Customer entropy partially to blame for poor customer service
Come to think about it, customer entropy (or customer apathy) is partly to blame for the state of customer service. The reason most companies deliver bad customer service is because they can - not enough customers complain or abandon brands after a bad customer service experience.
If more people were to talk back to companies or report customer service abuse to their local local consumer affairs departments, the overall state of customer service would improve.
What do you think? Is there a way to foster consumer activism so that we can finally get the service that we deserve, the right return on providing our personal information as part of buying transactions, and intelligent humans to interact with when facing post sale issues? Or is it like voting - enough people are generally happy enough so that the only thing we can expect is status-quo?
You would expect that a new entrant who delivers outstanding customer service would change the playing field in that sector - but is that really happening?
[Tags: customer service customer delight customer satisfaction]
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July 3rd, 2006 at 12:58 am
You’re completely right. The amount of time we sit on our bums and let companies walk right over us… Then go back for more, is incredible. In NZ phone and power companies are a big one. We have two cellphone providers and less than a handful of energy providers, so we have resigned ourselves to bad service… 1 hour waits before they pick up the phone, massive bills that you have to query, only to be told ‘oh sorry, we put you on our default [most expensive] plan. Maybe you should change.’
One the other side fo the coin, I once met a woman who got cancer and decided the only way to fix it was to eat fresh, chemical/GE free food. Obviiously, at the time, no one really provided it, so she complained and campaigned by herself, until several supermarkets in the area actually provided what she wanted. I am amazed by how amazed I was at that story
July 5th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Excellent posts. The ISP industry in my opinion is the worst. And this sucks because they generally have a regional monopoly. So, both choices (cable co, phone co) can have crappy customer service and it doesnt matter because a) no one can afford switching costs and b) there are no other options
July 13th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Good post and it got my juices flowing. Look up Tom Vander Well’s blog at http://www.qaqna.com (I don’t know him except he commented on my blog). I think we need to personalize our experience with Customer Service (CS). Now there are bums out there, but in general, I have my way when I reach out to the CS rep on the line - remember, they’re human too and are fallible. An organization or a customer is not some living creature with two heads and a horn - it’s made up of people just like you and me. Read the Name Experiment on my blog, if you’d like.
July 27th, 2006 at 9:56 am
I have to disagree. For all the talk in the conference room and magazines, company apathy, lethargy and inertia rules the day.
One gravel company in the gravel business simply instituted a pay-per-satisfaction invoice. A restaurant instituted pre-calculates a range of tips — from 10% for unsatisfactory service to %20 for outstanding service. A software company, wanting actionable feedback, added a “fund a feature” page.
Unlike meaningless opinion polls on web sites, these point-of-service tools provide a catalytic mechanism which will not be ignored. And that’s an information technology — not anything running electricity and hooked to the internet.
July 27th, 2006 at 10:52 am
I do not disagree with you, company apathy does rule the day. But the reason they can get away with it is because of customer apathy…no?
July 28th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
“But the reason they can get away with it is because of customer apathy…no?”
I don’t think GM is getting away with anything — do you? Despite “the blog” the talk, GM has a cost accounting mentality. And, deeply embeded and unquestioned in this view is a simple premise “customer delight is not a cost-effective long-term customer management strategy.”
(Customer delight being the opposite of apathy).
Despite this chicken-and-egg discussion, the dynamic is changeable by either side. Perhaps we should be talking about the cycle of apathy, which involves both customer and business. GM has been depending on customer apathy to maintain their position in the marketplace — bad call.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Hah! Some of these comments relate to so called service in the UK as well. My cable tv kept going off, so I called up to see if there was a fault and went through a ‘call centre’ menu. Eventually, after about 5 mins I got through to a voice mail and they said: ‘we’re sorry all of our customer service representitive are busy helping customers, please call back later’ click, burr…
I found a site called wizper. Looks like an interesting way of reeking revenge on these losers.