Customer service is a mystery to me.
Every living soul encounters customer service at some point in their life.
So if we are all familiar with the theory, why is it so hard to receive good service?
I’m convinced the strategy behind customer service is to see who blinks first.
Yes, there IS such a thing as good customer service. But admit it. Aren’t you usually surprised when you receive it?
And how sad is that?
Customer Service Blinking
The blinking starts with that terminal hold button.
Whether you are finger-punching your way through a menu tree or waiting for the online chat agent to respond, getting through to customer service is the first challenge.
How many times have you hung up? Or terminated an online chat without resolution?
Score one for customer service.
Third Time’s the Charm
Has this happened to you?
- You contact customer service
- You leave an online or voice message
- You receive an automated “we’ll get back to you”
- Then you wait − and wait some more
So you get in touch with customer service again. And you repeat your issues − again.
And you wait − again.
Finally, when you get in touch for the third time, you receive a response.
- Or not
- Or you give up because you are simply worn out
Score one for customer service.
Perfect Hoop-Jumping
Recently, I purchased a new 2-in-1 tablet/laptop.
During a routine device check, it came back with a message that the battery was not operating properly.
I was impressed that I was taken to the company’s website where an order was placed for a replacement battery. I was advised it was under warranty and would ship within five days.
Hoop #1
And then I waited. And waited some more.
I finally contacted customer service. I advised them I had no tracking number, nor had I received any notification of the status of the shipment.
I did have a printed copy of the order.
Score one for customer service (half point for me for printing the order).
Hoop #2
Their response?
- It appeared the battery was out of stock
- They would call me back two days later to let me know the status.
I wondered what would have happened if I had not called.
- Would the battery ever get shipped?
- Would anyone bother to contact me about the out-of-stock situation?
- Would cobwebs start forming on my tablet/laptop?
Score one for customer service.
Hoop #3
Give customer service credit. They did call as promised.
However, I had to go through the whole scenario. Again.
The representative wanted to take remote access of my device to determine the problem.
I told him I already knew the problem. The battery was defective and needed replacing. He was supposed to let me know the status of the shipment of the replacement part. Period.
I was then told I was to ship my device to one of their centers for repair.
I. KID. YOU. NOT.
- They would have FedEx deliver a box for shipping
- I was to take the device to a FedEx office
- Then wait for the repair and the return of my device
Score one for customer service.
Is This Really That Complex?
Since we all experience customer service, the concept should be simple.
Treat others as you want to be treated.
Seems I’ve heard that somewhere before. Simple, isn’t it?
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Live…Laugh…Love
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You know I’m the queen of complaint letters, Cathy. I love being able to throw their own words back in their faces when things fall apart.
However, I’ve discovered how quickly most places will resolve a problem if you Tweet about it. Nothing slanderous or libelous, of course. Just the facts coupled with some carefully chosen words to give them a sense of your frustration. Toss in a #CustServ hashtag and within an hour you’ll probably get a message asking to take it to DM.
Twitter really has become an informal type of oversight to ensure customer service issues are resolved quickly, if not quietly.
So what happened with your 2-in-1? I would have been tempted to send if back with a note telling them to refund my account and keep it.
Yes, you are, Paula. 😉 Twitter does have an amazing impact. I have never fully realized the power of Twitter.
Regarding my 2-in-1, getting a refund definitely crossed my mind. Trust me, it was not cheap. So far, it seems to be working fine but I still don’t get the whole battery replacement to sending it in. And the repair notice on the return doesn’t even mention the battery. That makes me very nervous.
If you think customer service in the IRS is bad- wait till this year’s tax lines.
In their (insane) belief that they can overturn PPACA (Affordable Care Act, Obamacare), the IRS has starved the IRS. To insure that they can’t police those that fail to comply with the act. Of course, while doing this, they’ve starved the IRS from funds to process your refund, to examine cheaters, etc. (By the way, is there another agency that returns $ 6 to the treasury for every $ 1 in funding it obtains?)
And, that is also the issue in “customer service” (CS) at other entities. Most companies are so busy inflating the salaries of their executives and starving their workers, that “cs”- which to the money-hungry execs only looks like necessary window dressing- are paid little- (or harvested from overseas workers where $ 2 a day is great wages) and rewarded less, so there is no incentive to provide that little bit extra- to render the ordinary extra-ordinary.
And what boggles my mind is why we accept it? Sure, social media has brought somewhat of a voice to our complaints but we continue to “work around” or give up on our service issues. There is still a sense that good customer service is the exception instead of the norm.
Thanks for allowing me to rant, Roy. You must be having lots of fun this time of the year, culminating with April. 😉
It’s hard to feel like I can do anything about bad customer service… tweeting often works which surprises me.
The other thing that bugs me about this is I’m pretty sure most of the customer support agents would like to help, but it’s the policies of the company that prevent that.
I’ve taken to complementing good cs and even asking for a supervisor so I can tell them how well it’s working… seems to keep my blood pressure down.
Re the irs… it’s my understanding that guess which party cut their funding below the bone.
It is true that some companies get in the way of good customer service. They don’t empower their representatives to take care of the issue. Sad. Talk about a misguided perspective. Thanks, Anne. 🙂
Whenever I come up against a brick wall with CS departments, I go to the top of the food chain. I write to the VP or president of Customer Service and – this is the key point – I cc copies of that letter to the CEO (including copies of all written correspondence and notes of all phone calls up to that point). I stress every step I’ve taken to try to resolve the situation to show I’ve exhausted all traditional methods of addressing it. It takes a lot of work so I only do it for really annoying problems – or when I’m ready for a good argument.
I politely tell them how poorly the situation reflects on the entire company, and how I’m sure they don’t want the general public to have such a negative impression of their company/products/employees – of or their management skills. Then I implore them to find a fair and equitable solution, and say I expect a reply within a certain time frame.
If nothing happens within that time frame, I then send copies of all of the above with a slightly more forceful letter. After pointing out that I’d given them several opportunities to rectify the situation and they had failed to do so, I outline exactly what I expect. I usually give a couple of options, and nine times out of ten I have a call from an executive-level “specialist” within a week. Why? Taking that extra step and ensuring the VP or president knows the CEO is aware of the problem is a good way to motivate them to fix it. They also know I’m serious and my first letter was not just to vent my frustration.
One time it didn’t work, and I had to take it further. It took over a year, if I recall, but I eventually got them to take me seriously and correct the situation. That one took so long because it was with the electric company. Monopolies always take more effort since they know we don’t have an alternative.
good for you, paula… good to know you’ve got my back.
Maybe we should delegate our complaints to Paula, Anne. 😉
And so many hope to wear you out, Paula. I admit, the older I get, the less inclined I am to expend the energy.
Oh. Cathy. I’m sorry the tablet is causing you such grief! I hope it gets sorted. And it’s why I’ve started buying my electronics from Best Buy and paying for their warranty service. Never needed it yet, but you never know.
I wish I could find just one company recently that’s excelled at customer service. I ordered shoes for my daughter. Beginning of October. They didn’t fit. She sent them back three days later. I was to receive either cash back or credit. I waited. Two months later (December), I called. Did they get those shoes? I had a receipt that said the package had been received. Apologies, and promises that I’d see that cash back within four days.
A month later (January – last week, in fact), I called again. Uh, where’s that cash credit? Ooops. More apologies, promise to fix the problem instantly (which it was), but I could only get store credit because it’s “company policy” not to give it if it’s been ninety days since purchase.
Are we noticing that company policy got in the way of a cash refund? For a time lapse not caused by me? Not that I cared all that much, but I wanted her to have the option of choosing something besides those shoes should she not find another pair.
I have hung up on so many customer service lines. I get tired of being told by an automated voice that my “call is important” to them. I’m calling bullshit on that — if my call were so important, they’d hire more reps or fix their shoddy products so they wouldn’t have so many calls.
Let’s fast-forward to my other customer service issue. This one is partly my fault. I went searching for a hotel room. I used a search engine. It pulled up results for the date range I’d put into it. Neat, huh?
Only when I clicked on the hotel of choice, it somehow defaulted to a date a week later. I reserved the room and noticed it as I hit Send. Shit. Okay, I’ll just find out how to reschedule.
Nope. Nonrefundable means you’re not only not getting your money back, but you’re not able to make a single change in the scheduling. Not. One. Change. I called Traveolcity (calling them out because they were the first brick wall). They hemmed, hawed, and promised to call me the next day after they spoke to the hotel directly.
Four hours after they said they’d call, my phone rang. They were advising me to speak to the hotel directly. Huh? I said, “Did you call them? The person yesterday said they’d contact the hotel.”
No ma’am, I was told. But call them and see if they can make an exception.
I called the Best Western location. Meet brick wall number two. The manager sounded helpful, but he wasn’t really helping. He explained that Travelocity buys rooms at a discount and they pretty much don’t leave a lot of profit wiggle room. They lose too much money, in other words. So he wished he could help, but he suggested I call Travelocity and try them.
Right.
In the end, I received a policy-laden email expressing how “sorry” they were that the hotel wasn’t budging and that Travelocity policy didn’t allow such a change.
The best part? It was a Tuesday night in the middle of nowhere. The hotel was pretty empty. As it would be the following week.
Off my soap box. Good topic, Cathy. 🙂
Wow, Lori. Isn’t that too sad that the run of bad luck you had with your customer service experience is really very common? And the part that really frosts me is the ridiculous amount of energy and time you have had to waste on this nonsense.
BTW, the funny thing about the tablet. I wasn’t really having problems with it. Although the battery did seem to drain fairly quickly. Not horrible – just quicker than I expected. It was only because I did a routine system check that it said the battery needed replacing. Next thing I know I’m shipping it off and having lord knows what done to it. 🙁
That’s it exactly, Cathy. Companies with poor customer service think most people won’t think their complaints aren’t worth the cost of the time it takes to resolve them. They don’t (yet) understand that to millions of people the principle of standing behind your products or services is more important than the products and services themselves, making it worth the time to complain.
I had a series of problems with my refrigerator. They began within the warranty period, but I didn’t realize there was an issue until about a month after the warranty period, so I paid for a repairman who said it had been icing up for months. He defrosted it, said it was probably a plugged drain. He told me the warning signs to look for, and it happened again. Same process, this time he tested the electronics, which apparently read as if they were working correctly, so he checked the thermostat – he removed it and a piece inside was loose. I could hear it when he shook it. He replaced the thermostat. (That trip was within 30 days of the initial service, so there was no charge.) He also told me the brand of fridge I bought out by another major brand, which switched some parts to cheaper plastic parts. When the problem happened again, I tweeted about it. Someone from the company’s customer service called, arranged for another service person to come out and assured me despite the refrigerator now being more than six months out of warranty that they would cover the parts and service to get the refrigerator working. That was the same summer that my range, dryer and window air conditioner all failed. All were the same brand. The AC was old, and I replaced it. The dryer only needed a new belt. The oven issue was a glitch that hasn’t happened since – but she told me if it did they would send new parts free of charge.
As dissatisfied as I was with the inferior quality of the (otherwise beautiful) refrigerator, and having four appliances from the same manufacturer break within a couple of months, their outstanding customer service redeemed the company in my eyes. Will I ever buy another one of their appliances? Maybe not. But I don’t actively hate the company today as I did during my summer of broken appliances.
Oh, the beauty of social media embarrassment! Way to go, Paula. I think if we all called these companies out in public, things may change.
Except in the case of my trash company. They seem to have one person dedicated to tweeting “We’re sorry to hear you’re experiencing problems. Please contact our customer service line.”
Uh, the reason we tweet it is your customer service line, which varies widely thanks to you subcontracting to local haulers, is awful and inconsistent in their responses.
Hear, hear, Paula! I know I’ll sound like the old lady I am, but appliances just aren’t made as well as they were in the past. My mom had the same washer/dryer, whatever, forever. They never broke down. Now I think they’re programmed to break down at 12:01 AM, the first day following the expiration of your warranty. 😉
I guess our only recourse is social media, although I admit I am not one to do that.