof shingles. You can buy 10, 15, 20 and even 45 year shingles. But if you don't have the invoice for the shingles or fill out the warranty card, those shingles can be 100 year shingles, you are out of luck.

Have a look at this roof. These shingles are IKO 20 year shingles.



These shingles were put on 10 years ago.



This is the south side which gets most of the sun. Now look at the this picture of the north side of the house.



The warranty specialist at IKO who manufactured this shingles said, it looks like two different roofs.

This is my roof and no I did not install the shingles 10 years ago. When we bought the house, the shingles had been done the year before. No we do not have the bill and the previous owner was unable to find his records of the project.

I wasn't looking for them to give me free shingles to fix the south side just a break in the price to replace them. Pleading with the warranty specialist at IKO it looked like there was a glimmer of hope for a great deal on the shingles.

After a long pause came the question, "Are your soffits vented", asked the specialist. No my soffits are not vented but I do have three roof vents and a front to back airway in house peaks.

"Given your roof size you need at least 4 roof vents and the soffits need to also have venting. Your problem is you are getting to much hot air trapped in your attic and its causing your shingles to bake. Your problem is a venting issue not a manufacturing issue".

Which brings me back to the warranty. These shingles could have been 19 years old and I could have had the invoice and the crew's bill who installed them and that warranty would all mean bumpkiss. You see right in their FAQ section under Roof Types and Designs, how much ventilation do I need, there is a link to the CASMA site which goes on to explain how much you need, blah blah blah..

Now science was not my strong point in school and I did miss a lot of shops classes. But with all the hot air trapped in my roof wouldn't you think that the north side of my roof would have some "baking" to the shingles considering there are NO vents on my north side?

"Warranties, what are they good for, absolutely nothing"

I am thinking the warranty specialist at IKO might be full of hot air.

Tony Mariani

Pay Me Now United Airlines Or Pay Me Later

Dave Carroll's story is going to cause United Airlines nothing but headaches. In a nutshell, Carroll is aboard a United Airlines flight waiting to take off and witnesses the baggage handlers break his guitar.

United will not acknowledge the incident nor pay the $3500 to replace the instrument. So Carroll has created the first of three videos about the incident. You tube reports almost 2.5 million people have watched the funny music video.

You would think that someone at United would have handled this thing by now. Can you say Domino's Pizza and the public relations nightmare they went through earlier this year.

Hey United, get thee to some social media classes. This is going to leave a huge mark!





Tony Mariani

Tribes Are What Matter Now

Seth Godin is brilliant.

Buy his book Tribes. Look at it this way. If you were going for lunch you will likely spend about $20. So bring a bag lunch and use the money for the book. It will change the way you look at business.

Bon Appetit
Tony Mariani

You Lost Me At Hello

I was looking for a headphone/microphone for my laptop. I didn't know if I wanted the plug in one or the USB version.

My first stop is to the computer store that spends considerable advertising dollars and they were advertising both versions. I brought my laptop in and headed over to a salesperson and asked if I could test a unit before I bought it.

The sales person sent me over to service where I explained what I was looking for.

Here is how you lose a sale.

Service Guy-"We don't have any that you can try. You will have to buy it. If you have to return it, its an in store credit not refund."

So in a nano second all these things went through my mind:

Why wouldn't you have a display unit to test drive. I have my laptop with me. Is that not signal that I want to buy?

I am going to pay for it at that end of the counter and if it doesn't work I am going to walk 5 feet down that sales counter to return it but not for cash but an instore credit.

What makes you think I would want to shop here in the future.

I came in here to buy and you blew it.

Out the door and down the street to the competitor. Not only did they let me test drive it, the owner took personal care of me hooking it up to my computer, let me tap into his WIFI and I made calls using my SKYPE. Worked beautifully and I was a happy camper. Even better when I went to pay for it, it was on sale saving me another $10.

Here is the thing. All things being equal in price it all boils down to service and the first store failed because that employee was likely following store policy.

Like one of my first sales managers taught me, "Don't negotiate with me to make the deal. Save that for the customer." And, "its always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

You can't use the excuse that the advertising didn't work. Your company policy did that.

Tony Mariani

3 Questions Any Advertising Sales Person Should Ask

When you ask these 3 questions, be prepared for the owner to have the deer in the headlights look.

For the most part advertising is foreign. Its usually is done on a whim and a prayer.

So try these 3 questions.

1. You know Mr. Business Owner, advertising is an integral part of any business operation. Would you agree that you need a plan and stick with it to the end?

2. My experience has shown me that many businesses fail to put enough emphasis on an advertising plan over the long term. Worse many businesses do not measure how well their advertising is doing. How do you measure your advertising success?

3. How do you determine your advertising choices?

Try it on your next call and then come back and leave a comment of the call.

Betcha your answers will be priceless!

Tony Mariani

What If All Businesses Were Run The Zappos Way

I am following company CEO Tony Hsieh, on twitter. His twitter name is, zappos. It was somewhere among the tweets where I learned you could email Tony and he would send you a copy of Zappos 2008 Culture Book. A couple of hours after my email I received a return email from Tony telling me the book was on its way. And there it was a few days later sent by UPS.

The Culture Book is written by employees. Its refreshing to see a company empower their employees to WOW customers. What a novel idea, customer service.



Tony Mariani