Being ignored is high on my list of things that annoy me, especially when it’s a company doing the ignoring. Whether I’m a prospective or current customer, I expect that if I attempt to contact a company, they will respond. If they don’t, I take that to mean they don’t value my business – end of story. If nobody is home, I’ll take my business elsewhere.
Sure, Customer Service & Sales Support are Hard
Think about the interactions you’ve had with companies that made you feel great. I bet there are a few but there are likely many more companies that disappointed you. I could easily spend this entire post (or even an entire blog) writing about the vagaries of customer interactions, but I have a specific issue in mind.
Click on the “Contact Us” page on any companies’ website and you will see that it offers a variety of ways to reach them. Of course, there is good old mail (which can be especially successful at times), and then there is often phone, email, some type of proprietary chat, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, text message, and WhatsApp. Not all of these channels are serviced equally, and thus, my suggestion to companies is that if you are not giving a channel your full attention, get rid of it.
Ranking the Communication Channels
Based on my experience which is wide-ranging, I rate the usefulness of the channels in the following order from most productive to least productive:
- Phone — typically the best way to get a company’s attention though long hold times and disconnects are commonplace. Companies should change their message to something other than “your call is important to us” because if it was important, then they wouldn’t keep you on hold for 45 minutes or more.
- Mail — plain old USPS mail is a great way to get a company’s attention especially if you have a significant problem but you have to be sure to write to the correct person and be willing to wait for a response. I am very fond of writing polite but critical letters to CEOs and 9 times out of 10, you will get a response. Earlier this year, I wrote two letters 3 months apart to the CEO of Altice USA and have not received any response — they deserve to be called out. Don’t get me started!
- Twitter — if Twitter is an option, use it, especially if you can make the request public. Once the company responds you then can switch to direct messages. Public outing is an effective way to ensure a response — the same can hold true for Facebook posts.
- Proprietary chat — I’m listing this high on the list but only if you can get past the Virtual Support Assistant (they are useless!) and what is usually a 1st-line support person who can’t do much (ask for a supervisor). The good thing about chat is that it’s less intrusive than sitting on the phone for a long time, and you have a record of your discussion.
- Email — I’m tempted to put email at the bottom of the list because many companies give it low priority. In fact, non-response to email (and especially the contact us forms on websites) is the annoyance that prompted me to write this. I reached out to a local Chrysler dealer via their website to find when the 2021 Pacificas will be available and now 10 days later, I’ve heard nothing. Companies! If you are not going to monitor and respond to emails in a timely fashion then don’t list them as a communication option.
- Text message (SMS) — Some companies are starting to use text messages as a support vehicle and I hope that trend accelerates but for the moment, they are few and far between.
- Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. — These instant message forums are anything but instant. They are poorly monitored and often ignored. Facebook tries to encourage businesses to use Messenger effectively but, for some reason, my experience with it is “crickets.”
So, What’s the Point?
The point is that we as consumers needs to praise companies that do a good job of providing productive and satisfying interactions and publicly shame the companies that are bad at it. I have a long list of companies that offer barely tolerable customer service — and it’s especially disappointing since most are large, established organizations. I will spare you from providing list details at the moment, but if you continue to read this blog, and I hope you will, I’m sure many of the good and not so good companies will show up in a post.
What are your customer service experiences? How responsive are you to personal email, texts or chats? That’s a whole other level of annoyance. Have you heard of the Stevie Awards? Are any of these winning companies in the customer service category on your nice or naughty list?
0 Replies to “Knock Knock. Who’s There? Nobody”