The CEO’s E-Mail Address
It has been reported that the CEO of Nationwide has been forced to shut his e-mail address, because of protests, that they are charging for overseas cash withdrawals. Apparently, it has now been changed to something like ceo@nationwide.co.uk and you now get through to one of his assistants.
Apparently, there is a web site call ceoemail.com, which gives many of the e-mail addresses or those that run companies and organisations.
So if I was running a large company, how would I organise it?
The e-mail address would be obvious like ceo@megacorp.co.uk and this would then go through a strong spam filter to remove the real rubbish trying to sell me worthless fakes and then pass the rest to my assistant or one of a group of assistants, if the company was large enough or I was getting a lot of e-mail. The assistants would have software, which by just clicking a button would take action on the e-mails. Actions might include.
- Forward to Customer Services or other Departments. These would also go into an e-mail tracking system, so that it can be traced that e-mails have been acted on.
- Put on a block list as it’s abusive. The sender would be told and why!
- Reply with a simple and appropriate e-mail.
- Phone the sender and say something appropriate.
- Send them a nice postcard. I’ve always found that this is a good thing to do, as people won’t throw away a nice picture. But they may pin it to their notice board.
Obviously, you can think of a lot more responses you might use.
The important e-mails would be sent to me for personal action.
Now some companies manage to do this with letters and I can remember receiving a phone call from Sainsbury’s after I’d written in with a complaint to the CEO.
But one thing no company does is to analyse all of the messages and count the occurences of various issues. So to return to the Nationwide example, if the CEO was getting a lot of complaints about withdrawal fees, the CEO would know about it and could take action.
So in fact, if you get the system right, it’s a very powerful way to find out what your customers are thinking about and satisfy their needs!
The Anonymous Widower 
It is good when the big bosses get troubled by complaints, it gives them a better idea of what life is like really for the people affected by his decisions
Comment by Liz P | September 14, 2010 |
Absolutely! It gives them the evidence to do the right thing!
But most just ignore them!
It would also be so easy to create an analysis system, especially if it was designed as an integral part of the web site.
Comment by AnonW | September 14, 2010 |
Some places ignore you – I was surprised to get a reply to feedback card I left in Starbucks. Two things I have in the past really had a sustained go at, one was PG Tips – I am very sensitive to caffeine, it gives me bad migraines, and my preferred tea is PG tips, and it wasnt available in decaff. So I took to phoning customer services every week or so and asking when they intended to bring out a decaff version. It took a while, but there is one now.
The other was the habit the BBC had of reporting major fatal incidents abroad before next of kin were informed. I was in that position when Neil was in the Navy, and it took days to find out what was happening, and they were awful days, no-one should have to go through that. So when we invaded Iraq and they were doing the same thing, I emailed or rang each time it happened and told them how it feels for the families. The bulletins now says “Next of kin have been informed”. I am sure this isnt down solely to my many complaints, but I suspect they had a bit of influence.
Comment by Liz P | September 14, 2010 |
I suspect you got there by shear perseverence, but as you probably won’t the only one, they should have both picked it up earlier, if they were analysing the calls and e-mails.
In the PG Tips case, the e-mail to the CEO, should be a form and one of the sub-choices should be New Product Ideas. That way they can actually check that their customers are thinking the same way they are, without telling the world, what their new products are!
Comment by AnonW | September 14, 2010 |
I can be very perseverent when I want to be -aka a bl**dY nuisance. I can also be quite cutting and apparently scare some people – dont know why
I was looking at the way I spelt perseverant, not sure I spelt it right. It occured to me that there are often occasions when I ponder about the correct ending for a word, and try both to see which one looks right. That is easy in English, I read a lot and know what words should look like. I read far less Latin, and pretty much no French or German. In Latin I struggle with word endings too, all of them – verbs, nouns, adjectives, the works, and whilst I can read it reasonably well, I cant translate English into Latin with any degree of success. Perhaps this is all linked. I will have to tell Anthony the Latin Tutor that my knowledge of English word endings is bad as well!
Comment by Liz P | September 14, 2010 |
I do know of several companies that collate complaints and analyse them systematically (although I’n not sure what systems they use).
Ironically or not, it appears to be those that have the worst perception for service with the public and in the media. The point being that a good service culture requires a fundamental belief in creating a positive consumer experience and, the better the manifestation of that, the fewer the number of complaints that ever reach the level of exasperation required to write to the CEO.
However, I think the example of Nationwide is an interesting one. If any of us had a shop that sold the, for example, wooden models we made and we decided that, because of changes in our cost base, we needed to increase the price, I’m sure we would feel that this was a morally reasonable, even morally responsible thing to do. Nationwide has decided it needs to charge for a service, it is perfectly within its rights to do so, just as its customers are perfectly within their rights to take their business elsewhere.
It seems likely that Nationwide has been subsidising the costs it incurs on these transactions, which would seem slightly unfair to people who have other financial products with the institution and who, by definition, will be getting a marginally less advantageous rate as a result.
In Consumerology: The Myth of Market Research, the Truth about Consumer Behaviour and the Psychology of Shopping
, I point out that the nature of service complaints is that they become stories – with a hero, a villain, a setting, a turning point and an outcome. Humans are obsessed with stories, they connect into our brains perfectly, but they aren’t representative. Companies need to ensure that any measurement of service standards is objective and to design service from the inside out, not with reference to what customers think they want.
Comment by Philip Graves | September 20, 2010 |
The Nationwide example is I think one, where they haven’t thought it through properly. For instance, I bank with Nationwide and don’t really mind about the charge. Especially now, as I don’t go abroad much. But in the last couple of years, I’ve found certain reputable German and Italian banks, who would not let me withdraw money. Could this be because Nationwide weren’t charging, so there was no way these foreign banks could get their fee? Remember someone’s freebee is someone else’s cost. So perhaps a better solution would have been to push say travellers cheques, when you are going to some countries.
Comment by AnonW | September 20, 2010 |
You’re too young to remember the Molesworth all-purpose thank you letter! Basically, it was multiple choice, by just crossing out the bits you didn’t need. An all-purpose complaint e-msil could be done on the same basis. It could be made very funny too! The statistics collected would be dynamite.
I even know an Irish comedian, who would sign up to it!
Comment by AnonW | September 20, 2010 |
One of the best places for dealing with complaints that I have come across is The Christie in Manchester (large cancer centre). All around the hospital are leaflet holders with comment forms in, colour coded for each area. People can leave a comment or a complaint by filling it on and posting it in the little box beside the leaflet holder, or they can post it when they get home. If it is a complaint they have the option of making it a formal complaint, although they lose the option of being anonymous if they choose that.
The boxes are checked daily, and taken to a central point. All compliments are passed on the to the manager of the relevant that day, and managers are expected to tell the
staff involved asap. A letter of thank is sent if there os a name and address on the form.
Complaints or suggestions are sent to the managers as well, some of which are deemed to need a “rapid response” – ie same day – from the manager in question to those in the dept which deal with the forms – this means that a reply of some sort gets to the person within 2 or 3 days. However, even if that is the case, the suggestion/complaint is still looked at further.
Once a month a group of managers from very different areas meet up and discuss each form individually = some only need a couple of minutes some which stay on the agenda for several months as the suggestion is considered, or a solution sought to the issue causing complaint. If something is taking a while to solve, the person who filled the form in will be contacted on a number of occasions so they know what is happening, and may be invited in to chat about ideas.
They really do take the needs and opinions of the patients, visitors etc seriously.
Comment by Liz P | September 20, 2010 |
Well today I have a complaint about an animal charity. My late aunt left them a bequest in her will, which I am executor of. Probate was granted a couple of months ago and we are just liquidating assets. Today I had a letter from there which after expressing their condolences asked where the money was! Apparently they have a system of checking wills for bequests. They also have the amount of the bequest wrong.
When we have sufficient monies we will pay out – they are lucky she had capital and share portfolios, otherwise they would have had to wait until the house was sold!
Comment by Liz P | September 20, 2010 |
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