What’s Happened to Customer Service (Part 1)?
So, I’ve been away from the blog for a month and came back to rant just a bit. I’m unsure if this is a local, national, or global change but in the last few years the customer service side of business has taken a huge turn for the worst. In this economy where money is tight and people are probably being more thoughtful about who they spend it with, shouldn’t business be doing a bit more to be consumer friendly?
Let me take you back first to 1999. I’m finally done with school and ready to enter the job market and it couldn’t have been at a better time. Even with my limited work experience I was able to find a decent “starter” job in technology working at an outsourced inbound call center. People calling in for technical support ranged from the guy turning on his first computer for the first time to the guy who just had to make sure you knew he was a Ph.D or had his MCSE.
It was critical to the vendors of the products we supported that the customers were treated with the respect they deserved. So important, in fact, that everyone was required to attend 40 hours of customer service training their first week in. There were no exceptions. We learned everything from how to speak properly with customers (words to use, words to avoid) to how and when to talk them down or when to let them vent. Ten years later now I still remember that the only acceptable reasons for disconnecting a call with a customer was if they continuously used profanity or if they said anything that suggested legal action against our vendor.
I tell you this story so that maybe it will shed some insight on why I become outraged when I’m treated like anything less than a respected customer. Not to say I believe in “The Customer is Always Right” or that I should always have it my way. There are boundaries. And with that, I’ll share a few examples to get them off my chest.
The Television Cable Company Story
The thing I hate most about cable companies is that there usually isn’t a lot of competition in any given town. Years ago before moving I remember there was only ever one option. If they decided to raise prices or drop channels, you were pretty much out of luck. Today I’m fortunate enough to live in an area with multiple options, no to mention satellite as a fallback.
In any case, a couple years ago I found myself in an area with many choices and tried to do the prudent thing in speaking with the customer service department at a few of them. I pretty much knew what I was looking for and found a provider I liked for the job. They came out within a few days, hooked up the boxes, setup the Internet connection, and were gone.
Everything worked great for two weeks until one of the set-top boxes started having minor problems. All of the premium stations were blocked and their Video On Demand features were failing with useless numerical errors. I called customer service who explained that the box had lost its programming and that a quick flash from the office would do the trick. Within half an hour I was good to go. For about another week.
A week later another of my set top boxes had the same issue. Knowing it was probably the same thing, I called and they sent yet another flash signal to the house. Everything was good and I was still somewhat satisfied with my cable provider selection, although I was a tad annoyed.
This problem, however, continued for about three months. It was pure lack of will to find another provider that kept me calling mine back to have these refresh signals sent. I asked for new boxes, I asked for managers, I asked for senior technicians but they were unwilling.
One Saturday afternoon when my box cut out again, I’d finally had enough. I called and got a Tier 1 tech to whom I explained my problem but this time refused the refresh signal. I told him that they needed to fix the problem and that if they could not, I was done. He assured me that the refresh signal was the fix, and that a senior tech would tell me the same thing. I was again denied access to those senior techs. After realizing the conversation was going nowhere, I agreed to be refreshed but explained that the next time this happened I was gone. I was hoping at the very least this would get a manager to give me a call back.
But no call ever came. I’d love to tell you that this was the final fix, but you and I both know it wasn’t. Within weeks the problem came back and I didn’t bother to call and troubleshoot. I gave the customer service line a ring and hit the cancel option. Wouldn’t you know that the pleasant customer service agent was more than happy to find me a senior tech? Maybe I was being stubborn, but neither the offer of a senior tech nor the offer for a free month of service swayed my decision. They lost a customer.
I have a couple more similar stories that I’d like to rant about, I’ll try and get another one up within a week.
