* Readers weigh in on customer service issue
Last month I wrote an article on customer service that really struck a raw nerve with many of you. In the article, I recounted a bad experience I had with my wireless service provider. It seems I wasn’t alone in my frustration with customer service, and many readers sent their stories of bad experiences with governmental agencies, phone companies, wireless service companies, airlines, electronics stores and more.
Interestingly, I didn’t receive any stories of awful experiences with internal IT departments. However, if you’re in IT, you should still be aware of how your users view your customer service. Several of the comments mentioned that executives need to become aware of the sorry state of their customer service. As one reader put it, “Companies like them cannot afford to make stupid mistakes; I wonder who has their head in the sand over there.”
Not all of it was bad news. One reader reported that his local phone company, BellSouth, made some changes recently that “make even long waits tolerable.” He goes on to say: “They empower their people. They have the tools to accomplish most of what I have needed. Once the call is answered, the Customer Service Rep stays with you even through transfers to other departments… They provide an accurate estimate of the ‘wait time’ if you choose to stay on the line. I hope more companies recognize the value of this kind of customer service.”
One reader correctly predicted that I would receive many responses. One of the reasons he cited was that “the whole discussion of customer service from the point of view of the customer is radical thinking these days.”
Another reader wrote, “You identified the main problem with customer service – ownership of the problem.” He specifically cited governmental agencies as a classic example of being indifferent, and the customer having to “own” the problem. He has worked in technical support all of his working life, and claims his “customers are among the happiest. I own their problem, give them timely status reports until the problem is resolved, and then after a period of restored operations I follow up with (the) customer to assure that the problem was resolved to the customer’s satisfaction and has not recurred. Finally, I always ask if there is anything else that I can help with.”
A suggestion from another reader was a marketing/branding idea, where she proposes that companies call their service reps “Champions” or “Go-to Guys.” She says that, ideally, “a company cares so much about its customers’ happiness that its customer service reps act as champions for that person, and fight on that customer’s behalf until the problem is resolved to that person’s satisfaction.” She goes on to say that these “champions” could “take your number and guarantee to call you back with an update or solution within 15 minutes. Any service provider that shifted the paradigm that way is clearly stating that the customer comes first (whatever happened to those days?).”
Another reader says: “I have noticed many companies requiring account numbers entered via touch tone, only to be asked for the same information when a rep comes on the line. In each case the company has gotten the cart before the horse. Set up the account number capture gate must be the easy part. The hard part, transferring the captured account [number] has often been put off until, sometimes, years later.”
I also heard from a reader who has been on the other side of the phone – the customer service staff. He states that “creating and maintaining process is the easiest piece of the puzzle. Enforcing process is a completely different story.”
He talks about how difficult it is to maintain a good support staff because “it is one of the most thankless jobs on the planet.” As he says, “Who wants to listen to people complain for eight hours a day?” And he points out that the “pathetic pay scale doesn’t add any luster or glamour to the job, either.”
He blames the organization and not the reps for many of the problems. He correctly points out that long wait times are the result of an unreasonable ratio of the volume of calls to the size of the support staff.
These are interesting comments that, as I pointed out in my first article, will have wide applicability to people who provide customer service: IT support personnel, help desk personnel, and customer service departments. It’s my hope that this will help you and your company deliver better customer service.
