Fresh Thoughts

Online invoicing & payment is very important for businesses today and it helps immensely to have a seamless setup that integrates with your other functions such as CRM, customer support, project management etc. 

Online invoicing provider Fetchflow is now integrated with Freshdesk.  You can now import contacts from Freshdesk to Fetchflow allowing you to seamlessly bring all customer contacts into Fetchflow. Fetchflow also periodically syncs contacts with Freshdesk to keep all contact information up to date.

You’ll need an account with Fetchflow to take advantage of the integration. For detailed instructions on how to link it with Freshdesk, check out Fetchflow’s integration tutorial here.

Customer support is always a firefighting job. It is easy for service reps to get frustrated, and often the monotony of the job can translate to bad service. Plus add to it the fact that customers are already frustrated with a problem when they reach customer support. Only a good service representative can turn the tide over. 

Remember one of those "nothing-seems-to-go-your-way" days, when you walked in to your neighborhood cafe and the smiling barista went the extra mile to create the perfect blend to lighten your spirits? Or the time the support agent at your bank patiently answered your every query, without putting you on hold or transferring your call to Elbonia?

We call that "customer love". The kind of service that makes us lean across the counter, give the support agent a hug and scream to the world about how they just made our day... And for all those thousands of support reps who make us feel special every day, we are running a Facebook contest to celebrate our service superheroes. 

All you need to do is head over to the contest on our Facebook page, share a picture of the support rep that made you feel awesome, and share a line or two about how they did their magic. 

For our part in the celebration, we will be giving out Starbucks gift cards worth a week of coffee every day for two. Sip yours and share the other with the service rep who loves you.

If you haven't already, check out more Fresh stuff that we do everyday, on our Facebook page.

Businesses sometimes have a one dimensional approach to customer service. When customers ask for support, they are answered. That’s the unwritten rule in most companies. Also, talking of rules, in bigger organizations, there’s so much red tape and guidelines to follow, that navigating through them is an ordeal in itself. Because of all this, to give customers something special becomes a chore for which there’s just not enough time.

So it actually is refreshing to see businesses sometimes rise above mundane rules and regular rhetoric and actually give customers something they will cherish and remember. 

Here are two examples of the same.

Sainsbury's

In May last year, British retail chain Sainsbury’s received a letter from 3 1/2 year old Lily Robinson with an idea to rename their Tiger bread to Giraffe bread, a few illustrations thrown in for good measure. 

Sainsbury’s could have just ignored the letter, or sent it around the employees, had a good laugh, and then forgotten about it. But Christopher King, age 27 1/3, Customer Manager at Sainsbury’s, thought differently, & replied back to the letter, attaching a Sainsbury gift card for Lily as well.

There was really no need for Chris to send that gift card or even send a reply. But he did.

Here are the letters themselves. Read them, a smile is guaranteed.

Finnair

It was India’s Republic Day last month, and the world’s largest democracy was celebrating its 63rd anniversary of becoming a constitutional republic. Finnair, Finland’s flag carrier, is one of the many international airlines operating in India, and it operates six flights a week to New Delhi, the capital.

Finnair decided to wish passengers on the occasion and had a dance crew surprise passengers with a popular Hindi song after boarding a Finnair flight to Delhi.

It is extremely unlikely that Finnair will generate a lot of revenue from this or that this will lead immediately to a spate of new air travelers for the airline. They could have just added a ‘Happy Republic Day’ in the pilot’s address. But they didn’t. They gave their customers an experience, not a formality.

Why did Sainsbury’s and Finnair go out of their way to give their customers this experience?

Because it is this extra mile that transforms customers into your company’s promoters. That small extra step you take will bring a smile upon your customers faces and make them feel good.

Rules are rules, but what really matters is the spirit with which they are carried out. The goal of a business should be to keep its customers happy. Once that part is taken care of, the customers themselves will take care of the rest.

Facebook is the most prominent of the tools that have taken over the Social Media landscape today, and customers are engaging with their favorite brands on it like never before. A study says that nearly 62% of customers talk to companies over Social Media.

A new report from Javelin has come to the conclusion that Twitter is proving to be quite an annoying customer service tool for big banks. The study says that customers love the platform and are more at home on Social Media than anywhere else, but banks are struggling with it.

Examining nearly 5500 tweets sent by banks in reply to customers who’d contacted them on Twitter, Javelin analyzed how many of the issues were resolved then & there, and how many had been diverted to a traditional channel, like email or a call center. This is seemingly a good way to analyze customer-business interaction on the social domain.

The research found that none of the big banks did an exceptionally good job of resolving complaints on Twitter. Citigroup was the best of the lot, resolving 36 percent of its Twitter based complaints; Wells Fargo, 11 percent; and Bank of America, 3 percent. Sure, the complaints could have been noted here and resolved elsewhere, but only the ones that were addressed on the platform the customers desired i.e, Twitter itself, fit the bill.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo actually answered with scripted replies that did not appease customers much, sending the signal that Twitter was only a workaround to get to the other communication channels.

The report goes on to say that when possible, the banks should answer questions directly on Twitter. But customers must also be educated about the security issues online, so they will need to switch to a private, direct message, or perhaps to another mode of communication, like a customer support representative, if account information or other such sensitive data is needed.

The study and the results reaffirm Freshdesk’s siding with social support. Banks should already be making efforts to avoid forcing the customer to explain the problem all over again. Twitter should be a tool to save the customer’s time, to aid his convenience, and not as yet another step to conventional customer service.

At such a point in the support landscape, businesses should choose a helpdesk that has all the features of a normal web based ticketing system, easy to use and feature rich, but which should also have social support as well. There are social customer service tools available for this, and organizations should choose the helpdesk that gives them the perfect blend of all these requisites.

With multiple platforms coming along, including Facebook and Google+, this phenomenon will definitely be on the rise. Brands will have increasing engagement on social platforms and more and more organizations will be found wanting when customers reach out to them.

We’ve talked about this same point extensively earlier on our blog, and made the case for solving the customer issue on the platform where he contacts the business. For further reading on Twitter strategies, here’s ‘8 tips on how to use Twitter for Business’.

You can get the complete report here.

Image courtesy beyondthecurtain.wordpress.com

How did they do it? Seemingly, this one question is what everyone wants answered. How? In an atmosphere of commerce and e-tailing where just delivering the product was considered an achievement in itself, how did these guys come in and create the impact they did? Not easy questions to answer, you might think.

 Well, wrong.

Zappos did it because they got their priorities right. 

But still, how?

The answers can be found if we  explore the history behind arguably the biggest customer service brand on the planet.

The Birth of Zappos

It was 1999. Nick Swinmurn wanted to buy a pair of Airwalks from his local store. He couldn’t find them, as much as he searched for it, and it was there that he saw an opportunity. He  came up with a plan to sell shoes online, nothing more, nothing less, and approached Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin of Venture Frogs with what he’d charted out. Tony Hsieh wasn’t too impressed with the idea and almost deleted Swinmurn’s voice mail. But as luck would have it, seeing some merit in the Bay Area entrepreneur's pitch, Venture Frogs invested $500,000 in what was first called, quite simply, shoesite.com. A few months later, shoesite became Zappos.

After pulling in revenues of over $8.5 million in 2002, Hsieh and Zappos executives decided that the company needed some direction, a guiding principle, that would set them apart from the ever growing crop of online retailers. They sat down and set down some long-term goals for 2010. 

Any other organization that had achieved this volume of success so fast would have concentrated on profits and the numbers associated with it. But this is where Zappos took the first steps towards becoming what they are today. They did not just make the plans. They gave themselves a cause, and executed it with single minded ruthlessness.

The Execution

The first step that indicated that they were doing things differently was when Zappos abandoned Drop Shipping, which then accounted for 25% of their revenue base. Drop shipping is the practice when the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. 

The decision was based on supplying superior customer service, which would later become what Zappos would stand for. As Hsieh said at that time, "I wanted us to have a whole company built around customer service and we couldn’t control the customer experience when a quarter of the inventory was out of our control."

In 2008, Zappos hit $1 billion in annual sales, two years earlier than expected, and an year later, they fulfilled their other long-term goal, debuting at #23 on Fortune’s Top 100 Companies to Work For. And in 2009, Amazon announced that it would buy Zappos for $940 million, wherein Zappos would continue operating as a separate entity from within Amazon.

How did the company grow so fast? For most of it’s formative years Zappos had minimal advertising, and the company grew mainly by word of mouth and by repeat customers. It turns out that 75% of Zappos’ customers are repeat clientele, which is a mind blowing stat.

There is no secret here. Zappos became Zappos because of the fanatical customer support it offered. That, is the company’s brand. As Hsieh puts it, "Back in 2003, we thought of ourselves as a shoe company that offered great service. Today, we really think of the Zappos brand as about great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.”

The company’s policies are drawn from their stated goal of giving “the best service in the industry”. Shipping is free, they have a 365 day return policy, and of course, they have the legendary Zappos call center. The service has acquired cult status, customers swear by it, and thousands refuse to buy from anywhere except Zappos.

The Legends themselves

Here are a couple of stories that might help you understand the type of service that Zappos distinguishes itself on.

Zaz Lamarr meant to return some shoes to Zappos, but her mother passed away and, naturally, she just didn't have the mental time for it. Replying to a Zappos mail regarding the return, Lamarr sent a short reply stating that her Mother had died and that she would get around to doing it soon. Zappos arranged to have UPS come and pick up the shoes, so she could take care of more important things - and then sent her flowers.

In 2009, a traveler checked into a hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. When the traveler was unpacking she realized that she'd forgotten a pair of her favorite shoes. She had purchased the missing shoes at Zappos, so she headed to its website. When she could not find another pair of the same shoes, she called service. Zappos no longer had the shoes, but its headquarters are just outside of Las Vegas. The Zappos team located the shoes at a nearby mall, went there, purchased the shoes, and then hand-delivered them to her hotel, all at no charge.

There are other stories out there in the blogosphere, some of them truly incredible. But what is evident is that delivering great customer service works. Zappos have built a brand from the bottom up focussing on only one principle - exceptional customer service. There is no reason why others can’t as well.

Getting the Culture right

In 2009, Zappos was awarded for the "best use of social media" by Abrams Research. Company policies encourage employees to engage customers on Social Media and give them authority to amaze customers however they want. Hsieh’s edict to employees is to present a human face to customers, to let them know that someone at Zappos is listening, and waiting to give them anything they might need. They have succeeded in doing this. Zappos employees are explicitly told to go above and beyond traditional customer service. Call center employees don't have scripts, and there are no limit on call times. The longest call recorded was reportedly over five hours long.

After saying all this, it is important to state that it isn’t easy to build a company with all it’s employees united by a single minded dedication to the cause. The values have to be embedded in the organization, the employees have to believe in it, support agents should be given a lot of decision making authority. Hsieh's belief is that "if we get the culture right, then everything else, including the customer service, will fall into place." He’s right. Whatever processes are put in place, if the passion is missing, all the effort will be for nothing.

Today, there are customer support tools that enable you to do what Zappos does. Some of them have evolved so much that it actually makes it easier for you (than Zappos might have found it then) to serve customers on Social Media. It’s just the small matter of the decision to do so, and then enabling your organization as well. 

In conclusion, it is important to remember that rules can be easily framed and hanged on a wall, but only if the spirit of customer service is infused inside an organization, will an organization even come close to what Zappos has achieved.

PS - Zappos were ranked 6th on Fortune’s list of “Best Companies to Work For” in 2011.

Apple’s retail stores have a lesson for us on this, as Fred Reicheld of Bain and Company narrates, in this video from the HBR stable.

The iconic company wanted a simple question answered, and the question was, “How do we make our customers come back for more and bring their friends too?” 

Apple invested in the IT to find out how likely customers were to recommend the store to their friends. On a scale of 1-10, scoring 9 or 10 meant they had succeeded, but anything less than was a failure. Apple went back to the not-so-happy customers and asked them where Apple had gone wrong. Armed with that information, Apple was able to figure out customer pain points precisely and address them immediately, in real time. 

But what Apple did remarkably well, and differently from others was recognizing the efforts of the employees who were delivering service the customers loved. Every shift, at the opening huddle, managers asked these employees to share this important learning with others - how they had served customers who had then given them a straight 10 for their great support.

There was always support from the top management at Apple for this kind of endeavor, and when employees know that the management is listening to them, that their contributions on the shop floor are valued and recognized, innovation and a culture of quality service will automatically be fostered.

The results are for the world to see - In fiscal 2010, Apple’s retail stores pulled in $2.36 billion in profit on $9.8 billion in revenue. Over the first six months of fiscal 2011, Apple has made $1.84 billion in profit on revenues of $7.04 billion.

The lessons here are not just for retail. Major companies have tried to implement variations of this, and failed, but the organizations that have cracked this tough nut have found themselves in a position of some advantage. 

Reicheld goes ahead and gives us a 4 step plan to transforming our customers into promoters, which we have condensed here. 

Gathering Feedback - The single question survey with the 1-10 point scale that we talked about earlier would be a great place to start. The knowledge about how many of our customers are actually inclined to recommend us to others is a priceless piece of information. The best thing we could have is real time information on what the customer is thinking while buying and using our product.

Closing the Loop - Using this data, we can then go back to those of our customers who don’t think a recommendation to their friends is warranted. After apologizing to them for not meeting expectations, we can find out what went wrong in the sales cycle. This, in turn, could then be changed immediately to make the process smoother for our customers.

Enhancing Successes - From the customers who have been happy with our service and who said that they’d be recommending us to others, we need to find out why and reinforce those reasons in a way that all our customers can experience what our most happy customers experienced. That way, our successes can be enhanced.

Sharing Best Practices - The knowledge gained from enhancing our strong points and using the data to minimize customer dissatisfaction should be shared across the organization, so everyone knows what it takes to keep the customers happy. The best practices can then be a resource that everyone can draw from.

In an online perspective, these same principles can be applied, but a different set of tools are required. Before we can even think about turning our customers into promoters, we need to be able to serve them effectively online. Here are 5 reasons you should be serving your customers on Facebook. Also, here’s a piece that validates why you should be using Twitter for the same purpose as well.

Does your organization use customer support like this, to deliver value to your organization? We’d love to hear from you. Do share your thoughts with us.

We are glad to announce that Freshdesk now speaks Dutch, Brazilian Portugese, Swedish and Czech taking the total number of supported international languages to eleven. 

Twitter, for example, now has established dos and don’ts for business as well as personal use. For example, sending links to everyone using the @ feature is considered spamming, but sharing the same link twice or thrice a day with slightly different descriptions is not. Similarly you may also DM a link to a person, but repeatedly sending DMs with links to your product is not considered good form.

So what are the rules you should follow when you are using Twitter as a business? Here’s a quick and easy run through on some things you need to know when using Twitter professionally.

1. Use your Twitter real estate - Twitter gives you 140 characters to tell the world what you are all about. Use it tactfully, and well. You have a space for your company’s website, don’t forget to put it up. You may well change the way it's displayed, month on month, and check metrics to see what works best for you. Here's what we at Freshdesk, say.

2. Let people know what they’re clicking on - Do not shorten your website URLs on the bio page, as users might not be inclined to click on something that doesn’t bear any connection to what they came to see. It looks pretty out of place and additionally, you are losing a branding opportunity.

3. Brand your Twitter Background - Twitter lets you upload an image as a background for your Twitter page, and is another great branding opportunity that you should not lose. It’ll take you about 30 minutes to setup a satisfactory background image and upload it. Try to take the time out to do it. It’s intangible as a branding asset, but as all marketers know, the intangibles are sometimes the ones that matter most.

4. Don’t just re-tweet anything - Before you re-tweet anything, check, double check and triple check the sources and the links. Once you have RT’d the tweet, it amounts to endorsing the view and opinion in the tweet, even though you might not ascribe to it fully. You might also be held accountable for it, so think a million times before you hit retweet.

5. Do not Spam - As we pointed out before, refrain from bulk DMs or @ mentions to all your followers. Save your DMs for personalized recommendations or messages and @ mentions for conversations that can be viewed publicly. Any attempt at blatant self promotion or sales DMs will only be responded to by unfollows or blocks.

6. Do not get involved in controversies - On a personal twitter account, you can tweet almost anything on any topic you like, but on a business account, it’s a strict no-no. A snide tweet can be more trouble than you can ever imagine it could be. Here’s a Neal Schaffer post on Twitter Content Strategy.

7. Make conversation with your customers - Your customers will contact you on Twitter with questions and doubts relating to your product or service. You must track, engage and help them in every way you can. Word of Mouth is very powerful, as Jeff Bezos said, and when you serve your customers well on Social Media, the word of mouth generated is magnified many times over.

8. Use Twitter for Customer Support - Serve your customers, right where they are, on Twitter itself. Most companies now are already using Twitter to serve their customers. This does not mean directing customers to call or email, but resolving their issues immediately. It also makes sense to track customer sentiment on Twitter in real time, making it easier to respond, whether it is to positive appreciation or negative criticism. Here’s a whitepaper on how to use Twitter for customer support.

Do share your experiences with using Twitter for business.

Image Courtesy wickedying.com

Freshdesk is happy to announce our integration with Capsule CRM, as we roll it out for all our customers today. 

Now as you view and reply to tickets on Freshdesk, you can view the contact and company details of the requestor from Capsule.

Also, if the requestor is not in your Capsule contacts, you can quickly add the contact to Capsule, without leaving the Freshdesk Ticket page. You can search for contacts from Freshdesk.  You can also create and add notes.

Neat huh? We thought so too.

Alternately, when viewing contacts inside Capsule CRM, with a single click you will also be able to see all the tickets they’ve submitted in Freshdesk. This way, your sales and support teams can quickly and easily share customer contact and ticket information.

When sending replies from Freshdesk, you can use the bcc feature to send a copy of the reply to your Dropbox email address(provided by Capsule) to log your reply as a case in Capsule CRM.

Here’s to a ‘fresher’ experience with Freshdesk.

If you are a CapsuleCRM user loving the power of web-based systems and want also a well integrated web based help desk, you should try Freshdesk. Sign up for a free 30-day trial!