As VP of Product at Compendium Blogware, I am also responsible for Product Support. As such, I'm always interested in seeing what companies with big budgets do when it comes to their own support offerings. This past week, I was witness to two customer service/customer support incidents that I thought I would share on my blog. I think these examples also highlight the fact that customer service, both good and bad, can be the difference between simply trying to be helpful and just trying to do your job.
Example of Negative Support Experience
Last Tuesday I came home from work to notice that my cable internet was out. I called my provider, and was told that the soonest they could come out would be Friday between 8 and 10am. After explaining that Friday wasn't soon enough, because I often worked from home and required Internet access to do so, I was told that Friday was the best they could do. After Friday 10am came and went, I noticed that there was a hanger on my door indicating that they had come by and left because I wasn't home. I was of course home, just in the basement and unable to hear to knock. The customer service representative who scheduled my appointment had not verified a contact phone number for me, and, since it had changed, the service technician was unable to reach me.
So, I rescheduled for this Tuesday, again between 8 and 10am. This time they had the correct phone number for me and the technicial showed up and was able to fix the issue in under 30 minutes. The technicial indicated that the cable had been disconnected at the pole, and that this probably was an accidental disconnect. He also suggested that I contact the provider to get a service credit.
Soon after he left, I contacted my service provider. The person on the other end of the phone started off by suggesting that perhaps 'someone' was mucking around on the pole trying to get free cable. If you know where I live, you would understand how improbable this scenario actually is. So I suggested that I be given a service credit for the week I was without service. At this point the representative told me they couldn't give me a credit because I already had one on my account. When I pointed out that, I didn't actually have a credit, I just had paid my bill in advance, the representative still couldn't make the change.
In summary, the representative starts by accusing me (or a neighbor) of stealing and finishes off by telling me that because I was a good customer and paid my bill early, I couldn't get a credit! I was actually being penalized for paying my bill early! After escalation to a supervisor they were able to apply the credit properly.
Example of Positive Support Experience
On Wednesday I went to the BMV. Knowing their reputation for waits, I scheduled an appointment in advance. When I arrived, someone was able to immediately help me. This person not only was able to immediately help me, and explain everything I needed to do, but they actually suggested a couple of things I could do to save money! That's right, they suggested renewing my license early so I would save $10. They also provided me with tape for my temporary license plate, filed an out of state request for me AND took care of getting my voter registration moved to my new address. All in all, taking care of a license renewal, an out of state title and plate change, and changing my voter registration took 15 minutes.
A process that most people dread, going to the BMV, was about as enjoyable of an experience as you can have.
Summary
The difference between these two instances to me seems to not be so much about the organizations or the requests, but about the individuals I interacted with. These two situations just highlighted for me the importance of not just doing your job when it comes to customer support, but going out of your way to be helpful. That's what we strive to do here every day at Compendium, and based on some of our customer feedback, it shows.
Example of Negative Support Experience
Last Tuesday I came home from work to notice that my cable internet was out. I called my provider, and was told that the soonest they could come out would be Friday between 8 and 10am. After explaining that Friday wasn't soon enough, because I often worked from home and required Internet access to do so, I was told that Friday was the best they could do. After Friday 10am came and went, I noticed that there was a hanger on my door indicating that they had come by and left because I wasn't home. I was of course home, just in the basement and unable to hear to knock. The customer service representative who scheduled my appointment had not verified a contact phone number for me, and, since it had changed, the service technician was unable to reach me.
So, I rescheduled for this Tuesday, again between 8 and 10am. This time they had the correct phone number for me and the technicial showed up and was able to fix the issue in under 30 minutes. The technicial indicated that the cable had been disconnected at the pole, and that this probably was an accidental disconnect. He also suggested that I contact the provider to get a service credit.
Soon after he left, I contacted my service provider. The person on the other end of the phone started off by suggesting that perhaps 'someone' was mucking around on the pole trying to get free cable. If you know where I live, you would understand how improbable this scenario actually is. So I suggested that I be given a service credit for the week I was without service. At this point the representative told me they couldn't give me a credit because I already had one on my account. When I pointed out that, I didn't actually have a credit, I just had paid my bill in advance, the representative still couldn't make the change.
In summary, the representative starts by accusing me (or a neighbor) of stealing and finishes off by telling me that because I was a good customer and paid my bill early, I couldn't get a credit! I was actually being penalized for paying my bill early! After escalation to a supervisor they were able to apply the credit properly.
Example of Positive Support Experience
On Wednesday I went to the BMV. Knowing their reputation for waits, I scheduled an appointment in advance. When I arrived, someone was able to immediately help me. This person not only was able to immediately help me, and explain everything I needed to do, but they actually suggested a couple of things I could do to save money! That's right, they suggested renewing my license early so I would save $10. They also provided me with tape for my temporary license plate, filed an out of state request for me AND took care of getting my voter registration moved to my new address. All in all, taking care of a license renewal, an out of state title and plate change, and changing my voter registration took 15 minutes.
A process that most people dread, going to the BMV, was about as enjoyable of an experience as you can have.
Summary
The difference between these two instances to me seems to not be so much about the organizations or the requests, but about the individuals I interacted with. These two situations just highlighted for me the importance of not just doing your job when it comes to customer support, but going out of your way to be helpful. That's what we strive to do here every day at Compendium, and based on some of our customer feedback, it shows.
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