Rob Mitchell wrote:
We had a new client who is in another state, almost an hour away from our offices, where we had deployed a new wireless router in their small office network with about 10 computers. The router had some stability problems so at my initiative I sent a tech over to replace it for the client – we could RMA the original one on our own time and show proactive customer service to the client. While the tech was there the client pointed out that he had several PCs with expiring antivirus licenses, and others with free antivirus. The tech was able to offer the client a discount on the antivirus solution we resell. The client asked the tech to uninstall the hodgepodge of virus solutions that was previously deployed, and install the new antivirus software.
All went well except for one notebook system which was running Vista. After the new AV solution was installed, this notebook wouldn’t boot. The user of the notebook was about to go out of town and didn’t need it on the road, and it was already past the end of the business day, so the client agreed to let the tech take the notebook back to the shop.
The notebook had bits and pieces of several antivirus apps installed, and the installation of the new antivirus was enough to keep it from booting. At the shop the tech was able to get the old AV apps cleaned off the system, repaired the Vista installation, then re-applied patches and updates and returned the notebook to the client office.
I sent a follow-up email to the client a couple of days after sending out the invoice, and in response to the follow-up note (not the invoice itself) the client said he was a bit shocked by the amount invoiced and noted he thought the tech arrived at 3:00 and worked until 6:00 PM. The the time tracking app on the tech’s phone showed he left our office at noon, arrived at the client site at 12:45 and left just after 6:00 PM.
The tech was onsite just over five hours and put in two more hours fixing the dead Vista notebook, plus travel time, which is explicit on our Work Authorization form, which we derived in part from the forms in the Technibble Computer Business Kit. Our form says that customers are charged for travel time as well as actual repair time, and the client had signed the Work Authorization. Nevertheless, I was bothered because the client said he was surprised by the amount of his invoice.
The tech who did the work is a good tech – honest, diligent and skilled. The times were all correct – the tech did everything right, but I surmised there was a hole in our service delivery process. I needed to tell my techs to make sure that clients are aware of exactly when we began travel, arrived on the job site, and left the job site, and that we annotate the same on the Work Authorization, not just on the tech’s smartphone time tracking application.
I pulled up the client’s invoice and took two hours off the total – the travel time for two trips to and from his office, and immediately emailed the client with an apology and the amended invoice. In the apology, I recounted the actual times spent at work for the client (which were accurate in the original invoice) but apologized for failing to communicate clearly and explicitly. “If our invoice comes as a surprise, then we failed to do our job right,” I said in my email. “Please accept my apology for any lack of communication that might have resulted in misunderstanding. I hope the amended invoice will help make things right.”
The takeaway to this is always over-communicate. If the client is surprised by the invoice, we haven’t done our job right, and we need to own the responsibility for that. This last sentence is going into our Operations Manual. In this case it meant eating a couple of hours of tech time. Even though it was properly accounted, we didn’t communicate well with the client.
Time flies, and when a tech is on site a client will often say “Oh, while you’re here can you look at this other thing?” Processes have to allow for flexibility to maximize both customer value and profitability of every call, especially when you’re far from the office. But make sure the client is aware the meter’s running so that there are no surprises when the bill comes.
Over-communication is such an elementary aspect of service delivery it almost goes without saying, but it can trip up good techs and good companies. Being honest and humble, owning the mistake, and eating the cost goes a long way to build client trust. Building over-communication into the service delivery process avoids the necessity of having to correct this sort of mistake.
I hope this anecdote will be useful.
