The Hits Just Keep on Rolling
I recently posted about a horrendous customer experience I had with an online car care company. I concluded that it was a small company and an exception to experiences we are having as consumers. My thought process was dead wrong. In the last week, I have the following “experiences”:
-A large electronics retailer. I called customer service and was advised the wait time to chat with an agent was 3 hours and 15 minutes. When I decided to call, the IVR STILL says “due to COVID” we are experiencing higher than normal wait times and tells me the next agent will be available in just 3 minutes! I hung up after waiting 18 minutes to speak with an agent.
-A nationwide supplier of propane gas. I called to inquire about the final bill I had received due to termination of my service. I was told that since it was a final bill, and the account was closed, the agent couldn’t access my account any longer. She told me to contact customer service (wasn’t that who I was calling?) via email. I’ve done it twice – no response – and I still don’t understand my bill.
-A department store chain. Great pre-delivery service – sent me a text to track my delivery. I could follow the truck and know exactly when it would arrive during the 2-hour delivery window provided in advance. Sounds great, right? Wrong! The 2-hour delivery window came and went while their nifty system kept telling me I was the next delivery in 15 minutes. 6 hours later still no furniture. Only to find out it was never loaded on the truck that morning. The next delivery window was 6 days away. Order cancelled and purchased from a competitor who delivered it within 3 days.
-An internet service provider. I wanted to transfer service to the new owner of our home who decided to retain my internet service provider (customer retention!). In reading the information on their website this would be as easy as 1,2,3 and the billing responsibility would be transferred with no interruption of service. Between the new owner and me, we spent countless hours on the phone with a variety of agents each telling us a different story each time and eventually telling us it wasn’t easy, and we had to start over.
-Same internet service provider. Sent me a follow up survey on how they did. I gave them all zeros. I wonder if they will respond. By the way, the survey was a poorly formatted by one of the largest suppliers of surveys in the world. Just to add insult to injury.
So where does that leave me? Well, I did have some great experiences this week too (like the furniture retailer who stepped in when the department store chain failed), but they were overshadowed by these terrible ones.
I believe it’s time to get back to basics in customer service. In most cases, these situations were not the fault of customer service but rather the fault of leadership – or perhaps a better word is management – who are oblivious to what they are putting their customers through when dealing with their organizations.
These organizations don’t need a journey map or voice of the customer program to figure out what’s going on – they need to jump on calls and listen to customers. Try to follow their “easy as 1,2,3” processes. Examine the policies and procedures. Give authority to the agents so they can do their jobs. To name a few suggestions.
As consumers we are dealing with a lot of challenges – we shouldn’t have to deal with organizations that don’t care about us or our loyalty.