Thoughts in Time

JOIN THIS FACEBOOK GROUP: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12256012493 

IKEA told me that the only way I can complain or possibly get compensation for getting mistreated is by writing to some address in the UK.  That’s no fun, I’d rather find everyone else who IKEA has treated this way and get us together through Facebook.  If you’ve been treated poorly by IKEA, join this group - or if you just want to show a big stuffy corporation that doesn’t value service that customers do matter and that it might be worthwhile to listen to customers rather telling them they “need to write to blah blah UK to register a complaint”, JOIN THIS GROUP- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12256012493
The rest of the story….

IKEA had told us they would deliver our cabinets on Tuesday(for the first parts of the story see here, here, and here).  Remember, I ordered this stuff in the middle JANUARY.  On Tuesday, we never got the delivery, and finally were told that “they were at your place at 7:30AM, but didn’t know which flat the raised ground floor one was and were afraid to ring the wrong bell so they left” -

Are you serious?  How incompetent can one company (or it’s outsourced delivery reps) be?  So, Kellee called them and  they promised that they would then deliver our order before Saturday, or at the worst, first thing on Saturday (before 9AM).  It’s now Saturday at 5:20… Do we have the order? Of course not.

At about 3, I get a call from DHL saying IKEA has moved the order to some other courier (no reason known).  Sorry, they can’t tell me who or what’s going on - I have to call IKEA.

I call IKEA.  The girl says “I don’t know why your order is being switched from courier to another - there aren’t any problems on your route” - I run out of pay as you go minutes on my Orange phone, and thus get cut off.

top up phone minutes (remembering that IKEA has cost me something like 10-15 pounds between the times I’ve now spoken to them through this drama)

I call back.  A new girl asks me to hold on while she finds out what’s going on. Remembering the pence ticking away as I’m on hold, I respectfully decline, asking her to call me back.  A couple minutes later, I get a call back. “Don’t worry, all the orders will be delivered tonight, including yours. They’re just running late.”

Me…” So, you expect me to sit around all evening as well?  I’ve got family visiting from the US and wanted to take them out.”

“her - I really do apologize”

At this point, I started asking for compensation.  She said they can’t do anything beyond giving me the delivery cost back (which they already had done when they messed it up last time.  I said that wasn’t good enough. I asked to speak to a supervisor.  She put me on hold and came back saying the supervisor said that’s all they can do.

At this point, I was getting very agitated.  I ask again to speak to the supervisor. I’m told I can’t do that.  I ask for a supervisor’s name -I’m told I can’t have it.  I’m told that what I’ll need to do is write to their customer response team (they mistreat customers so often they have staff dedicated to this!)… I try to explain my position to the rep in a way that personalizes it…”what if IKEA told you to come in to work today at 9, had you sit until 5, then said - oops, we don’t need you, we’re not paying you, and your only recourse is to write to some office in Ipswich”… She says - “sorry, I can’t do anything else”.

This is where I explain that I can. I can write about it online, I can start a facebook group, I can become a pain that is going to cost them well north of whatever compensation they could have provided (I would have been happy with even a 50 pound voucher). She has nothing to say, so I hang up.

So here I am - IKEA, you are the first company to make me a determined detractor. I will share this story with anyone who cares to listen, and it has gotten me so annoyed that not only have setup a facebook group, but I’ve budgetd $25 towards buying ads on facebook to spread the word about that group.  That’s right, your service has been so bad that I’m choosing to spend money to tell people how bad it is.  And all this could have been avoided with some reasonable service and someone at IKEA taking responsibility when things did go badly.

Bill Mosher,founder of echoonline.com - a company that’s similar to BzzAgent, presented the results of their work with Dust Bunny. Although the data had a small sample, there was one result that was particularly interesting. The netpromoter score (NPS) calculated from people who participated was negative 32 (-32). However, when they looked at the reports from participants, the polarity of 75% of conversations was positive. This seemed strange. As they analyzed the actual reports, what they hypotesize is that the negative net promoter score came from the fact that the product didn’t deliver on its advertising message (cleaning everywhere easily), but the positive polarity came from the fact that consumers found cool new uses for the product (cleans hard to reach places really well) that they were excited about sharing. It would be interesting to see if by changing just the brand promise (marketing messaging) for the product, if the NPS would go up.

EDIT - I said echoonline - I meant Echopinion and echopinion.com (as Bill pointed out in his comment). Sorry Bill!

WOMBAT #1.10

Check it out… Word of mouth is a big part of Higher One’s ongoing success.

Recently, as we were launching our program with East Carolina Univeristy several students found some innacurate information on the web about Higher One and started spreading it around campus. I was confident that by delivering on what we promised through our program “Faster access to their money,” ultimately students would embrace the program as they have at our other clients. Through communication with students, and the assistance of students on campus who were part of our B-4 program we were able to help educate many students and address the misconceptions prior to launch. However, many students still remained skeptical of the program based on the fear that had been created. The program has launched succesfully, and students got their money faster than ever before. Almost instantly we started to receive positive word of mouth. Here’s an example from a student oriented bulletin board site:

PAVLOV63070
campusblender.com
Veteran
139 Posts
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edit post I got my money today. Which is 2 days sooner than what I was told
1/6/2006 4:15:08 PM

phreaky dave
partyeastcarolina.com
Beer Me!
8451 Posts
user info
edit post ^Please don’t let that become a connotation that Higher One is good.
1/6/2006 4:28:16 PM

PAVLOV63070
campusblender.com
Veteran
139 Posts
user info
edit post I hated them at first just as everyone else; but they came through. I feel I may have jumped the gun in not giving them a chance.

I received an email from a friend that many people have probably received. “Is this true? I really hope not…”It asked. Below was a forwarded email talking about how Osama Bin Laden was identified by Ollie North at his hearings as being evil and that north had suggested the US assasinate Bin Laden. With about 20 seconds of research I was able to ascertain that the email was not even close to true. North did not mention Bin Laden, but rather Abu Nidal, and certainly did not suggest an assasination. Further the email claimed that the questioner was Al Gore - again, not true at all. But here was someone I know is smart forwarding me this message, very willing, in fact kind of wanting to believe that it was true.

This got me thinking more about the power of word of mouth and star wars. This will sound funny, but if WOM is “the force” that is the most powerful persuader of people to believe in a cause, buy a product, or choose one service over another, then there are certainly is a dark and light side to “the force”. Because we are much more willing to accept, and trust information that we receive from a friend, colleague, or contact WOM is a powerful engine for spreading false rumors. Fast Company, in their cover article on blogging really honed in on this fact. When a rumor is circulated and spread from person to person, blog to blog, people are willing to accept it with almost no research. When an authority (newspaper, company the rumor is about, person who it’s about, expert) refutes the rumors, they are almost universally questioned. The information that comes from a friend is accepted as true with little or no fact checking while the information from a source that has everything to lose if they lie is questioned… This leads to an interesting dicotomy. Companies like Higher One use WOM in our advertising, work with an organization like WOMMA to define a code of ethics, and use it and promte it to others. Individuals do not have this code, or any sort of governing mechanism. There is the essence of an idea here - at least for blogs. Perhaps what we need is better self regulation. We need a “personal WOM” code of ethics, and then an enforcement mechanism. Since blogs seem to be a way that the dark side of WOM gains a lot of power, perhaps a plug-in / truth / community rating tool is what’s needed. There is more here, but understanding how powerful WOM and it’s dark side is a good start.

Here’s an idea that I have had that I haven’t seen expressed clearly. WOMMA had the “word of mouth vs. advertising” conference in New York, and there has been debate amongst advertisers and agencies about how to weigh one versus the other. My idea is that advertising and marketing function at different parts of the buy cycle. Consider a very simple buy cycle for a consumer and simple hi-tech product - say a digital camera.

1. The consumer sees an article in a magazine, a print ad, or an ad on TV
2. The consumer decides that they would like to purchase a digital camera
3. The consumer starts to research their purchse
4. The consumer talks to a friend or trusted source who they think is knowledgable about the product to get recommendations
5. The consumer buys the recommended product (he or she might or might not confirm the friend’s recommendation).

Of course, the 1. could also be initiated by a friend talking about a product, or seeing a friend or colleague use a product.

The key point is that advertising creates interest in a product or product segment, but WOM will have a greater impact on the exact product that the consumer ultimately chooses. It’s about where you want to create leverage. It’s also a great way that entrepreneurs can use WOM to enter established markets and gain market share. Make a product that consumers love - and you’ve essentially taken the market created through the mainstream players advertising spend, and then captured the consumers desire and converted them to a customer through your happy customer’s advocacy.