The inspiration for this week’s blog came from an aborted weekend breakfast. You know the drill: a café waiter seats you, and then disappears. No coffee order, menu or chit-chat. Just 10 frustrating minutes trying to make eye-contact with waiters who think you are invisible.
So I left. Not angry, just dumbfounded at how businesses kill themselves with bad service. How hard can it be to give a customer a menu as they are seated? Or for department stores to have staff available when you want to pay for an item, having had no help in choosing it. Or for call centre staff to speak in a pleasant tone. The list goes on.
Dishing out bad service? We've got our eye on you.
Shocking customer service in too many industries inspiration for the first Venture annual Worst Customer Service Awards a few years ago. I figured: companies like to gush about their achievements and flimsy awards based on dodgy surveys, so why not let readers expose those with apparent disregard for paying clients.
So cast your vote in the 2011 Worst Customer Service Awards (by commenting on this blog) for the:
After years of awful service, it pains this blogger to say Telstra was a pleasure to deal with this year.
1. Australian company with the worst customer service in 2011.
2. Most frustrating call centre, voice-recorded message, or billing department.
3. Company with the biggest decline in customer service standards in 2011.
4. Worst example of shocking service.
In their short lifetime, the Worst Customer Service Awards have shown interesting trends and attracted hundreds of reader comments. In 2009, the telecommunication companies, especially Telstra, easily won the Worst Service gong.
In 2010, utilities companies bore the brunt of reader anger. Water, gas, electricity providers – take your pick, most managed to annoy customers with poor service, incomprehensible bill statements and alarming price rises. Surprisingly, the banks barely featured in the 2009 or 2010 awards.
My tip for 2011 is the retailers, especially the big department and discount stores. They find new ways to annoy customers and encourage shoppers to buy online – as much for the lower price, as the joy of not having to deal with shockingly bad service in big stores.
You can’t help wonder if weak retail sales are forcing big retailers to reduce customer service further, or if poor customer service is contributing to weak retail sales.
Call me crazy, but I would have thought much better service is the key to kick-starting sluggish sales. You know, trying to get someone to buy something extra when a sale is made. No rocket science there. But too many big retailers only seem interested in cutting costs. Customer service innovation seems like a foreign concept.
The good news is that excellent customer service stands out more than ever, and is a serious competitive advantage in a sea of poor help. There lies the opportunity for smart ventures.
Two of my best customer service experiences this year came from unexpected places. The first was Telstra. After years of awful service, it pains me to say the telco was a pleasure to deal with this year. Yes, it’s off a low base, but it only seems fair to note Telstra’s improved service – at least from my perspective – after criticising them in previous awards. Am I being too soft on Telstra?
Westpac provided the other customer service highlight. My call was answered reasonably quickly and a polite, attentive call centre operator solved the problem in a minute. I was so impressed that I took the unusual step of staying on the line to give the fellow a high customer service rating.
It’s appalling that two basic, positive customer service experiences with big companies stand out. They should be commonplace, but in so many industries we accept bad service as the norm.
The irony is that so much terrible service is easy to fix. In my earlier example, all the waiter needed to do was take my coffee order and offer a menu. Instead, my first visit to this café was the last.
Rude, frustrating service, no matter how good the product, can leave a sour taste in even the most patient customers.
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