Sun, June 20, 2004
It's the customer service, stupid—11:35 AM
I'm traveling to Chicago Thursday thru Saturday for a conference, and I'm flying American because they had the best direct flights. The USC travel agency booked the flight for me back in April, and at the time I didn't have an AAdvantage (frequent flier program) account. Since I booked another flight with American last week, I now have an AAdvantage account and I thought it would be nice to be able to earn miles for next week's trip while I was at it.
I called American, pressed like three buttons, and a friendly young lady took my information and set it up so that I would earn miles for the Chicago trip. I didn't even have to wait on hold on a Sunday morning. Total call time: maybe five minutes. And some of that was me having to go through the menus more than once because I was playing a video game at the time, and not paying close attention.
Contrast to AT&T Wireless who tortured me for an hour in their store and another hour or so on three separate phone calls, all just because I want to get rid of my 2 1/2 year old phone and get a new one. Or, of course, Canon. They still have my camera that I was hoping to take with me to the windy city next week. I'll be calling them in the morning to check status, but I'm hardly hopeful.
(Rebecca at Drive Savers was also really sweet yesterday, although that hardly counts; the Drive Savers folks can afford to be nice – the average customer spends a few thousand with them. TiVo on the other hand, as much as I love them, disappointed me a tad. I described my problem and got kicked up to Senior Tech Support, just so they could tell me that I needed to send it in. The JV squad couldn't have said, "Send it in"?)
There's been a teensy upswing in economic indicators (which the Bush administration believes thereby absolves them of any mishandling of the economy). If we have any chance of snowballing that into real growth, I think it's essential that companies relate to their customers in a pleasant, helpful, and efficient manner. These days, if I get halfway decent customer service, I'm shocked; a few years ago, I would have been surprised by bad customer service.
Brandon — Mon, 6/21/04 4:55pm
I agree. Whenever I am forced to forge the deadly waters of phone-based customer service (that is to say, when I can't beg off and get my wife to do it), I go in expecting the worst. And more often than not, it seems that's just what I get.
I must add that I hate, HATE, dealing with automated customer service systems, particularly voice-activated ones. I remember being so frustrated by one a few months ago that I finally just let loose a cavalcade of nonsense and profanities until I was transferred to a live person. (I wonder if they have that rant on tape...) If I've got a problem that needs fixing, I just prefer talking to a live person. Come on big business, just gimme the live person.
Amazingly enough, my BEST recent customer service-related experience came from... the L.A. County Jury System! (AUDIBLE GASPS, SOME FAINTING) I got the dreaded summons and called to see if being a stay-at-home dad fell under the "full-time care of another person" category of being excused from jury duty. (Yes, it does) After being excruciatingly frustrated by their automated system at night, I called in during the day and got 1) promptly transferred to a live person, 2) all my questions answered, and 3) help removing my name from the list for the week I had been assigned to while I sent in my paperwork and wait for a final decision from a judge, or judges, or Judge Reinhold, whoever it is that makes these final decisions.
So the moral of the story is, the next time you have a problem that requires customer assistance, call the L.A. County Superior Court. Chances are, they will be of greater assistance.
Bee Boy — Mon, 6/21/04 6:39pm
Clearly, the LA Jury System is basing its selection on this site's readership. Mulder and I got our summons for the same week. I was similarly flummoxed by the automated system (it asked questions I couldn't answer, and then wouldn't re-ask them when I called back, armed with the answers). I'm delighted to add that I, too, found them to be extraordinarily helpful (if gruff) the next day when I talked to a real person.
My first go-around with American Airlines (last week, different issue) included voice-activated systems, and when I tried to pronounce my record locator (six-letter code) it went haywire. If I spoke slowly, it interrupted me after three. If I went faster, it got three out of six wrong. Finally, I just went with "Fuuuuuuckkkk Yooouuuuuuu!" and it said "Please hold while I connect you to a representative."
Brandon — Mon, 6/20/05 12:27am
Hey, I think this was my very first onebee comment post! Happy onebee anniversary to me!
Bee Boy — Wed, 6/14/06 1:25pm
Aha! It seems that perhaps some systems are programmed to recognize this sort of thing:
Skip straight to the operator with your dirty mouth
Also interesting – it's linked in the post, so it's not like I'm doing anything revolutionary here – GetHuman, a database of secret numbers to talk to actual people.