Category Archives: Business Blunders

Business Blunders, Company News

Why We Beta Test & Where CNN Could Have Used More Testing

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We have been working on a brand new version of EliteEmail.com for a while now. This new version is jam packed with new features that is entirely the result of customer feedback we have received. We always (and I mean always!) listen to our customers and attempt to be as responsive as possible in building the absolute best program possible. People are always asking when this new version will be available and while we have a rough timeline we are reluctant to give an actual date.

This reluctance isn’t because we enjoy keeping secrets or like building suspense, it’s because we need to go through the most rigorous of beta testing to ensure our customers email marketing activities are not interrupted for even a second. The only standard we accept is absolute excellence and while holding the bar that high does lead us to have a long beta testing cycle, we believe that anything less is simply a disservice to our loyal customers.

Last night I was watching CNN and was reassured why beta testing is so important. CNN has lots of new gadgets and graphics for their election coverage, most of which so far have been running fairly smoothly. The folks at CNN seem to have a good handle (as they always have) on how technology enhancements can really spruce up a newscast. Yesterday they showed off a cool new feature on that nifty touch screen they’ve been using lately. With a few taps of the screen, they were able to load Google maps and zoom in to any area of the country to illustrate a particular point. In this case the host (John Roberts) was showing the levies in New Orleans.  After proudly announcing this new feature, which, I must admit, was incredibly off-the-charts cool, Roberts went to switch the touch-screen to show the Republican side of the story. He tapped the screen and there was no response. He tapped again, and nothing…again, nothing, and again. This is on national TV with millions of people watching and all anyone can see is John Roberts tapping the screen to no avail. Finally he knew it wasn’t coming back and tossed it over to Wolf Blitzer for a semi-smooth cover-up. I guess no one at CNN ever tested the new Google Maps feature followed by resetting the screen to the other party. With millions of people watching, they couldn’t have been happy about this glitch, which once again reaffirms why you need to test, test and then test some more before releasing something live.

So, that is exactly what we are doing with our EliteEmail.com, our flagship email marketing program. We test and then we re-test. Then we test even the most obscure scenarios because each customer of ours does their email marketing a little differently and we need to make sure their experience is flawless. We may not achieve perfection and I’ll be the first one to admit that, but that’s where we are setting the bar and we’re not prepared to cut any corners. Ultimately, I believe this philosophy shines through in our program and is something our customers appreciate even if they have to wait a little bit longer.

Business Blunders

Who Wants Cold Pizza? Blunder By “Pizza Pizza”

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As always, I firmly believe you can learn a lot of good ways to improve your business by studying where other companies seemingly fall dramatically short. It doesn’t matter if that company is in the same industry as you because there is always a more “general lesson” that we can walk away with. By looking at these mistakes it can help you “reframe” or see something you’re doing in a different light and that is a key goal!

Pizza Pizza (http://www.pizzapizza.ca/) is celebrating their 40th anniversary and is Toronto, Ontario’s #1 pizza chain. Their marketing is generally very effective as most people know their ‘phone number jingle’ (…even when drunk, my friends can order pizza…that’s brand loyalty you can’t even measure!!). But, their customer service policies seem a bit questionable.

Here was the scenario that happened:
– We ordered 3 pizzas from Pizza Pizza.
– Each one was completely different and was chosen off their pre-built pizza menu with little to no modifications.

  • The Pizza’s were delivered around 40 minutes later. 
  • Only 2 out of 3 were proper. The other one was a totally different pizza, not even close to what we ordered.At this point it’s important to realize that mistakes do happen. I’m not happy about it, and my friend who had ordered that pizza wasn’t too happy either. But, I can understand they process a lot of orders and while it’s not good, I can see how this could occur.

Of course, the important thing now is that it’s rectified. (Customer Service 101…)

I called Pizza Pizza and selected from their oh-so-friendly-and-always-annoying-like-every-other-auto-attendant that I needed customer service. They kept me on hold for around 10 minutes. [Note to Pizza Pizza: Keeping customers that are potentially angry on hold listening to lame music doesn’t help diffuse the situation, it usually makes it worse!)

When I finally spoke to someone they said their policy is to deliver the correct pizza and let you keep the wrong pizza, but it has to be done right away.

Now, here’s my problem with having to do this right away, which I explained to the customer service rep:

  • Should we let the other two pizza’s get cold while we wait for the other person’s pizza?
  • Should we make this person watch us eat (and savor) our pizza while he waits?(Keep in mind, we’re looking at another 40 minutes of waiting)

After explaining the predicament with the scenario they caused by accident, I said that the only thing we can really do is have my friend eat the wrong pizza. But, because they made a mistake, instead of delivering the pizza right away, they should deliver it the next time I order. After all, in either case they are making a new pizza and sending out someone to deliver it. Who cares if it’s now or later? And, if you force me to do it now, which of the above options should I choose?

I also want to say at this point that since I frequently order pizza, I know that almost all the other restaurants would have had no problem tacking on a free pizza to my next order if they made a mistake.

Pizza Pizza, however, said that is their policy. Final. No ifs, ands, or butts.

What the restaurant chain failed to realize is that the solution they provide to the customer is the dining experience. You can’t recover from that mistake if you get it wrong the first time. (If I eat out and the waiter spills coffee on me…no retakes either!) By not having a responsive and reasonable customer service policy, you extend this negative experience because of the above predicament.

There are a lot of competitors out there and Pizza Pizza’s key to success is loyalty to their brand. I know my friend wouldn’t order from them with so many other options. How many other people are going to start saying the same thing after a negative experience?

I don’t blame the phone rep because I know she really is just following a policy. But, to the folks at Pizza Pizza who created this wonderful policy and the ones who approved it… this is a huge customer service blunder! Seriously, what were you thinking? And, don’t say people would abuse the system because I understand that would be a concern, but don’t put it ahead of good customer service?

Just to end the tale…. Pizza Pizza called 45 minutes later and said they forgot to send the pizza. 40 minutes after that, the pizza got there.