Make these your 2018 customer service resolutions
It’s that special time of year, the end of the year. A time for reflection on the previous year and all of the things that went right and some things that could be improved upon for the upcoming year. A new year means new beginnings.
Everyone tries to come up with resolutions this time of year so here’s a suggestion, instead of coming up with just a personal resolution, make sure to set your customer service related resolutions as well. These resolutions can come in the shape of saving more money by cancelling services, lowering your cable bill, or even making sure to fill out a couple of customer experience surveys when companies ask, instead of just ignoring them like most of us do.
With all that said, here are our suggestions for some simple customer service resolutions for 2018:
- Setup reminders to call your cable/internet provider to find out the newest deals and see if you can get a lower rate. Most people don’t realize that your cable/internet bill is something that should be negotiated at least once a year. It sounds time consuming but it’s not and it could end up saving you a decent amount of money over the course of a year. The key is to simply set a calendar reminder to call the company, and ask for the retentions department as they are more likely to give you a deal than the regular customer service department. Tell them you are thinking about cancelling or switching to another provider and see what they can do for you. Don’t forget, it costs these companies significantly more to acquire new customers than it does to retain them, and the switching economy is getting bigger and bigger every year, so give your cable company a call and see what deal they can give you to keep you as a loyal customer. Don’t know the phone number for your provider? Here’s a list of customer service phone numbers for popular companies:
2. Cancel your gym membership. Sure everyone wants to start the new year by joining a gym and getting into shape. Most people start the year off strong and use their membership a lot but then after a couple of months, they fall back into their old routine and stop going. The worst part is even if you are not going, you are still getting charged each month. Some of these new gyms are expensive and even have a month or two cancellation policy so those fees can quickly add up and that’s a lot of money to be spending each month for something that you don’t use. Make sure to cancel your membership!
3. Fill out those surveys. You know the ones we are talking about. You are usually in the middle of looking something up on the internet, or possibly doing some shopping, and as soon as the page loads you get a pop-up on your screen with a survey request. They usually try to tell you that you it will only take a couple of minutes to complete the survey, or often times they try to entice you into the survey with a gift card offer. Most people often ignore these requests. Well, don’t! Companies take this survey information seriously and often make adjustments to their service based on user responses. Take the time to let the company know how you feel and do your part to complete the survey and help them fix their service, or even better let them know what they are doing right.
4. Open an Amazon Prime account. Shipping is expensive. Pay it all ahead of time with an Amazon Prime account. It’s $99 a year and everything that is marked as Prime on Amazon ships in two days, and often times less than that. The nice thing is there are so many vendors and such a wide selection of products on Amazon that $99 for the year sounds like a steal when you think about all of the things you order online each year. There’s also an added benefit of getting access to Amazon Video so you can stream as much as you want while your subscription is active. Stop paying for shipping on each individual purchase and sign up for Amazon Prime. Give it a try and if you don’t like it, call Amazon’s exceptional customer service department and they will refund you back a pro-rated amount for the months that you did not use your membership.
5. Start collecting rewards points and frequent flyer miles when you travel. Even if you don’t travel that much, you should be collecting points and miles every time you travel. It’s not hard to do and those miles and points do add up over time which will help you get preferential treatment and added perks when you travel in the future. Give United a call and enroll over the phone, or sign up for Marriott and start accruing points today. At the very least you can use your miles to order some magazine subscriptions for the year. Traveling is expensive. Start getting something back when you travel.
6. Take 30 minutes to review your monthly services. Start the new year off right with a little self audit of your current financials. Are there services that you are using that you don’t need or aren’t using? Everyone is busy but do yourself a favor and carve out 30 minutes to look through your banking or credit card accounts for monthly charges and see if you need them or if they can be cancelled. They may seem like little charges each month, but when they happen over the course of a year, they can add up.
7. Protect yourself from tech support issues by signing up for an annual service. We have detailed in the past in this space to be careful of scam tech support companies, so do yourself a favor and sign up for a reputable service like Geek Squad. Geek Squad is backed by Best Buy so you can sleep easy knowing it’s a reputable company that isn’t going to rip you off. The nice thing about their service is they cover so many different electronic products so whatever the tech support issue is that comes up next year, and you know there will be several, you have it all covered with their service. From problems with your cellphone to issues with your home appliances, households are adding more electronics every day and most of us aren’t tech guru’s. Cover yourself ahead of time with a reputable tech support service for any issues that come up in 2018.
A new year means a time for reflection on the previous year and what went right and what could be improved for the upcoming year. Start 2018 off right with these personal customer service resolutions. Happy New Year everyone!
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