The 4th Quarter
Microsoft picks up the “ball” and Scores.
First Down
As I sat with my out of town guests my cellphone rang at 8:27 PM EST on Friday evening with a Kirkland, WA number I figured it was my friend who lived out there so I ignored the call and returned to my guests. Later that evening I decided to check out the voicemail left and was surprised by the call:
Hi, Andrew my name is Kristen, and I’m with the Xbox customer listening and Advocacy team at my Microsoft corporate office, and your email blog post was forwarded to me and I just wanted to reach out to you and first apologize for sounds like really really frustrating you had to go through. So sorry had to go through that but we are looking into the issue and I really do appreciate your feedback so I did wanna let you know that we are researching the issue and I will keep you updated the best I can I will be owning this case from now on so if you would like to talk speak to you more about your experience You can reach me at my direct line which is 866-###-#### Ext. ###-#### and my associates Zeca. may answer the phone, but feel free to go ahead and ask for me. I believe I did, no I did not so I, I will be sending you an email very soon so also feel free reply by email as well if you don’t want to call I hope you’ve a wonderful weekend thank you. Bye.
Several things were a bit odd about this call:
- Why is someone calling me at 8:27 PM EST on a Friday for a “customer service” call? This doesn’t seem like a coincidence because it the local Kirkland time would be just about 5:30 PM PCT. This the end to some people’s work day. Also if you want to reach someone wouldn’t you try a time that was most likely like 9-5 in the person’s time zone?
- Personal lines that start with 866 are a bit odd.
- I never received the email.
When I posted my first blog post, “Good Service, Bad Service, Good Service,” I really wanted to vent and express my displeasure with the service and misinformation I was given. The more I thought about it the more I thought this was a good a learning experience for any retailer especially one that is currently trying to take on the current reigning retails store champ Apple. I posted a few tweets to see the feedback.
The last piece of feedback I provided for Microsoft was to write directly to the Kathleen Hogan, Corporate VP, Worldwide Customer Service. I sent my email on April 3rd.
Ms. Hogan:
I am writing to you bring light to a recent experience I had at your Tyson’s Corner, VA retail store. This store has provided me with brilliant and dreadful service. I have written about my experience with the store and the Microsoft Social Media team. The blog post can be found here https://medium.com/p/1b405669c323
I feel the situation will be resolved due to the excellent service that your associate Nick provides, but wanted to make you aware of how things can vary from associate to associate.
Regards,
Andrew B.
First Down and 10
A day or two later I saw that a person with the title “Assistant Account Executive, Microsoft Retail Stores and Metro teams at Waggener Edstrom” had viewed my profile on LinkedIn. The blog post statistics showed referrers from Waggener Edstrom and Sprinklr, a social media CRM tool. Looks like my message might be heard. Finally I received the call from Kris, but never the email.
Weird as it may be I am actually excited to talk to Kristen now. I wait till 12:35 PM EST to call to give her time to get to work and settle in.
Second Down and 9
I dial the number, enter the extension, and someone other than Kristen answers. I explain why I am calling, and they ask if I know which Kristen. Of course I have no idea because she never last her agent number, her last name, or even an initial. The person on the phone looks up my case and finds the correct Kristen. When I ask which Kristen it is he is initially unable to tell me. Ok that is just weird. You ask me which Kristen, you find out which Kristen, but then you have no way of actually identifying her? Well after a minute of looking at things he says “Kristen J.” I then ask if he is Zeca, which he was. Hmmm this is really weird. She told me to talk to her assistant who does not know who she is?
After 1 Yard Loss, Third Down and 10
At 12:43 PM EST Kristen calls back. Kristen and I talked for 20 minutes and was very receptive to listening to my ordeal. She stated that I shouldn’t have had to have all those troubles. She also assured me that the experience I had was not the norm, and that she would be passing my feedback on to the retail store as well. [I also told her about the exchange with Zeca which she sounded generally surprised to hear but said that they are currently sharing a phone, and he is indeed her co-worker.]
TOUCHDOWN!
Improved customer service, I hope.
Overtime victory
At 4:15 PM EST Kristen emailed me and again apologized on behalf of Microsoft and stated that the Retail store team will be “taking appropriate action.” As a bonus surprise she also offered an extension of my Xbox Live membership and a family-friendly game. Unnecessary but appreciated.
In the end was dealing with the retail store any less of a hassle, no. Will it be better in the future, I hope.
My consumer voice has been heard thanks to social media!
