Connection to money

Recently, I posted a blog about the consequences of spending. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write! Here are two additional (related) thoughts about our connection to money. One of these thoughts is as a consumer and the other is as a business owner.

First, the overarching concept: We will understand the consequences of our spending when we are connected to money. Years ago, our parents or grandparents would spirit money away into an envelope and when they had enough they would go to the store and buy whatever they were saving up for. Although we tout it now as a discipline, there weren’t a lot of other options. As a result, they were highly connected to their money because they could hold it in their hands and understand that the value it represented had a physical, tactile feeling. Today, we’ve lost that connection to money: Our credit cards, debit cards, and online payments have created a disconnect, making it more difficult for us to understand the value of money we have and the value of money we don’t have.

Now, lest you think that I’m getting too philosophical on you, let me try to make a couple of connections:

As a consumer, this should be a cautionary note for you: Businesses want to make it easier for you to spend your money. Therefore, financial organizations create ways to make the transaction process as simple and painless as possible, as if it were a non-event. Let’s compare two transactions: The first transaction: My grandma wanted to buy a new arm chair for her living room so she would save up her money under a mattress until she had enough. Meanwhile, she would shop around for the right chair. When she had enough money, she would shop around for the best value and buy it. Buying something was an event. The second transaction: When I want to buy a chair, I drive down to the local chair store, find one I like, and I tap my credit card on the proximity swipe device (I don’t even need to sign anymore thanks to a chip in my card!). The transaction is a non-event and I have a chair. As a business owner, I would urge you to be cautious about your spending for that very reason. It’s okay to spend, of course, but we need to never lose sight of the value of money.

As a business, you’re on the other side of the equation. A business needs to help a consumer to buy. If you have a good product or service that will provide value for the consumer then there’s nothing wrong with offering it and helping the customer to own it. Your job is to take away as many of the obstacles to selling as you possibly can. Being able to accept credit cards is one way to enable sales now instead of later. Making sure the transaction is fast and painless is another way to make sure the sale happens.

Some of you might read the two paragraphs above and think they are diametrically opposed but they are not. There is a give-and-take tension in the consumer/business relationship but they are not diametrically opposed. Instead, the consumer needs to be cautious and understand the value of money and the business owner needs to make it easy for the consumer to buy.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

Customer service: Expense or Investment?

When I was a kid, my parents needed a washer and dryer and they saw a set advertised so they bought it. It turned out not to be very good and they had a terrible time trying to get the company to service the products. But my parents had little recourse, besides haranguing the manufacturers. I was just thinking about their experience the other day and then comparing it to my own: Recently, I spent a lot of money on a new furnace for my home. The furnace is generally pretty good but there was a service issue that should have been fixed right away and wasn’t. I called and called and called. When the company finally responded, they sent several “specialists” out, none of whom could fix the problem, and every visit was scheduled for one day but the specialist came a day or two late. Unlike my parents, though, I don’t have to just “tough out” the situation and hope for that my constant phone calls would help. Instead, I can go online to my personal or professional network of thousands and I can make one single tweet or wall post or blog. And? The problem gets solved right away. 

Customer service has shifted yet again. Customer service used to not exist at all. Then, it was its own department – just a guy with a phone. Then it became trendy to call the sales staff “customer service” (even though they did mostly selling and almost no back-end support service). Today, lots of businesses claim to have great customer service but  really don’t.

The reason, as suggested in this excellent (but slightly older) post by Freshbooks, there is no clear and obvious ROI in customer service. Rather, the Sales department has clear metrics – sold products or not – but “happy customers” is ethereal at best. So, because companies can’t easily quantify the customer service experience, the customer service department (or skillset) is often the first thing to go. 

Unfortunately, that’s a mistake. A business may not easily be able to quantify customer service with obvious and conventional metrics, but the results of customer service are clear. If you ask me, I think customer service metrics can be found in the following places:

• Customer retention
• Long term profitability
• Ratio of positive-to-negative statements on social networking sites

How can your business make an investment into customer service? Here are a few ideas:

• If you can’t afford to hire someone new, train your staff to watch for negative customer service signs and – this is huge – empower them to address those signs immediately.
• Run frequent searches on various social networking sites for references to your company. For example, use HootSuite or Tweetdeck to keep a search running for the name of your company (along with various misspellings) to see what people are saying.
• Google the name of your company plus the words “hate” or “sucks” and see what comes up. While you may not be able to address every concern of a vocal minority, it’s a good way to see where some potential common problems are.

 Jessicca Routier, IAC-EZ