Writing White Papers - Latest Comments in Is Customer Service Dead?

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Patricia Robinett — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:17:05 -0000

"...If this were a real problem, we would have heard from thousands of other customers…”

---------

it took me a while to catch on to that one, mike.
but after i heard it from company after company,
i finally realized it was a clever customer non-service technique they'd been taught...

"i've never heard that before."
"you're the ONLY one who has ever complained."

implying:
you are stepping outside the group...
you should not complain.
if you complain, there is something wrong with YOU... not our product.

my local computer store used to be very helpful.
then... the head office told them not to answer questions...
to refer customers to the manufacturer.

yes, i think customer service is in the terlet.
and i'm sure grateful i bought a 3-year warranty on my computer.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Shell Smith — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:03:08 -0000

I love this topic- because it is such a hot issue for me right now. I recently watched an interview with Fox Business and the president of a customer serivce company called Mindshare. I think the president of the company made some excellent points as to why customer service is doing down hill (although he did mention they were poor excuses). Pretty interesting - it's worth a look.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Angela — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:46:16 -0000

I work for ChristianCinema.com, an e-commerce business. and half of our employees are dedicated to customer service. It's a priority of our management.

We believe that poor customer service results from lack of empowerment to the customer service person. We don't give our CSRs scripts, we don't have formulated answers for each question possible. Instead, we educate them on possible outcomes, provide good tools for them to use, and let them go. Within that framework, I find that their first priority has become creating a satisfied, long-life customer.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Jason Falls — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:13:49 -0000

Perhaps the best black-white comparisson I've found is the difference between my week-long battle with Dell to find a human being to answer a simple question about the fact my computer kept overheating because the fan wasn't working right and my less than one hour phone call with Linksys to fix a minor problem with my wireless network.

They both use call centers overseas (Middle Asian countries -- India subcontinent based on accents) but there is a stark difference in the level of service. One company cares enough to make sure the customer is taken care of. The other feels rerouting complaints through 17 levels of "that's another department sir, please hold" until you hang up is good enough.

As far as American companies go, no tech company I've ever dealt with is more efficient, effective and pleasant to deal with than GoDaddy.

Great topic.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Nigerian Scam Baiter — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:40:52 -0000

They always say they can't do something but you know they can. I tried to find out from the phone company recently about who called from a Private Number, they said they couldn't help. If they can't help that, then I might as well start making prank calls to tons of people from private Number.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Mike — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:29:47 -0000

I have a couple of friends working in the customer support field and they kind of told me stories about what happens there.

I think people working on such low end jobs aren't really fond of this and they don't even try to solve the problems they get. Maybe if they were paid better or even payed by the number of cases they solve successfully, things would be a lot better. But since nobody cares about their customer support service anymore...

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Michael Stelzner — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:44:46 -0000

Andrew, John and Jonathan;

Thanks for your contribution to this discussion.

I think bad service exists everywhere, whether products are cheap or expensive.

If only businesses would understand that service is really a key differentiator, they could keep more of their clients...

Mike

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Andrew Kordek — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:39:19 -0000

Good Service: Newegg.com and USAA.

Bad Service: Any DMV in any state. Cook County (IL) property tax department (10 months and 40 calls and 3 letters to get a refund)

Fake Service: Any retail employee who checks you out. Do you really want me to have a nice day or was your brain programmed to say it?

Even people who are not in the service industry suck at service. People today just want something for themselves and have no idea or even care about you.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

John Hunter — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:52:28 -0000

Cheap good service: Amazon.com - much better service than most online applications. Good service is about the entire customer experience - not about having poorly designed systems that require the customer to be held by the hand to get decent service. Amazon does a great job of changing the rules of the game to provide excellent service without requiring an employee personally deliver that service - most of it is automated.

Many small restaurants (often family owned...) with cheap prices provide great service. Google - great search, great email, free. Cruchfield (the product service is incredible) and Cannon (call up and get help on your Cannon product) are completely different than any other organizations I have called to get support - they are actually helpful, just like if you called up your best friend who is an expert on the topic you need help with. Most farmer's markets. Southwest and JetBlue (compared to the other airlines). Trader Joe's. Good Expensive customer service: Ritz Carleton.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Jonathan Kantor — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 21:10:31 -0000

I'd love to see an example of cheap stuff that has great customer service.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Michael Stelzner — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:04:21 -0000

John - I am fully with you! What is wrong with people these days??? - Mike

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

John Hunter — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:53:31 -0000

I find it very frustrating customer service is so bad - and getting worse in my experience. I do not agree that service is closely correlated with price - yes some thing that cost a lot provide good service but tons of things that cost a lot provide bad service and cheap stuff comes with great service. Bad service is much more correlated with bad management than the price that the customer pays. Customer "service" examples: Customer Hostility from Discover Card - Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog customer service posts.

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Michael Stelzner — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:34:28 -0000

Jonathan - I paid $2500 for this service.

I would say that in this case, your point does not apply.

However, I agree in general that low cost equals poor service.

Mike

Re: Is Customer Service Dead?

Jonathan Kantor — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:08:24 -0000

Customer service is directly proportional to the price paid. The higher the price, the more customer service you can obtain.

When people seek the lowest possible price, and then expect to get exceptional customer service, that's just being naive.

Besides "customer service", the only other oxymoron that comes close is the term, "Postal Service".

Jonathan