Customer Service at its WORST!
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Frank Guengerich
I recently moved from Texas to Maryland and had to cancel my internet service with Suddenlink/Optimum and start a new service with Xfinity. In the process, I was contacted by a company called Safe Haven that is affiliated with my new home builder that represented that they were my personal concierge assistant, and they would assist in setting up my smart home system, security system and internet with Xfinity.
Unfortunately, all three companies provided the worst customer service I've experienced in a while. Canceling my current internet service with Optimum was a hilarious experience and truly a model for how not to do it. Canceling should be easy, right? Wrong! It took over half an hour on the phone, and the process seemed like it was designed as a war of attrition just to see if I'd hang up out of frustration. I was passed to four different people, all of who were more interested in how they could keep me as a customer rather than assisting me with what I called about, which was to cancel my service since I was moving.
Once I was finally able to get the service canceled, I moved on to attempt to set up my new service with Xfinity, which was an even-more treacherous process. The concierge company, Safe Haven, represented that they would easily assist me in setting up my service, but as it turns out, they only wanted to sell me additional services. I was duped, tricked, deceived... Once they were successful in luring me into buying additional services, they no longer had any interest in doing what I needed, which was to set up an internet service. They promptly stopped assisting me and passed me over to a Xfinity representative. That process took several phone calls, several AI agents and speaking with five different live representatives.
All said, it took me over 3.5 hours to get my service canceled and the new service set up. What I learned is that internet, cable and phone service companies are all "The New DMV." Why it is so vital that you avoid these mistakes is because it causes tremendous damage to your business' reputation. The lessons learned are:
- Handle your customers' issues as a priority - Don't have an ulterior motive. To provide great customer service, you must first handle the issue that a customer is calling or asking about. This must be the focus and priority. Once the issue is resolved and your customer is completely satisfied, you've earned their trust, and they are often open to other requests you may have.
- Don't pretend to show empathy - The most important thing you will do is to be sincere and resolve your customers' issue. Saying over and over, "I understand," or apologizing without being sincere will make your customers aggravated. The lack of empathy or true compassion to resolve a customer's concern or issue is easy to pick up on.
- Don't Misrepresent - In the case of Safe Haven, they represented to me that they were my personal "concierge service" and they were involved to make the process for me simple and personalized. But, as it turns out, they had little interest in assisting me and simply wanted to sell me more services. They are deceptive. It is vital not to misrepresent your services and make sure you deliver exactly what you promote.
- Don't Make it Difficult - Want to make a customer happy? Make the process easy. The best compliment you can get is when your done assisting a customer with an issue is when they respond by saying, "Is that it? I'm done?" Since a significant number of new members in our business are rejoins, we want our members to want to come back because their experience was positive, easy and they trust us.
Here are a few simple tips and what you should do:
- Resolve the customer's issues promptly - Plan for members to have issues or concerns and be prepared to resolve them efficiently and quickly. At all costs, avoid allowing the issue to be escalated and turn into frustration.
- Train staff to resolve all issues - Make sure that all staff are trained in how to resolve customer issues. You know what the issues might be, so you have no excuses. Empower them to make decisions so that you avoid passing customers from one team member to the next. There is nothing more frustrating than getting passed around and having to explain the issue over and over.
Hot Tip - Using AI bots and Agents: With all the emerging technology that is becoming available, be careful not to use AI if it isn't perfected. Forcing an upset customer to talk to an AI agent that cannot quickly resolve the issue will only make an issue worse.
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In conclusion, providing great customer service requires a passion to take care of your customers' needs first. Make sure issues are processed and resolved quickly and easily. Train your staff in how to handle requests so that the process is smooth. Do these simple things and your business will have happy and loyal customers.
