January 31, 2006
Aligning Internal Policies with Customer Needs
As a consumer, do you ever get the feeling that some of the companies you do business with are more concerned about meeting their internal needs rather than your needs as a customer? Are companies putting more restrictions on you as the customer because their internal systems and processed are out of whack?
My recent experience with Merry Maids is a great example of how some organizations create policies without considering the impact on the customer. And it is a great example of how easy it is to get internal policies aligned with customer needs with a little bit of forethought.
A few weeks ago I received a phone call from Merry Maids reminding me of our cleaning appointment for the following day. The call was very well timed since the entire family was at home on vacation. So I asked them to cancel the appointment because we would be home at the time when they were planning to come. No problem, right?
Guess again. After my request to cancel the appointment, I received a lecture from the woman from Merry Maids saying that cancellations needed to be done 48 hours prior to the scheduled appointment and that I was at risk of being charged a $50 lock out fee because of the late cancellation. When I asked her why she was making her reminder call to me 24 hours prior to the appointment if cancellations had to be done 48 hours prior to the scheduled appointment, she said that they do this to remind people that they need to leave a key for the cleaning ladies or leave a check for the services. When I asked why then don’t make their calls 48 hours prior to the appointment, she said 24 hours was the company policy and she couldn’t do anything about it.
What’s clear is that Merry Maids is concerned about their internal issue of having their workers show up to a home and not be able to get access. They have to pay their workers for the time anyway and, without the lock out fee, they would lose money on each home where they can’t get access. Fair enough. They have every right to collect their lock out fee so they don’t lose money if the customer fails to give them access.
From a customer’s standpoint, the same thing could be accomplished if they called customers 48 hours before the appointment. It would allow them to address their internal issue and provide the customer with a sufficient window of opportunity to cancel the service is they need to. A win all they way around.
The reason they probably don’t do this is that operations has developed a set of policies that allow them to execute their part of the business. But in developing the policy, they didn’t get data from customers and/or marketing to understand the impact of the lack of alignment between the 48 hour cancellation and the 24 hour reminder. They focused internally on one policy without looking externally at the impact and reviewing other policies that impact the customer to ensure that there is consistency, fairness and alignment. Policies designed to protect an organization, don’t by default have to hurt the customer.
Posted by Greg Robinson at January 31, 2006 01:15 PM
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I don't see the 24 hour call has anything to do with internal policy not aligning with customer's needs.
Changing the call to 48 hours in advance is not a win-win because more clients will find it easier to cancel an appointment. I think they delibrately choose not to call 48 hours in advance so not to give the clients the convenience to cancel the appointments.
Posted by: Grace at February 10, 2006 04:44 PM
Grace, thanks for your post. If customers value the service, they are not likely to cancel their appointments whether the call is made 24 or 48 hours in advance. If you are right that they have set their reminder calls at 24 hours to purposely avoid cancellations, that does not say too much for the company in terms of their focus on the customer or belief in the value of their service.
Posted by: Greg Robinson at February 13, 2006 10:33 AM
I work at merry maids as a cleaner. When you sign on with our services, you get a copy of the service agreement where you'll find all of our policies. As the customer it is your job to read such materials because you've already agreed to them when you sign on. In the customer service industry, everyone wants and thinks they deserve an exception. We let one person do it and then it hits the fan. Have you really never worked with people? Rules are made for a reason to protect the company. The sole purpose of the company is to MAKE MONEY.
Posted by: at March 1, 2007 06:39 PM
I don't see the 24 hour call has anything to do with internal policy not aligning with customer's needs.
Changing the call to 48 hours in advance is not a win-win because more clients will find it easier to cancel an appointment. I think they delibrately choose not to call 48 hours in advance so not to give the clients the convenience to cancel the appointments.
Grace, thanks for your post. If customers value the service, they are not likely to cancel their appointments whether the call is made 24 or 48 hours in advance. If you are right that they have set their reminder calls at 24 hours to purposely avoid cancellations, that does not say too much for the company in terms of their focus on the customer or belief in the value of their service.
I work at merry maids as a cleaner. When you sign on with our services, you get a copy of the service agreement where you'll find all of our policies. As the customer it is your job to read such materials because you've already agreed to them when you sign on. In the customer service industry, everyone wants and thinks they deserve an exception. We let one person do it and then it hits the fan. Have you really never worked with people? Rules are made for a reason to protect the company. The sole purpose of the company is to MAKE MONEY.
