Tag Archives: customer service

What is it good for?

Posted on September 15, 2017 | Leave a comment

Twitter_Bird.svgTwitter, that is.

I have lots of friends that just don’t get it and aren’t on it. And I get that. Twitter often causes more harm than good.

But when it comes to customer service, I stand behind the blue bird.

I have had far more success getting results with a single tweet than with hours on hold or emails that go seemingly into the void.

Cable company gripes? Send a tweet. The response is almost instantaneous.

Pizza delivery subpar? Tweet your dissatisfaction. The corporate account will respond, and you might even get a coupon.

And when something good happens, mention that, too.

When I had a high fever from an ear infection on Labor Day, I was relieved to discover the CVS Minute Clinic was open in my neighborhood, so after my visit, I tweeted a thank you.

Minute Clinic responded, asking how I was feeling — nice! — then sent me a direct message, requesting the address of the clinic I visited and my full name and email address.

I received a $20 gift certificate via email a couple of days later, and I would imagine my local Minute Clinic got some props, too.

Tweets matter!

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Posted in communication, customer service, Health, holidays, Humor, Life, Twitter

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Call me

Posted on July 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

phoneDear Time Warner:

Call me.

Ms. King didn’t enjoy your phone calls, and who can blame her.  Your customer service representatives called her  — after she explained that they had the wrong number — an additional 74 times to harass her about a previous client’s unpaid bill.

Now a court says you owe her $229,500 under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

So, call me instead.  I’m an actual Time Warner Customer. I even pay my bills. And I’ll only charge you…$1,000 a call.

BARGAIN.

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Posted in Business, customer service, Humor, law, News, Relationships, Shopping, telephone

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Perfect pair

Posted on May 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

AMC

image

Sweetarts

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I love you both.

How many matinees have I enjoyed with popcorn in one hand, Sweetarts in the other, and a large diet soda in the seat’s cup holder?

But, alas, that’s only memory now.

For some reason, you two have parted ways, and my favorite movie candy is no longer available at the AMC concession counter.

I have expressed my disappointment at the theatre. I have requested Sweetarts’ return in online surveys. But today —

I’m takin’ it to the tweets.

Resolve your differences.  Bring sweet and salty together again. The weekend is here…

And the Egg wants to see a movie.

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Posted in Business, Commentary, customer service, Entertainment, Foods, Humor, Life, Movies, New York City

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Bless your heart

Posted on April 28, 2015 | 3 comments

A friend in the education biz recently developed a course on customer service for his company.

I provided some general communication tips, but realized today that I didn’t mention a personal perspective that I have gained from years on the phone with customer service representatives:

southern accentIf the customer service representative speaks with a Southern accent, I:

a) believe they want to help me;

b) have found that they do help me; and

c) am in a better mood when I hang up because they are friendly — regardless of how I felt when started the call.

Now, I tend to believe that the people on the call on true Southerners. You can’t fake that hospitality…

Or can you?

It’s something the companies who depend on customer service — and, really, what company these days doesn’t — need to consider.  We can teach people how to lose an accent…

Why not teach customer service folks to have one?

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Posted in Business, communication, customer service, Education, Friends, Humor, Life, Relationships, Technology, Travel

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Lost in translation

Posted on April 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

First of all, I want to clarify —

This is not a rant. Think of it more as a ‘huh.’

lost parcelYesterday a package arrived at my door.  It was addressed to a man who hasn’t lived here in almost six years.

I quickly deduced he had selected his old address by accident while shopping online, so I called the company to see if I could help correct his error.

(How nice am I?)

Turns out the company’s customer service just isn’t set up for this type of communication.  All their scripts are for customers, not people like me trying to assist another customer.  The representative I spoke with understood the situation and was definitely working with me to help correct it, but she refused — or maybe wasn’t allowed to? — say anything that was not in her script.

So nothing she said to me made any sense.

Even after we figured out how to resolve the shipment error, she thanked me for my order and hoped I would return again.

You know?  Probably not.

 

 

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Posted in Business, Commentary, Humor, Life, Relationships, Technology

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Giving credit where credit is due

Posted on February 19, 2014 | Leave a comment

We hear about bad customer service all the time.

I want to highlight some amazing treatment I received from Miranda, a live chat representative at Discover Card.

discover logoAs most of you probably know, I earn ‘cash back’ for using my Discover Card — a percentage of my monthly purchases.  I can take that cash back as money; use it to pay online purchases; or buy gift cards from partner retailers.

I am a movie junkie…so I buy AMC Theatre gift packs every time.

amc theatresFor $20, I get two movie passes and a $5 gift card for concessions.

In New York City, that’s a $40 value since our movies costs so much more.

It’s a great deal.

Recently I was using some of those $5 gift cards at my local AMC theatre concession stand, and they didn’t work. I tried one after the other…

Nothing.

I used the live chat feature at Discover.com and told Miranda my troubles.  When she found out that six of my $5 gift cards were sickly, she immediately sent me six complete AMC Movie Theatre gift packs.

That’s $120 worth of gift packets — $240 by NYC standards — for a mere $30 worth of bad cards for my inconvenience.  Now, that’s amazing customer service — above and beyond what I expected.

Thanks, Miranda. (I gave you a great evaluation.)

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Posted in Business, Commentary, Entertainment, Finances, Humor, Internet, Life, Movies, Relationships, Shopping

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If the shoe fits

Posted on October 30, 2011 | 2 comments

Businesses of the world:

If you pride yourself on providing outstanding customer service, prepare to be schooled.

A company in China that manufactures custom-fit slippers didn’t even blink when customer Todd Boddingham ordered a special slipper to fit his over-sized left foot.

Perhaps if they had, they would have read his instructions more clearly.

Todd requested a size 13 right slipper and a size 14.50 left slipper.  But the Chinese company — eager to please and not to question, it appears — mistook the special order to read a size 1450.

That’s a seven-foot long slipper, people.  And that’s what they manufactured and shipped.

Now, you could ding their product fulfillment…their communication, too.  But you can’t deny their commitment to give the customer exactly what they thought he wanted.

Can your company fill those shoes?

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Posted in Business, Commentary, Design, Fashion, Humor, Life, News

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Stand and deliver

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 1 comment

I have my issues with Apple.

They make innovative products — I’ll give them that.  Their really cool looking gizmos do most of the stuff they’re supposed to do.

But they repeatedly rush their products to market under a blaze of brilliantly constructed advertising — honestly, no one does marketing better — and when their products fall short of what was promised, they totally suck on the customer service end.

There was the pre-order debacle — as in, people couldn’t get through to place one.  Now in-store inventories are low.  And lines to get the iPhone 4’s that are available at the stores are ridiculously long.

Apple’s poor follow-through even drove perennial everyman Jason Bateman of “Arrested Development” to pull the celebrity card and cut a 2,000-person long line at a Los Angeles store to get his iPhone.

He got booed when he left.

And what’s this?  There’s a yellow tint or line on their much heralded display.  More seriously, if you hold the phone wrong, you might not get a signal.  Pardon me…I hold my cellphone at the bottom, like a normal person.

I’m not hurling all this bitterness at Apple because I was stuck in a long line waiting for my iPhone.  I use a Palm Pre quite happily.

I just want Apple to realize that customer service is the other side of marketing.  If your can’t deliver on the BS you’re selling…

Don’t sell.

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Posted in Business, Humor, Internet, Travel

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