Huh? What was that all about?

Stop! Don’t read any more of this if you don’t want to read a little rant that also includes a chat about my new £1500 aluminum investment… though I will try to bring up some things about service and human nature.

The last few days have been rather complicated for me. Working on the phones in my current job, and also dealing with the customer service teams at Apple. Over the past 24 hours I must have spent nearly 12 of them on the phone constantly. Though the question must be asked, How often do you find yourself on the receiving / giving end of bad customer service?

There’s an old saying, “Don’t bring your problems into work”. Easier said than done in most cases, but in my experience I seemed to get someone who was having a very bad day. Mainly my calls to Apple. My newly purchased computer developed a fault on the trackpad. Ok, so It’s new, and I accept that every now and then an (admittedly) minor thing happens.

Of course I call them and ask about a repair or replacement, and was told I could go to the Apple store to arrange this. This is the moment when it all went wrong here. Sure the guy was nice enough but he didn’t really check things through. Suffice to say that because I ordered online, I couldn’t replace it in store. Which meant that I had driven to and fro various places and made hours of phone calls.

Until of course I got through to the guy that actually took responsibility, admitted something had gone wrong and sorted the problem.

Two huge contrasts there for a problem that took almost a week to sort. When all that really had to happen was the first person could have gotten their facts straight.

It got me wondering at just how often I’ve done something similar. I worked for two years in a call center for a major bank and currently work on an IT service desk for an even larger more powerful entity. How often have I or you, been on the phone to a customer as part of our jobs and said something, all very nicely and then put the phone down and thought.. “oh, I should have said that”, which lead the customer on a very long escapade?

Obviously I try to do the very best I can in my job, but thinking hard about it, I’ve definitely done it. It’s amazing how eight words in this case could have saved me a lot of time, effort and worry. (those words being “It can’t be replaced at the Apple store”)

Of course it’s equally true on the flip side. How amazing that one person in twenty minutes could so easily sort everything out by simply being an outright star at his job. Again, how often have you picked up the phone and been on the giving or receiving end of a call where you could simply have taken ownership and gone the extra mile to sort something out for someone once and for all.

Again, I’m ashamed to admit that I might not have done that all the time I’ve been on both ends of the call, and certainly some people I’ve spoken to simply don’t want to know.

How many of us believe that we truly put our all into a job and do the best that we can possibly do, and then on looking back we suddenly realize that we could have done so many things differently.

Amazingly my call was to a multi billion pound company that is renowned for excellent customer service. I had the best, and the worst of it all in one day. Of course, there are millions of other customers, I am truly nothing to them. But my decision to buy was based partly on the customer service aspect, and whilst I’m satisfied with my resolution, I can’t help but be left with a slightly sour taste. I’ve literally seen the best and the worst of a company all in one day. So for me, the reputation has been damaged, but not irreparably, owing to one person alone.

Again, it’s amazing how little we do, or don’t do that can lead to such a drastic change in perceptions. For me, wanting to set up a small business based on what I do on this website, something like that could loose me thousands of pounds a year, but it could also make me thousands.

How often do you really think about what you’re doing? Honestly and truthfully can you say every waking moment of every day be it with friends, family or the customers or colleagues you deal with that you know precisely what you were doing, and gave exactly the right information, and cared?

Makes you think, doesn’t it?