The ultimate customer complaint letter?

We've all had our fair share of 'customer service nightmares'.  But a recent complaint letter to Richard Branson takes customer feedback to a whole new level.  It starts:

Dear Mr Branson

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

The letter has been reproduced in full here, and is a great example of how a well drafted communication can have significant impact.

A while back we created this customer feedback letter template to help you quickly and easily communicate your dissatisfaction (or satisfaction) to your service provider of choice.  Try it out and send us your ideas on ways it can be improved.

The Mouse that Roared

A man was struggling in the woods to saw down a tree.

An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see?” the man impatiently replied, “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted,” said the farmer. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours, and I’m beat,” replied the man. “This is hard work.”

“That saw looks pretty dull,” said the farmer. “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

I would imagine this old story rings true for many Lloyd's brokers but one of their number has found the time to improve their performance.

Croton Stokes Wilson is not the largest Lloyd’s Broking house in the London market but they are leading most of their competitors when it comes to office automation and forward thinking.

Just over a year ago, they launched a project to automate the generation of their Quotes, Market Reform Contracts (Slips), Client Documents, Endorsements and Debit Notes. As the new Market Reform guidelines were announced, CSW took the opportunity to give their whole document creation and distribution methods an overhaul. They spent time and money transfering their market knowledge in to systems that have already returned their investment.

How is it that a small company can make such a radical change on a limited budget when larger players struggle to adapt?

Choosing the right technology is important (and I'm biased in this regard) but there are other things that need to come together to create a successful project.

• Do not be over ambitious - set clear, achievable goals;
• Appoint a Champion - find someone who cares enough to see it through and has the business knowledge to contribute;
• Launch and Learn - don't wait for all the "bells and whistles", make it real as soon as possible then users take notice;
• Answer the "what's in it for me" question for all the key players whether they are internal, or external to your company

CSW have a flexible mechanism for creating all their business documents and can now build on that foundation. Their next phases will be:

• Creation of a database to report on the data they capture during the creation of their documents
• Bordereaux and management reports will be automated;
• Establishment of a document repository for internal use;
• Extending this to provide Underwriter access;
• Extending further to link to their US Agents;

After that, if they want to, they can easily progress to an element of eTrading and distribute XML messages to their trading partners.

One of the smallest brokers in the London Market has been able to achieve this on a shoestring budget.

It does beg the question - if they can do it, why can't everyone else?

Don't mention the "K" Word

Lloyd's have recently announced the new Lloyd's Exchange initiative which is being established to provide two key aims: remove the future need to maintain multiple connections with other parties and suppliers in the market; and to ensure that one standard is enforced.
All of the ambitions of the Exchange are absolutely laudable and important for the future success of the market. However, despite what anyone says, this is Kinnect all over again and this project will go the same way unless the most vital issue is addressed.
Kinnect had poor technology, poor management and confused ambitions but it was primarily in place to provide a central mechanism to deliver data from broker to underwriter during the placing process.
Kinnect was meant to take messages from Broker systems as submissions were created and distribute them to underwriters. Unfortunately, and this is where history is repeating itself, the brokers do not have systems that capture data at that point in the process.
Once Kinnect realised that, they set about building a Broker front-end using market practitioners to design a mechanism for capturing data and creating placing documents (Slips). Asking multiple brokers to agree on a design proved "challenging" and the lengthy development cycles ensured that what was coded rarely matched with what was asked for.
The system required users to capture information in data screens that had to be re-programmed when changes were needed. The Slips rendered from this data were invariably disappointing and took far too long to generate to be practical.
The method of using data to create documents is flawed and unless that approach is reversed, Lloyd’s Exchange will flounder and fail just as its predecessor did.
If the other financial markets can change to a pure technology trading environment, why can't Lloyd's and the London Company Market?

There are a number of reasons why this has not proven as easy for the Insurance and Reinsurance community but I believe the fundamental issue is that Risks are not just about numbers and data, they contain words and paragraphs and clauses that, in the event of dispute, go to court to be dissected by Lawyers.

The first priority should be to generate quality, accurate documents needed during the negotiation process and for prompt delivery to clients.

Data should be a by-product of the document creation process.

That's enough talk about me, let's talk about you, what do you think of me?

I've worked in and around the London Insurance Market for over 20 years and enjoy being in the middle of a vibrant marketplace where brokers and underwriters ply their trade. The market has traditionally traded face-to-face and technology is generally seen as a threat to that method of negotiation.
My intention with this forum is to discuss how technology can be used by real, "hard-core" brokers and underwriters to attract more business to the market.
I want to explore how London is perceived by overseas clients and producing brokers and consider how we can improve access to our market.
Business comes to Lloyd's and the London Company Markets because of the depth of expertise that exists here and because of the relationships that have been built up over the years.
However, do we really know how we are viewed outside of our community? How hard is it for clients to send us business and receive documentation and information from us and what can we do to improve communication?
There are an number of Market Reform initiatives that are improving efficiency and data capture but these do not consider the most important person in the chain - the buyer. I want to understand what mechanisms market practitioners need to do their jobs better and how we can help improve the market's business "funnel".
My day job is to represent software called Exari that, I believe, has the power to transform the Insurance and Reinsurance industry and more and more brokers and underwriters are beginning to believe it too.
As for the picture of Brokers Gin, I discovered this fine spirit last year and took some samples with us to RIMSwhich went down rather well.