When it comes to Customer Service, too many companies cut corners. Whether they skimp on training, outsource to organisations unfamiliar with their business or fail to employ enough people and create a high-pressure environment, few people don’t have at least one story about a nightmarish experience with Customer Service.
Over the past few months, we have been undertaking some informal research into people’s experiences with Customer Service agents. We’ve invited some of our clients to fill us in on the handling of their complaints and concerns. Our focus has been on the experiences that have lost a company business.
With that in mind, I’d like to share two stories with you.
The Big Six Energy Company
One of our respondents gave us a detailed insight into customer service failures that caused them to switch providers. Their energy provider first overcharged them by a significant amount, and then took several extra direct debit payments without notification or authorisation.
When our respondent complained, the front-line customer service staff denied everything. Even when presented with evidence in the form of bills, bank statements, etc. this company’s customer service agents refused to acknowledge the problem. Only after persistence did our respondent finally get their complaint elevated to somebody more equipped to deal with it. In total, from the first complaint to resolution, they waited almost six weeks.
Our respondent felt that this company’s customer service agents did not read their initial complaints, nor did they look at the evidence presented. The respondent felt ignored, undervalued, and at times, lied to by a major company. Clearly, this was not acceptable for them, and so they switched provider.
What Should They Have Done?
The Big Six Energy Company should not have ignored the evidence presented. They should have admitted their mistake immediately, forwarded the complaint to somebody who could take the appropriate action and work towards a speedy resolution. By denying there was even a problem, they gave the impression that they didn’t care and left the customer in an uncomfortable limbo.
Failures such as this are why people switch to competitors. Had this complaint been dealt with in a reasonable amount of time by people who acknowledged the issue at the first point of contact, then they had a chance to turn a negative into a positive and win-back the customer’s trust and loyalty.
Instead, whatever corners they’ve cut that lead to undertrained customer service agents providing incorrect information have cost them a customer. How many more customers might they lose?
The Telecoms Company
Another respondent reported frequent ‘no-service’ issues. The telecoms company insisted that our tech-savvy respondent was wrong and that there was no service issue. Any problem would have been with their equipment. Our respondent had to push for several days before the telecoms company arranged for an engineer to examine the issue.
The engineer then pointed the finger at our respondent’s equipment, again, and demanded a fee to fix the problem. Our respondent, however, declined to pay the price and instead ran their own tests. They discovered that the service problem was, in fact, a problem with the provider’s equipment and not the user’s responsibility to fix.
After several missed appointments and further arguments, the respondent finally managed to get the telecoms company to admit the fault was with their equipment and resolve the issue. Our respondent did not have service for two months. No compensation was offered.
What Should They Have Done?
A big issue we’ve noticed with tech companies is the incorrect belief that all of their customers are technophobes. Often front-line agents merely read from a script and tick boxes on a computer. They waste the time of people savvy enough to have identified the likely cause of the problem themselves. This is frustrating for people and sours them towards the company.
On this occasion, our respondent felt that the company had gone out of their way to pin the blame on the customer. They acknowledged that the proposed fix would have resolved their issue but only because it would have bypassed the actual fault that was the provider’s responsibility. Ergo, they were being asked to pay for something that they did not need to pay for.
The telecoms company should have trained their staff to identify they were talking to somebody familiar with the technology and immediately elevated their problem to a higher-tier of customer service agent. From there, the customer should have been listened to as this not only would have made the customer feel valued, it would have significantly reduced the time taken to resolve the fault. Finally, the customer should have been compensated adequately for the time their service was unavailable as this was the provider’s responsibility.
Our respondent switched provider.
Missed Opportunities
In both of these examples, the companies have missed multiple opportunities to turn the complaint in their favour. They have undervalued the customers, patronised them, talked down to them and wasted vast amounts of their time. Both companies appear to be using poorly-trained front-line staff who are likely hugely overworked and saying the wrong things.
At Robin Lines Associates, we know how important customer service is and how every interaction with a customer should be treated like a retention effort. If you fail your customers when they need you, they will walk away. That’s why we have launched our Customer Service Excellence programme to equip your people with the skills they need to make sure you’re not losing customers when you could be winning loyalty.
