But Feek, isn't it "SUCS"? Yes, but this experience SUCD - Sudden Unexpected Customer Disservice.
...ok, so in this day and age disservice is usually expected, but "SECD" doesn't sound as good.
Everyone on this forum has had bad customer service and knows how it feels to be blown off by a company when you just want a problem resolved, so I'm not posting this as if it's new information that OMG PEOPLE TOTES NEED TO HEAR MY STORY!
I'm posting this because as a serial business owner, I've personally seen that one of the easiest ways to cultivate repeat customers and word of mouth advertising is through what MJ calls SUCS - Sudden Unexpected Customer Service...such a great term!
I'm posting this because I love to give people examples and lessons (that should be) learned. I'm always beating this drum to anyone that has a vested interest in having and retaining customers, from entrepreneurs on a forum to any team I've ever lead - up to and including software development teams. In fact, I'll be sharing this story with my team this morning during our daily standup.
My Story
Over the weekend, I bought a costume online for one of my sons. He's going to be in a parade the day before Halloween, and he's super excited to be wearing his new popular-like-you-read-about "Skylanders Trap Force Chop-Chop" costume. Ah, to be 9 again.
I was concerned because I was ordering on a Saturday and the parade is on Thursday. While I could order with overnight shipping, I don't know how efficient their warehouse is. As I checked out, I looked for a shipping options area, but I didn't see any. The banner on checkout said "order today and have it by Tuesday," though, so I figured the company would handle it behind the scenes like I've seen some companies do.
Fast forward to Tuesday and the package hasn't arrived, so my ex-wife asks me to check on the tracking. Sure enough, I look and it's shipped ground, set to be here sometime on Friday. In my head I can practically see the tears on my little boy's face and just thinking about it makes my heart break, so I give them a call to see why the site said Tuesday and then they shipped ground.
After explaining the issue, I tell the rep that I want to buy another costume, that I need it overnight, but I don't want to pay shipping because their website screwed up my first order by not giving me shipping options. From the first guy I get essentially "well, the options are there, so I don't know what to tell you."
Send me to your supervisor. Reticence and a "well, okay..." from him didn't make me hopeful for the responsiveness of this company.
I explain to the supervisor the issue and she says "I find it hard to believe that the shipping options weren't there," basically calling me a either liar or an idiot, neither of which I particularly enjoy being called. Having been in retail customer service as a younger man, I can understand the propensity for BELIEVING that, but to actually SAY it to a customer....well let's just say my fear of dealing with an unhelpful company seemed to be realized.
A little more conversation rolls by and I ask her what she was going to be able to do for me. This time I get "I can ask my supervisor, but I already know what he's going to say."
Business Lessons
That second supervisor ended up giving me free overnight shipping and even rushed the order through the warehouse for me. As a customer, does that matter? In a certain sense it does because my son will be happy to be able to show off his awesome costume that his cool dad (I can dream!) got for him, but I can tell you I'm not going to be ordering from them again.
What if I have a problem in the future? Am I going to have to fight with two disinterested levels of customer service to finally get it fixed?
That second supervisor did right by their customer, because why lose repeat money over $25? Unfortunately, he's not driving those values down to the front line people. There are many books on how to do this, a couple I've read just the past few weeks even give step-by-step instructions, so there's no real reason why he's leading his people the way he does.
There's always the possibility that I was trying to scam them. Could I have been a scammer? Maybe, but if you drive away 10 customers in order to stop 1 scammer, is it worth it?
Let's not focus only on the lost revenue from me by ignoring the opportunity cost as well. I'm never going to recommend that site to anyone, and if someone tells me they're going to buy from them you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to tell them my story.
Having 3 kids under 10, if I had a wonderful experience this company would have easily had a repeat customer (times 3!) for the next 4 or 5 years. That's a good $1500 just to save $25. The math doesn't work out very well.
Before you say "well, Feek, $1500 isn't very much, who do you think you are, Warren Buffet?", let me agree with you and then give you the other perspective; if customer service treated me like that, how many other customers have they treated like that? If they put off only 100 customers like me, that's $150,000 in lost revenue. It adds up quick.
This illustrates why in anything I run where I'm providing a product or service, one of my very top concerns is customer service. To me, "customer service" is a gold-standard phrase that I strive every day to achieve the best I can. Ignore it at your own peril.
...ok, so in this day and age disservice is usually expected, but "SECD" doesn't sound as good.
Everyone on this forum has had bad customer service and knows how it feels to be blown off by a company when you just want a problem resolved, so I'm not posting this as if it's new information that OMG PEOPLE TOTES NEED TO HEAR MY STORY!
I'm posting this because as a serial business owner, I've personally seen that one of the easiest ways to cultivate repeat customers and word of mouth advertising is through what MJ calls SUCS - Sudden Unexpected Customer Service...such a great term!
I'm posting this because I love to give people examples and lessons (that should be) learned. I'm always beating this drum to anyone that has a vested interest in having and retaining customers, from entrepreneurs on a forum to any team I've ever lead - up to and including software development teams. In fact, I'll be sharing this story with my team this morning during our daily standup.
My Story
Over the weekend, I bought a costume online for one of my sons. He's going to be in a parade the day before Halloween, and he's super excited to be wearing his new popular-like-you-read-about "Skylanders Trap Force Chop-Chop" costume. Ah, to be 9 again.
I was concerned because I was ordering on a Saturday and the parade is on Thursday. While I could order with overnight shipping, I don't know how efficient their warehouse is. As I checked out, I looked for a shipping options area, but I didn't see any. The banner on checkout said "order today and have it by Tuesday," though, so I figured the company would handle it behind the scenes like I've seen some companies do.
Fast forward to Tuesday and the package hasn't arrived, so my ex-wife asks me to check on the tracking. Sure enough, I look and it's shipped ground, set to be here sometime on Friday. In my head I can practically see the tears on my little boy's face and just thinking about it makes my heart break, so I give them a call to see why the site said Tuesday and then they shipped ground.
After explaining the issue, I tell the rep that I want to buy another costume, that I need it overnight, but I don't want to pay shipping because their website screwed up my first order by not giving me shipping options. From the first guy I get essentially "well, the options are there, so I don't know what to tell you."
Send me to your supervisor. Reticence and a "well, okay..." from him didn't make me hopeful for the responsiveness of this company.
I explain to the supervisor the issue and she says "I find it hard to believe that the shipping options weren't there," basically calling me a either liar or an idiot, neither of which I particularly enjoy being called. Having been in retail customer service as a younger man, I can understand the propensity for BELIEVING that, but to actually SAY it to a customer....well let's just say my fear of dealing with an unhelpful company seemed to be realized.
A little more conversation rolls by and I ask her what she was going to be able to do for me. This time I get "I can ask my supervisor, but I already know what he's going to say."
Business Lessons
That second supervisor ended up giving me free overnight shipping and even rushed the order through the warehouse for me. As a customer, does that matter? In a certain sense it does because my son will be happy to be able to show off his awesome costume that his cool dad (I can dream!) got for him, but I can tell you I'm not going to be ordering from them again.
What if I have a problem in the future? Am I going to have to fight with two disinterested levels of customer service to finally get it fixed?
That second supervisor did right by their customer, because why lose repeat money over $25? Unfortunately, he's not driving those values down to the front line people. There are many books on how to do this, a couple I've read just the past few weeks even give step-by-step instructions, so there's no real reason why he's leading his people the way he does.
There's always the possibility that I was trying to scam them. Could I have been a scammer? Maybe, but if you drive away 10 customers in order to stop 1 scammer, is it worth it?
Let's not focus only on the lost revenue from me by ignoring the opportunity cost as well. I'm never going to recommend that site to anyone, and if someone tells me they're going to buy from them you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to tell them my story.
Having 3 kids under 10, if I had a wonderful experience this company would have easily had a repeat customer (times 3!) for the next 4 or 5 years. That's a good $1500 just to save $25. The math doesn't work out very well.
Before you say "well, Feek, $1500 isn't very much, who do you think you are, Warren Buffet?", let me agree with you and then give you the other perspective; if customer service treated me like that, how many other customers have they treated like that? If they put off only 100 customers like me, that's $150,000 in lost revenue. It adds up quick.
This illustrates why in anything I run where I'm providing a product or service, one of my very top concerns is customer service. To me, "customer service" is a gold-standard phrase that I strive every day to achieve the best I can. Ignore it at your own peril.
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