Great vs Bad Customer Service, and Technology had Nothing to do with It
This past week I experienced both a great customer service experience and a poor customer service experience. As I stopped to think about both of these, something hit me; the experiences had nothing to do with the technology used by either company. We read everywhere about how important Social CRM is going to be to providing good customer service, but in reality, Social CRM will be only as good as the company’s policy with dealing with customers is.
Let me elaborate. Two recent blog posts start down the path to making my point, but don’t completely get there. First, in his blog post, Let’s Call a Spade a Spade, Esteban Kolsky speaks towards the distinction between Social Media and Social CRM. In his post, he points out that:
“Social Media is about tools and tactics, you can never set a strategy for it, and it has very short term life and results. Social CRM is about strategically setting long-term, strategic process of reinventing your organization to collaborate with employees, partners, and customers.”
He then goes on to cite an example where utilizing social media (tools) may change the approach to customer service an organization employs, but without social CRM, or a strategic look at how you serve your customers, a company is unlikely to see much of a positive impact on customer service. So a good point about a strategy vs a tool, but it doesn’t go far enough.
In his blog post, 4 Things You Should Think of Before Going Postal on Customer Service, Gabriel Gheorghiu points out we shouldn’t shoot the messenger when we are unhappy about the service we are getting.
“The customer service representative is not the owner of the company and most of the time follows the instructions he or she is given, even when they do not make sense—shooting the messenger will probably not be noticed by the decision makers who could improve the services you’re receiving and helps no one.”
This gets closer to my point, outlining out how the customer service rep is just caring out the policies of the companies they represent. If we can combine the two blog points, we get there.
No matter the technology, unless a company’s senior executives are truly concerned about the customer service they provide, and put in place the policies and procedures to back it up, it is unlikely you will be happy with your customer experience. Back to my two experiences last week. First, my really good experience with Logitech. I have a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard. A couple of weeks ago, the mouse started acting up. I called customer service, described the problem, and they proceeded to send me a brand new mouse, actually an upgraded mouse from my prior one. But wait, it gets better. The new mouse had a different USB Bluetooth connector that wouldn’t work with my current keyboard. So I called them up again, and they send me a brand new keyboard that would work with the new USB Bluetooth connector. No questioning my purchase, no challenges, just contact information to send me my new mouse and keyboard. Contrast this with the company (I won’t name them; it isn’t relevant to my point) who I had to contact about paperwork I needed to sign and also send them payment. By the time I actually got the paperwork, the due date for payment was only 3 days away. My online account had been disabled so I couldn’t pay on-line. When I mentioned this to the customer service agent, she informed me that I could pay over the phone, but it would cost $20 (and she couldn’t waive it). When I told her I would put the check in the mail immediately, but it might not get there in time, maybe she could note the account so I wouldn’t get a finance charge, she said she wasn’t allowed to.
So now I am a loyal Logitech company and will continue to buy their products. I am quite unhappy with the other company and it will impact my future business with them. What was the biggest factor in these experiences – the policies and procedures senior management had put in place to ensure customers had a good experience. Technology had nothing to do with it.
Until Next Time,
Stephen
