Bell Canada just announced a major new commitment to customer service excellence, with specified “firm” performance guarantees, etc….a sure sign that they must be hemmorhaging blood in the post Apple iPhone launch and (I’m guessing) the massive shift in customers to Rogers in order to get that little jewel (myself included). Mr. Italo also took the opportunity to kiss Ma Bell farewell. Both of us were long-standing customers with 20+ years each.
Apart from the iPhone lust however, the move was at least partly driven by a desire for revenge for all the years of unempowered customer service people, complex plans designed to always get the same money from you no mater what changes you made, and rigid adherence to “the contract” even when they failed to fully explain the implications of any elements of a plan you selected (the customer service people probably didn’t understand the plans that well themselves since they are designed by the same guys who draw up insurance contracts….the goal being to baffle you with bullshit).
Suddenly, they’ve found Jesus! Well, as Mr. Italo put it…”too little, to late”.
The Bell experience however is not atypical. I ordered a replacement part from Sears a few days ago. Delivery was promised for yesterday so I made sure to be at my home-office all day in order to receive it. No such luck. I called today and after waiting the requisite 10 minutes listening to a recording tell me how valuable my call is to the company, a live person finally emerged to inform me that the order was actually scheduled for today!
My rhetorical question is: Why do companies have to enter into crisis mode before improving customer service? I guess its why we have competition…to constantly prod companies into getting their shit together. But, wouldn’t customer service be the #1 competive priority in a market where products are pretty much the same and companies can only distinguish themselves on the basis of how they treat people? Seems like a no-brainer to me.