That’s Customer Centered
I still keep my personal blog at two click exchanges. I do that for lots of reasons. I feel a little sentimental. My little blog found it’s first friends in such places and I still like exploring them. I also like to watch how such things work. The business models interest me. I want to watch as they introduce new features. I want to see how each community reacts to them.
Brand You and Me
Over the last year, I got to be good friends with a tech at one click exchange. Rachel was like me, a nice one. They had a problem for a few weeks with a spell of trojans. It seems everyone tried to crawl onto my computer I caught four or five in three weeks.
Actually my virus program stopped those trojans in their tracks before they hit me. Each time I would contact Rachel, and in very Janice Myint fashion, she would ask for the facts and get right on tracking down each trojan. We’d work together.
You’re On Your Own Customer
Tonight, I wrote with a problem. I said that when surfing I couldn’t leave comments. I mentioned that two other people had emailed me that they had run into the same issue. I pointed out that it seemed to kill the whole purpose of reading while surfing, if I can’t leave a comment. The new tech returned a suggestion of what might be wrong with my computer. (It wasn’t.) He then said I might disarm my firewall — thinking of the earlier trojans, I didn’t think that I wanted that solution. He then decided the problem was Blogger.
I suggested that he might ask the population at the click exchange whether this was a problem for more than just the two or three of us. He said it wasn’t. When I asked him what the big deal was in asking he said
The big deal with asking? That’s just not how things are done when there isn’t any evidence of a problem.
So, if you can get me more data . . . go for it! Ask the people that are having the same problem to send a ticket too!
Did I Just Hear That?
I was a little surprised that the burden of proof that a problem existed was put on me — the customer. Sounds a bit like “Do my job for me.” Sounds a little like he could use a lesson in writing a friendly email, too. I replied with these words
Dear customer,
Do it yourself.Thank you, I hear you.
I will take care of my own problems.
I appreciate the conversation and learning about how your enterprise looks at these things.It’s cool. I can deal with that.
Have a great night.
Liz
He probably should have left it there. He didn’t. Instead he wrote back.
I’m glad you understand that it’s impossible for me to do anything at this point since I can’t produce the problem.
Don’t Pretend I Said That
I hadn’t said that.
Please don’t put words in my mouth.
I understand that you want me to take care of my own problem and that you are not interested in whether other members of the population might also be having the same problem unless they bring it to you.That’s cool. Not to know about the problem is one way to deal with the situation.
I also understand that you have no interest in seeing the problem from my point of view. That’s fine too. I was just writing a post about it for Successful-Blog. Do you know it? We talk a lot about thinking like customers and Brand You and ME
workng as a team together.That’s the fun of being a blogger. Everything is blog fodder. 🙂
Have a great night.
I keep hearing the Earthlink commercial in my head, “When you have a problem I will treat it as if it is my own.”
I don’t think he knows that one.
I would be wrong if I not tell you that the conversation wasn’t over there. I woke up to more this morning.
I would also be wrong, if I told you it got any better. It wasn’t worse either. It was more of the same really. I finally said I didn’t have time to do his work, thanked him, and said I’d be happy to use another click exchange where I could make my comments.
What He Didn’t Get
The man in this story didn’t get five things I can think of. These four
- That he gets paid to solve problems and I don’t.
- That his click exchange isn’t the only one.
- That I can go somewhere else to get service like that.
- If enough people do what I do, the first bullet won’t stay true.
and then there’s the biggest one of all . . .
I didn’t necessarily want him to fix the problem. I would have been satisfied if he valued my membership and showed an effort to help.
Instead, I felt like I had to jump hoops to get his attention, then maybe . . . Anyone having this problem with a click exchange, do contact them.
Tell them I sent you.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
See the Customer Think Series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE
Funny how the same thoughts come up at the same time: this is one of the “lessons learned” in my podcast last weekend!
I spent half a decade as tech support manager at an ISP, and another half as head bench tech at a major PC retailer (which also entailed – yup – phone support!). I’d probably have fired him if he were one of the guys who worked for me and he treated our customers like that!
Granted, at the ISP I did encounter one customer who insisted on calling repeatedly with the same issue over and over. As a dial-up ISP, we were at the mercy of the phone company providing quality copper to their customers. Unfortunately, the phone company did not do so in his case. At least I had diagnosed the problem and pointed him to the people who could help. It was not my fault that he did not believe me.
Hi Becky,
I wasn’t thrilled with the experience. I was just trying to help. I really didn’t care whether it was fixed or not. He made me feel like I worked for him.
Hi Rod,
I didn’t even include the second half of the conversation . . . and was nice enough to leave out his name and the name of his company. THIS TIME. He kept saying I couldn’t see HIS point of view. I don’t get PAID to see his point of view. 🙂
It doesn’t matter if you saw his point of view or not. He was getting paid to see yours, and if unable to solve the problem or even recreate it (it happens all the time) he should have escalated it to someone up the chain rather than arguing with the customer. That’s what would have gotten someone fired as one of my techs. The rest of the story isn’t even relevant in that regard.
I agree. The line “that isn’t how it’s done” almost fried me.
I hate that kind of thinking under any circumstances.
Sounds like a terrific example. The lesson I mentioned in my podcast was “the customer does not work for you!” The story was similar, but on a much smaller scale. No matter who you are, or how big your business is, the customer really does not work for you!
Perhaps we can pass along this message to more companies.
Do you suppose it grows as systems are put in place, and maintaining the systems become the goal?
Think about how much we have been forced to become a self-service nation. We need to tell the car mechanic what the problem is so they can fix it. We need to double check and know what questions to ask our doctors to ensure – and agree with – their diagnosis. We cannot see Apple’s web site to fix our iPods – we must go into and search the forums so that we can find the fixes. We must audit all of the insurance forms to ensure the company did the right job with our dollars. And on and on and on.
The cheapest service for a company to provide (not the best – the cheapest) is to force as much self service as possible.
As consumers, it means we just added 20 hours a week to our life understanding what everyone elses job is so we can do ours.
The sad thing is, I’d rather deal with an IVR that can answer my question 90% of the time than deal with the person on the other end who can’t figure out what I’m asking. I’d rather do on-line banking than deal with the bankers and the time to go to teller-land. I’d rather get the online forum answer if enough people say it worked because they felt the pain rather than the corporate speak solution that doesn’t tell you how to really fix the problem.
We are a self-service nation.
OK, so that looked like a blog entry didn’t it, Liz!
Scot
Hi Becky,
Do you suppose it grows . . .? I suppose it starts with some insecurity in the person and a feeling that *I* have to prove myself as good at my job. Most people, including me, who screw up in this way are just looking in the wrong direction. Seems like he might have been looking UP the ladder rather than at his customer.
Scot,
That blog entry even has a great title — Self-service Nation. The sad part is you are so right. We get better, faster, and more lasting service when we do it ourselves. I’m beginning to be amazingly grateful when someone wants to help me with a problem. Customer service of that nature can build a spectacular brand. It’s not that expensive, but it takes people who care and who know what they’re doing. Which means they need to be paid for a living.