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June 18, 2007
Does remarkable customer service in telecom/wireless exist?
I am doing a talk for a large wireless carrier later this week. They have challenged me to include an example of remarkable customer service from the telecom/wireless industry. It would be even better if the example had to do with the call center itself.
Does this even exist? Have you read about an example? Have you had one yourself? Do tell!
Thanks.
UPDATE: Thanks for the comments so far. Just to clarify, I'm looking for a story of an actual customer service encounter. Maybe you read about one on a blog or you have a story to tell. The more details the better. And I will make sure to credit you in the presentation. And I will be eternally grateful : )
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My personal nemesis is Telecom Italia, whose service is famously bad, even by Italian standards. One way I found to get slightly better service was to write a nastygram to their Investor Relations department (among other reasons because it was the only email available anywhere on their corporate site), as recounted in great detail on http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/living/telecom.html
Verizon. The bill came with 93 minutes overage. They assessed all of them to the second line even though the other phones made billable calls after the minutes ran out. I spent an hour talking to them trying to figure out what end was up. After hanging up I downloaded the call details and came to the following conclusions: 1) They don't like to assess the primary line if they can get away with it. 2) The billed minutes have no relationship to the actual calls placed. Since my bill was for 93 minutes over they attached all of them to the last 93 minutes used on the second line.
I inquired about notification when the minutes expire. I was told that the only way was to hit #MIN. Whoa, wait a sec. they lied. It turns out that there really is a way. It's called "minute check alert". Upon looking into MCA it turns out that the expiration of minutes is alerted by sending a message to your "my account". Duh, you have to log into your internet account to get the alert. What is with these folks?
Amazing Club’s amazing CS blunder.
How John Paterson, founder of Amazing Clubs’ (ICG America), replied to a customer complaint with insult-riddled emails.
The customer received an item that was not as ordered and complained to customer service.
The customer received the first shipment from the Beer Of The Month Club sold by Amazing Clubs. The product as advertised on the site clearly promised “up to 4 different varieties” of beer, but only sent 2. When the customer inquired, they told him that the program now only shipped 2 varieties per month. Since the product was not as advertised, the customer canceled the order and requested a full refund and pick up of first shipment.
The initial CSR, also the head of operations for this 10 million dollar firm, treated the customer very rudely. Since she could not counter the valid argument with one of her own, she became more and more rude. The customer had to end the conversation because it was like arguing with an arrogant 12 year old.
Feeling unfairly treated, the customer emailed the company’s founder and followed up to get a reply. When the founder finally responded, he was just as rude as the CSR and even more arrogant. He refused the request for a full refund, said he did not believe the customer and told the customer that the company was better off without him as a customer. In a subsequent email, he became insulting in the manner of a 12 year old. The customer tried to reply, but the founder had blocked his email address- I guess it was important to him to get the last word
Here is a copy/paste of the product description from the web site:
Each monthly selection features twelve bottles of hard-to-find, micro-brewed beer from two different award-winning breweries and each shipment includes up to four different varieties of premium beer.
Here are excerpts from his replies. Not one word in the text selections below has been altered.
-I do not agree with your email nor your comments regarding Elena Loyola
-when it comes to Elena's word vs. yours, it's a very easy choice for me
-Your decision to take your business elsewhere is a very good one for our company
-Your interpretation of our product description aptly demonstrates your remedial understanding of the English language
-And, by all means, please feel free to consider this email harassment
-It's really very simple and even you should be able to understand it
-I realize this is probably hard for you to understand. But then, you are one of those consumers who has been gifted with an unreasonable sense of entitlement
-You are exactly the kind of customer (and person) I try to avoid and that is one of the main reasons I have been so successful in building numerous multi-million dollar companies with hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers
-I'm very, very good at what I do.
-You, on the other hand, are a fine example of what is wrong with our society in this age: just another person who thinks he's special for no reason and who wants to be treated as such without regard to what he is actually entitled
-Best, John Paterson Founder & CEO ICG America, Inc. 203.517.4560 jp@icgamerica.com
See their Better Business Report at: http://www.connecticut.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compid=30001345
Original, full text emails are on file.
Not call center but a daily thing for U.S. Cellular
http://marketingenious.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentNews.newsDetails&newsID=24714&from=list
Everyone wants to speak to a person and not a robot or automated system...well when they get a real person, that is just what they get..a REAL person. I believe the attitude and the experience the customer will have is based on the attitude they present. If they are angry..okay..but it is common sense that they are speaking to another human that is there to help.. not be abused or yelled at. They set the tone of how the call will go. Everyone is trained properly, but again, everyone is HUMAN. No company can help the mood or the personal experiences anyone encounters before they take "that call". This also goes for the customer. No one representative can possibly know or control that one customers personal issues that have them overly irate and abusive. Remember..there are two sides to every story. BOTH sides will tell you ONLY what they think you need or want to hear. Everyone must remember across the board they are dealing with REAL people. When I speak to a customer I put myself in their shoes. If they come on the line abusive and my attempts to calm are not acknowledged then unfortunately I am human and my brain, heart, mind and myself as a human reacts to...the fact that they have no respect for me...it is my job to respect them and it is also my job to do what it is right. If they have a valid concern and it OUR fault then regardless of the way they have chosen to behave, it is my job to resolve, but if I have an option to do something as a courtesy or not...well I am going to give that HUMAN the same courtesy they gave me. If someone is nice and in a difficult situation that is essentially their fault, I will be more than happy to help, but if someone abuses me and expects me to correct something that essentially was their responsibility and something that would fall in their lap and they abuse me or disrespect me...then why should I extend any courtesy? The company I am with is based on INTEGRITY and so many people lack that anymore. We are taught, trained, coached or what have you to do what is right, but is that always done...I doubt it. Do I? Yes. I believe that what goes around comes around and I would not treat anyone any differently than I would like to be treated. If I were that irate angry customer and screamed and blamed then after attempts of someone trying to resolve and my attitude stayed bitter then I would expect nothing. I am not going to deny that there are people who work for WONDERFUL companies that just don't care. They don't end up lasting very long, but I can most certainly say..without a doubt that I have always treated my customer with every bit of respect they deserve! I have had very few "escalated" calls, but those that I have had were with individuals that were so angry that I suppose they forgot I was a person too and they really didn't care, they wanted what they wanted and without the proper justification I can't steal from other loyal paying customers to give to this guy because he "didn't know". Read your contract...it isn't a secret or a kitty litter liner..it is something you put your signature on...it is your responsibility to READ it. Only one main point to this is...everyone is human. I love my job and it is far more to me than a paycheck. It is reflected in the way I deal with my customers. No matter if I had a terrible morning before work, I am single mom of three boys that does it all alone with no help, and before he died he didn't file his taxes so there isn't any social security or anything...my customers don't know that nor do my co workers. When I am at work I am there in that building to serve my customers. I am sorry everyone isn't, but everyone isn't perfect and neither are the customers. People are human. You can't expect a test tube person just because they work for a specific company...you should expect to be served as a customer, but you should never think it is okay to abuse or disrespect your 'server'.
I've been excited to read that there are good telecom experiences out there. I wanted to post one of my own, as I'm a Church fan, but i racked and racked my brain and could only think of negative ones. I even argued with an AT&T guy cuz he didn't want me to hang up until I could tell him I was completely satisfied (even though the problem hadn't been rectified yet). We had a calm conversation until that point. Sometimes companies get so focused on what 'satisfied' is, that they forget that letting down their guard and being a bit human can accomplish a whole lot in creating great customer experiences. There's still work to be done! (Hope the talk went well, Jackie!)
There is a great series of posts on Bearonbusiness.com called Sales and Customer Service: Telecom Evolution's Missing Link revolving around customer service in the telecom industry. It is written by a sales representative portraying the obvious through a series of anecdotes: if you don't listen to your customers, you won't be in business very long.
I bought a Jitterbug phone to check out. While testing the features, I called Jitterbug's customer service and was very impressed. They were very helpful, plus the call was free, even from the Jitterbug handset. The only slight drawback was that they did try to upsell me on some additional services. Still, overall it was a good experience and, I think, necessary for their customers. I intended to give the Jitterbug phone to my mother but ran into the issue that the phonebook wasn't large enough to accommodate all her contacts!
