The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
A Bad Service Experience and Some Lessons Learned
Thursday - July 27, 2006 03:31 PM in
As I type this note, I've now been on hold with Eddie Bauer customer service for 21 minutes and 42 seconds, and have heard three different voice recordings say "...your call is important to us" over 60 times. Trying the various "get-human" options to speak to an agent, I was looped back to the on hold queue message with the added option of leaving a call back message and the suggestion that I visit their web site. At 24 minutes, I've hung up in frustration, but you should have heard the message I DID leave.
In our business of assessing the performance of customer care, we have a list or two of "don'ts" based on the more common complaints we receive about service. This customer care service has more of those don'ts in place than any other company I've experienced.
Background: I have been shopping for a camping tent with a particular set of features, and today I thought I'd found one, and on sale besides. Since few retailers have the space to display set up tents, it is common for the maker to supply a miniature model with all the details of what's in the box. But the picture on the box showed an important feature not on the model. Of course the clerk couldn't say which is correct, model or photo, and the package is sealed. I'm not going to count the faux pas of advertising something different than what's in the box and the impact on customer satisfaction, but it did mean a lost sale at least until I could go back to the office and Google up this particular tent's specifications.
I WILL count it as problem #1 that this model, while still on the shelf was already deleted from the retailer's web site.
#2 and #3 If you are going to sell your brand name and allow other companies to put it on their products (Eddie Bauer doesn't make or directly sell tents, I come to find out); that doesn't mean you should eliminate the product from your web site. And it REALLY doesn't mean you should surrender brand image control. Otherwise as happened here, bad service from the underlying actual tent making company reflects badly on YOUR brand. (I don't think they did it on purpose, but the actual tent maker also competes, selling tents under their own name.)
Problem #4 Bad Web design. I eventually found a link to a page of all the different products made by others that carry the Eddie Bauer name (such as Ford Explorer SUVs). A click on the obscure "camping equipment" link took me to another web page providing the customer service phone number and an entirely different company name and number to call. Eddie Bauer could just as easily taken the call and forwarded the contact.
#5 Don't hide your phone number! Attempting to force customers to use the web site always fails. Consumers will either beat the system, or take their business elsewhere.
#6 I'm already a disgruntled caller based on this runaround experience with the web pages. When you answer the phone, best be aware and treat me well. Didn't happen. The machine answered as Eddie Bauer, even though the Bauer web page named the company taking the call, and my saga on hold began.
#7 If you must place me on hold "for the next available agent" Please don't chide me for having the nerve to actually make a phone call instead of going to the web site. Been there, done that already. It didn't work. See #12 below
#8 And if you refer me to an entirely different Web page than the one from which I got this number, should it really be the named site of your major brand competitor (revealing who really did make the tent, and who really isn't answering the phone?)
#9 Answer the d#@n phone! Don't play me a recording apologizing for "seasonal delays". If you have seasonal spikes, hire more people!
#10 Don't insult me (in this case over 60 times) with that "your call is important to us" blather. If you simply must play that standard baloney, don't repeat it every 20 seconds. It only serves to imbed the lie in my consciousness.
#11 If you insist on directing me to your web site, nobody believes it's "for better service" It's because the company (falsely) thinks it is cheaper to service me that way. To say otherwise is both a lie and an insult to my intelligence.
#12 How hard could it possibly be for Eddie Bauer to forward me to the true customer care operation instead of making me hunt. And when I DO get to the right site, how difficult could it be to give web visitors a different #800 number to call showing I'd ALREADY been to the web site and so put me in a queue that A. gets priority answering because the caller has already been "on" for some time, and B. avoid playing that dumb "for better service..." message. A final point, what dummy came up with the "for better service...message anyway? She was no friend of customer care since the corollary is "For worse service, talk to an agent."
The only solace I can take from this experience, since no way am I going to buy this tent now, is that as long as companies provide such bad service, there will always be business for VocaLabs.
Posted by Rick Rappe
Background: I have been shopping for a camping tent with a particular set of features, and today I thought I'd found one, and on sale besides. Since few retailers have the space to display set up tents, it is common for the maker to supply a miniature model with all the details of what's in the box. But the picture on the box showed an important feature not on the model. Of course the clerk couldn't say which is correct, model or photo, and the package is sealed. I'm not going to count the faux pas of advertising something different than what's in the box and the impact on customer satisfaction, but it did mean a lost sale at least until I could go back to the office and Google up this particular tent's specifications.
I WILL count it as problem #1 that this model, while still on the shelf was already deleted from the retailer's web site.
#2 and #3 If you are going to sell your brand name and allow other companies to put it on their products (Eddie Bauer doesn't make or directly sell tents, I come to find out); that doesn't mean you should eliminate the product from your web site. And it REALLY doesn't mean you should surrender brand image control. Otherwise as happened here, bad service from the underlying actual tent making company reflects badly on YOUR brand. (I don't think they did it on purpose, but the actual tent maker also competes, selling tents under their own name.)
Problem #4 Bad Web design. I eventually found a link to a page of all the different products made by others that carry the Eddie Bauer name (such as Ford Explorer SUVs). A click on the obscure "camping equipment" link took me to another web page providing the customer service phone number and an entirely different company name and number to call. Eddie Bauer could just as easily taken the call and forwarded the contact.
#5 Don't hide your phone number! Attempting to force customers to use the web site always fails. Consumers will either beat the system, or take their business elsewhere.
#6 I'm already a disgruntled caller based on this runaround experience with the web pages. When you answer the phone, best be aware and treat me well. Didn't happen. The machine answered as Eddie Bauer, even though the Bauer web page named the company taking the call, and my saga on hold began.
#7 If you must place me on hold "for the next available agent" Please don't chide me for having the nerve to actually make a phone call instead of going to the web site. Been there, done that already. It didn't work. See #12 below
#8 And if you refer me to an entirely different Web page than the one from which I got this number, should it really be the named site of your major brand competitor (revealing who really did make the tent, and who really isn't answering the phone?)
#9 Answer the d#@n phone! Don't play me a recording apologizing for "seasonal delays". If you have seasonal spikes, hire more people!
#10 Don't insult me (in this case over 60 times) with that "your call is important to us" blather. If you simply must play that standard baloney, don't repeat it every 20 seconds. It only serves to imbed the lie in my consciousness.
#11 If you insist on directing me to your web site, nobody believes it's "for better service" It's because the company (falsely) thinks it is cheaper to service me that way. To say otherwise is both a lie and an insult to my intelligence.
#12 How hard could it possibly be for Eddie Bauer to forward me to the true customer care operation instead of making me hunt. And when I DO get to the right site, how difficult could it be to give web visitors a different #800 number to call showing I'd ALREADY been to the web site and so put me in a queue that A. gets priority answering because the caller has already been "on" for some time, and B. avoid playing that dumb "for better service..." message. A final point, what dummy came up with the "for better service...message anyway? She was no friend of customer care since the corollary is "For worse service, talk to an agent."
The only solace I can take from this experience, since no way am I going to buy this tent now, is that as long as companies provide such bad service, there will always be business for VocaLabs.
Posted by Rick Rappe
Posted at 03:31 PM by | | | |