June 3, 2007
One of the purposes of this blog is to provide insightful and educational articles to help you better run your business. So, with that end in mind, I ask you, “Does your customer service suck?”
In today’s competitive business environment, it absolutely baffles my mind when I come across a company whose customer service is not only bad, it down right sucks! Naturally, it’s usually the larger companies who have so much business that fall into this trap. They don’t care how they treat their customers, nor does it dawn on them what they can really do to keep their customers happy. As is usually the case, it’s when something bad happens that their true colors shine.
Here’s an example of a bad experience I had last fall. Take this as an example of what NOT to do.
It has to do with a company in southern California that sells and processes super 8mm and 16mm film. Since we started offering this as an option in our wedding productions last summer, I decided to use these guys because they are one of the best known. Anyway, I ordered 4 rolls of super 8mm to be delivered overnight. I wanted to use the rolls for the promo video I was shooting for Gene Higa Photography, as well as for a wedding that weekend. Well, the company sent it two day air on Thursday via an overnight carrier. But, since this carrier doesn’t deliver to my area on Saturdays, I didn’t get the rolls of film until the following Monday.
To make a long story short, I called to complain that not only did I not get it overnight as I requested (they claim I didn’t request overnight and only charged me the 2-day air price), but I didn’t even get it in the 2-day time frame for which I paid. I naturally requested a refund of my $25 shipping. They refused. I debated with the owner of the company for almost an hour (I know, that was stupid on my part. It wasn’t so much about the money as the principle). She claimed originally that it was the carrier’s problem and they couldn’t be responsible for mistakes made by their shipper.
Here’s the problem. I paid THEM for the shipping. It would be different if I had made arrangements with this carrier myself. But I didn’t, they did. Nor did they give me another option. So, since my money went to them, they are the ones responsible for dealing with any problems caused by vendors they hire to deliver services to their customers. Passing the buck to this carrier would be like our company sending a batch of bad DVDs to a client and telling the client, “Oh, you have to contact the makers of the DVD media. Sorry.” No. No. No. If you use a third party to provide a product or service to your customer, the buck stops with YOU!
Now, to be fair, this company ultimately did refund my money, but only after I had to deal with the carrier who naturally said that since I didn’t pay them, I’d have to go back to the vendor. It was a major hassle. Thank goodness for American Express.
I think it was extremely classy that you didn’t actually name the company.
Although I know nothing about your situation I also think that you may have oversimplified the solution. Service oriented businesses have it the toughest these days. Because of the internet, if they are not multi-tasking, they are probably losing money. A duplicator only makes money by running multiple jobs and tasks at the same time. The moment a rush service is required, it’s like a needle has been stuck into the proverbial multi-tasking balloon and the air is let out. The Super-8 cottage industry runs the same way, the companies that survive are multi-tasking, so last minute orders at cost effective pricing is not necessairly their forte. Their forte is providing multiple Super-8 services that probably exist in less than a dozen locations all over the United States.
The answer is to not stress mom and pop customer service type of businesses by waiting until the last minute and then expecting rush shipping services at cost effective pricing.
The ultimate solution is to keep a modest inventory of Super-8 film already in stock. One or two one day rush shipments would probably equal 1/2 the cost of keeping (4) Vision 200T film stocks on hand at all times. Perhaps you will need to keep several various Super-8 film stocks on hand, and yes that will equal a bit more money invested in inventory, but so what. If it means you can have your film shipped Fed-Ex ground for 15 bucks rather than 2 day air for 25-30 bucks or more, save the 10-15 bucks that you would be paying each and every time you rush a shipping order and apply it to your film stock overhead. Eventually, what you save in inventory will equal the amount you invested if keep an inventory of film stock on hand.
Over time you will find that you will save a hundred bucks or two, and that’s not such a bad thing.
Back in November 2005 an American Express sales agent LIED to me three times on the phone as they promised my special interest rate card would not go up if I upgraded my Amex card. I said I would only agree to a credit card upgrade if my interest rate would remain where it had been for several years. They exuberantly said yes, I asked again, they said yes again. I then asked a third time to let them know how seriously I took the interest rate that I currently had on my card. They reassured me that my rate nor the terms would not change in any way.
My next bill came and the interest had been raised. Additionally the card has an 85 dollar annual service charge attached to it whereas before it didn’t, and I’ve easily paid a couple hundred dollars more in interest fees because of the change in interest rates.
I stopped using the card but it took a while before I could transfer the debt out to another source. I still plan on pursuing a consumer protection agency claim against American Express. I used to like American Express, now they are no different than any other credit card out there.
Wow! Thanks for your thorough comments Alessndro. Sorry about your experience with AmEx. That sounds very uncharaceristic of them. Regarding the Super 8mm supplier. I totally agree that ideally it would be best to order ahead of time. But, my issue (and the prompting of this blog post) was not that I didn’t get the film rolls in time, but how the company handled the situation when I called. We as small business owners (and humans) will always make mistakes. But, often time it’s how we handle our fumbles that separates us from the pack. This company has lost perhaps thousands dollars in potential sales from us because they didn’t want to refund a $25 shipping charge (which was their responsibility IMHO) when I first requested it.