consonance curd: The Human Factor in Customer Service Design

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Human Factor in Customer Service Design | Accounting and ...

February 1, 2012 ? 12:22 PM

Please pay attention to good customer service?.it makes a huge difference in whether your customer will ever come back to buy from you?.? even when the customer has been a loyal customer for many years.

Let me give you an example?..? I ordered 3?items from a large?office supply retailer I have used for years.? Prior to this incident,?I ordered supplies and they were always?delivered the next day??great service and I?continued to?buy from?them.?? However, this time the order was split into 2 orders (coming from different sources was the reason given).? The order arrived via?UPS in 2 boxes, and the delivery was?missing?1 of the items I ordered.? I immediately called the retailer to find out if there was a third box?still in transit with the missing item?.the answer was no.

Beginning with this first?call to the?retailer?s customer service?in an attempt to?fix the problem of a missing item?is when the real fun?began?? first, retailer has apparently manned their customer service department with staff whose first language is NOT English and whom are barely intelligible??..then?second,?equipped the?barely intelligible?staff?with communication/headsets that sound as though they are?but?one step above tin cans and a string.????So far, over the course of 2+ weeks and 7 phone calls, I discovered that?apparently all of their?customer service staff? is barely intelligible and are?using substandard communication equipment.???So far, I?requested a credit for the missing item, re-ordered?the?missing item, retailer issued credit for item received and not for item missing, a corrected credit for missing item?finally issued, first wrong credit for item received was?not removed, missing item finally?turned up in a battered box 2 weeks later, retailer posts?a duplicate charge for the?re-ordered item?..? So far, my credit card has no less than 11 lines posted from this retailer on this ONE order of 3 items?. split order charges, reorder charges,?wrong credits, right credits?and even 5 lines that are for zero amounts. ????BTW? my issue still is not resolved after the 2+ weeks of trying, and has now grown to trying to?fix their bad?fixes.

Bottom line?..even?though I have happily?used this retailer for years, I will think twice before using them again.????The big?question?..why would any business, small or big, ?put?barely intelligible?staff with poor equipment as their front line customer service????????

Excerpt??.Poor customer service isn?t a headache just for consumers; it?s a problem that vexes senior managers too.

Read full article?..via The human factor in service design ? McKinsey Quarterly ? Marketing & Sales ? Sales & Distribution.