I am a firm believer in customer service. It is not a difficult trade as most of us know from experience. I have worked in many service industries including IT, the railroad, education, and consulting.
I am also a consumer. Sadly I understand that small town customer service is very different from big city customer service and the every-so-freightening global customer service. Those of us who have worked in customer service know that word of mouth travels faster when something negative happens. I believe the ratio is 10/1. I appreciate the word-of-mouth marketing theory and I support it. For this reason I will be posting any time I have a good or bad experience alike.
But for this post I have to do a little 2008 catch-up. I have two good and two bad experiences to share to keep it fair.
UPS - They have a decent online business account system, they have decent customer service, and their drivers/delivery people are awesome! This is most important since they are the face of the company. Specifically there was a time when I was in a pinch at work that I decided to forget trying to work with the 'other' service and go with trusty UPS. It was 6:45, the last pick-up in the good area of KC was at 7:00 and I was trying my hardest to get there in time. Otherwise it was to the East Bottoms for the 8:00 pick-up - YIKES!
So there I am balancing a HUGE box as I tryed to stumble across the downtown sidewalks in massive need of repair (welcome to Missouri) in my high heels. I was about to enter the parking garage to walk up the 7 flights of stairs to my car when that big brown truck came rolling down the street. This super nice UPS guy stoped right in front of me and came out with a big smile on his face and took my box. MADE MY DAY!
Fedex/Kinkos - Imagine the same situation only a month or so before. I first went to the Fedex/Kinkos in my building only to be ingored by three people working there and no other customers in sight for about 10 minutes. Then I had to go to the Plaza location to make the 7:00 drop off and was glared at by the Kinkos workers as well as the Fedex driver for getting there at 6:55. They did one of those dramatic glances at the clock to make sure they actually had to help me. ZERO customer service skills.
And their online business service is pathetic.
BUT in defense - I do really like their drivers, especially our good friend Jamie!
Lands' End - Great customer service. You call in, get through to someone right away, and they are VERY helpful and sweet and great follow-through. I like their catalogs, and their promotions, lots of good deals. Their products are decent, but they do run large.
Samsung - Horrible customer service and faulty products. I have a Samsung phone and have had the worst time with their accessories, I understand that this is a small portion of their overall products but regardless, it matters. So I had this specific accessory go bad on me twice, the first time Verizon just gave me a new one, the second time it seemed to be the adapter which I could only get from Samsung directly. So after I sat on the phone for 60 minutes and was transfered at least seven times the conclusion was that I could buy a new one for $13 (why would I do that? It is faulty!) or to send it back at my expense and wait for 6 weeks for a new one. I then asked if I could get 3 for the next 3 times it was going to go out on me and of course that was not an option. So I verified with the woman that every 6 months I would have to pay money to send it in and wait 6 weeks for a new one back. It didn't seem to matter when I told her that an easy fix for me was to never buy a Samsung product again. She said "I can understand why you would choose that". WHAT?!? Yes, I could have ordered this adapter through them but that takes 6 weeks to get anyhow even if I pay! You can only get them through the retailer if you buy the phone too. What an unnecessary mess. I will never buy a Samsung product again.
*BONUS*
Centerbeam - They are our outsourced IT company for my job. I have to call them all the time and it is hit or miss if they can actually help, but instead of focusing on that, I would like to focus on the fact that they GAVE me an 80 Gig Video iPod! Just for filling out a survey. I love them!! Yes, you can buy my customer service love.
I have three more but I think this is enough for now. But just as an FYI - Pitney Bowes is aweful, but its not like they have much competition. Hallmark Business Expressions has good intentions but really messed up on our Christmas card order for the office, and Shutterfly has very professional customer service for those of us that do not know what we are doing.
Does anyone have any to add??
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