Good Morning…
I see that MSN has made a list and called it “The Customer Service hall of shame!” Nicely done and the top vote getter is Time Warner’s AOL or like some like to refer to it AO-Hell
The rest follow in order of customer ranked atrocities. Comcast, Sprint-Nextel (I can relate to that one) Abercrombie & Fitch’s also makes the top ten. Capital One (What’s in your wallet) The list goes on with most of them being Cable or Phone services. Oh, and the Box Store Giants also made the list but not in the top ten Wally Mart was close. Here is why, this isn’t rocket Science why these companies went from first to worse. It is because they hire incompetent’s. No not all employees of those companies are bad. So Wally Workers and other company reps I am not talking about you unless you feel the need to come forth and say…” Oh alright ya caught me…I suck as a Customer service rep….throw the cuffs on me…” See anyone in any job can suck at it…it is just the way it is…Let me further explain. To do a job good, well first you have to work hard at it. Oh,…working is the rule of thumb so if you are just there because it is a pay-check and there was no other venue or avenue to making a living then perhaps the shoes fit! Is it a glamorous job? NO! I say no again! But, either is a garbage collector, and if they do their job bad…what happens? Ah, again answer my own question for you, well you are left with a mess, because they are not coming back to clean it up. I always put myself in the eye of the customer when I am asked for help at work. I treat them like I would like to be treated, with respect, and help where I can, I actually try to go further then they expect. See people like the good unexpected instead of the bad unexpected. Two examples of those are as follows, I will first give you the good unexpected. Let me set the story for you. You walk into a huge box store, we will call it LOWES and you are looking for paint, but just not any paint, this paint can be walked on and has to with stand rain, hail, heat… You are in the paint aisle and you see a service rep from Lowes and ask them, “Where can I find paint that will be painted on cement? The clerk asks a few questions to you on how much traffic will the surface be getting? Will it be in direct sunlight, so on and so forth, then theylead you over to those said paints and explain which one is better, not which one cost’s the most? Which has been used and has great reviews and before they leave ask if there is anything else they can help you with and leave you with a smile. Good Unexpected. Now for our bad Unexpected… You are in that same paint aisles and are lost for that special cement paint, you see two clerks dragging feet towards you talking with one another about what they are going to do on Friday night, and they feel your stare as you await a moment when you can excuse yourself to ask them a question, but they pass you by with out giving notice that you are even there. So you excuse yourself by clearing your throat and ask the question,…They stop almost annoyed as they turn and your question gets a point from each clerk to where some paints are, I mean you are standing in the paint aisle my gosh yes there is paint there, but their answer is two points of their arms and then they continue talking and begin walking away faster to get away from you…Bad Unexpected… so what do we see more of? Bad unexpected, in every path of life, we all get that bad unexpected…See if you are to do a job, then do it well. Nothing worse then giving a person who is already at wit’s end another cause to jump off that ledge. We are a generation of mixed generations to which we chalk it up to bad upbringing or those young kids think they know it all and back in my day… or those old farts need to stay off the road when I am driving and why is there so many of them in the stores at the first of the month… why am I being bomb barded with the Lions Club, the Elks clubs selling white canes in the lines of the banks or at street corners… selling worthless news papers that are never going to be opened once you throw it in the back seat…there are so many bad unexpected things in our everyday life…that we pass along a bad unexpected, to those un-expecting bad things…So it is just possible that AOL is hiring people who could give a good rat’s rear about being there and they have to be on the phone over and over and over again…I hear Comcast gives you a low rate to sign up but then sticks it too you once you are in their plan… How about cell phone companies and their plans? Oh yes, a plan that you know is up in two months and you just want to severe ties… but they charge you for those extra months and is that a racket or what…try to get out of Insurance by changing companies… the insurance agent gets paid when you re-up your policy, so they will try anything to make you feel obligated to stay with them…wow, service….Just saying the words makes some people cringe! I love customer service. I mean I love helping people. It feels like a job well done, and even if I have to say I can’t help them, but suggest an alternative place to go and give them other references I feel I have stepped into that going the extra mile…It can be done…it just doesn’t get done enough in our world… Ok I will jump off the customer service band wagon for a second and give you a little idiot humor to leave on…apparently some people love that certain sound, be it bacon frying in a pain, a steak searing on a grill, clean water flowing down a mountain stream, the sound of a baseball cracking off a bat in the summer time, kids laughing and splashing. A hoot owl at night, coyotes in the distance… fog horns, you name it… well one man used a companies 800 number to dial up just to hear the sweet voice that was on the recording 33 thousand times over a 18 month window… costing that company thousands of dollars in 800 fees. It happened in Japan where a man was finally apprehended and finally stopped calling the companies 800 number… He claimed he just wanted to hear her sweet voice…My gosh dude… tape the voice and get a life!
Other then that Have yourself a Good Unexpected day
A huge hug and many pats
Mart
