{"id":564,"date":"2009-11-18T10:04:38","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T10:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/11\/18\/customer-service-and-service-delivery-get-it-right\/"},"modified":"2009-11-18T10:04:38","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T10:04:38","slug":"customer-service-and-service-delivery-get-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/11\/18\/customer-service-and-service-delivery-get-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Service and Service Delivery – Get it right!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve not written a post like this in a while!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a couple of experiences over the last few days that reinforces how customer service and service are not mutually exclusive<\/p>\n

You need to get them both right if you want your business to stand out from the rest. This sort of thing is highlighted to me when dealing with larger companies<\/p>\n

In my last post I talked about my shiny new HTC Touch 2 Windows Phone<\/a>. Well guess what, it\u2019s broken \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

I was out watching my Sunday football team at the weekend (watching is all I\u2019m doing at the moment as I need a knee operation) and I\u2019d forgotten to charge my phone. By the time I got home the battery was dead so I hooked it up to the charger and left it<\/p>\n

When I checked on it few hours later the phone started up and shortly after the home screen was displayed the whole thing locked up. None of the buttons worked nor did the touch screen. I couldn\u2019t even power it off and had to either pop the battery out or press the soft reset button<\/p>\n

I performed a hard reset (press both the volume buttons and turn it on) but it was still the same<\/p>\n

So the following morning I called T-Mobile and braved their telephone menu system<\/p>\n

I spoke to a customer service agent who asked what the problem was<\/p>\n

I explained the problem, told her that I\u2019d tried a hard reset and said that the phone was unusable<\/p>\n

She asked if the problem occurred in specific menus on the phone or all menus. I said that I couldn\u2019t get into ANY menus. The phone locks up before then<\/p>\n

She said ordering a new one shouldn\u2019t be a problem and it would arrive tomorrow. So far so good I thought but it turns out there wasn\u2019t any stock. Service delivery fail!<\/p>\n

I needed to know where this put me as I was now without a phone<\/p>\n

She seemed surprised at this<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAre you not calling from the phone?\u201d,<\/em> she said<\/p>\n

my perplexed reply was, \u201cNo. I\u2019ve already said the phone is unusable\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou said that the problem only occurred in certain menus\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I said that I couldn\u2019t even get into ANY menus, the phone is unusable\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Customer service fail! You really need to listen to the customer when they are describing a problem<\/p>\n

She basically then said I had two options, wait for stock or take it my nearest service centre<\/p>\n

I asked where the nearest centre was and she gave me the address before adding,<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take it there the repair could take up to 28 days\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple fail! This isn\u2019t doing anything to solve my problem. I have phone I\u2019m paying for and can\u2019t use. Waiting 28 days isn\u2019t really an option I want<\/p>\n

She then told me that she would monitor the stock and call me the following day to let me know the phone was dispatched so I\u2019d get it the following day<\/p>\n

That was Monday, I didn\u2019t receive a phone call at all on Tuesday so I\u2019m not expecting any phone to show up today. <\/p>\n

Yet more fail! If you promise to do something for your customer, make sure you actually do it. If they hadn\u2019t received any stock so I wouldn\u2019t have been getting a phone today, at least keep me informed to that fact!<\/p>\n

In contrast I had to take my car to the garage recently. It\u2019s something I always dread as you hear lots of horror stories about people getting ripped off for work that doesn\u2019t need doing. <\/p>\n

However, the garage I go to have really good customer service, they did the exactly the work they said they were going to at a reasonable price and even sorted out a problem with car they probably should have charged me extra for<\/p>\n

In their reception area they have a notice board full of letters of thanks from previous customers. Recommendations from happy customers are always a good thing to see<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the difference between these two companies?<\/p>\n

Size<\/p>\n

As a small business it\u2019s really something that\u2019s critical. There are tons of garages I could have taken my car to so by making me into a happy customer they get my repeat business. It\u2019s a real differentiator<\/p>\n

For big business it\u2019s difficult to keep a high level of service across your whole company, there is also less competition and they all have similar problems<\/p>\n

So now I\u2019m off to ring T-Mobile again..that’ll be fun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve not written a post like this in a while! I\u2019ve had a couple of experiences over the last few days that reinforces how customer service and service are not mutually exclusive You need to get them both right if you want your business to stand out from the rest. This sort of thing is<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,8,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-customer-service","category-rants"],"yoast_head":"\nCustomer Service and Service Delivery – Get it right! - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/11\/18\/customer-service-and-service-delivery-get-it-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Customer Service and Service Delivery – Get it right! - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve not written a post like this in a while! 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