Tag Archives: Customer service

March 10, 2014 · 9:08 am

Calling Customers Stupid Is…

I love it when some company makes my life a little easier and provides the fodder for a post here on the screed. This time it was a car dealer here in town that provided that for us today.

You callin' me stupid?

You callin’ me stupid?

If you’ll look over at the graphic you’ll see what was in my email yesterday.  This was just the graphic part of the email – there was quite a bit of copy that dug the hole a little deeper.  It read:

Drop by our dealership any time during our regular service hours, even without an appointment, and we’ll adjust your vehicle’s clock for you — free of charge. While you’re here, make sure your vehicle weathered the winter and is ready for warm-weather excursions, with an optional multi-point inspection (please call for availability). Don’t waste any more time; visit our dealership and let us help you prepare for the days ahead. We look forward to serving you!

In other words, you’re too dumb to know how to change the clock on the car we sold you.  Let’s put aside the fact that the real purpose of bringing you in is that “multi-point inspection” which may or may not be free.  If you’re going to reach out to your customer base, shouldn’t the  basis of that offer be something of real value to the customer?  Maybe the email should have been instructions on how to change the clock over to daylight savings with an offer to do it for the customer if they’ll bring the car in?  That is providing value – this is an obvious ploy to get people to the service department.  Giving the instructions lets the customer solve the problem (to the extent there really is a problem) in a matter of a few minutes.  This way means the customer needs to take the time to go to the dealer and wait for a service person – a longer process.  The first solution helps the customer; the second is designed to help you.

If we’re going to be helpful to our customers, we should do so in a way that’s customer focused.  My immediate response here is that they think I’m stupid and calling customers stupid is…well…dumb!  Of course, these guys are pretty dumb themselves.  I sold the car they want me to bring in (back to them so they’re very aware) years ago.  They’ve obviously not updated their customer mailing list into “past” and “current” owners in quite some time (I sold the car seven years ago).  Who’s calling whom stupid now?

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January 23, 2014 · 11:40 am

Feeling The Love

I read something the other day that got me thinking.

Advertising

(Photo credit: Wrote)

Businesses spend over $200 Billion on advertising and yet surveys show that only 4% of customers trust advertising as a source of information about products and services.  I’ve written about this before and how word of mouth, consumer review sites, and other social media are far more important these days in many purchase decisions than is good old advertising.

Think about your own shopping habits.  You are interested in something, and the bigger the purchase (TV, technology, a car) the more likely you are to research the heck out of it.  Anyone you know bought something major without asking around or checking it out?   Much of the time, that “checking out” process happens in a physical store but many of us window shop online as well.  Maybe it’s advertising that precipitates the desire for a product but it’s what happens next that sells it.

I was in an unfamiliar store the other day and couldn’t find something.  I asked an employee who was replenishing the shelves where I might find the item, fully expecting an “aisle 5” sort of response.  Instead, he put down his box and walked me over to where the item should have been.  When it wasn’t there, he said “wait here” and went in the back to find me what I needed.  I was feeling the love and this store will be a regular part of my shopping.  Yes, it was advertising that got me in but had he just directed me to an aisle I would have left the store empty-handed, unlikely to return.

Maybe “customer love programs” needs to be a budget item.  Many retailers cut back on floor help after the holidays while increasing advertising.  Is that backwards?  Might money spent on customer service – read that as retaining existing customers – have a better ROI than on the ads designed to attract new ones?  A happy customer might not tell everyone about how great your products are unless they’re asked, but I can guarantee a large percentage of them (studies show 95% take action) WILL tell their friends how horrible you are (79% told others) should they be unhappy with you or have a bad experience.

We all have heard the old Attention -> Interest -> Desire -> Action paradigm, or  AIDA.  Maybe we need to get “show some love” in there somehow.  Thoughts?

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December 30, 2013 · 10:47 am

Most Read Posts Of 2013 – Part 3

Continuing to reblog the posts that got the most readership this past year, we come upon a post from just a month ago.  This one concerned the retailers who fined  a customer over a negative review.  Genius!  In the month since this was written, things have continued to slide downhill for the KlearGear folks, with lawsuits being the least of their worries.  Tens of thousands of negative articles have been written about this mess and it remains a fantastic lesson is what NOT to do in resolving customer complaints.

The holiday shopping season has begun in earnest and so today let’s remind ourselves about how some online businesses deserve the equivalent of a Darwin Award for killing themselves as this big opportunity arises.

Stupid IV

(Photo credit: LauraLewis23)

You might have heard about KlearGear.com, a $47million online retailer of what they call geek toys and goodies.  They deserve the aforementioned Darwin Award for resolving a dispute with a customer in a manner that will, in my opinion, destroy their business.  Let’s see what you think.

A customer ordered something from the company way back in 2008 which didn’t arrive.  The customer then posted a negative review on the web.  Nothing very unusual about this so far, I know.  What happened next is.  Some genius at KlearGear decided it would be a good idea to “fine” the customer $3,500 for disparaging the company, citing a clause in their site’s Terms Of Service that wasn’t even in those terms in 2008.  When the customer didn’t pay, they reported the $3,500 as a bad debt to credit reporting agencies, trashing the customer’s credit rating.  You can read the gory details here.

Unfortunately for the retailer, the customer fought back and looks set to win a $75,000 judgement against the company.  Frankly, that’s the least of the retailer’s worries.  The torrent of negative commentary on social media has prompted the company to hide its Twitter account and to close off other social points of contact because of the overwhelming response.  Of course, by going into hiding the company has pretty much destroyed its own reputation on the web.  My guess is that the rest of the business will follow.

This began with a $20 item.  Instead of accepting that there was a problem – perhaps even one of the customer’s own making (which it wasn’t) – and apologizing, KlearGear escalated the problem.  The lost $20 sale is now a potential $75,000 liability which pales by comparison to the millions of dollars of negative coverage they’re receiving.  As we’ve said before, when you’re doing business the right way, the need to moderate or control customer feedback doesn’t exist.  If your product or service is great, so too will be the general commentary about you on the web and social.  We’ve also talked about how it’s easier and more profitable to sell to repeat customers than to find new ones.  That’s a huge reason why the best retailers go out of their way to minimize (or get rid of!)  bad customer experiences.

This is a textbook case on how not to handle customer service or bad reviews.  It’s about as bad as it gets and reached new depths of business stupidity.  You agree?

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