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Two phrases for improved customer service

May 7, 2008 – 9:04 am

Poor customer service sucks!

What happened to great (or even good) customer service?

• I’m tired of getting my order screwed-up whenever I go through a drive-thru lane
• I’m tired of dealing with any customer service representative who cannot (or will not) take the time to smile at me
• I’m tired of waiting for the “bug” guy or the “cable” guy or anyone else who doesn’t understand how an appointment system works
• I’m tired of these same people (who abuse their appointment system) and their apparent refusal to use a telephone to alert me to their inability to live up to their commitments.

(photo courtesy of Finsec)

Two phrases that I have used within the past couple of months with great results

Within the past couple of months, I have been faced with two serious customer service situations. The first involved poor customer service that had a direct and huge impact on my business. The second situation was personal and involved my mother’s health and well-being.

1. “That’s Not Acceptable”

Back in February, The Birmingham News ran an article ( Industrial Mechanic invents tool to improve shoulder mobility, finds niche in athletics ) about the Rotater. This article resulted in a huge traffic spike to our website which caused it to crash. I wrote about it in an article entitled “The Good Stuff, The Bad Stuff and The Other Stuff”.

A couple of weeks later, this same article was picked up on the newswire and ran in the Ann Arbor Press under the title of “A Shoulder To Lean On”. Great traffic, lot’s or orders, our website crashes again.

(photo courtesy of dboy)

After the initial crash I spent a couple of days researching the source of the problem. I was getting a Wordpress error message whenever I (on anyone else) tried to access Shoulder Performance & Rehab.

Thanks to the great people who take the time to post about situations like this one, I discovered that the hosting service that I was using at that time had a built-in traffic regulator that had tripped due to our large traffic increases.

I called customer service, waited for about an hour and finally spoke with someone who understood that problem. He quickly corrected the problem, but didn’t spend any time informing me about future crashes and what to do.

Shoulder Performance & Rehab Crashes Again

When the article ran again in the Ann Arbor Press, our blog crashed again. No problem I thought ( I was naive ) – I’ll just call customer service again.

This time, when my call was answered (after a hour), I quickly explained the situation thinking that the problem would be quickly remedied. I was wrong. The person who answered the customer service phone was not a customer service rep, but “screener”. She told me that she would take my message and have a “customer service rep” or technician call me in 2 – 4 hours.

Living Personal Growth and Development

In the past, her response would have spurred a tirade of anger from me and would have resulted in me slamming the phone in disgust, but thankfully, I really try to live the stuff that I write about.

I told the “screener” that her answer “was not acceptable”. I think that she was shocked because the phone was silent for several seconds ( you must be willing to wait them out). She tried again to tell me that there was nothing that she could do and I simply responded with “that’s not acceptable”. Again, several seconds of silence – but I waited too.

Wait ‘em out!

Finally (I think it was due to her inability to get rid of me) she called her supervisor. He came on the phone and took care of the problem and explained to me that if my site crashed again then they had the right to cancel my service. I quickly changed my hosting service provider from IPOWERWEB to HOSTGATOR. (I’ve had no problems with HOSTGATOR to date, am very happy with the service and my site seems faster!)

If you are having problems with poor customer service, then I encourage you to use the “that’s not acceptable” response any time that the person that you’re dealing with tries to do something other than your request or provide a reasonable alternative. You must be:

• willing to wait silently while they “digest” your response
• willing to repeat this phrase, because they will attempt to tell you that there is nothing else that they can do
• willing to ask to speak with someone else
• willing to stay completely calm during the whole situation

This phrase has worked for me and it will work for you.

2. “We Are Not Happy”

Last Tuesday (April 29^th), I received a phone call at about midnight telling me that my mother was in the emergency room with severe abdominal pains. I rushed to the hospital and waited with her, my father and my sister for several hours. The emergency room was not busy.

Initial diagnosis

When a physician finally examined my mother, we were told that it appeared to be appendicitis, but they would have to run a CT scan for confirmation. This required my mother to drink some hideous dye solution and the wait three hours for it to make its way down to her intestines.

After the CT scan, we were told that she did not have appendicitis. It “appeared” that she had diverticulitis. The physician said my mother could go home or she could be admitted to the hospital. Either way, she would be treated with antibiotics and high-powered narcotics for the intense pain.

Into the hospital

My mother chose to be admitted to the hospital, which surprised everyone. My mother has the highest pain tolerance of any person that I know. She once took care of my grandmother (following my grandmother’s open heart surgery) for two weeks with a completely separated shoulder. My mother had fallen in the parking lot on the morning of my grandmother’s surgery.

I had the same injury from a skiing accident and I cried like a “little girl” every time I moved.

Too much pain

My mother chose to stay in the hospital because she could not tolerate the pain. We were told that within a couple of days, there should be some improvement. There was no improvement and seemingly no alternative plan.

By Friday, I was livid. The physician was evasive and appeared unwilling to do anything else. My mother’s pain was worse and she was asking for more pain medication every 12 hours.

We are not happy!

Friday afternoon, I had to leave the hospital, but I told my father to speak with the physician and find out what is going on. My father did not feel comfortable “questioning” the doctor’s diagnosis, but I had no problems with it, so I wrote the following on the whiteboad that is mounted on the wall:

1. We Are Not Happy!
2. What is the diagnosis?
3. What tests are scheduled to confirm this diagnosis? why or why not?
4. What are our treatment options?
5. Why is my mother in so much pain?

The physician is indignant

I called my father later that night and was told that the physician had come in during rounds and found my note. He became quite angry but scheduled another CT scan for Saturday morning. Thank God.

The second CT scan found that my mother’s small intestine was obstructed. A surgeon quickly came to see my family and explained that they would try to relieve the pressure on her intestine by pumping my mother’s stomach and lower intestine. If this didn’t work, then she would have to have emergency surgery.

It didn’t work and my mother had emergency surgery on Sunday. The surgeon had to remove about 3 – 4 inches of my mother’s small intestine. The change has been dramatic.

Although she has an eight inch wound, her abdominal pain is gone (except for the new scar).

Don’t be afraid to challenge authority

(photo courtesy of Citizen Mira)

It seems to me that people are willing to accept anything that a person in authority says as gospel. This seems especially true of physicians, clergymen and lawyers. Hey, they are people just like you and I. They overlook things and they make mistakes. Ask for explanations and clarifications.

If someone is being vague, then there is a reason. Call them on it. Your life may depend on it.

Tags: customer+service, web+host+provider, the+Rotater, righteous+indignation

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How is your shoulder performance and flexibility?

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