Comments

Customer service is one of those subjects that everybody talks about and almost no one does anymore. Big companies/chains are frequently the worst examples. They all hide behind expensive "customer service" centers that are really designed to inhibit customer contact.

I too have trouble with the ten point system. I would have probably gone with a five point scale:

1) Mad as %*$# with the company and willing to spread the negative word on my blog!
2) Negative, but not postal
3) Indifferent
4) Slightly positive inclination
5) Willing to recommend

Noel

Posted by Noel Jensen at June 7, 2006 5:18 PM

Is there any correlation between the amount of business that a customer did with you, and the likelihood that they'll become a promoter? I suspect not--but why, then, do so many businesses act as if only the "big" customers are worth bothering with? There's a short-term advantage, yes; but if I'm impressed by how well the business treated a small customer, I'll promote them enthusiastically and potentially bring in a lot more business. (And I might turn into a much bigger customer myself.)

Posted by Paula at June 7, 2006 5:25 PM

Noel - Amen my friend - you took the words out of my mouth. I have had some appalling ‘so called’ customer care recently that I have catalogued on my Blog. The upside to being a ‘victim’ of crap customer service is to see it as a learning experience which is what I have done and I am now writing a piece called ‘Lies Damned lies and Customer Care.’

‘Lies’ may sound strong but if people say they will ring you and they don’t – if people promise to deliver and they don't then however they try to avoid it and blame systems, procedures, other people and other things the fact remains the customer has been lied to – end of story. I may sound obsessive about this and I may appear to be over the top on the small stuff – so be it if that is what people think – I happen to believe it is far more important to ‘sweat the small stuff’ and I have written elsewhere ‘the basics are the new cutting edge.’ Actually I am intrigued and disappointed about how standards of basic honesty and ethics have slipped in some organisations. Instead of spending time and money developing complex systems, processes, procedures and packages we might be better advised just reminding people they are actually always ‘in service’ to someone else. I have never understood why we have to even consider ‘training’ people to be honest and ethical. Both should be natural functions.

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 8, 2006 5:29 AM