As I prepared for my first blog post ever, I read a recent survey entitled, “The Global Customer Service Barometer,” which was published by American Express (my previous employer).

The survey confirmed ideas that most of us suspect:

1)   Americans will spend 9% more with companies that provide excellent service

2)   Two-thirds (67%) feel companies aren’t doing enough to earn their business and nine in ten (90%) Americans consider the quality of customer service when deciding to do business with a company

3)   Three most influential factors when deciding which company consumers choose to buy from:

* Personal experience (98%)

* Company’s reputation or brand (92%)

* Recommendations from friends and family (88%)

Should companies invest more (or differently) in customer service to increase the value of their brands?  This is not a trivial question because in the vast majority of cases, it is the front-line customer service worker (whether he/she be on the phone, in the store, or showing up at the consumer’s home) that represents a company’s first and most important interaction between them and their customer.  These are the interactions that represent the moment of truth: the most important interaction with the company where the consumer forms his opinion.

Today companies with mobile workers have an unprecedented opportunity to transform what has traditionally been a “moment of pain” into a “moment of glory”.  This opportunity derives from the dual power of predictive analytics and improved forms of communication.

What can companies with employees who go to consumers’ homes do?

1)   Use the Information You Have to Make Better Decisions.  Most companies have the ability to know how long it takes to perform a task and how long it takes an individual worker to complete the task.  The problem is that they don’t use this information. They need to start!

2) Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.  And do it in the format that consumers want.  Call them, email them, text them, let them check on the internet to see what is going on.  And communication is a two-way street.  Let them be part of the conversation.  If you are going to be late, tell them; and let them decide what to do.  If they are willing to wait, great.  If they want to reschedule, let them.

3) Get Over the Idea That Cost/Service is an Either/Or Proposition.   With the advent of predictive scheduling software and communications it is possible for companies to delight customers and save money at the same time.  How? By giving consumers arrival windows that are short and accurate, by communicating with them so they know when you will arrive, and by showing up with the right personnel and tools to do the job right the first time.

I would be very interested to hear what other best practices exist in the sphere of customer service that are helping companies build their brands, especially for companies whose business takes them to consumers’ homes.  What else can companies do?

It was interesting to hear that there was a lot of thinking and talking about the future of the business. Clearly people devoting mind time to how they can stay ahead.

I attended a very interesting conversation with Brian Roberts with Peter Chernin. It was clear he was thinking about the business all the time -(in fact he said that he is constantly thinking that the whole edifice would come down on him – he said “that’s what I have Steve Burke for, he always see the glass half full and I ALWAYS see the glass half empty – I thought that was interesting). He was talking about how Comcast is dedicating a lot of thought on how to improve the customer experience both in terms of content and technology.  He was very proud to show off Comcast’s new interactive guide interface,  which was indeed impressive.  It was clear how much thinking is going on about the customer experience at the level of the customer interaction with the content.

But WE know that the most important interaction is the human connection.

And though Brian Roberts did say that the cable industry is the industry people “love to hate” – he offered clue into how Comcast is intending to transform the customer experience as it relates to the one time that people will actually see a Comcast person face-to-face, i.e  the in-home appointment.

So today I went to check out how things are going at the level of the earth, not the stars – from the pinnacle of glamour and power, to a day spent with a tech – with one of TOA’s customers’ people in the field.

And somehow there were a lot of things that seemed the same to me. He was also thinking about how to make the customer experience better. Crawling in attics and closets… drilling, hooking and thinking how best to do things. But the difference was that he was there on the front lines – in people’s homes, under their carpet and inside their kitchen. It’s amazing how intimate this job is. People let you into the most private parts of their home and life without much reservation, exposing their most intimate physical space. Maybe it’s because, at the end of the day, the cable guy is just another sort of handyman, I don’t know… but it’s a fact that you get to see a LOT when you’re on this job. And it’s a hard job, both physically and mentally, to be the front line of the industry that ‘people love to hate’ as Brian Roberts put it and do a great job – which the guy did!

And if that’s the case, and you have great people doing a tough job, working one by one to transform the image of customer service – it behooves the leaders to provide them the best tools and the best methodologies to help them do their job with the least annoyance and disruption – to search and find the most innovative technology – software and hardware – to take away the burdens of the job and let them focus on what they do best and need to do best. Interacting with the customer well. It will pay dividends more than any great menu driven interactive guide – as well thought as it might be.

Why?  A way of keeping us from being exposed to too much information, a protection mechanism from things we don’t want to know or  just because we move around our world not always 100% aware of everything we do…

At the end of the day -  it doesn’t really matter because the patterns are there and they can be harnessed for the greater good.

So when Irad and I started TOA Technologies with the goal of solving what is commonly referred to as ‘the cable guy problem’ (or customers waiting at-home from 12-4 or all day for some kind of appointment without knowing when it will actually happen) we thought that, if we could only identify those patterns and connect we could use them to help solve this daily but incredibly annoying and costly problem.

Our assumption was that even in the most dynamic environment – like a field operations environment – there will always be behavior or “performance patterns” that could pretty easily be recognized and documented, ultimately  help better plan, schedule and manage the work-day of the many field service people out there. We thought that by identifying these performance patterns and building a mechanism to communicate them, we could help the companies be more predictive and respectful of everyone’s time. By being able to identify specific performance pattern of the specific people who provide the services or goods – we came to the conclusion that we could accurately predict when an appointment would happen and how long it would take. We could then offer up that information to all the stakeholders in the appointment – the planners, the managers and supervisor, the dispatchers but most importantly to the Customers.

Two weeks ago – after a long 6-year gestation period the US Patent Office finally recognized the uniqueness of our idea and the spefic combination of methodologies and technologies that we combined to solve this problem and awarded us a Patent Number 7,693,735 . The first of many.

I want to thank Irad here for the great work he did in steering this to completion. Though the concepts and the composition of the patent is/was ours jointly, the last two years of negotiations and execution was Irad’s alone. Thanks!

Since we got the patent I have been saying that I now know for sure that those who get a patent deserve a patent. Either because they were truly geniuses who came up with something completely and radically new or because they had the perseverance and the conviction to believe that what they had was unique and fought for it without compromise.  In both cases the award is honestly due.

And it was quintessential Apple.

Perfect pitch hype in launch campaign that was, once again, astounding to witness. Everyone I know was somehow thinking or talking about it at some point… and the best “joke” I heard that day was that the iTab would be announced by President Obama during the State of the Union address (which was that same night)  – which was funny – but also not…let’s face it…if someone could pull off that ultimate marketing stunt, wouldn’t that be Apple?  And does anyone not think that Barack (or his girls) owns a Mac?  Even Frank Rich in the NY Times said that there were more people anticipating the Steve Jobs speech than Barak Obama’s State of the Union address.

So what is it about the Apple experience that makes it so compelling? A lot of things. But to me what is most continuously amazing is the completeness of the vision and then… the totality of the follow through execution all of which is about creating the holistic product which is not one specific “product” – but is Apple.

Apple is such a total ecosystem where everything is completely thought through as contiguous whole –  fitting together tightly and with a precision that basically has no gaps:   From the design of the iMacs and MacBooks to the iPhone / iPod experience (and now the iPad ) to the elegant, easy to use, almost flawless operating system to iTunes and the Apple Stores, to the website and the other online properties (such as me.com) to the launches – it’s all part of one almost indivisible whole.               One thing: Apple – The Brand as a Product:

Identifiable; of exquisite quality; inspiring the customer; respecting the consumer’s intelligence; a recognizable and complete customer experience. Yes. It costs a bit more…but ultimately you get what you pay for.

I am typing this on my MacBook Pro and when I think about it – it makes me laugh how passionate I feel about this machine!!! I love it! Isn’t that ridiculous? …But true! The MacBook is not an operating system and not a piece of hardware… it’s a complete Apple experience. Thought through. It has a distinct character all its own and it’s a beautiful thing. Even though it’s just a tool – and there are a many of these – it’s unique. Bravo Steve Jobs and Apple

So why don’t all service and goods providers think like Apple? Why can’t all them create the ultimate, contagious, complete exquisite experience that Apple has? Don’t they WANT customers like me (for life) to be writing adoring articles about them, looking for excuses to visit their stores and websites to spend money just to be “close”…How hard is it?

At the end, I think it’s all about intention. If you have it you will be there. You will do what it takes, you will go the distance, you will transcend. All you need is to think clearly, all you need to do is really want to.

It’s good business.