I haven’t been mad in a while. One day last week, I found a good excuse to get upset. My movie rental company sent me Volume 4 of a four-volume TV series. The problem was I didn’t get Volume 3 yet. To add salt to the wound, Volume 2 was received before Volume 1 the week before! Was the movie rental company suffering from service dyslexia or what!
I did what I try never to do. Pick up the telephone and let them have it. I expected a series of rings and a long wait. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Mike, who took my call was very polite, very cool and seemingly unperturbable.
He said: “I can’t believe that happened. Your queue must have listed Volume 4 before Volume 3 and that’s why you got Volume 4 first.” Hmmm… the guy was obviously loyal to his employer and he showed it!
I said: “No. I always check my queue to make sure that everything’s right. A mistake was made at your shipping end and I find it unacceptable. Last week, I received Volume 2 before I could watch Volume 1. Now I get the final episodes before I’ve watched what happened before. It’s totally unacceptable!” I silently wished that Mike could envision a female version of Donald Trump at the other end of the line… only with a better hairstyle.
The telephone contact ended with Mike repeatedly apologizing for the incident and giving the assurance that Volume 3 would be shipped out right away. He made my day and made me wish that Customer Service Representatives in every company would have his customer-driven attitude and sound the way he did. Unfortunately, most of the time customers get in contact with so-called “Customer Care” people who sound like they really would much rather be doing something else!
To company managers, even CEO’s: Call your company once in a while to check on your Customer Service staff. If you’re lucky, you might hear a smiling voice accompanied by a "I'm-genuinely-here-to-assist-you" kind of attitude. If not, you just might get a rather rude awakening!
