The Customer Experience: Service

I was on the phone with my cell phone provider a couple of months ago; trying to accomplish some edits and changes to my service plan. (I had just moved to a new location and figured that I should change my number to a local one.) Also, for some reason I had been overcharged more than two hundred dollars and after thorough examination of the bill, I still could not figure out the reason why. I have dealt with this company in the past on many occasions and let me say that I was not looking forward to this call. But, not wanting to procrastinate on something like this, I buckled down and prepared for the inevitable, in this case a two hour phone conversation.

Not wanting to give you an entire transcript, I will break this experience down to two sections, positive and negative. We will start with the positive, which unfortunately was only one thing and that would be the person I talked to, his name was Pete. Pete was kind and courteous, most importantly he was attentive and honest. These are key qualities in customer service. At no point did Pete make me feel ignored. He checked back in with me every thirty seconds if he had to put me on hold and tried his best to make sure I was happy. In fact he made such an impression on me that even though my issues were not completely resolved in the end (we will get to that later) I still remember the experience with him to this day.

As I said earlier, the phone call lasted nearly two hours, which in any situation is an hour and fifty minutes too long. In order to get to Pete I had to be transferred three times, having to explain why I was calling to each person I spoke to. As friendly as Pete was, he was insufficiently trained, having to ask someone else how something was done at least three times. It took nearly four hours for my phone to work properly after the call, due to the way their system works, (which in my job can be very inconvenient), so I had to call back from a separate line twice for them to correct the issue, each call taking another twenty minutes out my day. It turns out that the overcharge was due to me having the incorrect plan set up, so understanding that, I had them change it to the right one. However, when I got my phone bill last month the plan still had not been revised, so let’s add another three hundred dollars to my bill. Unfortunately, as great as Pete was, it did not make up for the time, energy and frustration I spent rectifying the situation.

All of us have had experiences like this one; it is the state of almost every call center support department out there. We have all dealt with being passed around from department to department, or my personal favorite “Let me give you the phone number to…….” We tell the same story to thirty people, none of whom passes along the reason why you’re calling to next person you talk to. We all want to call one number, and have the person on the other line listen to what you have to say and help you right there, or worst case, get you to the person who can, and pass along all the necessary information so the matter can be resolved promptly.

As Director of Customer Experience at DialAGeek, it’s my mission to make sure that when you call asking us for help, not only do you have a person like Pete answer the phone, but that person is equipped with all the tools to help you fix your issue promptly and completely, and when you hang up the phone or log off your computer, you walk away with a smile on your face want to tell your friends and family about your positive customer service experience with us.