Today, I contacted customer service by telephone for a big company.
I wasn't cross when I phoned them, but I did have a problem with the service they were providing and the promise they'd made. I knew that the person on the other end of the phone was not actually the problem.
The difficulty is that you end up waiting for 33 minutes for someone to pick up the phone; even that wasn't too much of a problem. I was doing something else and was quite happy to let it ring.
And then they arrive on the phone and immediately from the script in front of them, apologise profusely for whatever is wrong, even though they don't really know what it is and actually don't really care, because why would they end and why should they?
The next thing that happens is that I say I'm not cross; I'm just looking for a solution to my problem. I have to make a decision, and if you cannot provide me with the service you said, I just have to go in a different direction. I just need to know whether you're providing it or not within the next two days.
What's the realistic chance of this?
It wasn't a problem for the lady on the phone; it wasn't an issue. It was just that the system was so big and so convoluted that nobody could really tell whether the service was going to be delivered or not.
What I got back from the lady on the phone was the script: "You have to put in a claim." I said, "Well, I have to know within the next 48 hours." She responded, "Well, the claim takes up to 30 days." I said, "Well, clearly, I'm not going to put in a claim." She said, "Well, as part of the claim, there's an investigation." How long does that take? Up to 30 days?
All I wanted to know was whether I had to take another course of action to try and solve the problem myself.
I just wanted to speak to a human who would say to me realistically, because of what's happened, you're going to have to go in this direction, I think, but nobody's prepared to do that.
Companies aren't prepared to give their teams the autonomy and the ability to use empathy in situations where a customer has a problem.
I was a faceless reference number, and I was given the same spiel that 1000 faceless reference numbers were given that same day.
Make no mistake, this company will die.
They're all over the news, and they are totally visible.
They will be broken into pieces and cast aside, but that's really no consolation because I'm off to fix the problem myself, and now I'm cross when I didn't need to be cross about this; I just needed a steer from someone who was happy to help.
Blog Post Number - 3823
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