Company: Unknown
Business: Extended Car Insurance
I get a call, out of the blue, in the middle of working on a project... a nice-sounding young lady says that my 2013 Hyundai Elantra's warranty is running out and they can provide extended warranty.
First, it's a 2012 Elantra. Second, my warranty is for 10 years or 100k miles, of which I've managed to rack up over 60k miles, but certainly nowhere near the limit.
Before I can say anything - she proceeds that they can get me a quote for what it'll cost and... again, before I can say anything, she'll connect me with the rep who'll give me the details.
Then she drops a bomb, asking me what my name is. I told her that I'm working, don't have time for background checks and if she can quickly get me the quote - fine, otherwise we're done. Following her silly script, she proceeds to ask me if another time would be better. I honestly told her that it's an unknown, since I have a very fluid schedule, again reiterating that if she wants to get me the guy/quote whatever... quickly, we can all get on with the rest of our day.
She politely thanked me and... hung up.
The moral - being nice isn't enough. Following a script is dumb and useless and this approach is a sure way to lose business. I wasn't objecting to getting a quote, I was totally opposed to them wasting my time with a sales pitch, as if that sales pitch would have an ounce of added value to me.
I love this collection. Everyday, we all deal with "customer service" of one type or another. I think it's important to learn from the good and bad, and that's what this collection means to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark Barrus. I'm trying to follow David Amerland's mostly positive outlook on humanity, but the reality is - there are far more businesses who are clueless when it comes to Customer Service vs those that both care and execute as it should be.
ReplyDeleteIn many cases - they know what should be done and the execution part is what totally fails... and I'm not sure what worse - being inept due to ignorance or inept due to wrong policies and wrong execution.
Considering how easy it is to do it right - it baffles the mind, and yet... it is what it is.