Customer Service and Support
At times, I wonder when was it that I stopped remembering good customer service and was thrilled to get even mediocre service and be happy about it. Have you ever called a phone company or cable provider, gone thru the fabulous phone tree, PRESS 1 for this, PRESS 2 for that or PRESS 0 for the operator (or better with the voice recognition trees say “Representative” five times) and then the system just brings you back to the beginning of the message? Does it leave you begging for just a human voice to help answer your question?
The Human Experience
It seems that more companies are forgetting about the human element in business. When I have a problem or question, a phone tree or long distance call overseas, is not what I am looking for. I prefer a person, with a name and a hope that the person on the other end of the phone is not only knowledgeable, and helpful, but vested in the value of good customer service. In uncovering these surprising events, it leaves me feeling highly appreciative and I am anxious to evangelize about a person or company who is still passionate about creating a positive customer experience.
Trenton’s Customer Experience
Here at Trenton, we are those people who answer the phone (no phone trees allowed). We have tech support people who go above and beyond to answer your questions about our single board computers, backplanes and rackmount systems and get you answers. It is part of the corporate culture that has been lost for most along the way, but at Trenton, it is easier than pressing 1 for help.
I hear you, Tracy. I think everyone can think of that one customer service experience that still haunts them. Like the time the cosmetics girl at a certain store who after making me wait what seemed like an eternity asked me “have you gone through menopause yet, ma’am?”, when I asked her to help me pick out some face cream. Come on…, I was 42. I said “I hadn’t before I got here, but may have during the time I had to wait for you to come over here and help me.” I know sarcasm rarely helps a situation and needless to say, I did not find any face cream during that shopping trip.
We kicked off our Customer Service Week event last year by having employees share their worst and best customer service experiences. In doing that, we were able to brainstorm about ways we could improve our client service, as well as, create a number of funny stories for our web site.
In a recent client survey, we asked our clients which aspect of customer service was most important to them “Ability to quickly resolve your issue” won out with 25% of the vote, with “Ability to quickly respond” and “Solid knowledge of the application” tied for second at 22% each. Other options of “Professionalism”, “Politeness”, and “Ability to explain difficult concepts” split the remaining votes pretty evenly. You always have the option of talking to a human, so that was not a question because we know it is important.