UPDATE: AT&T did a fantastic job responding to my issue after I used Twitter. Will post a new entry with details soon.
This weekend, I became the upset customer.
The one who believes your company has bad customer service and is going to tell the world about it.
Yeah. I became that guy.
Here's the story...
My
dad has Parkinson's disease. As it relates to the issue at hand, part of the effect of the disease for him is that he has difficulties with a phone that has small keys, due to his tremors and also he has some cognitive challenges with new and complex tasks. It's part of Parkinson's, a degenerative, neurological disease.
He previously owned a PDA with a similar interface to my AT&T Windows Mobile based phone, and having a large screened phone that would sync his schedule and contacts with Outlook is exactly what he needs as a part of the suite of tools he uses to live with Parkinson's.
One problem. ATT says that if you have a smartphone, you must buy a data plan. Even if you don't need one (which he does not). Financially for AT&T, I would understand if it applied only to customers signing a contract on a phone that was being subsidized via said contract, (ie, "sign for 2 years and get a $500 phone for $50") but for those who already own a device or pay retail for it, this policy is simply bad customer service.
The point of this post isn't just to vent about AT&T. What I want to point out here is that this conversation could be (and probably is) happening about your company. There might be a policy in your organization that doesn't make sense. There may be a staff member who is poorly representing your services. You might have a legitimate or perceived (just as important) problem going on right now! Do you know about these conversations?
I posted a little rant about this issue on Facebook, and received a number of replies about how bad the customer service at AT&T is.
I wonder how many of these people actually shared their concerns with someone at AT&T. I wonder how many of their concerns were actually heard by someone who could do something about it? (Edit: I did call AT&T with no luck other than a policy being recited to me with no explanation. I also reached out on Twitter.. will keep you posted).
Conversations about your customer service are happening every day. They are occuring internally and externally. They are happening on the phone, face to face, and online. In student housing, I would argue that these conversations are happening even more frequently due to not only the nature of our tightly knit student population and the communities we build, but also the fact that students are one of the most vocal groups in the online social media world.
So, regardless of whether you are in student housing or elsewhere, what are you doing to join the conversation?
Here are a few tips for ways to join the customer service conversation:
1) Ask questions. Whether done formally using survey tools, or informally as a question consistently added to every customer interaction, ask your customers to tell you what you can do better, and what they think of your customer service.
2) Create mechanisms across the organization for your team to communicate customer concerns and issues to those who can do something about it. Ensure your team not only understands you have an open door policy, but that they are empowered to take steps to improve customer service.
3) Join the conversation online. Any company needs to be strategic about establishing a social media presence, and even more strategic in how they approach their online social media strategy. Regardless of the method you choose, whether it's a very hands on approach like
@comcastcares, or a less resource intensive presence in the social media world, you need to be there and at the very least, be aware of what is being said about your company.
4) Commit to doing something about it, and letting customers know that a) they are heard, and b) what they say carries value. Sometimes that is all it takes.
Join the conversation!
