Know-How Exchange : Just for Fun

If do (if I care about the company).

I'd write the CEO, explaining what the problem is, what I'd like them to do about it, and mentioning my expertise (as appropriate). As a minimum, it gets their attention.

The customer service person was obviously just "doing their job" - trying to sell you products/services (and it's possible that the telemarketer wasn't in-house). Trying to tell them they are doing their job poorly doesn't help the person on the other end of the line - they need new management direction. That input can generally only come from on-high.

Michael

I certainly do... in some circumstances.

If I care about the company or brand I tell them in a constructive way and point good practices.
If I am "hostage" to the company, I follow the same approach... but as soon as I find an alternative... and (most of the time) nothing changed, I fly away
If I don't care about the brand or the company and I am not a "hostage" customer I just disappear... and tell them only if they ask me.

My experience is that companies who really care about their customers and their customers opinions are very rare... most of the time, getting the message through is like a Kafkian novel - you never see the light at the end of the tunnel, you get played around like a tennis ball, and nobody really seems to care.

I currently have the same problem as BARQ with my cable TV provider and found the same solution.

I also have a problem with a recently bought car from MAZDA, which is still in its period of guarantee, and my lawyers are already taking care of the business, since their Customer Service claim that my car doesn't suffer from any anomaly (my cars instrument panel seems like a christmas tree, with yellow and red lights blinking all the time) but instead it's a "characteristic".

I believe that this Forum has an important role to play, as an independent body, in identifying and pointing and rewarding accordingly, good and bad marketing practices.

I believe it would be a great challenge to implement this.

Excellent issue brought here Michael.

Antonio

In the specific case of your bank, there are a couple of points worth noting:

1. The telemarketers and the customer service people don't have a stake in your staying with the bank. It doesn't really affect them where it counts. You need to go to the branch manager at the branch where your account is registered. He or she will take up the fight on your behalf. If the telemarketers' policies hit them in their bonus checks, they'll fight for you.

2. You have to be prepared to move your accounts if this is really important to you. Very often the alternatives are not much better than the bank you leave, at least when it comes to telemarketing practices.

It's been my experience that most retail bankers are not too swift when it comes to real marketing, so the only way to get their attention is with an issue that matters to them. If you know how they are evaluated and rewarded, you have a chance. Otherwise, you're wasting your time.

I not only offer free advice, I record it and add it to a swipe file for later use.

A couple years ago I was asked to be a speaker at the Clean Show (the largest international trade show for drycleaners world wide) I went back to my swipe file of bone head examples of advertising that companies do and was able to pull out more than one really really good bad examples.

So, I presented the bad example, logo and all, to a few hundred folks.

But come to think of it, why stop there? I'll be adding them to my blog and include comments how one can avoid such blunders and how to improve upon them. If the company that make the big mistake should call me up, I'd be only more than happy to consult one on one with them for 100 times standard rates to fix the issue.

Only through learning from mistakes does one get better. Learning from other's mistakes is even better. So, yes, do tell others about mistakes, and post them for the world to see and we can all drink deep at the well of knowledge.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

My Dearest Michael,

As a good citizen of planet earth I often find it very appealing to offer FREE advise but there are many reasons for which I do so...but here are the guidelines I try to follow to keep me on track.

1.) Only give FREE advise in cases where I have penetrated the heart of the person I am speaking to. True customer passion evangelisim seems to work for me when I'm willing to make my point ---CLEAR---instead of ---CRITICAL--- and this requires I humble myself and live out true humility with the person I am trying to reach whether that is a customer that pays me or a customer I pay. I've found very early into a conversation I should be able to determine if the customer and I are speaking the same language...If not I'm fighting a losing battle anyway and if this is the case at that point I might as well "Agree with my adversary quickly" and just move on.

2.) Clear myself of criticisim before I get too far into the conversation. In "How to Win Friends and Influence People" I recall Dale Carnegie clearly stating how important it is that we should avoid being critical at all cost. When we are too critical then our point is not well received anyway and then criticisim becomes the dagger Brutus uses to kill Caesar and the relationship I've tried to build is murdered by my criticisim.

3.) When I'm offering Free advise I have to be patient but persistent. This means I have to pursue the issue with creative persistence but at the same time patiently see where the conversation is going before I snap to some hasty decisions.

4.) I have six more guidelines that I use but Michael I won't bore you with them. Now one of the most important of all the other nine that I use when I'm trying to improve helping an organization for free is LOVE. It appears that when my focus for sharing the FREE information to my customer is established on a solid rock of truth like Love everything works in my favor.

There is a great saying "Don't cast your pearls before swine"... which is merely reminding you that some of your customers

REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need further guidance, direction or you'd just like to talk more about it. You see I love it when my customers are happy. Are you happy yet? Is this information helping you? Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Lovingly Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

I always try to tell companies what they are doing wrong. How are they going to correct the problem if they don't know how it is effecting their customers? I always try to do it in a lighter way, not to make the client get the impression that I'm a pain-in-the-ass customer. I like to "make suggestions".

A note on (some) telemarketers: They are given a list. Once they have made contact with the person on the list & have done their pitch, they move on to the remainder of the list. After several days, the list becomes short. They continue to re-dial those remaining on the list. If they have 100 left, they may rotate through the list 10 times in a day, which means you will receive 10 calls that day.

Absolutely! I call, email. I even call the main number to find out how the email structure of that company is so I can send emails to the top.
Examples: A bank offered a low percentage for a cc, I applied and then spent 6 months, literally, calling every month to tell them to change the % from the 9% they had posted to the 2.5% they initially offered.
After 6 months I had it. I had kept info every time I called, asked for name and ID of customer service person, and ... a little tidbit... where they were located.
Made that log, added how much time I had spent on each call, disclosed how much I made and what that would translate to in an hourly fee, multiplied it by the hours I had spent on the phone with customer service and said they owed me that amount!
After a couple of weeks I received a letter apologizing for the mishaps, informing me they had credited ALL finance charges to my account, and had made sure (yeah this time) that the % was fixed. :) Niiiiiice

Then it was Blockbuster... you know when you get a couple of DVD's, then go home, and mid movie the DVD gets stuck! By now it's later, you've settled in you don't go back. So upon returning to the store, the people there apologize and offer to subsititute the DVD right?
NO - not enough! I spent my gas and time and went there. I want a substitute AND another movie! WHat the heck! So after speaking to 3 different people and leaving messages for the manager, whom of course never called me back, and when I finally met her one day at the store she had an incredible attitude and let's just say apology was not include in the language used.
SO, wrote a big nice long email to Blockbuster. Naming all the employees I spoke to, full store address, dates and names of movies this happened with and oh... how long I had been renting movies from Blockbuster.
Got a letter 2 weeks later saying that, well, that is their practice, but for this time to make up for the inconvenience they were sending 2 free movie passes.
But next time this happens, I'm back to the exchanging the movie only. Guess I'll send another letter?
Or... Hollywood movies here I come!

Now, what I get from all of this. The people at the store have to deliver on what the marketing is and promises. There has to be an internal motivation! You know like that story about the Carlton Ritz and how employees there had an allowance to please customers. Of course that would require a company empowering their employees and not all want to do this. Not banks, not rental companies.. no one.

An exception: McDonald's. If anything is wrong, I hardly get an argument. They simply throw the whatever out and give me another.

So, what are they doing different that dwindles down into the employee behind the counter! :)

I often offer my marketing advice.

It is just what comes to mind and when I had telemarketers calling me I let them know when and if they should be calling me.

For your situation I would have also let them know I deserved an apology for the numerous calls at inopportune time.

I don't think good advice ever hurts.

I often draw a problem to the attention of someone I think could fix it. And if they are clue-free, I help them with a suggestion like "You know, that's a problem, but it would be good if..."

If I leave contact details I'm often surprised to hear from a more senior person thanking me for pointing out the problem and letting me know there's a solution now in place.

Sometimes they even provide a little incentive to go back and try them again, a voucher or something like that.

Not that I'm after anything like that - I just want them to lift their game!

I think it's all down to how you approach the staff members. I've seen horrendous rows break out - for example, at supermarket checkouts when a till is closed when there is a long line waiting - but it usually starts at 11 on the abuse scale and gets worse from there. I try to start calmly and by appealing to the person's sense of humanity.

My most interesting discussion was with a very young, inexperienced and naive sounding telemarketer who rang me asking for the CEO or the person who specifies telephone systems. Ha! She them went on to ask me what we spend on phone calls and to tell me we could get all this free stuff - giant plasma TV, colour laser printer/copiers, etc that I just know our meagre spend will never justify. All I needed to do was to accept an appointment with the rainmaker sales dude who would come over and give away thousands of dollars of equipment (we spend about thee hundred a month on calls, all up) After gently telling her there was no way the offer could be as she was representing to me and asking how they could possibly make such assertions, we politely parted company on the phone. Five minutes later her 24 y.o. supervisor rang me back and claimed I had reduced her employee to tears and had called her a liar - which I most definitely had not - and asked me what MY problem was (such pro-activity - so hard to find).

So I related the call to her and she promptly agreed there was no way we would qualify for any free stuff - and instead of accepting my suggestion they might consider rewriting their scripts and retraining their very young staff - she then told me she had quotas to meet and could not waste any more time listening to me.

Just shows, sometimes you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it enjoy the view.

ChrisB