The Winding Path

It’s often said that the customer is always right. As customers we expect product and service providers to agree to that and to show it by doing whatever we want. Which is fine in general because a company will quickly lose its customers if those customers are unsatisfied.

But what many people seem to forget is that being right is not the same as being good, and is not always worthwhile in the long run.

Anyone working in the customer service industry would regularly encounter customers who vehemently believe the company providing their service should fulfill all their demands, no matter how misguided or inappropriate those demands may be. Even if they’re fully aware that they have no legal grounds for making such a demand.

While it’s the company’s responsibility to provide good customer service, it’s the customer’s responsibility to allow them to provide that service.

In the case of support provided over the phone, here are a few things that we as customers can do to help our service provider help us:

1. Gather as much information as possible before asking for help

   If you’re calling about a billing dispute, have your bill in front of you. If a regular charge is greater than the previous bill, have the previous bill in front of you too. If itemised, highlight the item which is incorrect.

   If you’re calling about a technical support issue make sure you know exactly what the problem is. There is little an Internet Service Provider can do with a problem description such as, “The Internet doesn’t work.”

2. Be specific, but be brief

   In many cases a consultant can gather a lot of information from a few key pieces of data you provide. An account number and an incorrect charge. The name of the program you’re having trouble with and an error message. Which status lights you see on your modem.

   The previous point doesn’t mean you have to go into painstaking detail about everything you did leading up to when things went wrong. Be prepared with that information, but don’t give it unless the consultant asks you to.

3. Do not blame the consultant for your problems

   The person you speak to is usually someone equiped to solve your problem. Accusing them of causing it will not only be wrong, but it will frustrate or anger them, making them all the more likely to do whatever they can to get you off the phone, even if it means your problem goes unsolved and someone else has to deal with you later.

   Similarly, remember that it is a person you’re speaking to. You can upset them just as easily as anyone else, and the fact that they deal with a lot of aggressive customers is no excuse to be another one.

4. Do not waste the consultant’s time

   Those consultants are busy. They don’t have time to hear all about your neighbour’s daughter’s kitten. Some conversation is fine, particularly if a menial task is being performed while you’re on the phone, it helps pass the time. But pay attention to the consultant’s desire for conversation. Even if they’ve been extremely polite and helpful, don’t show your gratitude by keeping them on the phone for half an hour after your problem has been solved. Some consultants are too nice to hang up on you, even if other customers are waiting in the queue.

   Remember, “Is there anything else I can help you with?” does not mean, “Please tell me about the baby shower your daughter-in-law is hosting.”

5. Do not make demands

   As long as you make a reasonable request, it’s likely that whoever you speak to will do their best to meet it. That means that there is no need to demand anything. After all, if the same work is required, who do you think is more likely to get assistance, someone who calmly asked for it, or someone who angrily demanded it?

Even if you’ve had the worst experience imaginable and you really want to hurt someone, don’t lash out at the person who can help you. Save your rage for those who deserve it, like the parents and role models of emos and pre-teen girls with jeans that don’t cover their butts. And don’t forget the pimply, greasy fast-food workers who spit in your burger and still smile, showing you a mouth full of metal, as they hand it over.

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Seth Godin recently described his experience of Apple’s misalignment of job execution with company goals.

I recently had a similar experience with my old ISP, iiNet. I’d lodged a billing dispute over an unwarranted $299 connection charge. I spoke to ten iiNet representatives over the course of a month while attempting to resolve the issue. I can honestly say that all but one consultant showed exemplary phone manners, but all but the last showed any significant display of true customer service. Phone manners are the icing sugar on top of the sponge cake of customer service. Without the icing sugar it’s not the same cake, but if all you get is icing sugar, sure, it tastes good, but you’re still left unsatisfied.

See, as Seth pointed out, the consultant believes that in order to “do their job” they simply have to be nice to the customer; doing something to appear as if they’ve attempted to resolve the issue. In nine out of ten in my case they did this by notifying someone else. For all the calls I made I only received one call in return, close to the time the dispute was lodged.

For the first call or two this would be satisfactory, after all everyone expects everyone else to do their jobs right, so informing someone else that they have outstanding work is considered ok. Yet if those other people also consider their job to be only appearing to do the right thing, then, as long as “the right thing” isn’t complete resolution, cases like mine end up in limbo.

Having worked for an ISP I know that performance reviews monitor quantifiable data like call times, but they don’t link individual performance with customer satisfaction. If the company’s goal is to provide quality services to customers, it must be the goal of each individual to do the same. It’s not “right” to consider any customer someone else’s responsibility, so it should not be seen as “doing your job” to delegate responsibility to someone else.

In the end my case was brought to a manager’s attention and he did “the right thing” by refunding the entire connection fee. Only in that case was “the right thing” inline with “doing his job.” But still, if all he did was to refund the charge, he also took the easy way out. He knew that after a month I would be in good standing to plead my case and, with the TIO’s assistance, win. He had no other option. I can’t comment on what did go on behind the scenes after my final call, but there were a number of team leaders who had been contacted numerous times and asked to return my call. Their poor performance needs to be addressed. Finally, the connection fee was one iiNet charged me on Telstra’s behalf. IiNet have lost money because of a charge Telstra were unjustified in making. That issue should be resolved between iiNet and Telstra, though I wouldn’t be surprised if closing my case also closed any further investigation.

As a result of all this I’ve switched my Telephony and Internet services back to Netspace. I have no guarantees that their customer service is any better, but incredibly poor performance from iiNet leaves me almost completely dissatisfied.

Seth’s suggestion that “Getting your team in alignment … is perhaps the first job a marketer has to do” applies equally to all forms of customer service including sales, customer service, and technical support. It also applies to internal relations as well. Or more generally, at any point where one person provides a product or service to another, the provider promises a certain level of satisfaction. It should be the provider’s goal, at every level the scope of the provider covers, to ensure that promise is always met in full.