It seems that my experiences with bad customer service come in waves. During the past month, I had to call the pest control and home security people more than a half-dozen times before I could get a return call. My Sunday newspaper hasn’t been delivered for weeks in spite of repeated complaints. I was ready to buy a $3,000 laptop computer by phone, but the customer service rep never called me back with a confirmed price and ship date. A painter came out to give me an estimate to repaint my house, but it took a month before he phoned in the quote. He had some inane excuse, something like, “The dog ate my brush.” I can’t get my local drugstore to return calls about the availability of a cosmetic item for my wife. When I called the New York distributors and left a message on their voicemail, I never got a return call from them, either. The final straw was a local doctor. After waiting in the examination room for 45 minutes, I got dressed and walked out. Still haven’t heard from the doctor. Guess patients walk out every day. What do the above have in common? In every case I was dealing with respected companies, most with national reputations. With the exception of the computer dealer, all were selling products at a premium price. Every one of them was unresponsive in the extreme. Yet, I’m sure the firms’ marketing literature and advertising touts service quality, commitment to the customer and other similar platitudes. Customers are telling us they have money to spend, but they can’t get a prompt response from the seller. Not only is it good business, it’s a matter of common courtesy to respond as soon as possible to a sales inquiry, lead or complaint. The research tells us that 70 percent of retail customers who suffer bad treatment will return if the complaint is addressed. That number grows to 90 percent if the complaint is dealt with on the spot. But sometimes a disgruntled customer can’t get anywhere with the customer service representative. After all, in many cases, the person at the other end of the phone representing the company works for a third-party contractor and operates out of a phone-bank boiler room in South Dakota. If the caller asks for the supervisor, it’s normally because anger or dissatisfaction has set in. Make it easy to get to the supervisor. Don’t make the caller wait forever. And when the supervisor does get on the line, his or her tone should be solicitous and not patronizing. It’s obvious that in some organizations there is a conscious policy of shielding management from the irate customer. I don’t understand the reasoning. After some companies handle a complaint, they will ask you to provide feedback. Hotels are the best practitioners of this art with the “How did we do?” card situated bedside. But in 31 years of business travel, I’ve only had three hotels respond in writing to comments that I’ve left on the card. And I fill out a lot of cards. If the customer takes the time to provide you with feedback, have the courtesy to acknowledge that feedback, particularly if it involves a complaint. It also pays to reply with haste if the customer responds to one of your advertised offers. Why should I have to wait eight weeks or more to get a coupon reimbursement? Mail-in rebates are all the rage, but the rage can also apply to the customer if it takes too long to receive the check. Ditto for requests that don’t involve money. If you’re advertising an offer such as sales material, information booklets, or even the common invitation to forward an opinion (“We welcome your feedback”), make sure that the response is quick or, if possible, immediate. I receive more than 50 unsolicited e-mails a day from readers seeking information and, in some cases, lengthy advice. Everyone gets a response, most within the week. Incidentally, recent surveys show the majority of Fortune 500 companies that provide Web site e-mail capability take more than a week to respond to the customer inquiry. Waiting on hold is a continuing epidemic and it gets worse every day. More companies do it, and they’re making us wait longer. In those situations where customers have to be placed on hold, make it easy on them. Run a recorded message or music so they know they haven’t been lost. When I’m calling on my cell phone, silence on the other end could mean that the call was dropped. How am I to know? Better still, buy some software that will let me know how long I should expect to hold. It’s not the waiting that upsets me, it’s the fact that I don’t know for how long. If a prospect calls for a quote and you can’t provide it on the spot, respond the same day and preferably within the hour. This, after all, is a qualified lead. The demand is for immediate gratification. A tardy response is guaranteed to send the prospect elsewhere. Retailers, particularly furniture and electronic dealers, also need to understand that the delivery schedule should be structured to meet the needs of the customer and not the company. How many times have you asked for a specific date and time and been told that they can only guarantee delivery within a block of time, normally a.m. or p.m.? Even then, they show up late. We all work for a living, and to have to make the time to accommodate the company’s needs over our own strikes me as arrogance at its worst. A good friend recently cancelled a $2,000 order for kitchen appliances because the company wouldn’t deliver on a Tuesday. If you’ve asked me to bid for your business or submit a proposal, have the common courtesy to let me know where I stand. More often than not, I have to follow up with repeated phone calls and, even then, I can’t get an answer. I don’t mind rejection. What I do mind is the rudeness conveyed in not returning the call and closing the matter. By the way, the larger the company, the more common the practice. Alf Nucifora is an Atlanta-based marketing consultant. He can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected] or by fax at (770) 952-7834.
