You Shouldn’t Need To Wield A Gun To Get Customer Service

Time Warner Cable is almost universally hated by their customers in New York City.  And for good reason. With a relative monopoly on cable television, there is not much of an incentive for them to offer much more than the minimum.  Yes, there is RCN and there is satellite, but in New York City, satellite is not a great option and you can only get RCN if the building agrees to carry it. 

For years I’ve had issues with my cable TV – my DVR often records entire programs completely pixilated.  My picture will often freeze while I’m watching something live.  And the features it’s supposed to offer, like pausing live TV or rewinding live TV, are great except after I un-pause my program it continues to play without sound.   I’ve gone through three cable boxes, I’ve had multiple cablemen come to my apartment to fix, rewire or attempt to fix the problem.  Each one, and I’m not exaggerating, has told me that whatever the cableman before him did was, and I quote, “idiotic” before he proceeds to do something completely different.  But at the end of the day, nothing really works that much better. Oh yeah, and my internet sucks too. If I’m in a very nostalgic mood it will take me back to the days of a 14.4 dial-up modem…but I’m not that nostalgic that often.

This past week has been a particularly frustrating week. The internet has been so painfully slow.  For the record, I’m not looking to stream HD movies, all I want is for twitter to open in less than 30 seconds.  Or to be able to use Facebook without having to wait a full 60 seconds every time I click on any link.

I have called Time Warner for help in the past. They usually make me plug and unplug things and have me run some diagnostics. Inevitably, they will report to me that my levels are “within the acceptable range” (a level they determine, not me), which means that they can’t (or won’t) help or that the problem lies somewhere else like with my computer or my building. 

But the last time I called them was different.  This time when I called I wasn’t my usually polite, laid-back-I-know-you’re-just-doing-your-job-can-you-help-me-solve-a-problem self.  This time I was mad.  This time I was fed up.  This time I started threatening to end my entire business relationship with them. “I’m gonna get faster internet with you or without you,” I told the agent, “so you can either help me or not, but if you don’t you lose it all – TV, phone and internet and I’m going to Verizon.”

And guess what happened?

They reacted. They were wonderful, in fact.  They escalated my call immediately.  They gave me a specialist who ran me through tests and asked questions no TimeWarner Cable agent has ever asked me.  We were evaluating IP addresses, even. It was amazing.  He was, and I mean this, really great.

My question is, why do I have to hold a proverbial gun to a company’s head before I get a decent level of service.  That's not good customer service.  I got off the phone with a much clearer sense of the problem and how to fix it and it occurred to me that’s how most customer service works.  Only when a company is afraid to lose the business do they act to keep it. 

Customer service is when a company works everyday to keep your business so that they never face a threat of losing it.  It is the difference between a company that acts proactively and a company that simply reacts.  Ultimately, both strategies may work, but the latter – the norm – is painful and stressful for all involved.  Customers don’t want to call and yell and agents don’t want to be yelled at.

I admire companies with the foresight to prevent complaints not the ones with the systems to deal with them.

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Comments

[swarovski rings]

So true. I lose respect for any company that only reacts when I say I'm walking, or give some other threat. I DON'T make empty threats. Very likely, by the time I make that threat, it's because you have ALREADY LOST ME as a loyal customer. No amount of wonderfulness is going to change that. I sure wish more companies would wake up to this.

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That is a rant well deserved. I went through the same experience with TWC about 6 months ago. Now, I have new vendors for phone, internet and cable (I’m in suburban NC). I wanted to point out that you are probably an extrovert. You may be comfortable having a heated discussion with a customer service rep about the lack of service. But for me, an introvert, after 2 rather routine calls to the company to fix whatever was going on, I dropped the services altogether. I didn’t give them the luxury of being threatened (complaints are a gift if you are in the customer service business). For every complaint there are probably similar matters quietly lurking in a less vocal person.

[ray ban wayfarer]

I think 'ranting' is called for, we're in the business of providing exceptional customer service and it should (and often does) set us apart. Social media provides a forum that allows good and bad experiences to be more visible.

I think if a legitimate issue is taken to the right level (and that's key) and company worth it's salt will get the issue resolved. That said I'm glad my cable and ISP isn't provided by Time-Warner...but that's a bigger story altogether.

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Thank you for posting the great content.I was looking for something like this.I found it quiet interesting, hopefully you will keep posting such blogs..Keep sharing

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The man who has made up his mind to win will never say "impossible "!

[Justin Bieber Supra]

I have studied and spoken with a few sovereigns all of them are not in it for the anti-government stance, some just basically know how our government REALLY operates.It was very informing and educational.I think each of us could benefit from listening to sovereigns who are not ant-gov we do it when we talk to judges and lawyers,so dont be 1 sided to any issue seek knowledge.

[call center]

This was really such an amazing post from you. And everyone else here can really relate with your experience because almost all of us I guess has experience on poor customer service. When you say good customer service, it means being able to meet or even exceed the expectations of your clients without failing them at once. But even though there are certain situations where there are poor customer service in some companies, others can still adapt into providing better quality service for their clients. And unbelievably find some ways in order for their service to get better.

[Leif]

Sherry said it best on 10/17. The service profit chain is proven successful. The answer lies in a rather simple study of human behavior. These service-lacking employees need to be heard and valued by their leaders before they can return it outwardly.

[Devremülk]

i like to read your posts. thanks for this one.

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Nature is fair, but society is not.

[Miratel]

I think 'ranting' is called for, we're in the business of providing exceptional customer service and it should (and often does) set us apart. Social media provides a forum that allows good and bad experiences to be more visible.

I think if a legitimate issue is taken to the right level (and that's key) and company worth it's salt will get the issue resolved. That said I'm glad my cable and ISP isn't provided by Time-Warner...but that's a bigger story altogether.

[Eric Kam]

One step farther Simon. Customer service is wrongly viewed as "keeping" or maintaining business. Customer service is a free contact with your customers/prospects. It is opportunity.

http://tech-ho.blogspot.com/2010/10/customer-service.html

I think that this attitude about holding on to existing or status-quo is one of the albatrosses around the neck of Customer Service organizations everywhere. Customer service has the potential to be far more informative than any focus group that marketing wonks can put together, or task force of consultants we can gather together.

They called you, that means they already CARE about the product or service. Those who really don't care, have most likely already hung your product or service out with the rubbish.

[Nandini]

I had the same experience with LG in India.

[Shari]

This is a great topic to dig into. In the 1990's, customer service was 'in' at it was fashionable in the business literature to promote the ROI of good customer service.

In today's business environment however, it seems that we have entire industries that are universally bad with their customers: banking, telecom/mobile/cable, and big box stores (esp Best Buy).

For some reason they do not perceive good customer service as a competitive advantage and yet this is curious in a time when the power of the customer by way of the social networking/internet WOM tools should be increasing. The pressure to cut costs seems to hit the non-revenue generating customer service bodies/infrastructure in favor of more direct sales support because that can be tracked. Nobody seems to be tracking the hidden costs of lost customers on the back-end. Hence, the increased attention you get when you threaten to take your business away.

In a way, they are training their customers that they have to be loud and obnoxious in order to be taken care of, thus creating a downward spiral of negativity, resentment and detachment on both sides of the interaction.

[George Slusher]

Verizon may not be much better. Their customer service is notorious. Beginning a few months before my contract expired (2007), they started calling me, trying to get me to get a new phone (and new contract). It went on and on.They even sent me text messages. (I had to PAY for the text message saying, "Stop the text messages.") I asked to be put on a list not to be called. I was assured that this would be done....*4* times. Finally, I said that, if I were called again, I'd switch carriers within a week. Poof! No more calls for over a year.

[Sherry]

That is a rant well deserved. I went through the same experience with TWC about 6 months ago. Now, I have new vendors for phone, internet and cable (I’m in suburban NC). I wanted to point out that you are probably an extrovert. You may be comfortable having a heated discussion with a customer service rep about the lack of service. But for me, an introvert, after 2 rather routine calls to the company to fix whatever was going on, I dropped the services altogether. I didn’t give them the luxury of being threatened (complaints are a gift if you are in the customer service business). For every complaint there are probably similar matters quietly lurking in a less vocal person.

I work in a profession where, sometimes, the only difference between us and our competitors is service. The corporate culture where I work supports giving our costumers great service at every encounter. It starts by respecting our employees and empowering them to directly intervene with service recovery when they need to employ it.

[kare anderson]

The feeling is much the same out here in Sausalito, with comcast for the same reasons - and the metaphorical "gun" approach seems to work as well. Ironically Comcast apparently has been praised for its social media-based customer service yet that has not been our experience

[Geoff Allen]

So true. I lose respect for any company that only reacts when I say I'm walking, or give some other threat. I DON'T make empty threats. Very likely, by the time I make that threat, it's because you have ALREADY LOST ME as a loyal customer. No amount of wonderfulness is going to change that. I sure wish more companies would wake up to this.

[Tobeconfirmed]

Awesome. But the real question is... is your TV and internet service any better after speaking to that nice chap? I'd be crying into my pillow every night if my internet connection was as slow as you've described yours to be like.

And crying into my bowl of cereal every morning when I wake up. Always with the crying.