I am passionate about customer service. I strongly believe the most successful companies and organizations are the ones that recognize the value of a satisfied customer. Part of my belief comes from the work I do. I have done quite a bit of customer service training, and, therefore, have done quite a bit of research on customer service. One recent statistic I came across was part of the "new" focus on the impact social media has on customer service. It used to be a dissatisfied customer might tell 8-10 people about poor service. The more recent statistic I read was that 13% of dissatisfied customers used social media to broadcast their dissatisfaction, thus reaching far more than 8-10 people.
So, I have decided to be part of the 13%, mostly because in the last few weeks I have experienced such tremendously bad service that I can't keep quiet anymore (my head just might explode). My streak of bad service started at McDonald's Drugstore in downtown South Haven. The quick version of the story is that a simple no-receipt exchange of an item they clearly sold took well over an hour. The sales person had to "go talk to my manager." The situation got more and more ridiculous as she started asking Troy if he knew the exact date he had bought the item and how he paid for it. Now, I understand having policies and procedures so a business runs effectively and efficiently. But when those policies get in the way of providing customer service, they are no longer effective policies. She ended up doing exactly what I came in their asking for – returning the wrong item that had been purchased, getting me the right item, and charging me the difference. However, because she took over an hour to do so, I will never return to the store again. Unfortunately for them, I am not some tourist coming in to get a cute souvenir. I am a local who would have shopped there for years to come.
Next, I started dealing with South Haven Public Schools. Specifically, the administration branch of the schools. I will say, so far my experience with the teachers and the on-site personnel has been nothing short of fabulous. However, my experience with the transportation department was awful. The week before school started I had no information whatsoever regarding Jack riding the bus. So I called. I was told by the person answering the phone that she would look up the route. Then I proceeded to listen to her talk to other person in the office about the computers not working, servers being down, etc. for about three minutes straight. I was never asked to wait a moment, or please hold, or really acknowledged at all. Then she simply said she would check when the servers were back up. She never told me when to call back, or offered to take my name or number and call me back. When I finally did talk to someone again I was told my not-quite-five-year-old would be on the bus over an hour and would have to wait in front of a vacant house with a pond that would not have a plowed driveway in the winter. Her response to my concerns was simply, "I can understand you feeling that way." Fabulous. My slightly less frustrating encounters have had to do with lunch menus not being posted online and charging a "handling" fee for me to electronically deposit money into my child's lunch account; however, if I actually hand the money to them (hence, actual handling of money occurs) there is no handling fee. Weird.
Finally, my last straw before writing this post, I called my bank with questions regarding my account. I have been with Honor Credit Union (formerly Berrien Teachers Credit Union) for probably close to a decade now. I have my car loan there as well as Troy's, in addition to our checking and savings accounts. I used to rave about their customer service, but I have been increasingly frustrated with their customer service for the past year. Since they have grown and changed their name, they seem to have gotten progressively worse when it comes to customer service. I recently talked to a friend that works at Chemical Bank about maybe switching and she said in the last 6 months she has heard the same complaint about Honor quite a bit. I told the person on the phone this. Her response? "Well, a lot of people from Chemical Bank come to us." Thank you, for responding like a 12 year old. The appropriate response should be concern that the people in the communities you are located in are talking about your organization negatively. You should also be concerned that your competition knows it.
So, I wish I could say sorry to these organizations for outing their poor customer service, but I'm not really sorry. You reap what you sow. And you happened to provide horrible service to part of the 13% going to social media, someone who also happens to research customer service and teaches it to others. Thanks for all the examples I will now share with probably hundreds of people when I teach. As Julia Roberts so famously said to the snotty salesgirls in Pretty Woman, "Big Mistake. Huge."
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