What the World’s Worst Customer Service Looks Like
Like most entrepreneurs, I’m always tinkering and toying with new ideas, fresh approaches and creative ways to improve how we do things. In my ongoing quest to create the best possible live trivia team building and corporate event entertainment experience, I recently had an encounter which made me think twice about the fate of humanity.
Maybe that’s a bit drastic, actually. But it was certainly something worth blogging about – so here it goes.
About two weeks ago, I came across a vendor who’s products & services I was interested in. I had seen what they do in action, and was keen to learn more about them, and perhaps incorporate them into our professional trivia company offerings. After playing around on their Website a bit, I realized that they didn’t have much in the way of actually getting in touch with someone – just two separate generic email addresses, one for each version of their product, as well as a phone number for each.
I crafted a nice email, saying I was interested in what they were offering, and would like to arrange a follow-up call to learn more. I sent it to both email addresses on Monday.
By Wednesday, I hadn’t heard anything.
Okay, let’s try their phone. I called the first number listed, and a guy on his cell phone answered. I said my spiel, to which he replied, “Oh yeah, didn’t you email us? Didn’t I email you back?”
“Uh, no- sorry….”
“Okay, must’ve just drafted an email and not sent it. Me and the other founders are on the road right now, but let’s get in touch with you shortly about scheduling a call!”
“Err….okay…”
Thursday comes and goes, and now we’re at Friday. Still nothing. I send another email to both addresses, saying, “Hey, I emailed you on Monday and spoke with you Wednesday – I’d like a call back today, please.”
Can you guess what happened?
That’s right, still nothing. Not to be deterred, I decided to give them 1 last chance – seeing how they were “on the road” and obviously having email issues and all. I called both numbers again on Monday, and left voicemails with both:
“Hi, I’ve been trying to reach you for a week now. I’m a potential new customer who’s interested in your product, and would like to learn more. Please call me.”
Well, that was a week ago, and as you can probably guess, I never heard back. This baffles me: a prospect finds a company organically, sends 2 emails, leaves 2 voicemails and actually TALKS to one of the company founders, and in the end is left completely hanging. This is terrible customer service under the best of conditions, let alone a difficult economy. What are these people thinking?
So as not to end this post on a negative rant, here’s my suggestions for how this company could have handled my inquiries better:
- Respond Quickly – Obvious enough. Potential customers shouldn’t have to hunt down the sales staff, after all.
- Use an Email Auto-Responder – Just a little something to acknowledge receipt of an email inquiry, especially if you’re going to be out of the office for an extended period of time.
- Apologize For the Delay – A simple “I’m sorry we didn’t get back to you sooner” goes a long way, when the company doesn’t return messages promptly.
- Arrange a Follow-Up Call Immediately – Rather than saying, “We’re busy now, let’s get something on the books later,” why not say, “How’s Thursday?”
I’ll avoid belaboring the obvious point of “get back to your sales inquiries, period.”
I know I’ve thought a lot about my own company’s customer service practices as a result of this experience, and hopefully you will, to. What are some other war stories of the world’s worst customer service?