"No News is Good News" --- Wrong!

At the end of November we purchased some new furniture from Ethan Allen and also arranged for them to reupholster some chairs.  We naively asked if we might get them by Christmas and were told it might be possible but not likely that we would receive the new furniture but they would probably receive the fabric and pick up the chairs for reupholstering before Christmas.  We finally received the new furniture last weekend and they came to pick up the chairs for reupholstering this past Saturday.  Although this will eventually work out and we'll be happy with the furniture the whole process has been rather unsatisfactory.

The reason for the dissatisfaction?  Simply it was communication or more correctly the lack of communication.  A number of times we called to find the status of our order but were told the sales associate that sold us the furniture was on leave but someone would get back to us but no one ever did.  Finally in the last week of December I called and was told it was scheduled to be received by the store during the first week of January and that we would be contacted to arrange delivery of the new furniture.  I asked about the pickup of the chairs for reupholstering but was told that another department handled that and some one would contact us.  The delivery of the new furniture went as they described but we still couldn't get any information on the chair pickup.  Finally, at the beginning of the second week of January my wife called the store manager (and had to leave a voice mail) and indicated that if we didn't hear something by this week we would cancel the order for the reupholstering.  This apparently got their attention and the chairs are being upholstered now. They're due to be done in two weeks,  I'll let you know if they come through on this promise.

[Update January 27th - they missed their self-imposed 2-week delivery time with no communication that it would be late - looks like we will have to call yet again.]

[Update February 2nd - they called us early in the week (we didn't have to call them) and at our request delivered it this weekend.  Although we are satisfied with the furniture their customer service is so bad we would have to thing twice about going back there.]

It's rather disappointing that a store such as Ethan Allen with its reputation for a quality product (for which it receives a premium price) has such poor customer service and indifference to customer concerns.

Interesting you say, but this is a blog about IT.  So where's the connection?

We in IT are also in the delivery business.  Our customers buy applications and services from us and we have to perfect the delivery portion of the process.  Like Ethan Allen we often fail in this by poor communication.  This is true even when we deliver on-time!  The simple fact is that people want to know what is going on whether it is good news or bad.  They want to know that we are working on the project and making progress.  Most importantly they want no surprises.  Strangely enough this is why people may be more satisfied with a project that is delivered late but were communicated with rather than one where it was delivered on time but we kept them in the dark.

I don't mean to imply that adequate communication will excuse poor delivery performance but I'd suggest that customer satisfaction is made up of more than on-time performance.  The best of all worlds is delivering on-time and communicating adequately throughout the process.  The old phrase of "No news is good news" just doesn't ring true in these situations.  Some tips for improving communication:

• Respond to all requests for updates but don't wait to be asked
• Update your customers on a regular basis
• The updates don't always have to be a complicated involved process.  Sometimes a simple phone call or email is sufficient.  For larger projects a more formal status report (here's a good outline) may be appropriate.
• Most importantly remember - NO SURPRISES - good or bad.

What's worked well for you in terms of communicating status updates?

If this topic was of interest, you might also like these:

• ITs Weasel Words
• I apologize.
• Let's Just Say What We Mean!
• Or the posts in the "Communications" category

"E A" photo by karroozi