Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Jeff — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:13:15 GMT

That is wonderful; thanks for sharing. Having had a rather poor customer service experience myself just yesterday (which had me stranded in Chicago, getting wet in the rain for far longer than I wanted - and has me extremely tired at work today), I can sympathize entirely with your ordeal. The customer service in question for me was that of a bus service who repeatedly told their customers to call a different number, which either hung up or offered wildly different advice from "it's cancelled" to "15 minutes" to "we're experiencing delays"...really? Hadn't noticed.

I hope your lawn gets mowed. :)

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:28:14 GMT

And of course actually it should be "YOU are experiencing delays". The customer service guy is not experiencing any delay.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Peter — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:32:44 GMT

They're obviously trained in some form of customer service, otherwise the flowery language in their responses wouldn't have been quite as, um, flowery or polished. What makes this interesting/unique is that you're not complaining here on your blog about the specific incident, but about how flawed their system is.

And when we start talking about systems, we're back in familiar territory :)

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Clinton Pierce — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:41:16 GMT

Good service to your readers would include naming names. I doubt we'll all wind up with the same Lawn Guy, but it would be nice to know which Referral Service is a customer service nightmare waiting to happen.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:56:15 GMT

A number of people have pointed that out.

It is of course tempting to name names. And this is a major multinational referral service we're talking about here, so yes, it could be you next.

I think what I'll do is allow Referral Service some time to respond to my concerns. I want to emphasize that I'm not particularly angry or upset by this whole ridiculous situation -- I am amused. I've obtained another gardener and apologized to my housemate and all is well. I just think it is funny how I can specifically say three times what it is they need to do to win their customer, and yet they obstinately refuse to do so.

If I don't hear back from them in the next while, I'll forward this on to their CEO and see if senior management has anything to say.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

daniel — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:09:03 GMT

Too funny! Thanks for posting.

Daniel

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Tim — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:59:22 GMT

At risk of beating a dead horse... By telling us who the service is you would A) be doing everyone a service by holding them more accountable and B) taking a step in the direction of providing more fertile ground for a competitor to rise up and fill the demand for decent service in this area.

We should know who this company is so we can vote with our dollars and go somewhere else. This is the beauty of a free market system, it punishes those who fail to provide what people want and rewards those that provide what people want.

Go ahead and punish!! They obviously deserve it. Help us give our money to the better company.

(I'm speaking in terms of principle. Your blog post probably won't have the affect I mention directly, but my point is that we should not be shy about delivering market punishment to those who provide bad service)

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Lisa — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:06:19 GMT

Interesting customer service story:

http://www.reichcomm.typepad.com/

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Matt C. Wilson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:29:31 GMT

It's sad that the human beings in this tale can't reach out from their bureaucratic stranglehold and make a better result happen.

Not to play devil's advocate, but I wonder if, policywise, Ms. Otterbach and Mr. Throatwobbler are in fact powerless to de-list Lawn Guy without an actual, documented customer dissatisfaction rating. The flowery language and lack of obvious sympathy regarding the racist remarks may simply be the manifest result of a CYA policy set up by Referral Service's bigwigs.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:40:58 GMT

Yes, I imagine that is the case.

But I DON"T CARE whether he is de-listed or not. I've said that a number of times now. I have no interest one way or the other in either the further adventures of Lawn Guy. I have an interest in my lawn being mowed, and I would think that a business whose purpose is to recommend solution providers would glom on to that tenaciously and make sure that they recommended someone who was really good. But no matter how much I try, I can't seem to get these guys back on the topic of my lawn!

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Matt C. Wilson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:58:11 GMT

Sure, but as an engineer my inclination is to look for root cause and fix it there. Not deal with the unmown lawn.

That's for support to figure out. :) j/k!

In all seriousness though, it is a surprise they didn't at least try to comp you a lawn service, offer a discount, send you a fruit basket, or some such gesture.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

David Reich — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:16:46 GMT

There really is no excuse for poor customer service. I just wrote about it at my 2 cents.

http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/06/the-secret-to-successful-customer-service.html

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Mark Shiffer — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:38:26 GMT

I am going to enter on the dissenting side of this argument. For the patch of emails that you sent it appears you immediately went on the attack with this company, and, in my opinion, were a bit unfair about it. They run a website that enables users to share their experiences with contractors for the general good of the community that uses that web site. Asking you to submit your negative review is by no means a reflection on their customer service. It is the core of their business model to have users writes both positive and negative reviews.

Should they have apologized for your bad experience up front? Probably, but they maintained a much higher level of professionalism in their responses to you than you gave to them.

Sorry. I enjoy your blog, but I'm on the other side of this one.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:02:48 GMT

As I've stated numerous times, I do not care about either this nebulous "good of the community" or their business model. Nor do I care about fairness. I care about getting my lawn mowed, and I am willing to pay too much money to have it done; a smart company would extract profit from my willingness to overpay.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:25:14 GMT

And on the subject of professionalism, a few things come to mind.

First, I'm not the professional here, I'm the customer. I'm not required to be professional.

Second, these guys seem to think that we're all on a chummy first-name basis, which I find unprofessional. We are not on a first-name basis.

Third, is it _really_ professional to avoid responsibility for a problem, to avoid extracting profit from the solution to that problem, and to repeatedly berate an irate customer for not putting the business's interests before their own? Do they work for me or do I work for them?

Professionalism is not about adherance to the policies of a bureaucracy. Professionalism is about having the integrity, honesty, and sincere regard for the personhood of the customer, in the context of always doing what is best for the business. Those two things do not need to be in conflict.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Tibon Lawrence — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:02:23 GMT

I really hope this story is made up... Honestly, someone making Polish jokes? What is this... 1942?

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

mikee — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:01:49 GMT

how about this: drive around your block until you find some landcaping (lawn) that pleases you. Knock on the door(s) and ask who does the lawn. Not a bad way to meet some of the neighbors too. Just a thought.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Mark Hurd — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:46:15 GMT

I'm on your side here, their reaction and followup is flawed, but would you contact eBay about a bad seller, or leave negative feedback? How much of a business model can you ignore?

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

gunther — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:34:35 GMT

I'm assuming you wanted them to refer another lawn service, but that wasn't clear from your email. Certainly their rep should have apologized and if he/she was on the ball, offered to send a different lawn service company. They probably "flipped the bozo switch" a little early on you. But the tone of your emails certainly made me wonder what exactly you were angling after?

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

David — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:21:29 GMT

So with all this entertainment (from my POV), how much work did you spend with these emails vs how long would it have taken to actually go out and mow the lawn yourself?

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Mac — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:35:34 GMT

I have to side with the dissenters as well.

While I appreciate, sympathize, and ultimately agree with your point of view, I feel your emails sound hostile and escalate quickly. It's not apparent what you were after in email #1, so a canned response is what peon x gave you. He's following a prescribed script for 'If it looks like a complaint, get customer to use website complaint process'

And does the website pride itself on customer service, or as a referral service? If the idea is to build a public knowledge-base of useful casual contractors, you are supposedly buying into that, and psychologically they want you to help your fellow user and buy into that.

If one considers their referral fee is likely small, they can't afford to service everyone on a 1-1 basis. They may even have great touchy-feely processes in place, and had you gone to their website and reported it as 'downright awful service' they may have contacted you personally (from their email response it appears their Ratings department may do just that).

As they say, you catch more bees with honey.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

anon — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:50:26 GMT

Interesting. I feel you. You have all the right of firing the lawn guy. And I dont condone racist comments.

However, it looks (to me) like you simply wanted to complain and stir up trouble. In your first email, you failed to ask for anything to be done. You didnt ask for a refund, you didnt ask for the Lawn guy to be fired from the website, etc. What do you want them to do about it? You simply told them about a problem What did you expect to get from that email? If the customer fails to ask for anything, what is the company to do? Were you looking for an "I'm sorry?" Also, your tone in your emails is unprofessional. You mention in your latest comments that you want to talk about your lawn? Why? It doesnt seem it from your emails.

Customers often complain but dont know what they are complaining about...and dont ask for anything to be done.

My suggestion: find something more productive to spend your time on, like fixing your lawn.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:25:09 GMT

I don't want to complain. I don't want to stir up trouble. I want my lawn mowed, and I want a household service referral company to help me with that.

You say that I don't ask for anything to be done. I do not understand why you'd say that. I say over and over again what I want to be done: I want someone to help me get my lawn mowed, which is, allegedly, their business. And yet they persist in refusing to do that.

Also, again, I fail to see what "professionalism" has to do with anything here. I'm the _customer_, not the professional.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Anon2 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:02:29 GMT

So, I still don't follow - was "Lawn Guy" the only listing in your area that the referral service had? Or, why didn't you just continue down the list, since you didn't care about the referral service or "Lawn guy" any more? Or were you hoping that "referral service" would offer to mow your lawn themselves?

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Eric Lippert — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:39:55 GMT

I had already phoned six other people on their list, only to discover that they were already all booked, or did not service my area, or whatever. Ultimately, I found a suitable lawn service through another means.

However, I think you're still not getting my point.

My point is not that I particularly wanted them to do anything specific for me. As you note, I did not ask for anything specific.

Rather, I stated a need and gave them an opportunity to fulfill that need in exchange for money. Since that's allegedly their business I would have thought they would have concentrated on that. I even told them explicitly how to win over this upset and disappointed customer -- express regret, save face, focus on the customer's need.

If they don't choose to focus on what I need, and thereby lose my business, that's up to them. But it is certainly not up to me to tell them how to meet my need! That's their whole business, they are the experts in meeting customer needs; I certainly will not tell them how to go about it. And frankly, I don't care how they meet my need, so long as the result is that my lawn gets mowed. But clearly their customer service guys show no interest whatsoever in meeting my needs.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

johnzabroski — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:39:36 GMT

Sounds like this company needs to buy every employee a copy of How To Win Friends and Influence People.

I sympathize with you, Eric. However, my experience has been that it is my job as the customer to remind the customer service rep that they are my guardian angel. I always end my e-mails to customer reps with "Thank you for being the watchful eye that watches over my purchases [or account, or whatever.]" It works like a charm. I don't know why, but the better rhetoric I use in the initial e-mail, the more likely it is that I get good service.

Hope your lawn stays healthy,

Z-Bo

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

ells — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:47:21 GMT

Really funny. He's got an Boston humor. Good reading.

re: Customer Service Is Not Rocket Science, Part Two

Cesa — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:46:55 GMT

Intresting read. So, did they ever contact you again?