Customer Service
My chief of staff and I have been inundated with examples of poor customer service of late. It’s time to send out a rallying cry for all of us to improve our act. Truly, any company these days can stand out by caring a smidge more — the operating bar is so low that anyone can stand out with just an iota of improvement in the way customers are taken care of.
As I wrote earlier, we are moving our HQ office, and I’m moving my HQ home. After 27 years, my husband and I are pulling up stakes and heading to new parts. With a move comes the selling of one home, the buying of another, and the coordinating that goes with all of it. And believe me, there’s lots of coordinating to do with a move of this magnitude — especially since it comes coincident with my husband having major surgery, leaving me with most of the work to be done. A little customer care could go a long way right now, but some of my vignettes of late have gone like these:
- Consignment stores designed to take used furniture are pickier. After finding one of four that would take some of our stuff, they refused to help me unload when I drove it to them because “their insurance won’t allow it.” It’s too bad my husband can’t help me lift.
- People don’t answer phone calls or return emails to their “info@blahblah.com” email addresses. It’s pretty bad when you call and say you want to purchase something, and the lines go dark. Hello? Anyone in business to do business in there?
- Horchow, a subsidiary of Neiman Marcus, had a sale on, and their website said it ran through March 25. It was late on the 24th when I was looking, and I was tired, so I decided to hold the purchase ’til the next day. I logged on at 9 am Pacific Time on the 25th to find that the sale was off. Hmmmm. What’s their definition of “through March 25”? I called and asked them to honor the price from yesterday. “Nope,” they said, “can’t be done.” So I asked them to check with a supervisor. “Still can’t be done. Best we can do is $100 off.” I shared that there was an $800 difference in their pricing between yesterday and that morning. Didn’t matter because they couldn’t confirm it. I asked how they couldn’t know what was on their website less than 24 hours prior? “Nope, nada, no can do.” I asked what happened to “through 3/25?” They said they usually shut things off at 9 am central on the days sales stop. So they were penalizing me because I’m in the wrong time zone? Basically yes. Needless to say, I took my hard-earned dollars elsewhere.
- Lately I’m getting inundated with emails I didn’t sign up for. Maybe they know I’m moving, I don’t know. But most of these messages are from IT firms that don’t know I don’t run IT, and when I unsubscribe, they asked me why. Because I never signed up for your mailing list. Is anyone out there listening?
- We are moving bank accounts with this transition, and the banks cannot keep their records straight. I won’t even begin to explain.
- And of course, the moving company wants me to download an app to get an estimate and do a virtual tour to find out how much the privilege of moving us will cost. What if I don’t want your app? It goes on and on. Now the onus is on us to do business with people by doing their work and downloading their apps? Ever try to make an insurance claim lately? Adjusters have gone the way of the dodo bird. Download the app, upload the paperwork. Do all the work. And so it goes.
To be fair, there’s good service too, but it’s harder and harder to find these days. The local utility couldn’t find our new house, and I’m 100 miles away from it. Our realtor had to go by and secure the meter number, which was the only way PG&E could find my house. Turns out they had the right address but the wrong city and zip code. Sigh.
Folks, please answer your phones, respond to inbound emails, and make sure the links on your website work. One glass company had an out-of-service phone number listed prominently on its home page. Ugh. Another wouldn’t answer my inquiry when their website said 44x½-inch polished glass tables were out of stock. I asked when they would be back in stock, and they said they had them. I said your website says ¼-inch is in stock but not ½-inch. When will you carry it? I never heard back. Yes, people, I wanted to buy from you, but you didn’t have the courtesy to respond to a simple legit inquiry nor to take the time to read it and look at it against what your own website was telling me.
Look, I don’t always get it right. Yes, even Outsell can improve our response times and service. In the service business, no one is perfect and we can always improve. “Good enough” is the bane of our existence. But tell that to the dozens of stores that can’t get it right, and it’s enough to make me crawl under a table and stay there.
I refuse to give up. If you have great examples of service send it my way. I’d like to spread the love. Meanwhile, call your 1–800 number. Call any number. Click the email links on your site. See how your company responds. Improve things just a smidge, and you’ll stand out. That’s how far the bar in our country has fallen.
Let’s pick it up, ladies and gents. We can all do better.
Outsell is closed on Good Friday so we won’t be publishing this coming Monday. We’ll see you Tuesday.