The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
The Cocktail Party Effect
Tuesday - August 23, 2005 11:50 AM in
I noticed soon after we started VocaLabs something I call the "Cocktail Party Effect." That's when I go to a cocktail party (or other social event), and when I introduce myself to someone, the conversation inevitably veers towards something like this:
Other Person: So what do you do for a living?
Me: I run a small startup.
OP: What does your company do?
Me: We help companies measure how good their customer service is. You know, surveys, call recordings, that kind of thing.
OP: Oh, how interesting! You should sell your services to [insert name of big company here] because they really need help with their customer service. Just last week when I called them.....
And so begins a five minute rant about the poor service this person received, including gory details of rude agents, confusing automation, and sometimes even an amateur rendition of the hold music.
Let's face it, we all love to complain about the bad service we receive. And there's plenty of bad service to complain about (plenty of good service, too, but that doesn't seem to be quite as memorable).
In the good old days, a complaining customer might tell a few friends about his bad experience, and that was damaging enough.
But now, the Internet has given everyone a huge megaphone. What once would have been a story swapped over beer now gets posted to a blog or spread through e-mail. Not only does this potentially reach a much wider audience, but it doesn't go away. Web pages get indexed by Google, archived in the Wayback Machine, and copied into other people's web pages. E-mails can get forwarded for years.
For example, when popular blogger Jeff Jarvis had a bad experience with Dell's extended warranty, he didn't just tell a few friends. He posted the whole sordid story online. Now when you enter the word "Dell" into Google, his open letter is in the top thirty or so results.
Dell probably would have preferred it if Jarvis had just filed a lawsuit. It would have been cheaper and cleaner. Instead, millions of people have been exposed to this story, and Dell's reputation has been harmed. Hundreds of people have left comments on Jarvis' blog, some chiming in with their own Dell horror stories.
Here's another example: Johnnie Moore had been a customer of Orange for his mobile phone service for ten years. Then he disputed a 33-pound charge on his bill and Orange gave him the runaround. Not only did Orange lose Moore's business after ten loyal years--itself worth more than the disputed charge--but Moore wrote about it on his weblog (twice), potentially costing Orange future business as well, and others have linked to the article, increasing its prominence.
The lesson is clear. News travels faster than ever before, and everyone loves to tell a good horror story. No company can satisfy everycustomer, but the damage caused by inflexible policies, poor service, and customer-indifferent employees can be exponentially greater than just a few years ago.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Me: I run a small startup.
OP: What does your company do?
Me: We help companies measure how good their customer service is. You know, surveys, call recordings, that kind of thing.
OP: Oh, how interesting! You should sell your services to [insert name of big company here] because they really need help with their customer service. Just last week when I called them.....
And so begins a five minute rant about the poor service this person received, including gory details of rude agents, confusing automation, and sometimes even an amateur rendition of the hold music.
Let's face it, we all love to complain about the bad service we receive. And there's plenty of bad service to complain about (plenty of good service, too, but that doesn't seem to be quite as memorable).
In the good old days, a complaining customer might tell a few friends about his bad experience, and that was damaging enough.
But now, the Internet has given everyone a huge megaphone. What once would have been a story swapped over beer now gets posted to a blog or spread through e-mail. Not only does this potentially reach a much wider audience, but it doesn't go away. Web pages get indexed by Google, archived in the Wayback Machine, and copied into other people's web pages. E-mails can get forwarded for years.
For example, when popular blogger Jeff Jarvis had a bad experience with Dell's extended warranty, he didn't just tell a few friends. He posted the whole sordid story online. Now when you enter the word "Dell" into Google, his open letter is in the top thirty or so results.
Dell probably would have preferred it if Jarvis had just filed a lawsuit. It would have been cheaper and cleaner. Instead, millions of people have been exposed to this story, and Dell's reputation has been harmed. Hundreds of people have left comments on Jarvis' blog, some chiming in with their own Dell horror stories.
Here's another example: Johnnie Moore had been a customer of Orange for his mobile phone service for ten years. Then he disputed a 33-pound charge on his bill and Orange gave him the runaround. Not only did Orange lose Moore's business after ten loyal years--itself worth more than the disputed charge--but Moore wrote about it on his weblog (twice), potentially costing Orange future business as well, and others have linked to the article, increasing its prominence.
The lesson is clear. News travels faster than ever before, and everyone loves to tell a good horror story. No company can satisfy everycustomer, but the damage caused by inflexible policies, poor service, and customer-indifferent employees can be exponentially greater than just a few years ago.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 11:50 AM by | | | |