"Customer Non-Service"

I called Best Buy one time and, of course, was placed in queue. All of a sudden, I heard the cool sounds of Miles Davis' "So What" in my ear. "Way to go Best Buy!" I thought to myself. "At least I'm gonna have Miles' Davis and his trumpet to keep me company while I wait." Thirty seconds into the song they started it over! And then did it again, and again, and again. I'll bet you I heard the first 30 seconds of "So What" 30 times by the time someone answered - and then I was MORE ticked off than if they'd left me in silence!

I was reminded of the painful, "salt in my paper-cut" experience because it's #5 on Tim Stevens "Customer Non-Service" Top Ten List, which I discovered thanks to Chris Cree. This is a very worthwhile read.

I loved Tim's list because he's NOT a call center guy - he's NOT a QA coach - he's just a customer.

What a novel idea...listening to your customers.

Flickr photo courtesy of o2ma

Comments

[Chris Cree]

Hey, Tom. I'd contrast that with the great experience I had when I called USAA to talk about insurance last night. I didn't time it but I think I was on hold about 8 seconds before I spoke to an actual person. They didn't ask me to repeat my account number which I'd dialed in.

And even though the person I got initially could have answered some of my questions, she offered to transfer me to someone who could help me with all of the different products I was inquiring about. And then she stayed on the line until she made sure I was connected properly.

Did I mention I keep giving them more business as my needs expand?

[Tom Vander Well]

Hmmmm...great service...more business. There's a link there somewhere, isn't there, Chris?

[Anonymous Cog]

I called a call center once, and they actually had a system that let me pick my hold music. It was incredible, I got to pick from Jazz, pop, country or classical. It was great! Like having my own jukebox.

I call a lot of call centers, and I have never heard it again. A real shame..

AC

[Steve Murtagh]

What a dumb thing to do. It reminds me of a call I made some years ago to correct a problem on my health insurance. (They apparently thought my sone and I were both born on the same day.) I called and got the usual "All agents are busy helping others, you are SO important to us please hold on. This repeated 3 times (180-seconds). Then I got a message offering me the opportunity to leave a voice message instead of continuing to hold. The repeated three times. (I am now 7 minutes into this and I get the following message: "All agents are still busy, please leave a voice message and we will return your call as soon as possible." And I was then "dumped" into voice mail. After deciding to wait 7 minutes to speak with them, they simply ended the call. Its astounding the dumb things companies still do.

[Tom Vander Well]

It certainly fits the definition of "hypocritical" doesn't it, Steve? I'm interested in what happened. Did you leave a message? Did they return your call? Did they acknowledge the fact that they didn't answer your call?