Daily Post #444 Customer support like…
So today I was on the phone to a well know brand, and I got their automated phone service. You know the kind where the robotic voice says “please state your business and what you are looking for and I will try to help you”.
After asking five times, and getting the Siri/Google-like reponse of “sorry I can’t seem to find an available option that suits your request” it went on to ask me to use the dial pad to pick a number between 1–4 to state my request.
Of course none of the options were what I was looking for, so I simply picked the one that sounded like it would lead me to an actual person.
15 minutes later I got to speak to a human being, who promtly said that I had come to the wrong department and needed to go back to waiting again…
Sending and receiving an email would have been faster and less frustrating! But then again, maybe that’s what they were counting on.
And then we have the issue with chat bots… ugh, don’t get me started… One of my favorites must be phone company one I talked to last year 😀
Wanted to check my pre-paid card status, I followed instructions and tried logging on to the site, but the account part of the site was down, so when accessing customer support I got to speak to / converse with their chatbot Viq:
Me: I can’t log on to my account, the site is down
Viq: Having trouble logging in? Don’t worry help is on the way! 😘
We sent you an email when you created the account with your account details, if you can’t find the email, just click on “lost password” and a new password will be sent to you.
Do you want to go to “my account” now?
Me: yes but the site is down.
Viq: I didn’t understand that, do you want to speak to one of my human colleagues in customer service? 👨 👩 👳 👲
Me: yes please
Viq: ok this is embarrasing, they are closed right now, they can help you any time between Monday to Friday 09.00–17.00.
Me: Ok thanks, but your site is down and maybe you should get someone to have a look at it, like right now?
Viq: Are you having trouble logging in? Don’t worry! Help is on its way! 😘
We sent you an email when you created the account with your account details, if you can’t find the email, just click on “lost password” and a new password will be sent to you.
Do you want to go to “my account” to log in now?
Me: Yes but the site is down.
Viq: I didn’t understand that, do you want to speak to one of my human colleagues in customer service? 👨 👩 👳 👲
Me: I give up…
But on the opposite side there are exceptions.
Like the customer support I remember experiencing at CD Baby, a company that at its peak was the biggest independed record store online, created by Derek Sivers.
And Streamyard, the tool I use to broadcast live every Wednesday, they have live agents available at a drop of a hat when needing support.
Companies that have decided that customer support is part of their branding and part of what they actually do.
You could probably start a company today with the business idea of offering stellar customer service, and then do almost anything and succeed.
Why do companies still NOT understand how important this is?
But let’s not do customer service shaming, let’s do some customer service celebration!
What are some of your examples of GOOD customer service? And good stories get extra points :-)
