BEYOND BUZZWORDS
ONE afternoon, I visited the customer service of a telecommunications company (telco) to cancel my current subscription to a landline phone and internet service. Never mind that I looked bit awkward in my old Hawaiian shirt, as I was determined to terminate an unnecessary expense for a service that includes handcuffing subscribers with an all-white telephone device with an iPad™ lookalike.
There are times I’ve been fascinated with the latest gadgets without seriously thinking that I already own one smartphone, two laptops and one original iPad™ that was given by a generous relative from the United States, except that I rarely use it. Weeks back, I called one acquaintance who specializes in information technology (IT) and asked him a complex but thoughtprovoking question: “Why should an old fogey like me be attached to millennial gadgets?”
The IT guy may be an amiable person, but I know deep in my heart that he was trying to control his laughter. It depends, he told me, on my job and comfort level. Aware that I was a columnist, he recommended that I stick only to a smartphone for mobility and use a laptop for reading writing, and streaming Netflix videos, not necessarily in that order.
“Make sure you get up from your seat every 20 minutes to refresh your eyes from the monitor. And improve your posture using an ergonomic chair,” he said. I thanked him profusely for giving me such cherished advice, even if I knew it long before he was born.
Back to the telco. After choosing the senior citizen lane, a female customer service representative (CSR) greeted me with a lukewarm question: “How can I help you?” I smiled, provided her with a copy of my latest bill and said: “Please. I would like to cancel the subscription to this service.” The CSR checked her computer and in about 30 seconds, she announced the bad news: “Sorry! It appears you can’t cancel it unless you pay the termination fee.”
The CSR was apparently observing company policy written in stone. Bravo! You can’t simply achieve that level of obedience overnight. She must have proven her worth as a contractual employee and after working for several years, became eligible to work as a regular worker. Let’s respect her for loyalty and hard work.
The point I’m trying to make is not about our loyal CSR, but the policy of telcos forcing people to pay within a lock-in period if they accept a free gadget as part of the deal. Well, OK. Let’s also accept that. It’s a decision done by consenting adults. I was given a landline gadget that endeared to me at the time of purchase. But after only less than one year. I’ve come to realize that I don’t need it. Fine. No hard feelings.
‘Cancel anytime’
Contrast this with Netflix and its touch-and-go “cancel anytime” policy. I believe it’s the most attractive come-on for subscribers. It’s very convenient. If a subscriber is no longer happy with the service, he or she can cancel it anytime. No questions asked. There’s no need for a customer to issue dozens of affidavits, fill out a mountain of documents and wait for the reunification of people in the Korean Peninsula if only to manifest that one doesn’t need such service in the first place.
But wait, there’s more. Netflix elevated its integrity level higher than that of your usual business predator by several notches by volunteering to cancel inactive accounts. Subscribers who, for some reason, left their account dormant “for a year or longer will receive a notification from the company, asking if they want to continue their subscription,” the British news website TheIndependent reported. “If the user doesn’t respond at all, or responds that they want to discontinue their subscription, then Netflix will deactivate their account.”
For his part, product innovation director Eddy Wu writes on Netflix’s website: “You know that sinking feeling when you realize you signed up for something but haven’t used it in ages? At Netflix, the last thing we want is people paying for something they’re not using… [and] we hope this new approach saves people some hard-earned cash.”
Wu says Netflix’s inactive accounts is equivalent to less than 0.5 or equivalent to “a few hundred thousand” customers.
Customer satisfaction
How many companies have you seen reaching the customer satisfication level Netflix attained? When customers are not happy and those companies fail to resolve issues, what happens? They look for other options. In the meantime, they tell their friends about their sad experience or write exaggerated complaints on social media.
Other than that, nothing happens. There’s not much to lose for these companies mindlessly parroting “customer satisfaction” in their vision, mission and value statements. So how many of these are seriously executing the letter and spirit of customer satisfaction?
The obvious answer: not so many. That’s because customer satisfaction is difficult to attain in real life unless you’re conscious of creating “powerful relationships.” In their 2007 book HumanSigma, John Fleming and Jim Asplund recommend that such relationships must be forged by organizations that allow their customers to “feel competent and in control.” That could only happen when you democratize the situation by allowing customers to cancel services anytime without any penalty, like what Netflix and its rival Amazon Prime are doing.
Fleming and Asplund say if a customer believes your product or service is “irreplaceable” or declares it as “a perfect fit,” then you’ve created that powerful relationship, like having that essential situation where life cannot be lived without air, water or sunshine.