What Ever Happened to Good Customer Service?
Do you remember the early days of Late Night with David Letterman? One of his regular guest was Jay Leno, back when he was funny, and they'd do a segment called What's Your Beef. Dave would ask him about what was bugging him these days and Leno would go off on a rant. That's how I feel these days.
Today's beef is about the lack of good Customer Service and how it affects me ( it is my blog afterall).
It's not hard to provide decent customer service. A lot of it is just common sense and common courtesy.
Here's rule number 1. If you have voice mail and your greeting says you'll call back by the end of the day, do it! It's simple, it's courteous.
Example #1: I needed to have some tests approved by my primary physician's office. I took the list over to his office on Saturday, November 2. I even saw my doctor handed the forms by his receptionist. All he needed to do was give it to the person in his office who is in charge of getting insurance approvals and let her do the rest. Simple enough, right?
Last Thursday, I called her to see what is happening. I left a message. No return call.
Monday, I went to their office to see if I could get an answer. It turned out the doctor had yet to give the forms to his referral person.
I left a number for either of them to call me. Two days later, still no call. I'll be returning to their office this morning. There's no good reason for me to have to do that. Call, email, even text me. It's just bad customer service.
Example #2: The Social Security Disability office sent me a packet to fill out. 27 pages. One of the instructions says if you have questions, call your adjudicator. I had questions. I called. Voice Mail. I left a message. I'm still awaiting a call.
I can't say this enough. All it would have taken to make me happy was a return phone call. How much simpler can it get?
It's so easy to make customers happy.
When my daughters were six and four, we took a drive to Disneyworld. The one thing my youngest wanted to do was meet Minnie Mouse.
We get to the Magic Kingdom. There's Minnie. There's a line waiting to meet her. We wait...and wait...and wait. As we get closer, Minnie leaves. It's her break. Disappointed four year old.
We left a little bit later and came back that night. A Disney customer service representative came up to me to ask how my day was going. I told him. He gave me passes to get to the front of the line to two exhibits. Beautiful. We also had a similar experience at Disneyland.
That's all it takes. It's really simple. If Disney can that, with millions of guests attending their parks each year, why can't these other smaller organizations do the same?
And that's my beef. I'd take questions but I'm off to my doctor's office again. Give me a call. Leave a message. I promise I'll call you back by the end of the day.