The Value of "The Human Resource"

Last week the management team here at CPGjobs was abuzz about an article that appeared in Sunday’s print version of the New York Times.

The article by Randall Stross titled Can’t Open Your E-Mailbox? Good Luck, told the woeful tale of Google user Tom Lynch who was locked out of his Gmail account through no fault of his own. Lynch soon discovered how impossible it is to talk to someone in customer support at Google. That’s because there is no customer phone support at Google. Not for Tom Lynch and not for the millions of other people using the company’s free suite of applications that include Gmail and Google Docs. (For the record, Google Apps Premier subscribers who pay a $50 annual fee do have access to customer phone support.)

Evidently, it took Lynch four weeks, offline research and multiple conversations with anyone he could find at Google who would listen to him before he was able to get his service restored.

Interestingly, when reporter Stross contacted Google about adding phone support, the company spokespeople explained that “one-to-one support isn’t always the best answer” because it would take Google too long to collect lots of data about a problem that is affecting many users simultaneously. For systemic problems, sure, this makes sense. But for single-point customer issues, this just doesn’t fly. Bottom line? Of course, the issue is cost.

According to Stross, “Google says it has ‘tens of millions’ of Gmail customers. But if Google is willing to consider phone support for account access emergencies, it can take heart in the example of Netflix, which last year adopted phone support with enthusiasm, replacing online support completely. For all customers, for all problems.”

The Netflix call center handles service support for all 8.4 million of their subscribers with a 376 person US-based call center and has received top ratings for online retail customer satisfaction from both Nielsen Online and Foresee Results. Explained a Netflix spokesperson: “Most people don’t need customer service. But when they do, they want it now.”

Now, you may be wondering why an online job board guy like me is writing about customer phone support. Well, to be honest, it’s a bit of vindication.

When I started my company CPGjobs and our job board CPGjoblist, my vision was to take the best of what technology could offer and mix it with a high level of personal support for both our clients and our candidates. My staff is “people-focused,” and we have long-term relationships with customers and candidates that in many cases span years and careers. We personally screen candidates who register on our website and get to know their goals and objectives. Our phones are always on. Our names and phone numbers are published all over our websites. We encourage candidate feedback; we’ve instituted a unique “Candidate Bill of Rights” in our recruiting business that encourages our candidates to provide feedback on their experiences in working with the recruiters on our site. We then provide that feedback to our recruiting clients to help them in turn, do a better job.

So the truth is that to me, the “job board” business is still a “people business.” Retaining that fundamental principal at CPGjobs is what differentiates us from the gargantuan competitors in our marketplace and it implies a set of “people-first” values that helps keep us focused on what’s really important.

Yes, this service orientation is more costly than automation. And yes, we are working towards automating more repetitive functions on our websites. But only to free up more of our time to personally serve our customers and clients – whether they are interested in a position with Kellogg’s or simply forgot their login.

Only question is, is personalized service the future linchpin of customer retention in technology-based businesses? Maybe we should ask TomLynch.