In digesting all of the customer service tracks at our recently completed destinationCRM 2008 conference in Manhattan, there is one anecdote that continues to stick in my mind. In his keynote, Lior Arussy, president of customer experience consulting firm Strativity Group, told a story about Commerce Bank–fairly popular in New York City.

The branches of this bank will open 10 minutes before, and stay open 10 minutes after, its normal business hours. This caters to the busy people who desperately try to squeeze in much-needed banking amidst a hectic schedule.

It’s an excellent idea–and it doesn’t require gobs of money spent on advertisements and marketing. It conveys the message of, “We know you’re busy, and we’re here for you no matter what may get in your way of coming to our bank and doing business with us.”

In my own life, I wish I had a Commerce Bank near where I live in the Mid-Hudson Valley. While my paychecks are directly deposited, I’m one of those anomalies that like to manually take money out of my one bank account, drive the 15 minutes over to the Hudson Valley Credit Union (HVFCU), and literally hand a portion of my money to a real, breathing, human teller to deposit into my savings account.

I usually do this on Saturdays, and HVFCU is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Now, I’m an early riser and usually have other errands to run that have me out of the house well before that time. No matter what I try to do, I always find myself at HVFCU at approximately 8:45 a.m. It never fails that each Saturday I do this, there is a long line of customers waiting outside of the automatic doors at the entrance waiting to conduct transactions.

The Type A personality in me not wanting to lose even more ground and fall further behind in line, I bite my lip, step out of my car, and wait with everyone else. All the while, everyone waiting can see the bank tellers already sitting at their posts speaking to themselves, and management walking by the door staring through the glass door at us like we’re the latest attraction at the zoo.

It could be raining, snowing, or unbearably humid — it doesn’t matter. The branch supervisor will not unlock the doors until it is exactly 9 a.m., despite the fact that all of the employees have been sitting at their battle stations for quite some time already.

To me, it gives me the message of “We know you’re waiting, but we don’t care. You’ll have to wait until we open.”

Fair enough, but if you don’t want to open just a few minutes early, why not cater to your loyal customers willing to actually wait to do business with you. A small gesture, like offering coffee, tea, or water would at least show that you appreciate our business and patience. Maybe even some chairs so the handicapped or elderly can at least sit comfortably while waiting.

Instead, I feel like I am making their lives harder and that I should apologize. For what, I’m not sure. Wanting to do business with them?

Illustration aside, the point is HVFCU could be losing customers instead of creating an opportunity for increased business. Opening a few minutes early would be optimal, and reduce the barrage of unhappy customers lumbering to quickly make a transaction and leave. But if that’s not possible, any little things like offering respite or beverages would show me that they truly care and appreciate us. It doesn’t cost much, and the memory I would have instead would be a pleasant one.

It’s ironic. The Internet is this infinite space — shelves continue to be built with no ceiling in sight, and yet, the world has never been smaller.

A friend of a friend (yes, it’s one of those stories) — we’ll call him Artist A — owns t-shirt design company and in honor of a certain Olympic phenom, decided to put out a commemorative shirt. Many were sold and all was well until Artist B came along. B was unhappy seeing as it was his design…lifted from his Web site. Now, B is suing A.

So that’s how artists make money…

One friend claimed, “Well, if it’s on the Internet, you can’t really do anything about it.” Another said, “I’d rather die than see someone make money off my work.”

All I could think was, how in the world did Arist A think he could get away with it? Companies are told again and again — there’s no use hiding, your customers will find out eventually, and the more you try to cover it up, the bigger the mess. There’s an amazing system of checks and balances that exists on the Internet and, call me naive, but I believe in the good of people and I’m sure there are millions who’d agree — it’s what gives “structure” to this unstructured world. On community sites like craigslist and Wikipedia, disputed content is flagged, edited, corrected, repeat. These sites rely on the voice of the people and the people know when they see something fishy, even if they don’t know the facts just yet. It’s comforting and daunting at the same time. Aside from my belief in karma, I admit it’s partly the fear of a million pair of eyes watching — and Google Search — that keeps me on the straight and narrow.

In any case, not sure what’s going on with the legal bit yet, but Artist A now claims that the “original” shirt is “sold out” and has replaced it with one that is significantly less attractive. Oh, the price we pay to cover our asses.

*Fun Fact: The aforementioned Artist B not only found his design using the Net, but also the girl of his dreams.

Keith Dawson, principal analyst for contact centers at Frost & Sullivan, made a very interesting point during his session on empowering employees with the right tools and authority in order to deliver “exceptional customer experiences” at the destinationCRM 2008 Conference in the heart of Times Square.

As a resident of New York City and with my family just a hop, skip, and a jump away in New Jersey, I find myself on the train…a lot. Still, I had never ridden on Amtrak until two weeks ago when I was sent to Washington, D.C. to cover the 2008 eTail East Conference…and then a week later to Boston for the 2008 Affiliate Summit East. (Personally, I’ve always found Amtrak to be a bit too pricey for my own wallet.)

But perhaps you do get what you pay for…and sometimes even more. It was 7:30 PM when I boarded the train in Newark for the 4 hour trip to Boston. When we were nearing New York Penn Station, the woman sitting in front of me — whose ticket was for only as far as Penn Station — asked the ticket collector if she could stay on the Amtrak and pay the difference to get to her final destination in Connecticut, instead of making the trek over to Grand Central for the Metro North. “Having a hard day?” he asked her with a smile on his face. She must have nodded because he said, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you. We’ll get you home.” He smiled again and continued down the aisle.

A couple stops later, he returned to collect another round of tickets and the woman stopped him. “I’m a poet,” she said – which I thought sounded mildly pretentious, but I digress. Apparently, she was returning from a writers’ conference. After that brief exchange, he walked away with an anthology she had given him. Not many customers ever get to return the favor, this one did, and I’m pretty sure that her gratitude won’t end there.

While I’m sure giving free rides, or even free legs of rides, isn’t in the Amtrak customer care code of conduct, sometimes it’s warranted — and based on what Sebastian Pawlowski, principal marketing officer of e-commerce at Amtrak, said in his presentation at the destinationCRM Conference today, what the ticket collector did was something even executives would approve of. “Improving the customer experience,” Pawlowski said, “has to be everything. It has to be why you do what you do.”

With just under 20 people — e-commerce and IT combined — in what will be 9 months, including September, and a budget of under $1 million, Pawlowski explained how companies can build a CRM system for its e-commerce business, as long as you’re willing to “roll up your sleeves and innovate.”

Here are some key takeaways, which can also be found in the dCRM Marketing Track Roundup:

• CRM is different for every company – mold it to your company and your customers;
• It’s not about marketing, but about customer service.
• Make use of your Web content to serve personalized content in real time.
• “You don’t need a missile to kill an ant.” Know what you need and build what you need — There’s nothing out of the box that will fulfill all of your needs, he said. (On average, companies only use 40 percent of the features in an out-of-the-box solution, said Lee Scott, principal at Unleashing Leaders and fellow speaker.)
• Engage in cross-channel, cross-departmental participation.
• If you’re going to implement a CRM project – expect failure upfront, and get back up!

An overarching theme of this year’s destinationCRM conference is Web 2.0’s Impact on the Next Generation of CRM Tools & Techniques. I’d be surprised if you could sit in on a single session without hearing mention of Web 2.0’s impact – whether on sales, marketing, customer service, or the customer experience. In his presentation “Beat the Half-Life of Web 2.0 Technologies” Lee Allen Scott proposed that at next year’s conference the phrase Web 2.0 will be obsolete. It will at least be Web 2.1 – or even Web 3.0. Predictions of the name change have been around for awhile. One thing’s for sure, Web 2.0 talk is becoming nothing but more familiar.

In this morning’s CRM industry address, destinationCRM chairman Barton Goldenberg listed common Web 2.0 tools that business should be adopting: blogs, wikis, video, RSS, widgets, podcats, and social networks. He then asked audience members to raise hands if they are using the aforementioned tools in their everyday business processes. Many hands raised for blogs, less for wikis and a fair amount for RSS feeds. Very few arms were raised for using widgets. “We’ve got to get those numbers up,” Goldenberg says.

Customers – especially Generation Y– are demanding that the Web fit their needs and evolve. So much so that they don’t even necessarily think about the Web functionality they use on a daily basis.

Example: Just over the weekend, I was talking to a friend from college who admitted to me that she didn’t think she had ever seen a blog. Shocked and a little appalled by this statement, I immediately started listing common blogs that I was sure she has visited. “Oh, I guess I do look at blogs, but I didn’t attach a name to the item,” she told me. The moral of this story is that customers don’t care about the label of the tool. They don’t need or even want to hear vendors saying “We have a wiki!” or “Now we are doing social networking!” They just want it there. No explanation necessary.

What’s a business to do? Goldenberg maintains that when managing Web 2.0 and people and processes, only 20 percent has to do with technology. It’s mostly about the people. And those for those non-techies – which is the majority of consumers – technology can be confusing, overwhelming, and unnecessary. It seems contradictory: Your customers want Web 2.0, but they don’t want to know about it.

I think Goldenberg has it about right. He says:

“The difference is knowing how to create that mix [among people, processes and technology] over time. Those that get the mix right have a much better chance of succeeding. The most significant mistake that companies make is the inability to appreciate the need to carefully integrate people, processes and technology at each stage of an implementation.”