InKnowVision Blog

Your Face

June 27th, 2008

I read a great blog the other day by Seth Godin about his frustration in dealing with a big, name brand phone company and how poor and frustrating their customer service interface was. Seth is a master of making the complicated simple and his blog pointed out how this same company spent millions of dollars marketing to get customers and yet was totally inept at providing service that would keep those hard earned customers. We all know it costs more to get a new customer than to keep one.

Yesterday, I had two similar experiences, one with the “other” big phone company, whose web site was so counter intuitive that I ended up dialing “611” and had to have an employee help me order online. Even she couldn’t figure out:
• How to find what I wanted
• How to get the price I’d seen online the day before
• How to actually get the order placed with the features I wanted and to remove the features I didn’t want

This company must spend millions on its web presence and its system was horrible. Getting to the right person on my 611 call took at least five different steps and the first time I tried it, I ended up back where I started at the “main menu.”

Later, I couldn’t log into my online banking account. The system wouldn’t recognize my username. No one could explain why. They’re supposed to call back. I’m still waiting. Meanwhile, I can’t pay my bills. Sorry.

Today, the face our buying public or our potential buying public (clients and prospective clients to us financial and legal professionals) often sees first is either our phone system or our website. What they should see is a very friendly face. Phone systems should never lead the very people you’ve been cultivating into a black hole they can never get out of. Somewhere, some place there had better be the voice of a real, live human being as an option. Web sites should be intuitive, informative. Simple. Big companies have millions to spend. They may be able to have customers come and go in the revolving door, big numbers game they play.

We can’t afford it. Us little guys have to be better. Smarter. More accessible.

Entry Filed under: Customer Service