How to Navigate Customer Service
Travel website Kayak.com uses a do-it-yourself online database to help keep millions of users happy. What do you think of Kayak’s approach to customer service?
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DiggI think they have a great approach to customer service. Most people in upper-level positions avoid customer contact at all costs (hiding behind voicemail and email). It’s nice to see that some individuals still believe that they should be involved and responsible.
Quickbase is fantastic. I can’t believe it hasn’t become more widespread. Maybe the pricing and the UI has held it back. But, it is so powerful. I’ve build well over 20 apps with it. They are still in use today. It has a new flex developer front-end which should take it to a totally different level.
where is Terry Jones? I thought he is running the show at Kayak?
Awesome approach! It keeps everyone in touch with the business which I think is key. I think it’s important that everyone not lose touch with their consumers. Empathy is key.
Customer service has been and should always be the #1 priority in any business especially an online business.There are hundreds of thousands of potential replacements for your services and customers will start looking for the alternatives if they are not satisfied with your service.
http://www.sellmyinventory.com
As a loyal kayak user, I say bravo Mr. English. I use kayak for my busy international business and personal travel and am thrilled that in few moments I have access to the information I need for future meeting planning and budgeting.
Certainly valid for SMBs, English’s approach is absolutely spot-on. At CobbleSoft, we believe that there are many hidden depths of expertise throughout an organisation that are fully able to provide quality assistance. We designed our whole service management product COIGN around that very concept 5 years ago. That’s right up there with the forerunner capabilities for social networking in custoemr support, and now the new blog/wiki options. Use what you have available to you to make and keep your customers happy – don’t become complacent.
Appointing a customer service personnel came recently in companies to attain complete customer satisfaction. In India we were in practice that attaining customer satisfaction is not only one man show, it is everybody’s duty from bottom level to top level.And we gain a win in that policy. But when one person is appointed for this purpose the rest o f staff thought that it is his duty and we do not indulge in that. So the purpose of the company is not satisfied and customers also became unhappy in the new trend.
Maybe kayak has grown so rapidly because they know how to interpret customer requests, knowing which ones to fix and how. And maybe they only need an average of 20 minutes per employee per day since Kayak is responsive fixing all bugs, resulting in a smaller number of requests than a typical software company would get.
One must be careful, implementing customer fixes or suggestions “realtime”. In reality, no one customer’s opinion matters that much. Eg. one customer may want the dashboard blue and another complains that he wants green. A company, if not exercising restraint, could cause change-thrashing trying to implement every Tom, Dick and Harry’s ’suggestion’, which may not suit the masses who use the product or service. But Kayak seems to have support on a tight leash, with only 20 minutes per day spent per employee.
I think that technology solutions are a means to an end. What works great for one company, might not work that well for another company. If one views technology as an agnostic, then it becomes clear that your decisions to implement a solution are driven by price and need. I don’t think this business needs a multi million dollar Siebel solution. In the future, they might change their business so that option might be necessary.
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Nothing like resolving queries by employees, who are more committed and have a better attitude towards customer service…while cost saves can happen on outsourcing, we cannot compromise on customer service quality