A great example of some of these new tools is Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)’s Fix-it. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this page in the Microsoft support library. In the past, if somebody went to Microsoft and found a solution, they still had to follow a series of steps to resolve the issue. With Fix-it you click on the icon and a script is downloaded to execute all the steps! One step and you are done, so you might find more users helping themselves, which could be a good thing. No — given today’s limited resources, that could be a great thing!

Read the full article at Internet Evolution.

They wanted to upgrade their site package but the upgrade form was so confusing that they ended up creating a second account versus upgrading the current one.  They ended up with a new Developer package (which is what they wanted) on a new account on a Microsoft platform instead of Linux.

Here was their summary starting with week one

• Called Cust Svc – sent me to tech
• Call Tech – they sent me to billing
• Billing – sent me back to tech.  I told billing rep I was going to start record the call so they panicked and hung up.
• Called PR person (from press releases) – she said she would investigate and have someone called me

Week Two

• Left vm for PR person – no response
• Days later, sent em to PR person – no response

Week Three

• Wrote Global CEO – No response
• Wrote Global CEO after 1 week and asked him to have anyone just resolve issue – No response
• Wrote US CEO on top of email thread never responded – No response
• Finally found a marketing manager’s email.  Sent her the whole thread and told her this was her chance to be a hero.

Three calls and 30 minutes later they’re doing exactly what the reader asked for three weeks earlier:  canceling the Microsoft account, upgrading the first account to a developer package using Linux.  They also threw in 6 months free – $120 savings.

So many simple customer service rules ignored

• Just care and respond – It took four phone calls and five emails to find somebody to help…
  
• Act quickly – Sure the 6 months free was nice – but all the customer really wanted was their web site three weeks ago.  Three weeks of hassling was not worth the $120 bucks to them.

Companies like this stay alive with bad customer service because they rest on the laurels of “switching is painful.”  As upset as this customer was – the challenge of migrating multiple sites deterred them for changing.

But with no loyalty to this company when the switching barriers drop they will lose a customer.  In fact they have already lost a customer – the only question is when the loss will occur.

• So I get to the counter after a bit of a wait.  The first thing the customer service agent does is to reach his hand over the counter to shake my hand and introduce himself.  Brilliant!   What, like I am going to complain about the wait after he personally introduces himself?
• Now I start watching.  It’s not just the agent I am talking to, every agent is starting off the transaction in the exact same mode.  Clearly the agents have been given training – training that has taken root!
• After the paperwork is all done I am sent to the end of the counter to wait for an agent to escort me to my car.  I was getting out my phone to check messages while waiting when after 30 seconds the agent calls my name.  As I walk over, you guessed it, he shakes my hand and introduces himself.

Now the actual car I rented, a Mazda CX7, absolutely sucked for me.  The angles were all wrong, I could not see the front of the hood or easily gauge where the rear of the car was.  So while the car was clean, I did not enjoy the rental at all.

• When I drop off the car, I am once again greeted with a nice welcome back.
• The agent asks about the car and listens to my comments about the Mazda.  He notes, “Wow, that is good to know.  You’re average height and it sounds like anybody shorter would have a real hard time with this model – I’m going to keep that in mind.”  Who knows if he will or not – but he certainly sounded genuinely interested in my comments.
• The agents asks if I filled up the tank and I look up in horror with the sudden realization that I had forgotten.  I took a  phone call while driving and forgot all about it.
• The agent notes “The gas price is high, but since you did not use any other discounts I was able to take off 7 dollars.”  Again – true or not I’ll never know – but I felt a bit better!

I left “Enterprise land” and went to the airport provided shuttle bus for customers of all the rental car companies.  I asked the driver if this was the bus for USAIR and he grunted and pointed right between two buses.  I had to ask again, and clearly annoy him, to figure out which of the two buses I should get on.

As I sat on the bus, I thought about the service at National versus the shuttle bus – it put it all in context.  Kudos to the management team at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Fort Lauderdale for bringing customer service to life!

• Go to Microsoft Live (search.live.com).   You have a prerequisite to have a Live Search cashback account.
• Search on product name and eBay
• Once on eBay search for the specific product
• Complete the purchase (the cashback only applied if the item had “buy it now” and Paypal.  So more prerequisites – an eBay account and a PayPal account.
• You wait a day
• The next day you get an email from eBay telling you that you are eligible for cashback
• You follow the link in the email, go to Microsoft Live, login and your purchase/cashback is linked to your account!
• You get an email telling you that your cashback is confirmed and will be available in 60 days to ensure that the item is not returned.
• You wait 60 days
• You get an email telling you that cashback is available
• You follow the link in the email, go to Microsoft Live, login and and request that the money be sent to you.
• You get an email telling you that your request to be paid is processing
• You wait 14 days
• I’m not here yet – but I think I will get the cashback in 14 days….

I love the smell of a good process.  But in Microsoft’s case all I am smelling is skunk.