how not to update your contact list

We're preparing to do our own contact updating where I work, and I'm thankful to have gotten a great lesson in how not to do it in my email box today.

The well-intentioned email request to update my contact information with a group I'm associated with came in with a good enough subject line: "Contact Information Update." The content of the request is posted below in its entirety, sans the fancy logo and "powered by/unsubscribe" info, and I removed the organization's name so as not to shame them here:

[Well-meaning group] is working to update our contact records. If you have had changes to your contact information within the last year, please take a moment to reply to this email with your updated information.

Not even a "Dear Thomas"!?

The young lady who sent the request may hope I'll help her out, but there's no way this is getting anywhere near the top of my priority list. I have to think back to what might have happened in the last year and then get to thinking about other things and before you know it I've moved on and the moment has passed.

The worst part of this scenario? If I don't reply, she thinks she's got my correct info. A very poorly designed process, and I think I'm being charitable.

I've taken a stab below at how I'd approach the same task so as to make the review/update process as light-touch as possible on the recipient.

Dear Recipient,

[Well-meaning group] is working to update our contact records. This is what we currently have as your contact information:

• Your Name
• Your Title
• Employer Name
• Physical Address
• Phone/Fax/Etc

If any of the above is incorrect, please take a brief moment to reply to this email with the correct information information. We really appreciate your help!

As a recipient, I see exactly what you've got on me and know immediately if I have to hit reply. Minimal effort on my part and the lion share of work is on the party who most wants the info: the requestor.

Donate blood to help Joseph

In this month's newsletter from the Stanford Blood Center I spied the promo for Joseph (republished at right) that made me wish I could rush out and donate today. Since I donated last on April 26, I can't donate again until June 21. Here's hoping there are many others who see this promo and donate now. Kudos to the photographer and copywriter for a job well done.

As longtime readers know, I've been donating blood for years. Sometimes the appointments go smoothly and I'm in and out and home in less than an hour. Sometimes the appoints take much longer because of a backup in admissions or a clumsy needle stick. But I keep going back time after time because I know it's the right thing to do, and I know I can always make more blood to replace what I've given away.

If you're not here on the Peninsula in the Bay Area where the Stanford Blood Center has many locations, find a place to donate near you thanks to the work of the folks over at Takes All Types.

blood donation gone wrong: no good deed goes unpunished

One of my resolutions this year is to be a more regular blood donor. I've got O positive, so my blood's always in demand, and the only thing preventing me from donating six times a year (the maximum) is laziness. With this resolution in mind, I reacted immediately when I got my email request from Stanford requesting I come in to donate soon. I picked up the phone this afternoon at 2pm, and picking an empty spot in the blood center schedule, snagged a same-day 6:15pm appointment for a whole blood donation.

I figured I'd be able to donate and get home in time to eat dinner before the San Jose Sharks game started at 7:30. Silly me.

Instead, I got a lesson in seeing the "get out the donor" efforts employed by the Blood Banks might be focusing on the wrong part of the equation: Stop spending your resources trying to get rewards for donors (free ice cream, free movie tix, free tshirts) and instead spend your resources making the donation experience efficient and rewarding in itself.

Let's fast forward through the highlights of my blood donation experience tonight:

• I arrived for my appointment at 6:05pm (a good ten minutes early) to find the waiting area packed with others waiting to be processed
  
• I filled out my usual paperwork and started waiting for my health screen at 6:10pm
• Called for my health screen at 6:50pm, cleared by Tech A by 7pm
  
• Waited in an empty donation room for 10 minutes before Tech B finally came in to stick me
  
• Tech B botches the stick and states he has to do the other arm and must get new needle/bag kit.
• Tech B disappears
  
• I wait with no update for 15 minutes while two other techs (Tech A and Tech C) tend to other later-arriving donors
  
• At 7:30pm (75 minutes after my appointment time), Tech B finishes with the other donor and comes over to stick me in my (only) good arm
  
• I finish bloodletting in my usual 5 minutes and am cleaned up and bandaged shortly thereafter
  
• After 15 minutes resting in the canteen, I'm on the road home at 7:50pm, an hour later than I'd planned when setting the appointment, trying to figure out why I've resolved to do this to myself five more times this year
  

Looking back on tonight's experience, I see ample opportunity for process improvement here:

1. Treat your regular donors like repeat customers: thank them for the business and see if there's anything that'll ensure they come back again. I have to imagine it's harder to get a first-time donor in the door than it is to get someone to repeat
2. Appointment-holding donors should be given preference over walk-in donors, period
3. If you're running behind, respect the donors waiting by acknowledging the delay and giving your best guess as to how far behind you're running
4. Don't leave a volunteer donor alone in a room waiting to be stuck by a tech, ever
   
5. Don't pass a donor from one staffer to another without informing the donor. The donor should be the FIRST one informed of a transfer and why its happening
   

Not sure why I'm so compelled to give blood, but I know I'll be back once I'm eligible again (Feb 28). This donation was by far my least pleasant experience, ever.

It's not the fact that I had to be stuck twice. It's the fact I felt so taken-for-granted throughout the entire experience. Ample room for improvement. I'll let you know how they do come March.

Another shining example of DirecTV's ineptitude serving customers

So, after spending 15 minutes on the phone with DIrecTV's technical support the other day trying to find missing HD channels, I find the following email in my inbox:

YOUR RECENT CALL TO DIRECTV
DIRECTV Account Number: REDACTED
January 1, 2008

Thomas K, thank you for your recent call to DIRECTV. Did you know that you can access your account information 24 hours a day by simply logging in at directv.com?

When you register your account online, you will be able to:

• Pay your DIRECTV bill or sign up for Auto Bill Pay
• Upgrade your programming or hardware
• Order Pay Per View movies and events
• Update your email subscriptions

Visit directv.com and take advantage of 24-hour online access.

You are receiving this email as a result of your recent phone call with a DIRECTV customer service representative. DIRECTV reserves the right to contact you via email regarding business transactions.

Before deleting the email, I replied:

YOUR RECENT EMAIL TO ME
DIRECTV Account Number: REDACTED
January 2, 2008

DirecTV, thank you for your recent email. Did you know you can check your very own account lists to find out I've already registered my account online?

Please take a look at your call files to see why, exactly, I spoke with your customer service representative (it was for technical support with the HD DVR) before emailing non-germaine information again.

Respectfully yours,
Thomas

We'll see if I get anything but the standard bounce-back. Harrumph.

DirecTV service level slipping again

While DirecTV has continued to add new HD channels to its broadcast lineup, it seems they're more interested in how many they can "broadcast" than in how many we can "receive" on the HR20 HD DVR supplied by DirecTV. I guess that's something in the small print.

On several HD channels (mostly on our Showtime HD channels), we're getting pixelated pictures with the audio cutting in and out, which is the classic sign of signal loss. On other channels like Food Network HD (chan 231-1) and VH1 HD (335-1), we get no signal whatsoever, and instead are given a litany of troubleshooting instructions on the screen instead, including:

• check all the cables from the TV to the dish to make sure they're connected
  
• unplug and then replug all the cables together again
• do a soft reset of the receiver
• call customer support and refer to code 771

I did all of them, and then threw in a hard reset (unplug the power for 30 seconds) before finally breaking down to call DirecTV customer support (meta-gripe: why the heck don't they list the phone number navigable from anywhere ON the receiver? why must I log in to the web site to get the number?)

After dialing in and navigating the phone tree to get a live person, I quickly blazed through level 1 support and was transfered to the HD technical support crew. Fifteen minutes of phone-based trouble shooting included such things as:

• making sure my BBC converters were working (you can test yourself by navigating to channels 480 and 481 to see what's displayed)
• switching the lines in from one port to another
• checking the connections of the lines at the splitter outside the house
• navigating to various working HD channels to make sure some worked while the two offenders (Food and VH1) still did not
  

No resolution to my problem after all that, so I was told next up is a service call that will cost me $70 plus any parts or additional labor to fix things. To get two extra channels? Fat f*ing chance. I decline.

But wait! I'm informed there's a special: if I sign up for the tech insurance plan at $7 a month, I can get the first service call for only $15 (plus parts/labor). Maybe I'm not aware of how expensive the receiver and remote are (the remote replacement is $87!) Again, no thanks.

So, after six months or so of being satisfied with service quality, DirecTV has reverted back to its old ways in providing sub-par service. Not very thrilled to be back here with them. It really seems the folks at DirecTV don't much care about negative word-of-mouth. Maybe it's because their competition, Comcast, seems to have the same disdain.

Maytag refrigerator repair: holiday surprise

Our Maytag Ice 2 O regrigerator (model MFI-2568-AES) went on the fritz last Wednesday night around 8:30pm. Thanks to the Web, ComplaintBoards.com and Forbes Appliance Repair, we had the fridge fixed (for free) within 24 hours... what a surprise!

To set the stage appropriately, we like our refrigerator a lot: it's got french doors, a bottom freezer drawer and an in-the-door console with ice and water dispenser. We bought it off the floor of Lowe's when we moved to Redwood City in July 2006, and it's served us well, for the most part.

So when this thing went "on the fritz," I mean the lights on the control panel started flickering in a Close-Encounters-of-the-Third-Kind fashion while the flap on the ice cube dispenser methodically opened and slammed shut. What kind of pissed off kitchen gremlin had decided to take up residence in our 16-months-new fully stocked fridge the week before Christmas?

Left Coast Mom and I began searching for the owner's manual to try and troubleshoot the situation (in the index under "P" for "Possessed") but couldn't find the manual anywhere in the kitchen or the files or the storage room bookcases (later we'd find out we'd stored it conveniently on top of the fridge in case something malfunctioned). So, we took to the web in search of help on our dueling laptops.

I found the owners manual online at the maytag web site and 58 Mb of file download later, I found nothing in the manual that was any help beyond how to turn off power to the control panel (remove the cover over the door hinge above the panel, then unplug the wire harness) to stop the infernal dispenser racket. We were out of warranty, and I was desperately scanning the web for any information on how our problem could be fixed and how much it'd cost us.

So I googled "maytag MFI-2568-AES troubleshoot" and about half-way down the results list I discovered the ComplaintsBoard forum overflowing with posts from folks (like us) who were confronted by malfunctioning control panel/ice dispenser. I found nine pages of forum posts, to be precise, starting Feb 9, 2007, when Cheryl M posted the following:

I bought my maytag ice2o French door refrigerator from home depot 8 mos ago. Loved it when I got it, but soon after had problems with the ice maker. They replaced the ice maker. Now the ice maker is still having problems. Its not strong enough to break up all the ice. The ice cubes freeze in big blocks causing the system to clog. Last night the thing took on a mind of its own. All the lights are flashing on the control panel, the ice and water maker don't work at all. The flap is constantly opening and closing all on its own, constantly making a clicking noise all night long. Finally we had to unplug it so we could get 4 hours sleep. Plug it in this morning and its still doing it. My biggest concern is what happens after the warranty runs out. I already know this thing has mechanical problems. Did I get a lemon or is it junk?? Either way I'm stuck with a $2,800 refrigerator that seems like it has bad engineering.

It was great to follow the arc of the discussion going from first post to group-wide resolution:

• In the first 60 days, a dozen folks chimed in to say they were affected by the same problem.
  
• Within 90 days, the forum was picking up speed and the group had diagnosed the High Voltage Control Board (part # 12920710 Board HV C) as the culprit. At least one workaround had been posted to the $200-$400 "official" fix for those of us out of warranty.
  
• On Day 133, the first "we're investigating a potential class action suit" post appears.
• By Day 150, folks begin posting success with Maytag's fixing the units for free and the discussion turns to strategies for navigating the customer service phone tree.
  
• By Day 180, the complaints are now focused on the repair services, not on Maytag. From the posts, it seems A&E Factory Service is either heaven-sent or demons-from-hell depending on which city you live.
• By Day 210, the forum is mostly full of folks expressing gratitude for all the previous posts and tips and reporting success in getting their own fridges fixed.

I called the Maytag customer service line (make that the "Whirlpool Customer Care Line" now that Maytag's been purchased by Whirlpool) and found out I'd have to wait until 8am Thursday morning to speak with a live person.

Thursday morning, I got a hold of Lorraine at Whirlpool and reported my problem. Within 10 minutes, she'd issued me a QI code and offered to set up a service call for me with A&E Factory Service the day after Christmas (6 days later!). I declined the offer and instead tried to go with a local shop, leaving a message with Forbes Appliance Repair here in Redwood City.

Bill (at Forbes) called me back around 3pm to get more details. I told him the problem and he admitted he probably didn't have the part in stock and couldn't get it until after the holiday.

I tried calling A&E myself to see if I could get a Friday appointment since I assumed they'd have the part in stock. Within 2 minutes of dealing with the customer support rep at A&E, I'd learned enough to know I was dealing with the demon variety and decided to stay with my instincts to go local.

I called Bill back and asked that he order the part and come install it. Bill took my info and was surprised when I gave him the part number he'd need to order (I had it thanks to the forum posts). He said he'd put in the order and would call to let me know when it was due to come in so he could come replace it.

Within 30 minutes, Bill called back with an unexpected question: "When can you be at the house?"

Beg pardon?

Bill happened to have the part in stock and offered to come to the house to install it that evening. All I had to do was move the fridge away from the wall so he could access the panel in the back to replace the board. (In moving the fridge, I discovered where we'd stashed the manual.)

At 6:15p, Bill knocked on the door. By 6:30p, the fridge was fixed and Bill was packing up his stuff and wishing us a Happy Holiday.

Happy Holidays, indeed. So refreshing to get good customer service from a local provider.

So, thanks to Forbes Appliance Service (650-366-8388) here in Redwood City, our fridge was fixed in record time. Here's hoping your appliances never go on the fritz, but if they do, give Bill a call to come fix them.

how to manage your brand when customers control the message

One of the highlights of the Marketing to Online Communities 2007 conference is the session by Thor Muller on "How to Manage Your Brand When Customers Control the Message."

Thor is the CEO of Satisfaction, a startup delivering "people-powered customer service for absolutely everything."

He cited some great examples of episodes on the web that illustrate where a company was forced to deal with customers controlling the message (when the companies' fortress mentality was strained to respond):

"the Streisand effect": the JL Kirk & Associates blog post that kicked up a storm when JLK&A sent a cease-and-desist in response to the negative review of the poster's interaction with JLK&A. Is old news by now, but worth the repeat visit as a reminder of what not to do in this blog-enabled world.

YouTube videos illustrating good and bad ways to react to customer control of the message

• Disney (good): Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker
• JetBlue CEO Neeleman's (good) Our Promise to You
• Dell (not-so-good): customer service call

Brilliant observation by Thor: "every company has a community, they're just trapped, bound and gagged, in the trouble ticket system."

How many companies are you trapped in?