Are You Losing Opportunities for Improvement?

Customer complaints: Get over the unpleasantness and do something

The other day, I visited a retail outlet of a wireless services provider to get information about its international roaming packages. The company has a few thousand outlets nationwide; they’re called “relationship centers” staffed with half a dozen employees who try to up-sell products and services to walk-in customers.

Strangely, when I asked the employees to tell me about international roaming packages, none of them could answer my query. Not only was this poor customer service, the untrained personnel were a root cause for lost revenue.

However, that turned out to be just the first in a series of surprises. When I asked the workers to find the information I needed, two of them suggested that I—the customer—call the customer service call center.

“I could have phoned customer service from home,” I said flatly, somewhat irritated. “When I’ve taken the trouble to walk in here, I expect you to provide the information I need. If you don’t know it yourself, why don't you call customer service and find out?"

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Comments

Did you actually complain to anyone?

Every point that you made, every suprise that you came across needs or needed to be addressed.

But apart from actually hearing you grinding your teeth between the lines

I didn't hear you complain to anyone.

Both systems were faulty

and should have been verified and validated when they were set up

and then checked/audited to see whether they were working as they should.

And you are correct that it is not enough for a worker to be polite in a "relationship center"

There is a need to be efficient.

To make sure that the customer (that is you) is satisfied.

But maybe next time if you write down and send the complaint to the correct person

Something might happen apart from you grinding your teeth.

Davo, Fyi, I did inform both

Davo,

Fyi, I did inform both the companies, and hopefully, they will make sure they don't miss these opportunities for improvement.

However, the 2 examples in the article are provided to make a larger point - the point of the article is "do NOT miss ANY opportunity for improvement".

While customer complaints - as you rightly point out - are an important source of continuous improvement, not every customer may take the trouble to complain. In a competitive environment where customers have plenty of choices, many customers will just take their business elsewhere. Hence, companies need to have their "antennas always up" to look for opportunities for improvement, rather than only wait for customers to complain.

Cheers