In September it was still hot outside. But the annual maintenance of our boiler is again at hand. Nowadays we receive an email with the appointment, instead of a letter. The subject of the mail is “Work receipt 1819500 Annual maintenance for the van de Noort family”. Hey, they know us, I think (van de Noort is the name of my husband). However, the e-mail starts with:
“Dear Sir / Madam,
You will receive a document that is intended for you in the attachment.
Sincerely,”
I open the attachment that starts with “ATTENTION!! Contains appointment”
Oops! Did I forget something? After our name and address, the letter begins with: “Dear resident”. Immediately followed with a date and time when they will visit us for maintenance.
Further on in the letter I find the email address that I can write to in order to change the appointment. I find that so awkward, so I just mail back with a reply on the email I receive. Fortunately, it’s not a no-reply. Immediately I receive a reply with a new date. That process repeats itself three more times, until I finally have an appointment on a day that I can do. They remain friendly, but why in first instance can I only make an appointment when they are in my neighbourhood ?!
I would love to do the CX Game with companies that do maintenance. To brainstorm together about how they can improve their services and how to make them more personal and easier for their customers. What they can learn from other companies. And to make life more fun and easier for customers with tools they use in their private lives.
Take Cally.com, for example. There must exist something like that for maintenance agreements? Let the customer choose from a few dates on which the mechanic is working in the neighbourhood. Preferably offer shorter time blocks of 2 hours instead of 4 hours, so that you have some idea of what time they will arrive. Nowadays every mechanic has an iPad and/or telephone with him. If a voucher is signed off, have a text message sent to the next customer. Or even better: call that customer for a moment. Then they know that the mechanic will arrive in about 15 minutes. Maybe even the coffee is ready then…
Babs Asselbergs regularly writes blogs about her own customer experiences and those of others. Babs enjoys the small things that make the difference, but also knows that these little acts of kindness actually have an effect. She believes that if we are more aware of our behaviour and its effect on others, we can make the world more beautiful for both customers and ourselves. Babs is an expert in customer experience and customer focus. Together with Nienke Bloem, she’s founder of the Customer Experience Game – by BlommaBerg.