Is it just me or has the overall service experience gone from bad to worse? It is so absolutely rare that I am exposed to service excellence that, when I am, I damn near do back flips of joy! Do I remember these people? You bet! Would I buy from them again? Absolutely! Why then is not every company capitalizing on this opportunity?
Here’s my take on “buying” and on “ownership”. Buying is, in itself, an inherently painful process. There are generally many options to choose from and seemingly little that differentiates each. Certainly, social media has changed our buying behavior. I no longer have to rely on the promises of the sales person. I can now go to the internet and request recommendations from my connections. Conversely, my connections can also be very vocal in regard to who not to buy from. So, we have a two-edged sword here. If you are good, people will know about it. If you suck, probably even more will be aware of this condemnation. Still, making the decision can be a farily lengthy process and, in the end, it’s still a crap shoot.
Back to “buying” and on to “ownership”. The painful part of the buying process ends at the precise moment that you write that check and accept delivery of your new product or service. Now, for the next “x” amount of time you are going to live with that decision on a daily basis. If your decision was sound, you bask in the awesomeness of your great fortune. If, on the other hand, you made a huge mistake and invested in a piece of junk … sucks to be you. The bitter taste of poor quality lingers on long after the sweet taste of low quality is long forgotten. At least it used to be that way. Nowadays, even the best stuff breaks. With that in mind, and assuming that everything will break down at some point, this leaves us with the question .., “How will the company respond when it does break? Will they treat me as a valued customer or as somebody who has already made their dollar donation to the cause and is no longer needed?”
It gets better. When I buy that new product and start using it, I’m always wondering what it will be like when I need to get service. Once that need arises, my choice is either validated or discredited. I will gladly stay with a product or service that may not be as good as the alternatives because I know that their service rocks. If the service is terrible, I may or may not be gone but, I certainly won’t be back. Is service a piece of the entire and true value equation? I think that it is. In fact, if I have a product that needs service and that service is excellent, I have an even stronger relationship with that company than would have had if the product had never even broken in the first place. Why? Because now I know what to expect and I no longer have to be concerned with that unknown. Better yet, I become a crusading brand ambassador instead on an avenging angel.
Therefore, the service that you provide is critical to building your repeat customer base and your referral network. It’s so simple. I’m not going to name names here but, you can easily substitute your own. I spent months fighting with my hosting company over everything from site performance to my sites flat out not opening up. Every time I called or chatted with tech support I was advised that it was my issue and something to do with my plugins causing some sort of conflict. I’m not tech smart but, I’m not tech stupid either. Any time I contacted that company’s tech support it was like a recorded message. They even refused my requests to escalate the issue!! We were finally able to get it resolved (it was their server) but only after we bypassed front-line tech support and went to management. I will no longer be using their chat or support line and the next issue that arises that is not resolved immediately will mean the loss of my business. What a shameful waste of an opportunity to demonstrate excellent customer service and secure me as a life-long customer.
Got me a new phone! My Blackberry died and it was time for a change. Of course, it took about 10 calls to tech support and God knows how many hours of my time before we finally proved that it was the phone and not my internet. Finally, when I threatened to cancel my service they made me an offer of a new Android phone for only $260.00. I thought about it, decided “No”, and called back. “Oh, how about we get you that new phone for $0.00 and put $200.00 on your account as well. Will you stay with us?” O.k., I can be bought but I’m also more than annoyed that they were originally going to bend me over for that new phone and ended up sweetening the deal to the tune of $460.00.
Now I have this shiny new phone that does not ring. People call me and, while it does not ring on my end, they may get dead air space, continuous ringing or, if I am lucky, it at least goes to voice mail. It freezes and reboots on it’s own. I made dozens of calls to tech support without them even acknowledging that these are known issues. They refused to connect me with management. Even better, every time that they failed to solve the problem … they tried to sell me other services!!! WTF!! I almost lost it, hit the forums and, surprise surprise, there were others like me with identical issues. We worked each other into a frenzy where foam was oozing from our collective mouths, knowing that the company at least monitors some of this activity, and we succeeded in getting these issues hopefully resolved. Will I ever call their tech support again? No! Will I ever do business with this company again? No! Will I jump ship at the next issue I have? Yes! Will I tell others about my experience? Absolutely! Will the story I tell be even better the tenth time that I tell it than it was the first time. You bet!
What’s wrong with this picture? Your front-line service people will either make you or break you as a company. It’s not that difficult to provide great service. Try it. You might find it to be both fun and rewarding! Once again, I expect things to break and am generally accepting of that fact. What happens afterward will be the true test of your company.
While I am not going to call out these two substandard companies publicly by name, I am going to name a few companies that do demonstrate consistent customer service excellence: Nimble, Buffer, MeetingBurner, Rapportive, and SproutSocial. Thank you for earning a life-long customer!
Craig M. Jamieson
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