Experience Required

Ever had a miserable experience as a customer?

Maybe you had a problem buying a company’s product or service due to incompetent staff, a broken website, or some other problem.

It could be that your problem arose after the sale when you contacted the company for support.

Then there’s always the issue of the item you bought not living up to your expectations.

Or maybe you tried to contact the company’s customer service division only to be told it’s not their problem.

Ever felt pissed off, ripped off, or blown off?

I have.

The customer service that wasn’t

Recently, I’ve had a few lousy experiences with different companies and the customer service they provide.

The most recent of these is Apple.

I’ve been a Mac fan for more than a decade now. So when my brother gave me a $25 prepaid MasterCard for Christmas this year, I decided to use it to buy some TV episodes from the iTunes store. I entered the credit card information, made my purchases, and downloaded the videos.

Yesterday I received a message that my iTunes account had an overdue balance because they were unable to charge the credit card they had on file. The amount due was the $24.57 I spent using that $25 gift card, so I logged into my account and checked the balance on the card. Sure enough, there were sufficient funds available to cover the purchase.

So I tried contacting Apple to see why their system was unable to charge the card.

If you’ve ever tried contacting Apple, you know what a debacle it can be. The first time I tried calling their support number, I was told I was being transferred but was disconnected instead. I called back and spoke to someone who transferred me to another department that never answered their phone. After that, I decided to resort to e-mail.

I used Apple’s online form for contacting iTunes billing support, carefully explained the problem, and asked what needed to be done to correct the problem with their billing system so it would accept my MasterCard.

About 24 hours later, I got the following response:

"…unfortunately, Apple is not able to troubleshoot or determine the specific cause of a card being rejected. When a credit card is rejected for any reason, this is a sign that something needs to be addressed by the issuer of the card being used. Your bank or credit card company will be happy to help you troubleshoot the error."

Translation? "Not our problem. Go talk to your bank."

I actually checked with the bank prior to contacting Apple, and the problem was not with the bank, the available balance, or the card itself. It was with Apple’s billing system.

So rather than take an extra minute or two to connect with their customer and learn more about the problem I was experiencing, this particular Apple representative decided to fire off a quick e-mail with a generic, "FAQ" style answer and move on.

A growing problem

Now I’m not painting Apple as a villain here. I can’t; because this problem is not limited to one company.

I’ve had similar experiences with Adobe BusinessCatalyst, Art Van Furniture, and many other companies in the past year alone.

Which leads me to the following conclusion…

Customer service is a dying skill that is being sacrificed on the altar of "profitability" or just plain laziness.

Consider the following:

• Many companies focus their customer service efforts on the speed in which they can provide a response, rather than on the quality of the solution they provide.
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• Very few companies recognize the brand loyalty they can build by connecting with customers and providing stellar service – which is why companies like Zappos who "get it" are constantly used as examples to learn from.
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• Far too many companies are willing to fire off a quick "not my problem, go talk to someone else" response and wash their hands of any responsibility.
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• More and more companies are outsourcing their customer service and technical support to places like India where they can find cheap labor – even if it means the quality of the service plummets.
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• A large number of companies that provide web-based services only allow support requests via e-mail or online ticket system that typically takes at least 1 business day to get a response from.

Making it harder (and more unpleasant) to do business with you

A big part of building a successful brand is creating positive customer experiences. Building the type of experience that your customers can’t wait to tell their friends, family, and Twitter followers about.

You can’t do that if you create barriers that make it hard for people to do business with you, or piss them off with your "customer support."

For example, there was the time I tried to hire a landscaping company to mow my lawn. I called no less than a dozen local companies – and ONE answered their phone. The rest of them let the call go to voicemail. Needless to say, the company that answered their phone got my business. Oh, and the companies I had to leave voicemails for? I’m still waiting to hear back from them – more than 2 years later.

Or there was the time I had to call the technical support department of QuarkXpress a few years ago. To my dismay, my call was routed to India and answered by someone who barely spoke English, and understood it even less.

I was already stressed out because I was in danger of missing my deadline due to the software problem I was having – and instead of getting help, I’m arguing with a man located overseas in "pigeon English" that yes you can import a TIFF file into QuarkXpress (something the software has been able to do for years).

My stressful situation was compounded by Quark’s desire to make a few extra dollars of profit by outsourcing their support to another country. Instead, they lost a loyal customer (I had bought every major release and upgrade they published for ten years prior to that).

The day they transferred my support call to someone who didn’t speak English, I switched to Adobe InDesign and haven’t used or purchased Quark since – and that was years ago.

Your customers are seeking companies with experience

"Help Wanted: Loyal customers seeking companies to buy from and tell others about. Inquire within. Positive experience required."

If you want to build a brand that’s irresistible to your audience, attracts lots of referral business, and generates loyal, repeat customers, you must pay attention to the type of experience you’re providing.

And if you won’t give them the experience they want, they’ll find someone who will.

According to a survey of North American consumers done by Forrester Research, only 5% of customers who were unhappy with a company’s ability to solve their problem said they would buy from that company again. However, 81% of people who had a positive experience indicated they would do business with the same company again.

The bottom line

In this ecommerce age, it’s far too easy for your customers to find someone else to buy from if you don’t provide them with the positive experience they seek. Companies that continue to skimp on customer service and support, or who make it hard for people to do business with them, will find themselves constantly needing new clients because they’ve burned the ones they had.

To build the type of brand your customers want to buy from and tell others about, make it easy for them to buy from you, help them solve their problems, and provide the kind of positive experience you expect from the companies you buy from.