WARNING. The following is part rant. If you want to skip the rant and go to the real point of this posting, it’s in the last paragraph.
For years my household ran relatively smoothly. I had my systems in place and they worked reliably, so I had no need for calls to customer service. However, I recently moved from one city to another and had to deal with several “customer service” departments in order to get up and running at my new house. It has not been a pleasant experience, but it has been instructive.
My first experience was with the new city’s public works department. I needed to have my garbage and recycling picked up, so I called to find out about pickup days. This city uses proprietary garbage cans designed to fit the lifts on its garbage trucks; my old garbage cans wouldn’t work. The “customer service” representative promised they would drop off a garbage can the day I was scheduled to move in. I asked for three recycling bins as well. They promised to include those, too. My garbage pickup day, I was told, is Mondays, and that recycling, which is picked up every other week, would be picked up the next Monday.
When I gave the “customer service” representative my new address, she couldn’t find it on the city map. Now, my neighbors have their garbage picked up every week, so obviously the truck drivers know how to find my house, but for some reason she couldn’t. After awhile she finally was able to find my house on her map and confirmed the delivery for next week.
The day I moved in? No garbage can, no recycling bins. The next day I called the public works department again. They promised to have the items at my house the next day. Guess what? You’re right. No delivery.
The third time I called I got the same “customer service” representative I had spoken to the first two times. She promised I would have a garbage can and three recycling bins delivered the next day. She was partly right. I got one garbage can and one recycling bin. I put out my garbage and recycling the following Sunday night. All day Monday, it was still there. It wasn’t until I talked to one of my neighbors that evening that I learned garbage and recycling pickup is actually on Tuesdays.
On Tuesday the drivers picked up my garbage and recycling, which included numerous boxes and packing material from my move. They left a nice note that said recycling pickup wasn’t until next week, but that they took mine anyway because they assumed I was a new customer and didn't know the schedule (the house is new and had not previously been occupied). The note also said they had left a calendar identifying recycling weeks. I looked around for the calendar, but couldn’t find it. Just as I had concluded they hadn’t left a calendar, a gentleman from public works pulled up in his truck. He realized he had forgotten to leave the calendar that morning and had come by to drop it off. I thanked him and mentioned that I had requested three recycling bins and received ony one. He kindly pulled a couple of bins from the back of his truck and gave them to me, along with the recycling calendar, and went over the calendar with me so that I would be sure to know what weeks were recycling weeks.
This driver was an example of good customer service – pleasant, responsive, truly helpful, and able to find my house. "Customer service" could take a lesson from him.
Another “customer service” experience: I had had subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal and the local newspaper for months while I camped out temporarily in an apartment in my new city. I contacted the customer service departments of both to have the delivery address changed effective the day I moved into my house. Both promised to deliver to my new address. The Journal did, the local newspaper didn't.
When I called the local newspaper’s “customer service” department, they told me the only option for delivery to my new address was by mail. Now, I live only seven blocks from the editorial offices of this newspaper. I lived 24 blocks from their offices when they were delivering the newspaper to me at the apartment. I explained to them in great detail where my house is located. They agreed they could deliver to my door and would the next morning.
The next morning? No local newspaper. But I had been receiving the Journal without interruption since I moved in.
I called “customer service” yet again. Again, I was told mail delivery was my only option. This time I insisted on talking to the circulation manager. After I explained the problem and responses about mail delivery I’d received, he asked, “Do you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal?” “Yes,” I said, “and they seem to have no problem delivering to my door.”
“You’ll have your paper tomorrow morning.” he said confidently. Nothing about mail service, no questions about where I lived. He obviously had my records on the screen in front of him.
“Your people deliver the Wall Street Journal, too, don’t they?” I said, smugly. I may sometimes be slow on the uptake, but I understood his confidence. He admitted that they did. The local newspaper, wrapped in plastic along with the Wall Street Journal, was on my doorstep the next morning, and has been there every morning since.
Yet another experience with “customer service:” If you use a computer, I’ll bet you’ve had a similar experience. I signed up for high speed DSL internet service. Installation was prompt, but the service is intermittent, so I called “customer service” twice. The first time I got a call center in India; the second time I was connected to a call center in the Philippines. Each call wasted over 45 minutes of my time going over the same questions and concluding that my phone company supplied modem was working properly and that the problem must be with my computer or with my router. Impossible, I told them both. I’d used this exact same computer set up with a different ISP since 2005 without a single service interruption. The only variable was the ISP, their client. No sympathy there; I had to beg – no, make that demand – that they send out a technician, whose schedule, of course, will not accommodate mine.
One more example, though not moving related: Last fall I took a voluntary “bump” from an oversold United Airlines flight. I was given a free round trip domestic ticket for my trouble. I recently called United to reserve a flight with the free ticket. Making the reservation was trouble free. But the reservation agent told me that if I didn’t get to an airport to have my ticket printed within 24 hours they would cancel my reservation and I would have to pay a $100 rebooking fee if I wanted to use my “free” ticket again. He didn't explain why he couldn't email me a ticket like they regularly do. I made it to the airport the next day before the deadline, but only after rearranging other things on my schedule. The parking expense at the terminal, which admittedly was modest, made the ticket a little less “free.”
Ok, my rant is over. So what’s my point? Don’t commoditize your customers. If you’re big enough or unique enough that you are a de facto monopoly – such as a city or utility or large airline -- so that angering and losing customers because of poor customer service won’t impact your top line in any meaningful way, then you can ignore this advice. However, most businesses, especially small businesses, can’t afford to lose good customers. When there are substitutes for what you do or produce – what economists call “market elasticity” – there will be a competitor willing and ready to muscle you aside and take that customer away from you. The cost of acquiring customers is high, much higher than the cost of retaining them. Every time you lose a customer, you lose part of the investment you’ve made in your business.
If you’re in a service business, customer service is the equivalent of the manufacturer’s quality control department that ensures parts are made to specifications. It is your business. When customers complain or need help, you must present them with a timely and effective solution that doesn’t create an additional burden for them. If you don’t, they won’t like you, and if they don’t like you, they won’t do business with you unless they have to.
In short, customer service should never be considered an expense to be reduced to zero if at all possible. It should be considered a strategic investment, just like a better, faster, more accurate machine on the production line. Proper customer service will distinguish you from your competition, and that will keep you in the game.
Let me end with a positive example. Not long ago my health insurer was failing to pay certain claims because their claims department wasn’t recognizing that I had two health insurance policies with the company. Unpaid portions of claims against my group plan should have been paid in full by my individual policy, but weren’t. I called customer service and explained in detail the problem and what I believed to be the cause. They told me they would review the unpaid claims for coverage.
Two weeks later I unexpectedly received a phone call from my insurance company’s customer service department. (That’s right, I received a call from a customer service department.) They had straightened out the problem, I was told, and all the prior claims would be taken care of. I should have no more problems, they said. And I haven’t.
Do I like my health insurance company? You bet. I may be the only person I know who does. Why? Because they cared enough to work to solve my problem. The insurance company? It’s Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, which writes probably 80% of the health insurance sold in Iowa. Which shows that even a near monopoly can engender customer goodwill when its customer service department is dedicated to providing effective service instead of acting like a place to park annoying phone calls.
If I called your customer service department with a problem, would I want to talk to them?