Recently the internet went down at home, so I thought I would spend a couple of hours trying to communicate with the provider’s answering machine. The recording says; “In order to speed the process would you say or enter your last name?” Ok, I will say it. “I am sorry I did not understand, would you say or enter your last name?” Ok, I will enter it. “I am sorry I did not understand, let’s try something else.” “Would you say or enter your zip code?” So on and on the recording goes with no end in sight, until finally it says; “You know you can solve most problems by logging on to our website.” Ah yes, I almost forgot, that is why I am calling. Now if you are lucky, the recording will say “let me connect you with a representative, but before I do please select from the list as to why you are calling.” After listening to the list I select number 8 – none of the above. The phone starts to ring only to be answered by another recording that tells you that “All our representatives are busy and the wait time will be one hour and twenty minutes, or if you wish to leave your number someone will call you back within forty-eight hours.”
This seems to be the standard customer service recording implemented by most companies, and if you ever do get through you can see if the girl in the Philippines can solve your problem or if you will need to talk to the guy in India. This is not what I consider to be customer service; it is more akin to customer frustration. When I first started my career in customer service some forty years ago, the GE Answer Center was the premier operation in the country. I visited the center once and took a tour, and then later we had one of their representatives come to McDonough and train our staff on how to treat customers.
The answer center only hired people with neutral accents, who were trained to answer the phone, listen to the problem, show empathy, solve the problem, and if necessary trade up to the next most expensive model. By the end of the call you have established a new best friend who sincerely cares about your problem and is happy to solve it. We were not able to implement all of the suggestions into our system, especially the neutral accents, but our customer service was greatly improved by this training.
Today it is uncommon to even have the phone answered, and no one is going to call you back. I have always answered my phone and called folks back as soon as I get the message. This sometimes catches people off guard; they spend the first minute of the call saying: I can’t believe you called me back, that was really fast, thank you for calling me back. Sometimes I have to ask them what they were calling about to snap them out of the fact that someone called them back.
Obviously, I can’t solve everyone’s problem, and quite often the issue does not fall in an area over which I have jurisdiction. I provide them with the phone number of the correct authority and if they say that they have talked to them and that they are the ones who told them to call me, this client has just found a new best friend. So if you are in a position to deal with the public, answer your phone, listen to the issue and resolve it. When the world finally rejects this insane way of handling customer service, you may be the most qualified to lead the way.
Frank Hancock has worked as a Farm Manager, Vocational Agriculture Teacher, Vice President at Snapper. He retired as the University of Georgia Agricultural Extension Agent in Henry County. He is a also a member of the Heritage Writers Group.
