It will probably seem hypocritical to most people to mention this, but I really dislike the way that some companies handle customer service. Not that they provide no customer service, or that they don’t do it well, but that they try way too hard. I’ll provide a couple of examples.
I was out with the family recently for a lunch trip to Red Robin. Red Robin has unusually tasty hamburgers (they’re a 3/3 on the Burger Scale) and the service is always pretty good. It’s generally a good trip if you can ignore the price tag. I don’t really worry about service there. You know that thing that waiters do after they serve your food; when they come back and ask you if everything’s ok only when your mouth is full? That happened to us, but it wasn’t the waitress.
The manager of the store came and asked if everything was ok. More than that, he stood there and waited for us to finish chewing so that we could give him an answer. He did this after the waitress had already been back once to see if the food was ok. This turned me off a bit.
It might be me my own thinking, but there’s a certain number of visits that a waiter should make to your table when you dine out, depending on the complexity of your order and the duration of your stay. For a simple lunch order, that number is not six, and does not include a manager visit. Sometimes, you just want to eat your food and have the company you came with, not be bothered with “How are we doing?” questions throughout your meal.
What is really irritating about this is that it has happened before, and yet doesn’t happen routinely. So do they only care sometimes? And on a prior visit, when they asked how everything was, because I am a mischievous experimenter by nature, I said that I needed a refill on my bottomless fries. In response, the manager called over a waiter to do it for him!
Are people who don’t complain when something’s wrong really in such overabundance that the managers need to hang out with you to make sure everything’s rolling smoothly? I can’t think of an alternate explanation. If they are concerned about satisfaction, they can observe waitstaff on the floor and make sure that a standard for attendance to customer needs is met, and - most importantly - be immediately available for complaints. If you absolutely need to make yourself known, so that diners know who to bother directly with complaints, do it at the door or before the meal - and potential dissatisfaction - starts.
Another example - I signed up for a Best Buy Reward Zone membership, and I was trying to access my account online. I detailed this experience in a prior post. Their automated system was overzealous in providing the best support possible, and annoyed me with many questions that were irrelevant to the initial request for support.
Another example - My mom’s Treo battery’s memory was busted, and it wouldn’t hold a charge. When she took it to Verizon to complain, they suggested that she take it home and sync it (sensible to back things up first), then bring it back and they’d activate her phone insurance to replace the battery. The deductible is $50. Sure, this is basically theft on the Verizon store’s part, but that’s not the story.
I figured that there must be someone selling a replacement battery for her phone that cost less than that. After a very small bit of searching, I found a new one on eBay for $6 from The Blue Dot. I bought it. It arrived. No fuss. Oh, wait, they need feedback.
I got at least three emails from them asking for feedback. I got messages in my eBay account asking for feedback. This battery isn’t even for me! I was going to ignore them, but then I clicked a link in one of the many emails they sent, and became very annoyed.
I think there’s a concept here that requires definition. There’s a case where a service exists that nobody needs, but if you don’t have it, then you’re not as good as any of the people that do have it. This is the case with eBay feedback. I’m happy with the idea of neutral feedback, since the thing arrived as expected and intact as far as I know, but I’m not the end-user so I’m just guessing. But allegedly if I give them neutral feedback it’s a horrible blemish on their record, and I should be ridiculed for it. So I did.
The reason I cited was that they were too insistent after the purchase that I give feedback. Had they not badgered me, they wouldn’t have the blemish. See how this works?
I think this concept also applies to Drupal developers who elect for Acquia partnership. No, I’m not an Acquia partner. Does that mean I am less capable than someone who’s spent the money to get the logo and be listed in their directory? No. But unless I have this thing, I’ll be less exposed than the dude down the street who just finished his 2-year associate course and decided that blowing cash on a partnership would get him leads that get his home business off the ground. It’s valueless, and yet it’s invaluable. Anyway, that’s an entirely different post.
There’s a key to providing good service, I think. There shouldn’t be a problem with your service to begin with. You need to work out a level of service where there is a minimal number of issues. But when there is an issue, you need to attend to it immediately to the direct satisfaction of the customer. Ideally, you should only hear praise, and only after you hear complaints should you pursue remedies to the utmost to change those complaints to satisfaction. Asking after your satisfaction in the middle of your meal is not satisfying at all.
