Writelife

Over at Seth Godin’s blog he posted a little something called The Selfish Marketer (part XIV). It’s absurd, so much so it’s funny. But it’s also a good example of what happens when you don’t follow a process through like a customer. (Something I touched on from a support perspective in Web writing rule 5 - know a little but not a lot.)

The item on his blog is of a company’s online tool and the message it presents to potential customers. After a user enters the appropriate information, the system provides instructions, locations etc. Except in this case the message comes back that service isn’t available in the area.

Well, that’s fine – a company can’t always be ubiquitous. But the “no service available” also contains pleasant text telling the user to call their toll free line where, as Seth puts it:

I called the number they asked me to call. I spoke to Cheryl, who was very friendly. I read her the message. She said, "Oh no, we don’t serve your area."

She goes on to say the reason they wanted him to call was so they could say so “officially.”

So what really happened here? Either or both of two things:

- They didn’t go through the process as all users would, meaning they didn’t study all the scenarios

- They didn’t communicate the tool and process internally which would have meant their call centre would have been up to speed and ready to handle calls like Seth’s

Had they done these two things (neither of which would have been much effort or cost) they could have avoided annoying potential customers with silly redundancy and wasted time. Better still, they could have avoided wasted costs in their call centre by eliminating low value calls (or no value, as in this case).

They might even have taken the opportunity to lay the foundation for future sales by a simple message online that would have said, “Sorry, our service isn’t currently available in your area. To find an available service in your area, we suggest …”

They might have suggested something like a Google search, and what sort of search terms to put in. This wouldn’t have directly promoted a competitor but would have been a gesture at offering some help which would hopefully leave a good impression with the user even if it wasn’t realistically much help.

At the same time, the call centre (and everyone in the company) should be aware of the online tool. There should also be a strategy or some well-considered message for people for whom the service is unavailable. Don’t simply tell them they’re out of luck. Provide some suggestions as to what they might do so your company is seen as the kind of company they want to do business with. While a sale might not be there today, tomorrow is another thing altogether. That user might one day move to an area you do provide service in.

Don’t just sell your products and services. Use them. Be a customer. If you’re a customer first and a marketer second then you’ll have a much better sense for what a customer wants and expects.

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