The Story
I am upset, I have three items on my pending stuff list and they all deal with customer service:
1. I ordered perfume from a prestigious perfume maker in Paris in November 2014, they were unable to deliver the goods and promised a refund on my credit card. This never happened.
2. I cancelled my membership for a national marketing association by registered letter last May and keep getting invoices for the membership subscription.
3. I opened a trial account with a marketing company in USA and wanted to cancel it as I found out their products did not appeal to me (no way to find out prior to subscribing). When I tried to cancel my subscription, it did not work and in order to contact support you had to open a special support account, submit a ticker and if the issue addressed was considered to have been answered in the FAQ, said ticker would be deleted without any further notice. Quite some Catch 22!
I found myself carrying those items forward on my list for some time, my emails and queries were never answered.
Yesterday, I happened to read Terri’s latest post Brand Building Versus Customer Service and I highly recommend reading it.
What she experienced motivated me to tackle all three items by calling all three companies and this is what happened:
1. I listened to 5 minutes of “thank you for calling, ‘old the line” in both French and charming English and hung up. I sent another email and am still waiting for a reply.
2. I called the national marketing association and spoke yet to another person who promised to tell the second person who was unfortunately not available due to some important meeting. I am waiting.
3. I spent 21 minutes on the phone (looking forward to my phone bill!) with the marketing company in USA, 5 minutes thereof dedicated to “your call is important to us, we will be with you shortly”. Finally a friendly person promised to take matters in hand and she would deal with closing my account and initiating the refund process, “could I please wait while she dealt with it” interspersed with “are you sure you want to close your account?”.
In The Meantime
That was 10 days ago and this is what has happened in the meantime:
1. Nothing and no replies to the following two emails
2. Nothing
3. Hurray: I had a refund on my credit card but no communication otherwise. Is this good customer service?
Customer Service
In my eyes brand building goes hand in hand with customer service:
When you buy apples in your local shop and at home you find that half of them are not good, what will you do? Yes, you go back to your shop with the apples and tell them. They will either give you an exchange or offer a refund together with an apology.
An apple a day keeps the complaints away
This is good customer service and will help them build their brand of being the no. 1 shop for fresh produce in your neighbourhood.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
What is CRM? In a post by Lauren Mathews on LinkedIn I found the following definition: “In order to maintain a successful business, the business must understand and maintain a positive relationship with its customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of bringing the customer and the company closer together.”
While the grocery shop around your corner might not need a professional CRM because there is an immediate exchange between business and customer, they experience their customer’s reaction to their products on a daily basis and can easily adapt to customer demands, SME and big companies have implemented CRM in closing the distance gap between business and customer.
I am quite sure all the companies concerned have some kind of CRM implemented, this might look good at first glance and boost the company’s image, but what will be the long time effects? I cannot imagine I am the only customer with a complaint.
Ah, Shucks, Why Am I Mentioning This?
I do not know. Or, do I? What good are all theories, mind maps, process managements and name-it-not if people (companies) do not live them? Where have common sense and respect gone to?
I would love to publish the companies name and link to them. Do you think this would cause a reaction? What would you do in my place? Any tips are highly appreciated and paid due respect.
Comments 13
I think publishing the companies’ names and linking to them should be a last step. Where customer service is concerned, most companies want to know if theirs is up to par. Nowadays they rarely find out because customer complaints are deleted (I know this from experience) or discarded – saves time having to attend to all of them. However, my sister found that when she writes an old-fashioned letter, she usually receives an answer, an apology, an explanation, and some kind of compensation. That happens with US companies. I don’t know about other countries. If you do not receive a reply or a satisfactory one, then by all means publish the companies’ names. What’s more, you will have proof that they don’t give a damn for their customers.
@Penelope J You know, Penelope, I am so fed up with people / company behaving this way: not caring, not replying, not showing up for an appointment. This is not the way I was brought up, I was taught to be polite and respectful and fulfill any promises made.
I know publishing the companies’ names is a last resort and I would not want to have to deal with their repercussions.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, I do appreciate it and it is good to reconnect! Have a wonderful weekend!
This is very frustrating Barbara! I don’t know how, in the age of social media, companies dare to give such terrible service.
I have to agree with Penelope J ‘s suggestions. (Thanks Penelope!) . Please follow up here so we can hear what happens!
Lori
Yes, Lori, it is very frustrating! Lori
Today I received a letter (by Email) from the Swiss marketing association confirming the termination of our relationship! They also included a lengthy survey to be kindly taken in the most positive way blablabla … nice try.
I have not heard yet from the parfumeur de Paris but I will (try to) call again and if not successful will write a letter by snail mail as suggested by Penelope J
This is all very annoying as it is not only time consuming but also a dead weight on my shoulders. At least I am after them and am determined to see it through! This is the positive aspect of the whole matter.
what a frustrating ordeal. I am so reluctant to sign up for things if there is even a possibility I cannot cancel the subscription as I know getting refunds can be difficult. I wonder why companies just cannot deal with problems straight away. I resort to twitter to get my complaint heard.
Hi, Tandy tandysinclair Fortunately I did not have to resort to any stronger means as all three issues have been sorted, well, I am still waiting for a cheque from the French parfumeur …
It seems like those companies hide in cyberspace and do not feel the same responsibilities towards their customers as if they had a shop IRL and would have to deal with customers face to face.
Just wondering if there would be a place to leave a bad review, or something like a BBB site to leave your comment?
Jim_C_Green Hi, JIm, now this is a great idea, thank you so much. I had not thought of this, shows you once more that your emotions can put blinkers on your thinking!
Enjoy the pie and have a great new week!
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I am SICK of an advert on my FB timeline. About 3 months ago I TRIED to deal with them (I unwisely, it seems, even wanted to) Now, every time I see their advert my comments get more and more abrasive but still they do not answer.
So, my next comment will be “Who needs customers” to see whether I get any response.
(Irony of it is, of course, that they are paying for every time I see their spiel)
Good morning, Steve thisisspain How annoying! I’d love to hear what will happen when you treat them with “who needs customers”, does the rule of 20/80 apply as well here? We had a cynical discussion as to why should companies deal with customer requests when 80 % of their customers will never bother to address the issue and 20 % of those wo do seem to be quite negligible?
Late_Bloomers thisisspain OK, next time I “see” them I will be totally blunt. “My friend, who needs customers”
I can continue, “Just a little confused as you seem to enjoying paying for filling FB timelines with your spiel but seem unable to connect when somebody WANTS to deal with you #Confused”
thisisspain Late_Bloomers Lol, Steve, as long as it does not take too much of your energy 🙂