“In Search of Excellence – Or Not”
I spend a lot of time these days, as you all probably do, talking to people like “Claire” and “Peter” in the Philippines, “Kevin” and “Ginger” in Puna, India and even occasionally, “Chad,” in Texas. If you need to service your laptop, use your frequent flier miles, book an airline ticket or obtain a new credit card, chances are your call is routed overseas to some 24/7 call center somewhere in the world where everyone pretends they speak the same English we do.
Since countries that trade and integrate their economies together usually don’t go to war with each other, one might say globalization helps preserve peace in the neighborhood. But large American firms don’t move jobs offshore for such altruistic reasons. They do it to lower costs, improve the bottom line and return greater equity to shareholders. As head of an Economic Development Association, I’m all for that, with one caveat they must never forget: Quality of Service.
Lost in translation from America to India to the Philippines and only God knows where else is the simple concept of providing quality of service to customers. When firms forget that only by delivering quality to clients do they sustain the bottom line, we are all the worse for it. Short term profits do not drive long term shareholder equity.
Here are a few examples which I sure many of you have experienced with the names changed to protect the guilty:
For a recent flight back east I went to the website of my air miles partner, “Disorganized Airlines,” and tried to book the same flight through Denver as VCEDA president, Bill Buratto. After repeated dead end loops and site crashes, I gave up and called the 800 number. There I was “processed” by an Automatic Robotic Voice that refused to book me on the same flight as Bill, insisting repeatedly that I transfer through Chicago. Only when I screamed “Help” at the top of my lungs for the fifth time, did the Robot switch me to “Kevin” in Puna India. Though “Kevin” didn’t know the difference between Denver and Chicago, his supervisor, “Ginger,” did. Time wasted to book a simple flight, two hours.
Frustrated by this total lack of serviceable service, I decided to switch credit cards and mileage partners only to run into “Claire” and “Peter” in Manila whose commanded of English went no further than their sales script. More time wasted, and without success.
Lastly I felt compelled to write the following letter to the founder of a well know computer company for reasons you will all understand.
Dear Mr. “Acme:”
I am a Financial Advisor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ventura County (CA) Economic Development Association (VCEDA), an organization that counts among its members, 350 of the largest businesses in Ventura County, California, including such firms as Amgen, BMW of North America, BHP Billiton, Haas Automation and Rockwell Scientific.
I am writing to you and several other members of your senior management team as an ordinary citizen though, because the customer support structure at the firm that bears your name has made it virtually impossible to actually receive any service in connection with my eight month old laptop. This comes despite numerous attempts over the past month to contact anyone at Acme through telephone, e-mail or the web regarding the repeated crashing of my computer. Your business strategy has effective rendered my warranty useless, making it impossible to reliable use your product.
Consequently I am asking Acme to immediately reimburse me the approximately $1,400 this laptop cost me.
In speaking with many other Acme users, it is obvious that my experience is far from an isolated one. To put it mildly your firm’s current concept of service is nothing short of a nightmare. It comes as little surprise that your earnings and stock price have crashed of late and that numbers of Federal and state agencies have begun to investigate this once proud firm.
In my role as Board Chair of VCEDA, I write a bi-monthly column which is occasionally picked up and distributed by other business journals. Over the course of a thirty year business career I’ve published books through Random House and have had stories in such diverse places as the Washington Post, NBC Productions, Horizon Magazine and the Pacific Coast Business Times.
In one of my next columns, “The Search for Excellence – Or Not,” I intend to use my experience with attempting to get service for your lap top as an example of how a potentially great American company, in search of short term profits lost sight of a fundamental principal of economics which leads to the ultimate destruction of shareholder value: You can’t succeed in business if you alienate your customers.
What I would rather write however is a success story, one where a great American company comes to it senses and realizes that in its drive to make profits and drive sales, it did in fact make errors and now has the wisdom to correct them. Help me write that ending.
This goes beyond just reimbursing me. It means taking a wholesale look at how you have gone about marketing a product with so many commercial links and add-ons, that makes it challenging for even an experienced user to operate and for so devaluing your service department that it makes it virtually impossible to access the value of a warranty.
The particulars of my problem, including the error message that freezes my laptop, the original bill, etc., are enclosed, but let me be clear that I am not am amateur user. I have been working with and programming desk top units since the early 1980’s and was in fact the first executive at ABC headquarters in Los Angeles to lug in my own computer, a 128k Kaypro, to facilitate my job at the network.
Your current strategy of loading your new laptop with automatic downloads from joint marketing partners may seem like a viable way to bring down costs and add shareholder value, but from a consumer perspective, it frankly stinks. During the set up phase it is difficult to discriminate between what is essential and what is simply commercial hype. This automatic downloading is also probably responsible for the problem I currently experiencing, but that is a fact I can not confirm or fix because I can not ever, ever reach any one in your service department.
Beyond alienating users, the fact that you effectively render the warranty useless while charging for it probably constitutes a violation of Federal interstate commerce laws, a fact all too many State Attorney Generals looking ahead to their next election would love to take advantage of, not to mention how many class action lawsuit hungry legal firms would salivate at taking on a another big name firm.
Personally I am not interested in any of that. I simply want a reliable computer, one that does not crash 3-4 times a week. Please refund my money, get me out of my personal misery and while you are at it, fix your firm so that the Acme Experience becomes something truly worthwhile. The alternatives are not really that pleasant for any of us.
Thank you.”
To Acme’s credit “Chad” from a “High Level Resolution Unit” Texas called the same day my snail mail letter reached the founder to try and rectify my situation. Chad and I in fact spoke or e-mailed almost every other day trying to resolve the issues with my computer. And when that failed, he sent me a new and upgraded model.
I’ve learned from other sources that Acme has gotten the message. They are bringing home their call centers, integrating them directly into the company so employees have a sense of ownership and a career path. Acme is focusing on cleaning up its act.
Now, if only the rest of those once proud American companies get the message: Quality Counts. It is “Job One.”
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