Waiting for Service Amas Tenumah

What does the invention of the Air conditioner have to do with the call center?
We discuss the impact of your phone system to your customer experience.

The status quo is to focus on acquisition as opposed to retention. Most of the current approach is built on faulty premise that customers are promiscous.
 How can you build customer intimacy in a few clicks
Preview (see attachment or web link for the full transcript):
Speaker 0 (0s): Most of what you consume from so-called experts contains either half-truths outright lies or information that is not useful. They keep telling you how wet water is and you know, it is doing, you know, gut. I am committed to share in nothing but the absolute unfiltered on edited, no euphemism truths.

Every single time you hear my voice.

Speaker 2 (37s): Welcome everyone. I have been having this conversation with my friend, Ana, who is in Australia. We've been talking about human to human relationship in the customer experience on, are you still with me?

Speaker 3 (54s): I am still here. I must. Thanks for having me back.

Speaker 2 (58s): You're welcome. I am. I'm excited to have the second part of this conversation. So, you know, you educated me a lot around how we think about the front end of the funnel today and conversion and, and how that sort of operates. And now I want to turn the conversation and set the stage again into, in today's world. We acquire a customer, right? We deliver some goods and services to them, and then we never talked to them again, most companies.

And to the extent we talked to them, it's when they call in or email or go online and send the chat in and have a problem. And we work really, really, really hard to solve whatever problem it is they have, and then rinse and repeat. And then eventually like some relationships they want to break up with us, right? They say, Hey, I want the cans. I think about the cable companies. For example, the cable companies have a retention departments that if you called and said, Hey, I want to break up with you.

They send you there. But when you get to this place, it's not, let me tell you the value in of, they just simply go, Hey, I'll buy, you know, about, we give you a discount, right? Because you know, clearly I'm not a customer. I am for sale. I am some type of deal and they throw money at the problem and maybe the customer stays and maybe they don't. So as I think about your framework, first off, let's start by you just sort of saying like, why have we accepted this to be the norm?

And do you agree that there could be a better way of retention and loyalty than all the, all the ways we're doing it today?

Speaker 3 (2m 45s): Absolutely. And you know, it's not me saying it, look at the stats if retention and loyalty and all of that was not severely dysfunctional. Then we would have really good retention. And a lot of businesses would have really loyal fans. And that isn't the case right now, the status quo is to put all of the energy and all of the funding into customer acquisition, right? So customer acquisition costs are escalating. I think the latest Shopify figures show that customer acquisition costs are going through the roof.

It's becoming untenable to acquire customers. So unless you've got large pockets of VC funding and you're in the red as sustainable businesses, getting harder and harder. Why is, you know, we look at, and it's not just digital businesses. You look at established institutions like banks, right? And I'm sure it's the same in the states, as it is here in Australia, you're a loyal customer of a bank for years and years, you go in with a complaint and you say, listen, you've got to help me out. I want to stay with you. I want to stay with your institution, but this isn't working and they go, ah, too bad.

So sad. Right? So they're ha they're putting all of their energy into acquiring new customers. It's like we live in a, you know, if you look at e-commerce and digital commerce, we are effectively living in a Tinder world where at any moment in time, there's 2 billion people on your phone and you can keep swiping and going on d

-The status quo is to convert less than 5% of guests - Most of the current approach is built on faulty language -How can you build customer intimacy in a few clicks Connect with Anna - https://rammp.thinkific.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaharrison/ 

Government and citizen services Calling the Taliban government Has anyone knocked at your door yet? Why do you think the Taliban government can respond to citizens so much quicker than an American government agency? Quote: ‘The recent pandemic put a finer point on this century-long problem - when they were forced to shut down physical offices, the deficiencies in the system were further exposed.’ Are there any positive ways the pandemic can shape government services? Quote: ‘Most states are leaning into being digital-first - they’re putting greater emphasis on the websites and mobile apps’ Previously, and in the book, you recommended reaching out to your local representative, how would that be helpful when your issue is about government services? Post office Started hilariously Quote: “The post office seems to be trying to be good at customer service, but they’re still failing. I know they’re trying to be good because they have a massive banner in their offices that says they care about the customer experience. Yet, they proceed to make you wait for hours and deal with rude employees What is caring then? How are they bad Why are they bad Are they sour that they aren’t so necessary anymore? Are they stuck between a rock and a hard place? . #waitingforservice #customerexperience #customerservice #amastenumah

Quote “I used to say I was stuck in an abusive relationship with American Airlines.”  My first experience with an American Airline - is this the norm? Airlines are notoriously hated Was it the same customer experience regardless of which country the airline is from? How many different airlines have you used while jet setting? waitingforservice #customerexperience #customerservice #amastenumah

Shauna and Amas continue the conversation and laughs while discussing Waiting for Service.  Is the start up cost of setting up good customer service always the sticking point?
ROI of customer service
American vs British customer service