Customer (non)Service
Down beneath it all, beneath all the marketing stuff I do all day, I am basically a Customer Service Representative. I work for a real estate office, and my job is to make our Associates happy, whether it’s editing a listing because they’re on a last-minute appointment, or creating a flyer, or finding a phone number.
My Associates are my Clients, and I am their Vendor, providing them a (much-needed, in some cases) service.
So when one of my Vendors screws up, it’s like fingernails on a blackboard.
I found this great looking business card company online (which will remain nameless until this gets sorted out), and I got very excited. They touted one-day printing, fast shipping, good paper, nice features, and best of all, great prices. So I requested a sample pack, but also immediately prepared my first two orders (business cards for myself and a coworker).
Then I waited. I’m still waiting. I ordered the samples on Friday, July 11th, and they still haven’t arrived. I requested samples from two other companies on Thursday and Friday of last week, and they arrived Monday and today. Business card samples always arrive quickly!
When I contacted their customer service department, I got a comment that they should have arrived by now, and that they’ll resubmit my request. Not the worst response, but I wish that the company was more on the ball with this. We’ll see how this pans out, and if it’s as great as I was hoping (I’m more skeptical, now), I’ll promote them a bit more.
I had another incident recently that made me wish that BROKEN buttons like the one Seth Godin talks about were more prevalent.
Putting in an order for business cards and presentation folders recently, I took advantage of a 15% off coupon, and a Friendly Referral Program that let my agents get 2000 business cards for the price of 1000. I called then a few days after the order to ensure all the business cards would come in the correct quantity, since the way to use that particular program consisted of pairing up names in a comment box. Not a coupon code, but a comment box.
Wasn’t I surprised when I was told I wasn’t going to get the Friendly Referral Program bonus because I’d used the 15% off coupon, and they clearly state that you can’t combine coupons.
Well, duh - had I needed to use their other coupon that delivered 1500 coupons for the price of 1000, I would have submitted separate orders.
It turns out the Friendly Referral Program is actually a coupon. Not a Program, but a coupon. Maybe it’s just me, but those are not the same.
Nobody called to let me know, they were just going to happily ship my 1000 (times eight) cards, and leave me mad as hell when the shipment arrived. When I called, everyone was pleasant, but it was a good four hours before it was resolved. I just wanted someone to say that sure, there was a problem, they would honor my coupons and make it more clear for the next person so this would not happen again, and nobody else would get potentially screwed as I did.
Instead, they just sounded complacent. “Oh, this happens so much we can’t bother making you really happy. As long as you’re not bothering us for anything else…”
I will definately think twice before recommending that particular company to my Associates the next time there is a need. What I really wonder is, “Do they even care?”
I get the distinct impression that neither company does, and that is not only distressing, but motivates me to make sure that all of my clients know that their satisfaction is first to me, and that when something gets screwed up like this, that I actually give a flying frog.
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My current RSS feed page in Google Reader feels insanely large. I’ve got real estate stuff, marketing stuff, graphic design stuff, web design stuff, pretty stuff, tech stuff, personal stuff, inspirational stuff, funny stuff, …and, of course, the guilty pleasure celebrity stuff.
I’ve just got to say - this whole Internet thing is amazing. Really.
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