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Topic: Management Improvement
Double Trouble, Don Oldenburg, Washington Post:
He called Verizon to complain. “The customer service representative said that they knew they’ve been having an issue with their system double-billing,” Stevenson said. “When I asked if they were taking any steps to remedy this by notifying their customers . . . or refunding money, they simply said ‘no,’ that most people call when they notice that they’re being overcharged.”
What do I find most surprising about this? That the customer service representative actually said they were doing nothing. The idea that they would choose to do nothing is not that surprising to many, I would guess.
So, Verizon claims something else. Just a coincidence that the fix is not made before the person gets the interest of the Washington Post and the Post calls to find out what is going on I guess. My experience did not give me the impression they were focused much on what was important to me as a customers. The service I received seemed to be what I would expect from a company very focused on the idea that the objective of the company is to increase profits at the expense of everyone else. They do not seem to share Dr. Deming’s belief that the customer, workers, owners, suppliers… are all part of a system and the company exists to benefit all the stakeholders. As the President of Toyota explained:
To our employees, we must provide a workplace where they can work with pride based on mutual trust and responsibility between labor and management, and respect for people.
Verizon’s ads say:
Well, the network is important, but so is customer service. I think the sentiment they express informs us about their mentality. And I don’t trust their customer service. If I did, I would get their FIOS service. But I just don’t trust them to serve me in the way I would trust: Google, Amazon, Toyota… If those companies were offering FIOS I would get it.
I even came close to getting it through Verizon, but using their web site and then talking to their service representatives was so painful, I was reminded what it was like dealing with them, in the past, and I thought better of entering into business with them again. It just isn’t worth risking being stuck dealing with poor customer service.
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January 11th, 2006 at 1:07 am
I am with you on this one as a consultant that works in the training of companies in customer service industries the Telco and IT based industries have the lion share of complaints. In part it is because of big buck dividends for CEO rewards and shareholder profitability. Mostly it’s just the lack of consideration for others. Most upper management is isolated by reports and IT programming that they wouldn’t know the real world if the bumped into it.
Of course unless it happens to them and sometimes it does. Another issue is that in large corporations it is difficult and expensive to create company policies that would provide the level of customer service that customers would like and certainly should respect.
My advice to them is you better start listening before the customer revolts and puts you out of business.
Ask Dell what its like to loose 14% market share because of a blogging campaign by 2 unhappy customers.
Small businesses need to sit up and listen well too. Good Customer policy development can make a difference in the short term and long term development of your business.
http://cdccustomerservice.blogspot.com
http://customerdevelopmentcenter.com
June 15th, 2007 at 11:14 am
They charged me for charges I didn’t authorize. They then force me through their maze of policies telling me that it was not possible to be more customer friendly - their policies couldn’t be any different they were the policy (as if that made any sense)…
August 19th, 2007 at 10:11 am
It is sad to see so many examples of bad customer service. I wish enough companies would adopt management improvement principles so that at least I could avoid dealing with the others altogether…
June 10th, 2008 at 10:42 am
With some market that is even remotely in the area where a capitalist free market was in place, it is very simple to not have to deal with companies that treat customers horribly (like Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable…) you just chose another company to deal with…
August 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
As I’m the person being quoted, I wanted to make sure the article wasn’t taken out of context. The problem I had with Verizon wasn’t with Verizon Wireless… which, at the time, was essentially a separate entity. Also, there were no other choices when it came to local phone service so the comment to switch companies is moot.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
This strategy levels the load by pushing around demand a bit (rather than just accommodating whatever demand exists - real world conditions can make this the correct strategy)…
December 15th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
This idea is powerful yet ignored by most companies. Management must look at the best way to improve the entire system not to lower the cost per support call…