One of my most loyal readers (my mother) sent me an email the other day telling me about her husband’s (my pops’) dealings with the customer service system of a major retailer’s 800 number. After getting lost in the automated systems he eventually gave up in frustration. Having a short temper doesn’t help much either. But as a result this major retailer (which will go unnamed to because it’s unimportant) has lost my family’s business.
Customer service should be one of the most important functions any B2C firm can have. Branding is everything to businesses like these. When you spend so much establishing a brand customer service should be a basic thing to protect that brand. Dissatisfied customers will of course vow to never return to that business if their issues aren’t appropriately resolved.
From the business’s point of view things are different. They of course want you to make sure are a satisfied customer, but their only willing to expend so much in resources to make that happen. In other words, they want you to be happy, but they don’t want to spend a lot to make it happen. Businesses save a lot of money using automated systems, web forms, and outsourced call centers. They could keep customer service strong and located in the United States, but B2C competition is so fierce they wouldn’t be able to earn competitive profits. But that doesn’t mean much to you.
These two points boil down to two solutions. You can get your customer service but you’re going to pay for it. Don’t like being ignored at the used car lot off the highway? Then go shop at the Lexus dealership across town. Sick of having to call Chase every time they screw up your credit card bill? Go get an AMEX Black Card. If you want middle and low range products you can only expect middle and low range customer service.
That’s all boring crap. Here’s the real takeaway: Like I told you before, businesses want to make sure you’re happy but also want to efficiently allocate resources to doing it. Basically this means in order for you to get attention from these places, you have to get attention the way a 4 year old would get attention once Mom and Dad bring home a new baby. You have to raise hell. You have to expend resources to get them to expend resources.
If you don’t create a ruckus about your experience with that company then the company will assume you are not all that motivated to really ditch them. Let’s use Chase as an example. Say you get a $40 random fee on your card. If you call them up and ask them to remove it, they won’t. Worse, if you call and just lose patience waiting on hold and give up you’re probably not motivated enough to cancel your card and take your business elsewhere. BUT, if you ask for the names of each person you talk to, rationally explain how pissed you are, and literally list the competitors you would take your business to you’re going to start getting attention.
With customer service, you get out of it what you put into it. Whether with luxury goods you’re putting in tons of cash, or with regular goods you’re just putting in time and energy, the outcome is the same.
So it isn’t that business don’t bother with customer service, they’re actually customer service experts. They’re trying really hard to maximize the customer service experience while spending as little as possible. They know you better than you know yourself and they’re willing to gamble that you won’t really leave their service.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
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Said,
Said,
So it isn’t that business don’t bother with customer service, they’re actually customer service experts.
I don’t agree with this conclusion. I do agree that this is the take of the companies involved.
These companies hire bean counters to tell them where they should direct their limited resources. Money spent on customer service often does not yield a quantifiable benefit. Good customer service may make a customer for life and bad customer service may send someone to the competitor for life. But the person who is thrilled or sickened with his or her customer service experience often does not say so in a survey. If it isn’t said in a survey, the experience doesn’t count for purposes of the bean counters.
The idea that things that cannot be effectively counted do not in fact exist is the greatest fallacy of the modern age, in my assessment. Businesses are destroying themselves by providing poor customer service. But the numbers guys say that they are doing the smart thing and that makes them happy. Companies in which all the top executives think they are doing a wonderful job fail all the time.
Rob