Customer Service: The good, the bad and the ugly….
Being in sales means that customer service is something near and dear to my heart. I really appreciate good customer service, and bad customer service makes me want to scream.
Because I am off work, and we are gearing up to go overseas, I am interacting with customer services representatives more than I have in a long time. I will continue to post any notable exceptions, but below are this weeks good, bad and ugly:
The good: The award for the most pleasant suprise for good customer service would have to go to the Passports people at DIA. I took in John and My applications all filled out and not only was I quick to get service, but the guy on the other side of the counter was helpful, friendly and well informed!
The bad: The University of Otago. I needed to call them to get my student ID number last week. I spent (literally) 6 hours trying to call them before I got through (they were engaged that entire time!) To be fair, once I got through, the guy on the end of the phone did his best to be helpful, but I got the feeling he didn’t really know what he was doing, and it took a very long time for him to find the right information.
The ugly: Last night I bought a new blogging machine(aka tiny little laptop) from Dell. The online ordering experience was ok - nothing major to complain about there. Then today I got a voicemail from them - “they hope I am having a super day, could I call them back and quote this number…”. So, I called them back. The first woman I talked to couldn’t understand a word I said so I was put through to someone else. “Hi, my name is Sarah Lewis, I ordered a laptop from you last night and I am returning a call that I just received today, the number is this”. First she spent a good couple of minutes explaining to me (in broken English) that I couldn’t track my delivery for another 48 hours, once I explained that I was returning their call (which took far too long) she put me through to someone else. I repeated this, then they put me on hold for 10 minutes until I was cut off. I called back, went through this at least 3 more times before someone told me everyone is busy so they will have to call me back. That was two hours ago and so far no call - not surprising considering the last person I talked to took none of my information! Dell is going to have to go above and beyond to turn this experience around, what are the chances of that happening do you think?
9 September, 2008 at 4:15 pm said:
Some times ugly must be worked through to get a good product at a good price. Let’s see what time frame for delivery. My experience is that it is 100 to 1 against you getting good communications from a multi language service desk off shore. I deal in Japan China etc and have given up trying to deal on the phone with airlines off shore like Emirates or Cathay Pacific I have achieved a good result. Heres a huge opporunity for a switched on Front desk admin person
10 September, 2008 at 3:44 am said:
Hi Sarah,
I just came across your blog and wanted to let you know about a resource that could help you in the future since you are dealing with a lot of customer service situations. If you are looking for numbers or ways to get around the recordings, check out www.CustomerServiceNumbers.com.