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Which side of the border between delight and alienation does your customer support fall? I can immediately think of three examples of alienation, but only two of delight.
Let’s deal with the “delight” ones first: a company promised to deliver something by a certain date. On the day, it kept me informed of the progress right up to giving me a live map of the delivery vehicle’s progress once it got near. Given that this was a provider (Yodel) who’d previously been in my bad books, I was beyond delighted. The other example was the internet hosting company (Merula) that set me up with a new web presence and email with superb efficiency.
Then, on the downside, was an internet hosting provider that I’d happily been with through many incarnations since the mid-1990s. A few years ago, I even switched my phone and broadband provision to the same company since it offered better value than its parent company, BT.
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to take advantage of a new, unstated, offer. I called the number provided only to learn that it was dropping all of its business accounts – the “offer” turned out to be to move me back to BT. The call centre claimed to know nothing about the fate of my hosted website and email. Because of my long and happy relationship, I assumed all would be taken care of and agreed to the transfer to BT. When I got the letter of regret that I was moving, I was somewhat shocked to learn that I was to be fined for terminating my contract early and that my website and email service would die.
Much scrabbling around ensued while I set myself up with a new provider, taking time to write to the business manager of the erstwhile provider suggesting that he re-script the call centre staff and abandon the issuance of fines when his own company had essentially bullied me into the switch. A phone call and an email from said supplier thanked me, agreed with my suggestions and promised immediate action. If you hadn’t guessed, this…
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