Have you noticed that companies seem to be deliberately managing our expectations downwards? I’ve run across this a couple of times lately :

When I traded in loyalty points for lift tickets for a recent ski trip, the web site said it would take about two weeks to get the reward certificate by mail. The confirmation e-mail I received shortly afterward downgraded that to three to four weeks. The certificate actually arrived within a few days.

Calling a government ministry to make an appointment to replace an I.D. card, I got a message that “All our agents our busy. Because we are currently experiencing a higher than usual number of calls, it may take more than five minutes to answer your call.” (As an aside, the same message ran when I called at different times, leading me to believe the higher number IS the usual number.) Having set my expectations for a longish wait, they actually answered within two.

There’s nothing wrong with under-promising and over-delivering; it’s way better than the reverse, which just about guarantees customer dissatisfaction. But I’m suspicious. The examples here sound like these outfits are trying to artificially set expectations so low that an average performance will seem amazing and the customer will be “delighted.”

Here’s a thought. Give an honest estimate of how long it will take to deliver good service. Meet that timing. Try, as I always do, to bring the service/product/project in early. But don’t double your estimate to make meeting a normal deadline look like a miracle.

Is the way your company operates thinking of the customer first? Or at all? I have recent examples of two companies that did a good job and two that did not.

The surprising instances of customer appreciation:

Bank of Montreal: My husband and I have banked with BMO for a very long time. Every once in a while, we get a “courtesy call” that seems to be more about trying to sell us some new product than find out how they’re doing. This week, a first: We received a letter with a gift of a $5 Shell gift certificate “to show their appreciation.” Wow! I did feel appreciated!

Canyon Creek Chophouse: I organized a group of people to have lunch at this restaurant in December. This week, I received a hand-written note expressing appreciation for doing so, with two $10 gift certificates. (Smart; they are usable one at a time, so I have to go back twice.) Again, wow! I did feel appreciated!

In my customer disservice files this month:

Direct Energy: When my furnace conked out during a bitter cold spell, it was comforting to read (on the sticker on our furnace) that the Direct Energy “24/7 support centre is always available to take your call.” The web site, as I found out later, was more specific: the representatives “will dispatch a service technician for emergencies.” Yeah, they’re there to TAKE the call and SCHEDULE a technician, but not to send a repair person after hours. So they scheduled the call, promising that it was the “first” one next day, “between 8 a.m. and noon.” The fellow arrived about 11:45 a.m.; no, it wasn’t the first call. Consumer advocate Ellen Roseman has skewered Direct Energy before, noting that even those under its protection plan (I’m not) and guaranteed service within 24 hours might not get help until the full 24 hours have passed. So while I was grateful the guy showed up and fixed the furnace, the only warm feeling I got was from the working furnace.

Ticketmaster: Don’t you hate all those charges piled on top of charges when you want to buy a theatre ticket? The tickets to Jersey Boys I bought recently had an extra $7 per ticket “convenience” charge, plus a $2 per ticket “order processing” charge, plus a $1.75 per ticket charge to use my own ink to print out my tickets. TicketKing also now offers a site where it seems you (or perhaps scalpers) can sell tickets you aren’t able to use. I checked for another show I wanted to see. Tickets listed in a particular section at $36 were sold out on the main site, but look, there they are on TicketKing…for more than $100 each.

Has any company surprised you lately, in a good or bad way?

This week, I received what I consider to be a threatening e-mail from my Internet service provider:

“In the next couple of weeks, when you log into your Bell Mail [an aside: always known as Sympatico; are they changing it?] using your Internet browser, you’ll experience a simpler, cleaner design, along with many new features and improved functionality. This initiative is just one of the many ways we make sure your experiences with Bell are the best they can be…We’re sure you’ll enjoy the enhancements we’ve made to your email service.”

Seems harmless enough, doesn’t it? But the last time Bell promised an “upgrade” to my mail service, it made it worse. I got more spam. Messages from friends got tossed into the junk folder. The service did not play nice with the mail program I use; sometimes it lets messages through, sometimes not. When I reply to a message, I have to scroll down to see all of it. If I check off messages in the junk folder and indicate I want them deleted, the system doublechecks – “Are you sure?” But if I check off a message in the in-box by mistake, it’s gone without hesitation.

So I’m not expecting to be as thrilled as Bell thinks I’m going to be. It’s a good example of why a company’s execution better live up to its promises.

UPDATE: Today, the folders list shows nine messages in my inbox. When I click on the Inbox icon, nothing happens; I can’t see the messages. Nice “enhancement”!

UPDATE2: OK, that’s fixed. Still doesn’t play nice with my mail program, though.

The library in my town has been there for me for many years. When my children were small, we joined the reading program every summer, and we were frequent borrowers of books and occasionally toys throughout the year. It’s the first place I turn when I hear of a good book (so I can try before I buy). And it just proved its worth again when I couldn’t remember the name of a book.

I had the first word of the title but not the author. Searching under “Dish” brought up thousands of possibilities at both Amazon.ca and ChaptersIndigo.ca. Many of them were cookbooks, most including the word somewhere but not first. But where was the book with a title beginning “Dish”?

A search at my library’s site returned the book I wanted as number two. (Note: Afterwards, I tried it again and Amazon found it, also as #2). It’s Dish: Midlife Women Tell the Truth about Work, Relationships and the Rest of Life, by Barbara Moses.

What I also liked about a recent “touch point” (as marketers like to say) with the library: I received a one-sheet update saying, “Here are just some of the ways we’ve used your donation to bring our services to life in your community.” I liked knowing that children read 30,000+ books during this summer’s reading program. I also liked that I wasn’t asked to give again, although the contact information is there to make it easy should I want to.

Do you use your library?

Remember when flying used to be glamorous and exciting? You’d look forward to your trip. Flight attendants were cheerful and helpful, and gave out blankets and pillows so you’d be more comfortable. On long flights, you’d get a hot meal chosen from a menu even if you weren’t in First Class. After one trip, you might plan where you’d go next.

Yeah, well, those days are gone. After my most recent trip to visit my brother in California, I may never fly again. While the visit was great (thanks, Don!), the travel part was not.

We hit delays coming and going, caused by thunderstorms in Chicago on the way out, and fog in San Francisco and more bad weather in Chicago on the way home. We missed connecting flights. Flights were overbooked. Airline partners (United and Air Canada) did not communicate well. We were given the wrong tickets for a replacement flight and had to spend an hour in the “customer service” lineup to get them changed, joined by hundreds of other people trying to make alternate plans. Twice, the best we could get was standby, getting on in one case with only minutes to spare. No food, no pillows, no blankets, no comfort.

Of course, our three bags didn’t make it home on the flight we eventually caught. Two were delivered the next day. The third is still missing in action. Of course, that’s the one with two bottles of wine in it.

When you look at all the layoffs and cutbacks going on in the airline industry, you have to wonder how much worse it’s going to get. There will be even fewer people to help you when you’re stranded by weather or mechanical failure. If you can find anyone, you’ll be charged for the “service,” as Air Canada is now doing. There will be fewer flights between destinations, making a same-day backup plan harder.

At one time, air travel was only for the rich. We may be headed that way again.

P.S. Coincidentally, while I was away, an article called “The end of travel” appeared in the Toronto Star. Reporter Nicole Baute says:

“[writer James Howard Kunstler and others] predict the demise of the commercial airline industry as it currently exists. And then, like in the medieval age, society will split into two groups: the mobile, and the stranded. Wealthy governments and corporations – perhaps flying on corporate planes or chartered jets – will remain mobile, but the movement of the masses will be restricted…Without flight, entire communities could fade from view.”

Sobering thought, isn’t it?

Can you explain to me what on earth I was thinking? When I packed my bags for a visit to Calgary last week, I deliberately put a bottle of wine for my cousin in my carryon bag, for safekeeping. That’s right. A container with more than 100 ml (3.4 oz) of liquid. That no airline will allow you to bring on board. In my carryon.

As I was checking my other bag, the Air Canada person said I could check two bags. She was surprised, because the current rules are one checked bag, and a second will cost you $25. “I just have one,” I said.

It was only as I started to walk towards Security, and reached for the plastic bag holding a few assorted liquids and gels in containers 100 ml or less, that it struck me what was in my bag. I have to give credit to Air Canada for helping me out. (Really!) The fellow at the Oversize/Fragile Items Dropoff (who I thought might have packing material) sent me to another check-in person. Her system would only allow me one bag, so she grabbed a box that fit the bottle and came with me to Person #1, whose system still showed I was allowed two items. Person #2 taped up the box while #1 checked it and printed out the baggage ticket. Person #2 came with me back to the dropoff point and we handed it over.

In Calgary, my main suitcase arrived on the usual belt. No sign of the box, which I expected to be wine-stained and full of broken glass anyway. At the Baggage counter, the fellow entered the claim number and told me the box didn’t make it on the flight, but would be delivered to my hotel later that night or next day.

After checking into the hotel, I went out to dinner with a friend. By the time I returned, the box was waiting for me – in one piece.

I know plenty of Canadians (including me) who have had bad experiences with Air Canada, so I’m happy to be able to share a story with a happy ending. So thanks Air Canada, and my apologies that in my flustered state I did not get anyone’s name.

My local newspaper has won all kinds of awards for “best community newspaper.” I like it. I like reading about local successes, what’s happening in the schools, what topics have readers’ shorts in a knot. I subscribe, even though many areas get this paper free, just because I want to make sure I get it.

Ha, ha. Good luck with that idea, because I have the world’s worst newspaper carrier. For a while, he delivered the Wednesday paper on Thursday. Then Friday, but without the Friday paper. Sometimes I got the Wednesday paper on Saturday, and the Friday paper later in the day. The weekend paper (with a good carrier, delivered Saturday or sometimes Sunday) might or might not be with it.

Sometimes I call the office, not to rant and rave but to mention I didn’t get the paper and could they please drop one off. This time I called to report I had not received a single one of the three papers. I told the circulation person about the on-going problems. She promised to send out the missing papers and speak to the carrier.

Wouldn’t you think this would be a good opportunity to try for a little good will? Include with the papers a note of apology? Maybe include a coupon for a free coffee?

Nope. The three papers were rolled up and left on the doorstep late in the day (well after the conversation), without any indication they should have been there days earlier. The person delivering did not ring the bell to apologize and hand them over. The circulation person did not call the next day to make sure they got there. She did not call on the Wednesday to make sure the paper arrived. (It didn’t.)

Don’t let your customers feel the same sense of disappointment in you.

Is it a spirit of “we have so much business, we don’t need to accommodate you” that makes restaurants refuse to take reservations on a busy weekend? Really, if you know, please tell me because I just don’t understand it.

Son #2’s favourite restaurant is a casual steak place called The Keg. Unfortunately for us, the one in our town closed a few years ago, supposedly because they were building a newer, bigger one even closer to us. (Sadly, it hasn’t happened yet.) The nearest one is now about a half-hour drive away. We know that Fridays and Saturdays are so busy it’s not uncommon to encounter 90-minute waits for a table, if you can even find a place to park your car. People are crammed into the entrance, the hallway, the bar and any other available spot; there are a few chairs and benches, but not nearly enough. The last time we were there with my parents, my 83-year-old father, who has had two hip replacements and can’t stand for long, ended up waiting for a good hour in the only available spot: my car. So for this visit, celebrating Son #2’s birthday earlier in the week, I called to see if there was any way we could make a reservation.

The quick answer to my explanation and request: Oh, no, not possible. But if you come at 5 p.m. it shouldn’t take long.

We arrived at 5:30 so I guess we missed our little window; the place was packed and the promised wait was now 60-90 minutes. To make a long story short, we managed to find a place for Dad for what turned out to “only” be an hour’s wait. Then we were seated in the lounge area, with nearby groups of people waiting for their tables loudly talking over the music and forcing us to repeat ourselves several times if we wanted to talk. (Reminded me of Donna Papacosta’s recent post about her noisy restaurant experiences. Why don’t restaurants do something about the acoustics??)

So, Son #2 got his steak and he was happy. I can’t say that the experience left me wanting more.

Sorry, it’s a Friday afternoon vent! The good news is that my ISP, Bell Sympatico, has added a “service status” page to their web site, so you can check it before calling (shudder) to talk to their tech support. If you are lucky, the status is correct and a yellow or red light on the E-mail section when you are having e-mail difficulties indicates they know there is a problem and are working on it.

The bad news is that more likely, you’ll get happy green lights indicating everything is fine, fine, fine, even if it’s not, not, not. One day, a red light showed that network service had some problems in the Toronto area, although they thought e-mail service was “available.” From my end, it wasn’t very available. I could sometimes log in and fetch my mail; sometimes when I tried to open or delete a message, it threw me to a screen that said “ERROR. Due to an internal error your request cannot be processed. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later.” So for most of the week, I wasn’t entirely confident the mail was getting through either way.

You’re wondering why am I telling YOU this instead of Bell. Well, I did try to tell Bell using an online form that I had to fill out twice, and which forced me to include “other comments” even though I wasn’t going to add any.

I later received an e-mail from Siva, telling me he/she understood my concern and suggesting things that involved deleting, recreating or disabling — in typical fashion, assuming the problem is on MY end. This is exactly what all their tech support people do over the telephone, and I refuse to call them any more. Come to think of it, maybe that is their sinister plan; if tech support calls drop in dramatic fashion, fewer people are needed to answer.

I feel better now! Plus, as far as I know, there are green lights all around.

Oh, those jokers at Sympatico. Today they breathlessly advised me (in a message sent three times) that they have “enhanced” my e-mail service and added “new, complimentary features.”

The first new feature was that I couldn’t access my mail until I changed my password. Sympatico offered links to help members “configure” their e-mail, assuming of course that we all use Microsoft products. I don’t. The link I got (for “other”) might as well have told me I was on my own. Fortunately, it seems that Eudora is handling the change on its own but I’ll have to get through today to know for sure.

One of my other new features is an “enhanced junk mail filter,” which in the same e-mail delivery as the three Sympatico messages let through three Viagra spams. The next delivery had eight spam messages. So much for that enhancement.