It is that time of year again when we tend to have to talk to customer service more than we would like to do.
Some companies have customer service running like a well greased machine making the customer their TOP priority.
One company that does this well is In-n-Out Burgers. They go out of their way to be “freindly”, “personable”, and “supportive”. If you ever have to call their customer support line because you got the wrong order at the drive thru or some other problem you get to speak to an actual person… not only a person answers in 30 seconds or so BUT they speak english as their first language! WOW now that is something special these days! They give repacement coupons and send Christmas cards! Another piece of wonderful customer service that In-n-Out Burgers has put in place recently was calling every woman be they 13 years old or 99 years old “MISS” insead of “MA’AM”. THANK YOU In-n-Out Burgers!!!!
Other companies, well they do not sell their services as well. Actually they un-sell their services by BAD customer services.
Here are my favorite BAD customer service stories of the year:
1. Banana Republic (related to me by a friend of a friend)
A customer ordered an item online and immediately realized they wanted to add on another item. They called customer service and were told “NO” without any explanation. The customer service person was snotty as well. Hmmmm, this is the stinky type of customer service that causes a bad taste in the customer’s mouth. So there was no sale and no brand building. Isn’t one of customer services jobs to make the sale happen?
When my friend told me this story they also told a wonderful story of great customer service by the former owners of Banana Republic, Mel and Patricia Ziegler. It seems my friend’s friend was so mad that they fired off many emails to the company, stockholders as well as the people who they “thought” were the current owners.
The real Banana Republic customer service reply was a “CUT and PASTE” job (which was obvious due to font and font size discrepancies) that really was not a real answer to the problem just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that some marketing person had written that the person on the other end of the email just copied without really reading and understanding what they were saying. YET the former owners Mel and Patricia Ziegler sent a beautifully written email that was not only empathetic but personal. WOW!!!
So here is what we can learn from this customer experience: when a company that is BIG like GAP INC. (the current owners of Banana Republic) just don’t care about the customer’s experience they lose. They just want you to show them the money. They are too big to actually train their employees how to gain branded good will. NO ONE WINS when you say “NO” in a snotty voice. Retraining is needed or give the company back to the rightful owners who actually cared about the customer.
2. Comcast (the funniest story on the internet!)
We all can relate to this one no matter what we are trying to disconnect. They put the hard sellers on the retainer lines. You have to listen to the call yourself. I laughed all the way through this one until I realized hey wait I have Time Warner and Comcast is trying to merge with them. I hope I do not have to record my disconnect call too!
http://www.businessinsider.com/ryan-block-comcast-phone-call-2014-7
I leave #3 for you to tell. Blog your tale of customer service and remember you can always hang up, or better yet tell your story, the WWW is a wonderful platform for the consumer’s voice.