Keeping your promises can go a long way toward customer service satisfaction.
Randy and I got along swimmingly. We got to be good buddies, actually.
Randy (not his real name) was the customer service person assigned to my account as I tried to launch a new software platform that was going to help me run my business. We emailed back and forth. We set up a date to talk by phone. He tracked me down when I forgot that date and we laughed together about what a dolt I was for forgetting. We rescheduled. He was very patient over several phone calls as he tried to explain the platform’s features and answer my dumb questions. I was ready to buy, so buy I did.
At the end of the transaction, he emailed: “I’ll reach out in mid-September to see if you would like to continue with the service.”
Randy then dumped me like a bad date. Yep. He was one of those kind of men.
My initiation into using the platform did not go well. A technical problem on the part of the company wasted about 6 hours of my time. Twice.
Randy didn’t answer my emails. When I got through to technical support (as opposed to customer service), a few more hours were lost, but the problems got fixed. By this time, however, I had a small window in which I had the time to use the new program had closed, for now.
I had purchased—I thought—a “software as service” that I could renew monthly by my choice, not automatically, and so I put it out of my head.
Until 2 charges for 2 months of service showed up on my credit card statement.
Indeed Randy had NOT “reached out to me” in mid-September to “see if (I) would like to continue with the service.” Indeed, I did NOT wish to continue, nor did I wish to pay for the service I hadn’t used in two months. Had Randy “reached out” I would have said as much. Instead, I was on to other things and forgot all about it.
To their credit, the company did refund the money for the two extra months when I finally caught on. My point is that Randy, the guy who lured me into this program, was never seen or heard from again. My account log at the company probably showed the technical issues I had had originally; the delay in my being able to start the program at all. It now probably showed my call to the billing department—I’m guessing—and that I was unhappy enough to cancel my connection to the company altogether.
No word from Randy. Where I thought sending me flowers of apology were probably in order, Randy just drove off into the night.
Good branding and good customer service – customer service satisfaction – is all about following through on the promises you’ve made.
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