Learnings from a Lenovo smash-up

As any freelancer will know, there is an overreliance on a laptop. Alongside my brain, it's how I make my money. So when my keyboard stopped working, I was pleased to have a warranty so I could get it quickly fixed. Little did I know it would be the first part of a 12 week saga that involved over 100 emails, numerous voicemails and two site-visits.

Whilst my overall experience has been very negative, it has enabled me to apply a comms audit lens to it. What are my key findings and recommendations for Lenovo, or others, to learn from. To note, this is completely unsolicited and is based on my own personal experience.

Background:

This review is based on the experience received by one individual Lenovo customer, who received a damaged laptop after sending it off to repair a faulty keyboard under warranty. The individual relies on laptop for livelihood and income. It took 8 weeks to repair it. Lenovo has given 5 months extended warranty as gesture of goodwill.

Key findings:

1. No single point of contact. This leads to conflicting messages, duplicative information, gaps in information and general confusion for the customer. And with multiple service providers contracted to fix laptops the problem is exacerbated. Emails received from multiple parts of Lenovo/service providers were not joined up, leaving customer to try to navigate information and provide the same details on repeat to different parts of the organisation. This costs money for Lenovo due to doubling up of resource and leads to poor customer experience.

2. Unclear communication. Communication is often contradictory. Templates and automated emails/texts are used that are not updated for individual circumstances. This leads to customers receiving information that tells them a technician will and won’t arrive with and without the parts required. Customers are told a technician will arrive between 9 and 5.30 and will inform the customer when they will come before 10.30. This suggests the technician will not come between 9 and 10.30. Voicemails are left with requests to return the call with no number left and the call made on an outgoing only number. This leads to inefficient use of staff time who are further contacted for clarification, alongside poor customer experience.

3. Poor culture. Staff responsiveness and empathy is mixed. Single task orientated attitude of contractors meant that when technician noticed secondary issue caused by damage in transit this was not flagged as not part of remit. This led to a second (and a proposed third) site visit, which is an inefficient use of time and money for Lenovo. No cost controls. Similarly, on escalation of incident senior staff did not reply when they said they would and/or lost interest in the case as it went on so long. There was never an acknowledgement of the significant cost to the individual due to not having a working laptop, which was relied on for income. There is a lack of interest displayed for individual/consumer rather than commercial customers. This leads to very poor customer experience.
   

Key recommendations:

1. Ensure single point of contact for all cases: All communication should be routed through this one focal point, with all emails received by customer coming from one centralised email address. Improved CRM system should enable improved case management, including removing automated messaging in complex cases.

2. Review all communication: Detailed review of templates, automated messages and scripts used by customer services and technicians. This should focus on removing confusing and conflicting messaging and addressing the full user journey.

3. Address culture: Decide if individual customers are of interest to Lenovo. If yes, establish a protocol of how to improve customer experience through agreed standards of communication for all service providers and staff. Ensure senior leadership commit visibly to highlighting the importance of positive customer experience, leading by example as appropriate.

 Normally, audits are completed with reviews of existing documents and in discussion with multiple people impacted by a process, service or organisation. Want to find out more? Send me a message to find out more.