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Customer Service Hitting All-Time Lows as Holiday Shopping Begins
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
Call Center, Complaining, complaint, Complaint Handling, complaint sandwich, Complaints, Consumer Psychology, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, customer service, Customer Service Representatives, service-recovery, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
December 1, 2011 |
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December 1, 2011
A recent survey in the UK found that consumers were more dissatisfied with customer service than ever before. Findings indicated that 75% of consumers felt customer service standards were at an all-time low and 62% expressed feeling no loyalty to retailers or service providers because they felt under-valued as customers. Rising Anger and Frustration Customers expressed both anger and frustration...
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New Study Reveals White Lies about Customer Dissatisfactions Cost Us Money
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
apologies, Cognitive Dissonnace, Complaining, complaint, Complaint Handling, complaint sandwich, Consumer Psychology, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, customer service, Restaurants, service-recovery, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
November 11, 2011 |
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November 11, 2011
The squeaky wheel may get the grease but most of us make informed decisions about when to complain about minor customer service infractions and when to muffle our squeaks. A new study now indicates that when consumers tell white lies about customer service dissatisfactions, it often ends up costing them money. Researches Jennifer Argo and Baba Shiv wanted to examine what happens when we tell white lies to gloss over the minor dissatisfactions we encounter as consumers. Although it might seem as though no harm could come from telling a waiter our meal is fine when we don’t love it, or telling...
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Taco Bell and Complaints Gone Wild
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
Complaining, Complaint Handling, complaint sandwich, Complaints, Consumer Psychology, customer service, Humor, kindness, Restaurants, service-recovery, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
October 27, 2011 |
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October 27, 2011
This week a Taco Bell customer called to complain about not getting enough meat in his XL Chalupas. Taco Bell manager Cynthia Thompson apologized that the business was about to close for the night. The customer spat out racial expletives and threated to ‘redecorate the place’. He then drove back to the Taco Bell and proceeded to fire-bomb the drive-thru. No one was hurt. Last month Jeremy Combs, another Taco Bell...
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Is Excessive Homework in Private Schools a Customer Service Issue?
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
Complaining, complaint, Complaint Handling, Complaints, customer service, Education, Homework, Private Schools, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
October 19, 2011 |
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October 19, 2011
The average private school tuition is over ten thousand dollars a year (and in many large cities it is often three times that amount). Do the customers of these schools, the children who attend them and the parents who pay for them, have the same rights other customers do? In recent years, one of the areas in which this question has received most attention is the fiercely contested battle over homework. Children in private schools often have several hours of homework a night by the time they reach middle school. This often requires them to study ten to twelve hours a day with virtually no time...
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Which Emotion Most Drives Customer Hostility?
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
apologies, Call Center, Complaining, complaint, Complaint Handling, Complaints, Consumer Psychology, Contact Center, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, customer service, Customer Service Representatives, emotion, empathy, hostility, kindness, Leadership, Service Recoveries, The Squeaky Wheel, Trust
Posted date:
October 11, 2011 |
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October 11, 2011
Two customers with the same exact complaint contact customer service representatives to voice their dissatisfactions. One of them expresses their problem calmly and with civility while the other, with the exact same complaint, explodes in hostility and aggression. This rather common situation raises 3 questions: 1. What is it that accounts for the huge difference in the two customers’ complaining behavior? 2. How should customer service representatives respond differently to each of these customers? 3. Can management mitigate the impact of hostile customers on frontline employees? A...
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The True Meaning of Customer Service Week
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
Bullying, Call Center, Complaining, Complaint Handling, Complaints, Consumer Psychology, Contact Center, customer service, Customer Service Representatives, kindness, Leadership, service-recovery, Stress, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
September 28, 2011 |
3 Comments
September 28, 2011
Customer Service Week arrives every first week in October with about as much media attention and fanfare as Physician’s Assistant Day on October 6 (remember to smile when you hand them your sample) and Leif Erikson Day on October 9 (don’t forget to order your Dragon Boat cake). Yet, I would argue that customer service week is far more important than Leif Erikson Day, and not just because Leif Eriskon is dead. Theoretically, customer service week is an opportunity for companies to show appreciation to their customer service employees as much as it is to show appreciation for their actual...
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10 Most Annoying Customer Service Practices
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
apologies, Call Center, Complaining, complaint, Complaint Handling, Complaints, Consumer Psychology, Contact Center, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, customer service, Customer Service Representatives, Humor, Service Recoveries, The Squeaky Wheel, Trust
Posted date:
September 17, 2011 |
10 Comments
September 17, 2011
Researching and writing The Squeaky Wheel involved calling more companies than I can remember, experiencing their customer service practices and marveling at how needlessly annoying many of them were. Consequently I developed the following list of pet peeves* (some of which I elaborate upon further in the book) which here I phrased as questions to the companies themselves. Perhaps one day, these questions will be answered—but let’s just say, I’m not placing my breath on hold. Dear Customer Service Corporate Executives:...
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How South Africa Turned Oscar Pistorius’ Win into a Marketing Loss
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
Complaining, complaint, Complaints, Jesse Owens, Marketing, Olympics, Oscar Pistorius, Track and Field
Posted date:
September 8, 2011 |
2 Comments
September 8, 2011
[UPDATE: I was shocked to learn Oscar was charged with murdering his girlfriend on Feb 14, 2013. My thoughts are with both families as well as with Oscar's fans around the world] The Olympics and World Championships are considered the most prestigious of all sporting events as athletes compete not just for themselves but to honor their countries. As such, Olympic and World Championship competitions provide incredible marketing opportunities for countries as much as they do sporting opportunities for individual athletes. When Jesse Owens dominated the sprints at the 1936 Munich Olympics in Germany,...
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Customer Service for the Undead
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
apologies, Banks, complaint, Complaint Handling, Complaints, Consumer Psychology, Contact Center, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, customer service, Customer Service Representatives, Humor, kindness, Leadership, service-recovery, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
August 23, 2011 |
Comment
August 23, 2011
According to recent reports, 14,000 people a year are erroneously declared dead by the Social Security Administration. CNN reported that one woman discovered the error at her bank where the manager informed her that she was deceased. He then added insult to death blow by confiscating her ATM card and cutting it in half right in front of her, clearly oblivious to the unfortunate symbolism of his gesture. The manager's utter lack of tact was dwarfed only by his greater disregard for customer...
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Should We Expect Customer Service at the Doctor’s Office?
Posted by: Guy
Tags:
Complaining, complaint, Complaint Handling, Complaint Letter, Consumer Psychology, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, customer service, Doctor, Leadership, The Squeaky Wheel
Posted date:
August 10, 2011 |
5 Comments
August 10, 2011
Many of the pharmaceutical commercials we see on television end with the line “Talk to your doctor about (the medication in question)”, as if doctors would welcome such leisurely chats and were eager to hear our thoughts and ideas about treatment options. In reality, few doctors’ offices are renowned for their customer service. Waiting Room Blues Today many of us are spending hours in waiting areas and treatment rooms for what amounts to only a few precious minutes of face time with our doctor, even after having waited months for an appointment. Complaints about our doctors’...
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