From rude salespeople to telephone representatives that don't speak (or understand) English well, we've all had the occasional bad customer service experience. The past few days though, I've seen more than a few cases of poor customer service, as well as one extremely positive experience, and thought I'd rant about both the good and bad.
First, the bad. I use Earthlink as my DSL provider. I've used their DSL service for the past 6 years and have not had many problems. It's not the fastest option anymore, and I think it's expensive for the actual download/upload speed that I get, but the service is reliable and inertia keeps me from switching providers. Anyway, a few days ago I experienced extreme slowness in my DSL connection and I used their online IM/chat feature to speak with customer service. The chat took almost an hour. What was frustrating was the fact that we didn't actually exchange that many actual messages. Between looking up my information and the inordinate amount of time between the rep's responses, it took almost an hour to submit a trouble ticket. The customer service rep was friendly enough; my suspicion was that he/she was juggling several different IMs at once and wasn't able to focus on me exclusively. Once my trouble ticket was created, I waited another few days for someone to call me to discuss the issue. I spoke to one rep and got a voice mail from a second. I had a very difficult time understanding either person. At least with the person I spoke to on the phone, I could ask her to repeat what she said. I must have listened to the voice mail two or three times and still could barely make out what the rep said. I understand the financial motivation for companies to move jobs offshore. I don't like it, but it's a reality that is here to stay. But, please, please, please, hire people that can speak English (or whatever language they use to communicate with your customers) clearly and slowly -- especially when they leave a message on voice mail or my answering machine.
Now, the bizarre... I was returning a purchase at a local computer retailer earlier today and, I kid you not, one of the customer service folks was actually sucking on a lollipop while attempting to help customers. He made no effort to take it out of his mouth. He just kept sucking on it and talking out of the side of his mouth! Too funny... I guess it could have been worse. He could have been eating his lunch while trying to help customers.
Last, the good. My wife and I had dinner at Cityzen in Washington, D.C. recently. It's in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and is very, very expensive, but the food is fabulous and the service was exceptional. Everyone from the valet parking attendant to the hostess to the entire wait staff was truly fabulous. There's no way the staff at Cityzen was able to provide such good customer service without the entire organization embracing customer service, providing staff with proper training and empowering them to solve issues quickly and creatively. I applaud Cityzen and its staff for its committment to excellent customer service and recommend the restaurant highly to anyone who enjoys a great meal!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
As for the tech support rep you were on IM chat with, yes, they were doing multiple chats at once, that's just the way it's done to save money.
And the valets and waiters at the Cityzen probably take home more money in tips at the end of the night than the near-minimum-wage, lollipop sucking retail clerk makes in two full days. The guy probably lives with his parents because no one can support themself on 7$/hour--I won't begrudge him a lollipop.
You're probably right about the valets and waiters at Cityzen making more money in tips than the retail clerk; however, I don't think money is the sole motivation. Customer service isn't something that can be "faked". Either it's important to an organization or it isn't. I don't begrudge the clerk his lollipop; however, when it interferes with his ability to speak clearly, I think it's an issue.
Post a Comment