Will Bad Customer Service Kill Your Business?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jun 2, 2007
This is the title of my latest newsletter, on customer service issues. It was based on a story a friend was telling last week about a phone call she'd received from the credit department of one of the major department stores, saying that she'd missed making a payment and they were going to take away her card if she didn't pay immediately.
Thing is, she had mailed out the payment a month earlier, but, still, her account didn't show the check had cleared. Also, she had owned an account from this company for over 15 years, never had an issue, and this seemed to be a great over-reaction.
What's happened? She decided to make a payment, as in pay off the entire account, closed the account, and has made sure she's told everybody who would listen what happened to her. She named names, something I've never done in this blog while talking about bad customer service issues, and she's a person who commands a lot of respect from a lot of people; this company will be losing a lot of customers soon.
And that's the biggest problem with providing bad customer service issues; word spreads like a virus, and, if you're smaller than a megalith company, you're business will be finished in a heartbeat. This is a lesson that most companies need to learn quickly, make sure everyone else learns wholeheartedly, and minimize breaches as soon as possible.
Some companies don’t get it. In fact, they’re so entrenched in their own stale way of doing business the same way every day that they can never change. The groove is too worn.
These are the same companies that place posters stating “lead by example” and “change is good” in employee lunch rooms. If only management believed this. Then there’d be fewer, if any, customers treated like your friend.
Only when profits drop dramatically will there be a management shakeup with the potential to improve service. And even then, it’s not guaranteed.
You’re absolutely right, Shirley. That’s why I’ll keep writing on this, until, maybe one day, someone listens. 🙂
Hi Mitch,
This reminds me of a time I had the same problem. I had gone on holiday and forgot to make arrangements for a house payment due when I was one. I had at least seven years without missing a payment and regarded the nasty letter I received as a gross overreaction. What I did was go to my local branch of the building society and talk to my very friendly local manger, asking how to contact the Chairman of the board and finding out that an automatic programme had sent the letter. Then I put my writing skills to good use, beginning by telling him how happy I had always been with the building society and praising my local guy. I proceeded to put in all the relevant facts including my previous perfect record, the circumstances of my mistake, and suggesting they could lose some of their best customers if this type of thing became common. The personal apology from the Chairman of the Board came within a week, together with an assurance that they were reprogramming to avoid offending good customers like me. We have agreed before on the importance of respect, Mitch, and this is just one more time respect and carefully worded and targetted writing helped not only me but others.
Thanks for the response, Hugh; sorry this is so late. One never knows how someone is going to react to bad customer service, and I’m glad someone took your concerns to heart and actually did something about it. Too bad they didn’t also give you a free month of rent. 🙂