Recently I’ve been going through a personal and a professional “re-org.” I’ve been meaning to write about the CRM subject for some time now. I recently attended an all star business event at Harvard called Gravity Summit. The event promoters pulled in top talent from many different companies, sort of like a who’s who of the major players in the online space both large and small companies.

This one guy, happened to be an immigrant and successful entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk was doing his usual in your face wake up call to all of the willing participants, live and online (CNN was broadcasting on CNN.com). For some reason I like his style, “in your face authentic.” The real deal. He tells it like it is. If you don’t want the “truth” read a boring business book. Vaynerchuk was going on about scaling customer service, or CRM. He said someone said to him, “awe that’s just customer service, what about all the other stuff?” Garys’ reply: “That is the stuff!” Here it is:

Go to the 8:00 minute section of this video to see what I am talking about. What is interesting about this customer service comment he uses an example earlier how the cable TV companies are bundling their packages and Gary is paying for Japan TV which is something he does not want. More on that in a minute.

So where I want to go is back to customer service. Getting to 1 call resolution is great, lowering call times is great, getting customer service satisfaction surveys about the call center agent is great, we’ve all optimized these things to the nth degree. I can tell you that 98% of my customer service calls have been excellent. Where companies totally miss the boat is on the corporate policies. I would dare a Fortune 500 company to give a survey on their corporate policy. i.e. “Mr. Customer how do you like our bundled TV services at GiantCableTV, did you enjoy the basket weaving program in Swahili last week?”

I’ll give you an example. A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood to test the cell phone market. I’m a “double diamond” client with Sprint, or they might call them a preferred client, I’ve been with them for 10+ years, I pay my bills on time and I have an “all you can eat package”….but I hate my Palm Treo. It is ready for the recycling bin. It drops calls, the browser no longer displays graphics and I don’t feel like waiting on hold for 20 minutes to tell Sprint of my problem. However I knew that I could get a sales person on the phone pretty quickly if I said “I need a new cell phone ASAP.”

I like Sprint. Their coverage where I live is excellent for the most part. (However they went into ROAM mode at Harvard at the Gravity Summit). I do know that Sprint will be one of the first carriers to come out with a 4G wireless network, and Boston is slated to be one of the first cities to get it. This will be nice to get my desktop computer, LAN and Wireless all on one network, one bill, bundled package that I would pay for.

When I called the Sprint sales person I asked them if I could get a top of the line Blackberry. He said yes. I asked him for a “deal.” he gave me a GREAT deal, I did have to work him. I’m pretty sure it was a Tour, for a grand total of $49.00. I said, great. I’ll drive over to the Sprint store and pick it up. He said “hold on” you can only get this if we ship this to you. You cannot get this phone in the store for $49.00. I said, “I want to touch and feel it.” I even went to the Sprint store to see if I could hondle the guy down. No dice. But I could have it in the store for about $200. I didn’t get it.

I like Apple, and I would love to own an iPhone. (Love is a strong word). I called the Google 411 directory and asked for Apple. Hi, my name is Jim, I need a new cell phone ASAP.” “Great Jim we have iPhones.” The price of the phone was around $200. Not bad for the king of the wireless road. Then I ask about the cost of their wireless plans. I could get just over 2 hours for ~$120 per month, from AT&T. Hmmmmm….this is where the real deal is and isn’t, the old continuity program. Plus there was extra for a certain amount of usage on the data plan. (Who really counts that stuff other than the carriers, and I asked if I could be sent an e-mail when I was about to reach my monthly threshold? No Dice.) Plus I have a friend in Marblehead who can’t use his iPhone because AT&T’s reception sucks out on the Neck. Hmmmmm I think I would rather talk on a Sprint phone than look cool with an iPhone that does not work and that is more expensive.

OK Jim, get to the freaking point. The point is, all of their company policies suck. And what is worse is they don’t know it, or they do know and don’t give a hoot. Because they don’t ask. They hide. So, while I really don’t need a new cell phone ASAP, I really want one ASAP but I’m going to wait until I find what works for my situation. I’m just a tiny example of millions of wireless clients….and the big guys have “no clue” as to what we really want because they are “faking it” when it comes to the only thing that matter to guys like me and Gary Vaynerchuk and the millions of masses. Seeking someone who cares.

To take it one step further. Intuit. I ordered Quickbooks 2009 from Amazon. I thought I was buying a brand new copy of Quickbooks 2009. I registered the software and low and behold it was registered to someone else. I have just bought a used copy of the software. Damn, I had some serious bookkeeping to do before a certain deadline. I called Intuit and asked them to give me a new registration #. No dice. “Not our policy.” (Creating a sequential registration number is like the government creating new money, it is just a few one’s and zero’s, and it is totally free).

So I finally called Amazon. They promptly realized the error and sent out a new copy and I sent them the old copy back. Intuit said they were going to call their legal department. I don’t care how the error occurred. But I’m now blabbing about stuff that should have been to bed a long time ago, just give me the damn registration number and let me be on my way. Again company policy getting in the way of CRM or customer service. As Vaynerchuk states in the Gravity Summit, big companies are going to fail in this new economy.

Not to mention any names but there was someone speaking at Gravity Summit who was from Intuit. I reluctantly told them the story. He said “we are listening” to our clients. I said if you are listening then have the president of your company call me, he has a little problem with his distributor selling used software as new with your brand name on it, I’d like to give him an earful. As of 9-21-09 right now the silence is deafening, no phone call.

So the point of all of this is go out and do a company policy survey and see how your customers like your company policies. Wouldn’t it be great if the government did the same thing? I know, I’m really reaching on that one!