Customer Service must start with CEO
Coming back from the Omega Score customer service conference, I was mulling over many different customer service strategies and ideas. Lots of speakers brought up a lot of different concepts and it takes quite a bit of time to analyze, yet one of the concept resonated with me the most. Customer Service must start with CEO.
I guess you can say I was inspired by this thought. So much so, that when I got back and reviewed numerous emails submitted through our website, I decided to act. One of the emails we received did not come from our customer, but I decided to respond anyways. After all, why do I have to shy away from helping someone else just because it was not our customer? I may learn something new about this person and be able to help. That's what I did. I responded.
The email was sent from a customer of one of the major satellite TV service provider. The customer was upset because he just had yet another poor experience from a series of calls placed to the provider. So much so, that after being a 10 year customer, he wrote that he would not recommend anyone else to use their services. The customer had a problem with his service and has not been able to watch TV for 3 weeks.
I picked up the phone and called this customer. I asked him how he found Livegenic and mentioned that he erroneously filled out a form on a different web site. Then, I tried to get as much information about the problem and said that while I am not the right person, nor the right company for that matter, I will try to help him the best I can.
Quick search for a satellite TV service provider 800 number, some wait time, and a few transfers later, I became the hub of the issue resolution. Conferencing this customer to the service provider's agent, I held on and listened to an over an hour issue resolution procedure, frequently stepping in to help clarify some technical questions and answers.
The end result, while comical, was that I had a very happy customer who was happy that he accidentally stumbled on the "right" person to help. The service representative was happy to resolve the issue, especially as I have shielded her from any possible emotions, and I was happy to participate to learn so many ways that Livegenic can help this service provider or a similar organization.
Let us review the complexity for just one second. How do you fix a technical issue when there are so many points of failure? The satellite dish, the wiring, the receiver and its software, the television and its configuration, and finally the remote. All of these components can be a single point of failure preventing the client from receiving the service he has been paying for. And we expect to have a service agent diagnose all of these problems remotely, verbally, over the phone? Certainly, five years ago this might have been the only route, but now, with modern technology there absolutely is a better way!
As I sat on the phone and listened to the lengthy issue resolution, I took notes for certain stats. There were 3 transfers from one agent to the next. There was almost a fourth, which would have required repeating the problem and scheduling a tech visit. The agent asked the customer what he was seeing 11 times. The customer took a long time explaining what he was seeing because he did not know the proper TV configuration and had no documentation to the receiver. The firmware download and installation took over 20 minutes. The final delay in signal configuration and channel line up downloading took another 7 minutes.
When I was done with the call, I had this pleasant gratification. I not only helped two people interact, but I also learned that we, at Livegenic, are on the right path. Problems such as this one and many other similar scenarios is where we can help a great deal. For every customer requiring tangible or technical assistance, I am glad to know that we are making a difference.
To Geary F. from Georgia, Happy TV watching and best wishes!