October 8, 2007
Wal-Mart Focused on Reducing Customer Contacts
Wal-Mart has found that it gets a lot of calls on its toll-free phone customer service number related to orders placed on the company’s website. That is something Wal-Mart wants to stop and the company now is directing consumers to its online “self-help” feature to assist shoppers in tracking orders and answering other questions that may have previously been handled over the phone by a person.
The new effort is part of what Wal-Mart calls its “Customer Contact Reduction” program. Amy Colella, a Wal-Mart spokesperson, told The New York Times last month that the decision to discontinue the phone service was taken because “a significant number of calls” the company received were “related to order tracking.” Wal-Mart felt that it could handle those queries more efficiently through the use of its new online tools.
Others question whether the perception of Wal-Mart’s move as being customer unfriendly might override the fact that its online tools are effective in addressing shoppers’ questions.
Brad Cleveland, president of the International Customer Management Institute, told the Times, “One of the primary expectations is be accessible in whatever channel, whether it’s Web-based services, or the phone, or through e-mail.”
“Wal-Mart is trying to save money in a vacuum,” said Mr. Cleveland. “It costs money to handle customer contact. The question is, ‘What value is there in that longer term, in the ability to keep a strong focus on what your customers are saying?’”
Bruce Temkin, an analyst at Forrester Research, also questioned the wisdom of Wal-Mart’s move.
“Our research shows if you ask consumers, even online consumers, what channels they prefer, there’s an overwhelming bias for preferring to talk to a human being with any customer service issue,” he told Computerworld. “To turn a blind eye to the enormous preference that consumers have, I think, is a big mistake.”
Mr. Temkin said Wal-Mart stores are likely to be the ones getting calls about online orders now that the company is taking away the phone option for website orders.
“Those people will call whatever number they find, and they’ll be frustrated because the answers aren’t easy to find,” Mr. Temkin said. “And there are the other people who don’t even try to find answers online and they’ll just want to call up and they’ll be equally frustrated. So what’s going to happen is that the other 800-number is going to be getting a lot of frustrated callers, and the reality is that with frustrated callers, average handle times go up. I wouldn’t want to be a customer rep on that other 800 number.”
Discussion Questions: Companies such as Netflix have recently added phone options to improve the perception of customer service levels. Is Wal-Mart’s discontinuation of phone service for online orders going to negatively affect the view of its customer service or are most shoppers who buy from websites used to automated tools?
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When it comes to online selling, the service and after service is what will establish customer loyalty. Wal-Mart has taken away the only tool that customers and potential customers can use to solve their problems and answer their questions. This will reflect negatively on the Wal-Mart brand as a whole and I believe they will see a dent in their online sales unit. I’m not sure what WM’s strategic planners are thinking but we live in an era where people expect top notch service wherever they shop. I can envision online shopping newbies giving up very easily. Online help is great but customers want the security of knowing there is a human they can turn to when things don’t go their way.
Is the issue toll-free numbers, or any number at all? If a customer has a big enough problem, I don’t think they’d be greatly offended by calling a number at their own expense to talk to a human. Long-distance rates are pretty cheap now, and if it costs you half a buck in those hopefully rare circumstances when you really need to talk to someone, it shouldn’t be a big deal. (Just don’t make them wait a half hour on hold!) Having NO number to call, I think, is a mistake, but perhaps not a huge one, since so many of us are now used to automated systems. I’m a little puzzled as to why so many web sites seem to go out of their way to hide phone numbers and contact information, even a mailing address–although perhaps they don’t give out the mailing address for fear people will then be able to call 411 and get a phone number! One of the biggest problems I’ve found is with phone personnel who don’t know anything, or don’t really speak English. I’ve taken to just hanging up and trying again with someone else, and that usually works.
Count me in with the “it’s a mistake” crowd. But, I agree with Warren. Most U.S. consumers are used to such shoddy phone service they may not see Wal-Mart as any worse than anyone else.
Online shoppers want and deserve a good online tracking system that doesn’t require a phone call. Good for Wal-Mart for enhancing that part of their site.
Also, online shoppers want and deserve a good customer service number to call if they have difficulty that requires a human. Bad for Wal-Mart for diminishing this part of their service offering.
They need to excel at both.
If consumers who order something on the web receive an email conveying their order tracking information along with instructions on how to access information, why are they calling to track their order? If customers received this information and couldn’t follow instructions, why will sending them to another site help? Will customers get this information before making the phone call when they are expecting to talk with someone? How frustrated will they be at that point in time when they can’t talk to a real person? This decision seems problematic and not very consumer-centric.
Maybe Wal-Mart should learn a lesson from Netflix. In person customer service is a plus, not a minus. If the customer is aggravated enough to pick up the call and then wait to get an automated service option and then wait on hold to talk to a real live person, I think they should be able to figure it out that that customer wants to talk to a real live person.
I wonder how long it will be until Wal-Mart has real live operators on the phone again.
There’s more than one way to skin this beast. I would prefer a persuasive approach. Too many calls that could be easily handled online? Then how about illustrating how easy that is online. Too often, online is NOT clear and simple. If it were, many would prefer to go that way. If you can’t persuade them to use the online customer service, maybe it’s YOUR fault, not the shoppers’. But cutting the phone says, we don’t care. The customer is WRONG. We have done our job right. Seems risky to make that argument.
Duh! What are they thinking? In the age of online shopping, consumers have many choices. With programs that literally do the shopping for you and compare multiple options on the internet then rate the retailer based on consumer comment, why would anyone want to risk their reputation for customer service? Very bad move, surely they haven’t thought it all the way through….
Online retailers either have the margins for personal service or they don’t. eBay has no toll-free number to call. Their fees would have to be much greater to afford that. Wal-Mart bricks-and-mortar locations are self-service. Now that their web site is at a relatively mature stage of development, it isn’t surprising that they want to reduce their costs. When online shoppers call the Target toll-free number, most issues are resolved by automated responses, not human beings, so the cost is minimized. Wal-Mart’s new procedures might not save money if the shoppers start asking their local stores for customer service assistance for online order issues. I do not know if Wal-Mart considered or used Target’s methodology in the past.
There are two issues at play here. First, is the navigation of the Wal-Mart website clear enough to ensure that customers can figure out for themselves how to track orders? If not, Wal-Mart needs to reexamine its site design to avoid most of the phone inquiries that could be answered online.
Second, and more importantly, is the cost saving worth the risk of continued negative impressions about Wal-Mart’s customer service? The company is devoting effort (or at least devoting lip service) to improving its in-store experience, including speedier checkout. To create a negative impression among online shoppers who are also potential brick-and-mortar customers is penny-wise and pound-foolish when there are so many alternative places to shop.
Wal-Mart, as some of us would state, continues to ‘shoot itself in the foot’! It isn’t the shoppers fault that the web site is confusing.
Or, did Wal-Mart forget to do its homework and trial runs for all the different consumers who might utilize this web site? Hmmmmmmm
Wal-Mart online buyers need the hand-holding. I ran Kmart’s site in the day and these buyers are the least web sophisticated buyers in the land. If you don’t teach them to fish, they will never eat….
As a semi-grand Poobah of customer response systems, please allow me to insert some logic into this discussion. Email customer service works better than phone contact if delivered properly. Here’s why:
1.) It eliminates emotion from the dialogue
2.) It’s available all the time (are you as tired of the term, “24-7,” as I am?)
3.) It helps customers focus their concerns instead of calling to whine, yell, and complain
4.) It helps those for whom English is a second language to express their concerns
5.) It helps retailers provide the most specific, targeted, and helpful responses
6.) It provides customers with a printable response they can share with their significant others (do NOT discount this benefit, since most complainants have to report back to others)
7.) It provides a written record of the communication exchange, which benefits both parties
I’m a Netflix customer and a happy user of their expanded phone service. But then again, I’m a semi-reasonable person who is able to use the Netflix website productively until it fails to answer my questions (most recently, “How do I transfer my automatic credit card billing for our daughter’s account to a different card without invading her privacy?”).
The key, to repeat, is to deliver email support quickly and with detail. None of that automatic “we have received your inquiry and will respond as soon as possible” crapola. Get back to customers right away with a personalized response that shows you’ve read their question.
Direct Marketing 101:
The standard industry number for the “Where is my order?” calls is in the 50% range if order confirmation and order tracking emails are not pushed out to the customer. Wal-Mart should have recognized this years ago and addressed methods to proactively eliminate these calls by pushing the data out to customers.
But shutting down the whole call center? Obviously not a direct marketing whiz behind that decision. Sales will be affected. Customer goodwill should be expected to decline. Yes, it’s a bit harder to measure the ROI in good customer service, but would they do the same with the Service/Returns Desk in stores even though it’s a pain? I think not.
Why not a kiosk/counter/booth in the store where a skilled, empowered person problem-solves for customers, both internet adept and clueless? Create positive PR, competitive advantage, bring people into the store and most of all treat customers like customers and provide authentic help.
I agree with the basic theme here, that if customers are calling the 800 number to track orders, chances that part of the site needs a revamp.
And that revamp may need to consider that the Wal-Mart online shopper may have significantly more usability issues than the average–s/he may be older, less computer-literate and less literate in general, and more likely to speak English as a second language.
Some internet neophytes (I’ve seen it) are even willing to invest companies and sites with the power and the caprice to decide that they, the customers, are somehow unworthy of having their otherwise paid-for orders filled.
Then, of course, there are those who just don’t believe their order has gone through until they talk to a human being who will tell them so–it doesn’t occur to them that they’re looking at the same information the CSR is looking at.
So I think we’re not looking at just any revamp–the order-tracking area and the shopping cart probably need to explain a lot more than we would think for 2007-8, including why it’s simpler for everyone to track orders and shipping online and exactly how the process works. (Including, believe it or not, why it’s important to read all the information you see on the screen and scroll down if you don’t understand something–I’ve seen people go for years not knowing how to do something simple because they never thought to scroll down to where the button is on their monitor.)
I’d make the cart and tracking areas as visually uncluttered as possible, maybe with an overview of the process at the beginning and then taking the shopper through one screen at a time, with a link to a more traditional, faster process for returning customers.
At that point, Wal-Mart is still going to have people calling the other numbers to ask about their online orders. But at least it won’t be the folks who should know better, and it won’t be the fault of the web team.
OMIGOD! Let me vent! First of all, do you think any customer has ever found the voice messages (press 1 for this and 2 for that…then when you finally get a person they ask you for the same information all over again) anything but annoying? The extension of this rude customer treatment is to make it impossible to reach a person altogether! Greeters in the store when I don’t yet need help, and no person when I call to actively seek help?! What in the world is WM thinking?!
It all comes down to economics and finding the people to do the job at an affordable price. Sounds like despite outsourcing options overseas, Wal-Mart still can’t find a solution that is economically feasible for its business model. As a result, they are cutting corners at the expense of consumers. But they are hardly the only ones. Acceptable levels of customer service and support via the phone are virtually non-existent in the Internet age, and with good reason. There is not one company that is excelling in this area therefore companies like Wal-Mart can afford to take a “You’ll take whatever we give you attitude” with consumers. And most consumers put up with it because price is their chief concern when making buying decisions. However, if that same poor service was offered in brick-and-mortar stores, I think there would be a revolt. I’m not sure why what the disconnect is between the two, but it probably has to do with accountability and being able to immediately vent on a customer service rep for perceived bad service during in-person situations.
Here we have the biggest retailer in the world making yet another “rookie mistake.” It’s mind-boggling.
As someone said above, “What are they thinking?” Have none of the senior management team been involved in retail before?
Perhaps they believe the operators at 1-800-walmart will be able to answer those few questions customers might have and they can save on payroll.
I don’t know. It’s a complete puzzlement.
Wal-Mart’s biggest mistake here may be simply the way they are talking about it! “Customer Contact Reduction?” That’s something you *do* not something you *say*! They should be talking about the significant investment they are making in online order tracking. They should be saying, “We understand our customers and we know they aren’t always entirely comfortable with the online options for order information. Therefore, we’re putting some really smart people on the problem and we expect to have the easiest, most consumer-friendly order help system on the Internet by mid-2008. We’re going to do things that have never been done before! That will help our customers and help us scale our online business.” The effect is the same–fewer calls.
Look at it from Wal-Mart’s perspective: volume. They feel they have got to wean consumers off their pacifiers, and suffer the temporary crying. A retailer as large and powerful as Wal-Mart (and there’s only one) does sometimes have to “train” consumers, who eventually come around because they understand what low prices require.
While it remains to be seen how this will work out for Wal-Mart, it’s possible they could be throwing the baby out with the bath water. There are instances where the contact center can be a sales center, but it depends on how you engage your customers to begin with. It seems as if the problem here was helping customers find the right channel for their needs. The company saw the phone as a cost, but that could be because of when and where they were offering it as an option. If you offer your phone number on pages where customers can track their shipments, customers will use the phone to track their shipments.
What happens now if a customer has a sales related question that can’t be handled online? More than likely, they’ll abandon the transaction all together and look elsewhere.
Perhaps a more proactive way of targeting sales opportunities vs. support and tracking would benefit the company more than forcing all customers down a single path? Ultimately, when it comes to long-term satisfaction and customer experience, denying customers their preferred channel could be a risky bet.
When a customer picks up the phone to talk to somebody about getting help, that means that they want to talk to somebody, and they need help. If they were comfortable with online help, they wouldn’t have picked up the phone. Customer service is all about not just meeting, but exceeding customer expectations. Yes, customer service with a personal touch can be expensive, but customer service isn’t an expense to be minimized, it’s an opportunity to cement long-term customer loyalty.
Many independent retailers wonder how they can compete against their corporate brethren. Those independent retailers that commit themselves to offering exceptional customer service with a personal touch create for themselves a significant competitive advantage.
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When it comes to online selling, the service and after service is what will establish customer loyalty. Wal-Mart has taken away the only tool that customers and potential customers can use to solve their problems and answer their questions. This will reflect negatively on the Wal-Mart brand as a whole and I believe they will see a dent in their online sales unit. I’m not sure what WM’s strategic planners are thinking but we live in an era where people expect top notch service wherever they shop. I can envision online shopping newbies giving up very easily. Online help is great but customers want the security of knowing there is a human they can turn to when things don’t go their way.
Is the issue toll-free numbers, or any number at all? If a customer has a big enough problem, I don’t think they’d be greatly offended by calling a number at their own expense to talk to a human. Long-distance rates are pretty cheap now, and if it costs you half a buck in those hopefully rare circumstances when you really need to talk to someone, it shouldn’t be a big deal. (Just don’t make them wait a half hour on hold!) Having NO number to call, I think, is a mistake, but perhaps not a huge one, since so many of us are now used to automated systems. I’m a little puzzled as to why so many web sites seem to go out of their way to hide phone numbers and contact information, even a mailing address–although perhaps they don’t give out the mailing address for fear people will then be able to call 411 and get a phone number! One of the biggest problems I’ve found is with phone personnel who don’t know anything, or don’t really speak English. I’ve taken to just hanging up and trying again with someone else, and that usually works.
Count me in with the “it’s a mistake” crowd. But, I agree with Warren. Most U.S. consumers are used to such shoddy phone service they may not see Wal-Mart as any worse than anyone else.
Online shoppers want and deserve a good online tracking system that doesn’t require a phone call. Good for Wal-Mart for enhancing that part of their site.
Also, online shoppers want and deserve a good customer service number to call if they have difficulty that requires a human. Bad for Wal-Mart for diminishing this part of their service offering.
They need to excel at both.
If consumers who order something on the web receive an email conveying their order tracking information along with instructions on how to access information, why are they calling to track their order? If customers received this information and couldn’t follow instructions, why will sending them to another site help? Will customers get this information before making the phone call when they are expecting to talk with someone? How frustrated will they be at that point in time when they can’t talk to a real person? This decision seems problematic and not very consumer-centric.
Maybe Wal-Mart should learn a lesson from Netflix. In person customer service is a plus, not a minus. If the customer is aggravated enough to pick up the call and then wait to get an automated service option and then wait on hold to talk to a real live person, I think they should be able to figure it out that that customer wants to talk to a real live person.
I wonder how long it will be until Wal-Mart has real live operators on the phone again.
There’s more than one way to skin this beast. I would prefer a persuasive approach. Too many calls that could be easily handled online? Then how about illustrating how easy that is online. Too often, online is NOT clear and simple. If it were, many would prefer to go that way. If you can’t persuade them to use the online customer service, maybe it’s YOUR fault, not the shoppers’. But cutting the phone says, we don’t care. The customer is WRONG. We have done our job right. Seems risky to make that argument.
Duh! What are they thinking? In the age of online shopping, consumers have many choices. With programs that literally do the shopping for you and compare multiple options on the internet then rate the retailer based on consumer comment, why would anyone want to risk their reputation for customer service? Very bad move, surely they haven’t thought it all the way through….
Online retailers either have the margins for personal service or they don’t. eBay has no toll-free number to call. Their fees would have to be much greater to afford that. Wal-Mart bricks-and-mortar locations are self-service. Now that their web site is at a relatively mature stage of development, it isn’t surprising that they want to reduce their costs. When online shoppers call the Target toll-free number, most issues are resolved by automated responses, not human beings, so the cost is minimized. Wal-Mart’s new procedures might not save money if the shoppers start asking their local stores for customer service assistance for online order issues. I do not know if Wal-Mart considered or used Target’s methodology in the past.
There are two issues at play here. First, is the navigation of the Wal-Mart website clear enough to ensure that customers can figure out for themselves how to track orders? If not, Wal-Mart needs to reexamine its site design to avoid most of the phone inquiries that could be answered online.
Second, and more importantly, is the cost saving worth the risk of continued negative impressions about Wal-Mart’s customer service? The company is devoting effort (or at least devoting lip service) to improving its in-store experience, including speedier checkout. To create a negative impression among online shoppers who are also potential brick-and-mortar customers is penny-wise and pound-foolish when there are so many alternative places to shop.
Wal-Mart, as some of us would state, continues to ‘shoot itself in the foot’! It isn’t the shoppers fault that the web site is confusing.
Or, did Wal-Mart forget to do its homework and trial runs for all the different consumers who might utilize this web site? Hmmmmmmm
Wal-Mart online buyers need the hand-holding. I ran Kmart’s site in the day and these buyers are the least web sophisticated buyers in the land. If you don’t teach them to fish, they will never eat….
As a semi-grand Poobah of customer response systems, please allow me to insert some logic into this discussion. Email customer service works better than phone contact if delivered properly. Here’s why:
1.) It eliminates emotion from the dialogue
2.) It’s available all the time (are you as tired of the term, “24-7,” as I am?)
3.) It helps customers focus their concerns instead of calling to whine, yell, and complain
4.) It helps those for whom English is a second language to express their concerns
5.) It helps retailers provide the most specific, targeted, and helpful responses
6.) It provides customers with a printable response they can share with their significant others (do NOT discount this benefit, since most complainants have to report back to others)
7.) It provides a written record of the communication exchange, which benefits both parties
I’m a Netflix customer and a happy user of their expanded phone service. But then again, I’m a semi-reasonable person who is able to use the Netflix website productively until it fails to answer my questions (most recently, “How do I transfer my automatic credit card billing for our daughter’s account to a different card without invading her privacy?”).
The key, to repeat, is to deliver email support quickly and with detail. None of that automatic “we have received your inquiry and will respond as soon as possible” crapola. Get back to customers right away with a personalized response that shows you’ve read their question.
Direct Marketing 101:
The standard industry number for the “Where is my order?” calls is in the 50% range if order confirmation and order tracking emails are not pushed out to the customer. Wal-Mart should have recognized this years ago and addressed methods to proactively eliminate these calls by pushing the data out to customers.
But shutting down the whole call center? Obviously not a direct marketing whiz behind that decision. Sales will be affected. Customer goodwill should be expected to decline. Yes, it’s a bit harder to measure the ROI in good customer service, but would they do the same with the Service/Returns Desk in stores even though it’s a pain? I think not.
Why not a kiosk/counter/booth in the store where a skilled, empowered person problem-solves for customers, both internet adept and clueless? Create positive PR, competitive advantage, bring people into the store and most of all treat customers like customers and provide authentic help.
I agree with the basic theme here, that if customers are calling the 800 number to track orders, chances that part of the site needs a revamp.
And that revamp may need to consider that the Wal-Mart online shopper may have significantly more usability issues than the average–s/he may be older, less computer-literate and less literate in general, and more likely to speak English as a second language.
Some internet neophytes (I’ve seen it) are even willing to invest companies and sites with the power and the caprice to decide that they, the customers, are somehow unworthy of having their otherwise paid-for orders filled.
Then, of course, there are those who just don’t believe their order has gone through until they talk to a human being who will tell them so–it doesn’t occur to them that they’re looking at the same information the CSR is looking at.
So I think we’re not looking at just any revamp–the order-tracking area and the shopping cart probably need to explain a lot more than we would think for 2007-8, including why it’s simpler for everyone to track orders and shipping online and exactly how the process works. (Including, believe it or not, why it’s important to read all the information you see on the screen and scroll down if you don’t understand something–I’ve seen people go for years not knowing how to do something simple because they never thought to scroll down to where the button is on their monitor.)
I’d make the cart and tracking areas as visually uncluttered as possible, maybe with an overview of the process at the beginning and then taking the shopper through one screen at a time, with a link to a more traditional, faster process for returning customers.
At that point, Wal-Mart is still going to have people calling the other numbers to ask about their online orders. But at least it won’t be the folks who should know better, and it won’t be the fault of the web team.
OMIGOD! Let me vent! First of all, do you think any customer has ever found the voice messages (press 1 for this and 2 for that…then when you finally get a person they ask you for the same information all over again) anything but annoying? The extension of this rude customer treatment is to make it impossible to reach a person altogether! Greeters in the store when I don’t yet need help, and no person when I call to actively seek help?! What in the world is WM thinking?!
It all comes down to economics and finding the people to do the job at an affordable price. Sounds like despite outsourcing options overseas, Wal-Mart still can’t find a solution that is economically feasible for its business model. As a result, they are cutting corners at the expense of consumers. But they are hardly the only ones. Acceptable levels of customer service and support via the phone are virtually non-existent in the Internet age, and with good reason. There is not one company that is excelling in this area therefore companies like Wal-Mart can afford to take a “You’ll take whatever we give you attitude” with consumers. And most consumers put up with it because price is their chief concern when making buying decisions. However, if that same poor service was offered in brick-and-mortar stores, I think there would be a revolt. I’m not sure why what the disconnect is between the two, but it probably has to do with accountability and being able to immediately vent on a customer service rep for perceived bad service during in-person situations.
Here we have the biggest retailer in the world making yet another “rookie mistake.” It’s mind-boggling.
As someone said above, “What are they thinking?” Have none of the senior management team been involved in retail before?
Perhaps they believe the operators at 1-800-walmart will be able to answer those few questions customers might have and they can save on payroll.
I don’t know. It’s a complete puzzlement.
Wal-Mart’s biggest mistake here may be simply the way they are talking about it! “Customer Contact Reduction?” That’s something you *do* not something you *say*! They should be talking about the significant investment they are making in online order tracking. They should be saying, “We understand our customers and we know they aren’t always entirely comfortable with the online options for order information. Therefore, we’re putting some really smart people on the problem and we expect to have the easiest, most consumer-friendly order help system on the Internet by mid-2008. We’re going to do things that have never been done before! That will help our customers and help us scale our online business.” The effect is the same–fewer calls.
Look at it from Wal-Mart’s perspective: volume. They feel they have got to wean consumers off their pacifiers, and suffer the temporary crying. A retailer as large and powerful as Wal-Mart (and there’s only one) does sometimes have to “train” consumers, who eventually come around because they understand what low prices require.
While it remains to be seen how this will work out for Wal-Mart, it’s possible they could be throwing the baby out with the bath water. There are instances where the contact center can be a sales center, but it depends on how you engage your customers to begin with. It seems as if the problem here was helping customers find the right channel for their needs. The company saw the phone as a cost, but that could be because of when and where they were offering it as an option. If you offer your phone number on pages where customers can track their shipments, customers will use the phone to track their shipments.
What happens now if a customer has a sales related question that can’t be handled online? More than likely, they’ll abandon the transaction all together and look elsewhere.
Perhaps a more proactive way of targeting sales opportunities vs. support and tracking would benefit the company more than forcing all customers down a single path? Ultimately, when it comes to long-term satisfaction and customer experience, denying customers their preferred channel could be a risky bet.
When a customer picks up the phone to talk to somebody about getting help, that means that they want to talk to somebody, and they need help. If they were comfortable with online help, they wouldn’t have picked up the phone. Customer service is all about not just meeting, but exceeding customer expectations. Yes, customer service with a personal touch can be expensive, but customer service isn’t an expense to be minimized, it’s an opportunity to cement long-term customer loyalty.
Many independent retailers wonder how they can compete against their corporate brethren. Those independent retailers that commit themselves to offering exceptional customer service with a personal touch create for themselves a significant competitive advantage.