Time for my customer service blog rant! When I get to the point of disappointment it’s time to say something to the companies of America – your customer service really sucks. It’s true that all you read is how your customer service is now your new marketing. Well then your marketing sucks too!
With me it started when I had to call Comcast and was connected to the Philippines. The people are nice enough and always taught to say I’m sorry and apologize for everything no matter what I complain about. The problem here is an issue that they forced me to spend a half an hour until they put me where I asked all along but was never allowed to have the reps name or direct extension to. This would make someone responsible and who would want ownership of a customer’s problem? What made it worse was it was an equipment issue and eventually I was connected to the office less than two miles from where I live. You guessed it – I could have waked there quicker than getting through on the phone which they deliberately design to have a certain percentage fall off (yes it’s a tracked statistic).
They had overcharged me for four years on an added box that I found in the bill only when they raised my rates again for services that are inverted to the price and I happened to wonder why this time it went up again. They only gave me six months of it back and for that I should be thankful for. When I finally got a rep who understood my frustration (yes every once in a while in a sea of morons comes a shining light) it took less than five minutes to solve an issue that consumed 2 hours of my valuable time.
Perhaps we should as consumers be allowed to bill back for our time that is wasted? Comcast would owe me a lot considering every six months we do the price renegotiation dance that raises my rates to be lowered but never back to the original pricing. The monopoly ends up with the extra 5 dollars they really wanted (but multiply that by a few million subscribers) you can understand why.
Then I get calls from recruiters who are trying to convince me to submit my resume for a position with a prestigious firm or at least I think that’s what he said. He spoke broken English and did so really fast probably thinking he could fast talk me in to doing something. He was rude and treated me like a number. I would rather not work then deal with someone like that. It was a great day so far?
Then I decide to call my property manager to let them know there were some problems and someone fell on the ice outside. What had upset me was the building maintenance guys were outside standing around and smoking cigarettes while people were struggling. They said there responsibility was the inside not the outside of the building. So much for your Christmas bonus this year buddy. Anyway the point wasn’t even that but when I called the office a recording said please hold on someone will be right with. I waited and waited and about 15 minutes later someone got on and asked “May I help you”. I asked if this was the office and she said no the answering serve. The answering service? I waited fifteen minutes to leave a message.
The point here is your customer service speaks volumes on the type of business you are, who wants to do business with you and if you even care about your customers at all. Spend all you want if your reputation is bad customer service spending marketing dollars is like putting lipstick on a pig!