I figured I would try something new tonight. I’m angry… furious actually. I’m so sick and tired of dealing with companies that just flat out suck when it comes to customer service. Is it really that hard to provide adequate updates for someone? Is it wrong to expect a company to contact you proactively if they break something? Not in my books…

It’s no secret that I have always strived to provide the best customer service possible to anyone I’m assisting. Whether it’s a support ticket online, a PC repair offline or even dealing with my grandma… I always stay in touch, keep proactive and basically bend over backwards to make whomever I’m dealing with feel 100% relaxed, knowing I have things under control at all times. If only this same model could be applied by other companies.

This leads me into what sparked this blog post. Sunday afternoon I paid a server administration company to do a one-time script installation for me. Now almost 3am on Tuesday morning and I’ve lost money and most importantly, my time. I’ve spent hours of waiting for responses from a company that just has no clue how to service customers correctly.

So I figured instead of taking to a forum and posting my anger (just makes yourself and your company look silly), I would post this in hopes that anyone reading it who runs a company could take a step back and make sure you’re truly doing the best you can to make your customers happy… especially when something is broken… that’s when they need you most.

Reason #5 Why Your Customer Service Sucks

You didn’t pay enough attention to what I had to say.

In my situation this weekend, my dealings with this 3rd party company were through a support ticket system which is basically back and forth messaging. The second message I sent this company had three sentences… three… that’s not many is it? Somehow this company managed to completely overlook my comment in the second sentence and proceeded to respond with a follow-up question asking what I had already answered. Why is this a problem you ask? It’s a problem because I had left my computer at this point. I was spending time with my wife and children. I came back three hours later to find NOTHING had progressed while I was gone due to this question waiting on me for an answer I had already provided. I can’t tell how infuriating this is to have happen.

Reason #4 Why Your Customer Service Sucks

You weren’t properly prepared with all the details.

If you’re in a business where the actions you do can have a major impact on your clients company, be sure you know all the details before making any changes / performing the task at hand. The administration company I was dealing with from Sunday until earlier today failed to ask the proper questions about our server configuration before starting their task. I was just a new client looking for some help. It shouldn’t be left on me to figure out 12 hours later that they forgot to ask an important question when I signed up which has resulted in multiple website impacting errors that now continue almost 36 hours later. If only they had asked that one important question when I signed up. I’d be sleeping right now instead of typing this!

Reason #3 Why Your Customer Service Sucks

You made assumptions that cost us both time and money.

This is possibly the reason that drives me the most crazy when it comes to support technicians or other people trying to help resolve a problem for your company. They make assumptions instead of taking the 5 minutes to touch base with you and see what you, the client, would prefer. In my situation with this administration company, I can count a good 4 times they went ahead and did things without asking me first. And on each one of those occasions I had to respond back asking questions, requesting fixes, etc. All things that cost both myself and that company time and money. It just doesn’t make sense to me how some companies operate like this on a daily basis and fail to see just how inefficient it is. Not to mention how frustrating for the client and terrible for your reputation.

Reason #2 Why Your Customer Service Sucks

You need a lesson in communicating with clients. Allow me to school you.

Have you ever written an email to a company asking a couple questions only to get back a one word answer or an answer to one question but not the others? It happens to me all the time and frankly, I’m sick of it. Is it really that hard to read a two paragraph email and address the 2-3 concerns that are raised within it? It sure was for the company I had the joy of dealing with the past few days. And let’s not forget the countless “we’ll respond back shortly” messages that are followed up by a couple hours of no communication. Do these companies not realize what it’s like to be left in that mental state of unknown? As a business owner, you’re likely a lot like me and want control over everything. If I can’t have control, I at least want constant communication. And don’t tell me an update every 30-45 minutes is asking too much. I have no sympathy at all. We please thousands of customers monthly and we’re just a small family business.

Reason #1 Why Your Customer Service Sucks

You had no problem causing me days of grief and offered nothing in return.

I basically paid money on Sunday afternoon to have my website go down, the initial reason for my purchase to go unfixed and to have extra errors created. All happening over a long, frustrating 36 hours. This is valuable time I could have spent developing my company or playing with my young children. Instead, I’m sitting at my PC going on almost 4am and you take no remorse in causing such a mess? You were aware of all the grief you caused my company and you don’t even offer up an apology, a refund, nothing!? Whatever happened to integrity? What about your company / personal reputation? I personally can’t sleep at night if I know a client is upset with me. It doesn’t happen often but when it does you need to stop everything and make things right.

Your company reputation is all you have. Don’t allow something as easy as communication to mean the difference between a happy client and one who despises you. Take pride in what you sell, how you sell it and how you support it. Your clients will thank you for it. I promise.

See, now wasn’t that a little more constructive then an angry forum posting? I think so! I feel a lot better now too!

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone.