One of the purposes of this blog is to provide insightful and educational articles to help you better run your business. So, with that end in mind, I ask you, “Does your customer service suck?”
In today’s competitive business environment, it absolutely baffles my mind when I come across a company whose customer service is not only bad, it down right sucks! Naturally, it’s usually the larger companies who have so much business that fall into this trap. They don’t care how they treat their customers, nor does it dawn on them what they can really do to keep their customers happy. As is usually the case, it’s when something bad happens that their true colors shine.
Here’s an example of a bad experience I had last fall. Take this as an example of what NOT to do.
It has to do with a company in southern California that sells and processes super 8mm and 16mm film. Since we started offering this as an option in our wedding productions last summer, I decided to use these guys because they are one of the best known. Anyway, I ordered 4 rolls of super 8mm to be delivered overnight. I wanted to use the rolls for the promo video I was shooting for Gene Higa Photography, as well as for a wedding that weekend. Well, the company sent it two day air on Thursday via an overnight carrier. But, since this carrier doesn’t deliver to my area on Saturdays, I didn’t get the rolls of film until the following Monday.
To make a long story short, I called to complain that not only did I not get it overnight as I requested (they claim I didn’t request overnight and only charged me the 2-day air price), but I didn’t even get it in the 2-day time frame for which I paid. I naturally requested a refund of my $25 shipping. They refused. I debated with the owner of the company for almost an hour (I know, that was stupid on my part. It wasn’t so much about the money as the principle). She claimed originally that it was the carrier’s problem and they couldn’t be responsible for mistakes made by their shipper.
Here’s the problem. I paid THEM for the shipping. It would be different if I had made arrangements with this carrier myself. But I didn’t, they did. Nor did they give me another option. So, since my money went to them, they are the ones responsible for dealing with any problems caused by vendors they hire to deliver services to their customers. Passing the buck to this carrier would be like our company sending a batch of bad DVDs to a client and telling the client, “Oh, you have to contact the makers of the DVD media. Sorry.” No. No. No. If you use a third party to provide a product or service to your customer, the buck stops with YOU!
Now, to be fair, this company ultimately did refund my money, but only after I had to deal with the carrier who naturally said that since I didn’t pay them, I’d have to go back to the vendor. It was a major hassle. Thank goodness for American Express.
