Comments on: Nature vs Nurture and the Art of Customer Service and Product Innovation http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/ As seen through my eyes... Spreadshirt, creative apparel, being a CEO, and life Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:11:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: Woeful customer service with a silver lining « AccMan http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-81 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:31:17 +0000 http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-81 [...] Life on a Shirt has a horrific Microsoft support story. The learning provides a fascinating insight on how customer service AND product innovation might benefit from a change of approach. Recommended. [...] […] Life on a Shirt has a horrific Microsoft support story. The learning provides a fascinating insight on how customer service AND product innovation might benefit from a change of approach. Recommended. […]

]]> by: Brian P Halligan http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-80 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:31:47 +0000 http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-80 Maybe you ought to switch from bull riding to meditation, yoga, or something relaxing...better yet, refrain from dealing with Msft support. ( - : Enjoying your posts. - Brian. Maybe you ought to switch from bull riding to meditation, yoga, or something relaxing…better yet, refrain from dealing with Msft support. ( - :

Enjoying your posts.

- Brian.

]]> by: Jana http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-79 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:01:15 +0000 http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-79 Joe, Thanks for your note giving your experience... and particularly for that mental averaging job you did! :-D Matt, Thanks for posting those points. I had thought of them, but didn't have a copy. To everyone else reading them, these are a GREAT list that was developed during a support project that the Innovation Lab at Intuit did. Terrific customer learnings, as always from this team! Joe, Thanks for your note giving your experience… and particularly for that mental averaging job you did! :-D

Matt, Thanks for posting those points. I had thought of them, but didn’t have a copy. To everyone else reading them, these are a GREAT list that was developed during a support project that the Innovation Lab at Intuit did. Terrific customer learnings, as always from this team!

]]> by: Matt http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-78 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:47:37 +0000 http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-78 Reminds me of the my Seven Steps I came up with during our self-help project. I was recently asked about the steps again. I'll post them here, although without the customer stories and examples: Matt’s 7 Steps to a Good Support Experience 1. Believe the customer has an issue. 2. Understand the issue. 3. Duplicate the issue. If you can’t, go back to step 1. Various ways of duplication, including watching the customer. This step has sub steps, although I didn’t write them down. Getting someone else to help you duplicate the issue. 4. Discover how to resolve the issue, and tell the customer how to resolve it. 5. If it can’t be resolved, figure out a workaround. 6. If you can’t work around it, think about other applications. 7. If you didn’t resolve it, admit to them you don’t think that it can be done and that you’ll submit it [to someone smarter than you]. Submit it might be let someone else resolve, might be a bug fix, might be a new feature request. Just don’t let it fall through the cracks. Your rep jumped from 1 or 2 to 7, skipping everything else in between. Reminds me of the my Seven Steps I came up with during our self-help project. I was recently asked about the steps again. I’ll post them here, although without the customer stories and examples:

Matt’s 7 Steps to a Good Support Experience

1. Believe the customer has an issue.
2. Understand the issue.
3. Duplicate the issue. If you can’t, go back to step 1. Various ways of duplication, including watching the customer. This step has sub steps, although I didn’t write them down. Getting someone else to help you duplicate the issue.
4. Discover how to resolve the issue, and tell the customer how to resolve it.
5. If it can’t be resolved, figure out a workaround.
6. If you can’t work around it, think about other applications.
7. If you didn’t resolve it, admit to them you don’t think that it can be done and that you’ll submit it [to someone smarter than you].

Submit it might be let someone else resolve, might be a bug fix, might be a new feature request. Just don’t let it fall through the cracks.

Your rep jumped from 1 or 2 to 7, skipping everything else in between.

]]> by: Joe http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-77 Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:35:39 +0000 http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2007/01/29/nature-vs-nurture-and-the-art-of-customer-service-and-product-innovation/#comment-77 Tech support I've gotten from Apple has definitely been the best, on average (yes, I just averaged all the tech support I've ever gotten just now in my head based on a 10-point scale), that I've ever gotten. Come to think of it though, the support I got from Ameritech (now SBC) for my DSL connection was pretty good too. Tech support is such a strange service commodity... if it were MY tech support service and I were in the chat room with you, I would have told you that the hotfix was no longer available first, and, assuming that there's nothing else I could have done to help you, refunded your $35. Tech support I’ve gotten from Apple has definitely been the best, on average (yes, I just averaged all the tech support I’ve ever gotten just now in my head based on a 10-point scale), that I’ve ever gotten. Come to think of it though, the support I got from Ameritech (now SBC) for my DSL connection was pretty good too.

Tech support is such a strange service commodity… if it were MY tech support service and I were in the chat room with you, I would have told you that the hotfix was no longer available first, and, assuming that there’s nothing else I could have done to help you, refunded your $35.

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