Customer Service

Are you as frustrated as I am with auto responder customer service? (Is that a misnomer?) How many buttons do we need to press to get to yet another auto responder?  How much time do we waste when we finally get a human being who already knows my phone number, yet repeats my phone number and asks if that is correct, plus another three or four mundane questions for security purposes?

I only wanted to get my telephone rings extended from three rings to four or five.  This highly sensitive request took pressing the “0”  six times before I got a person, then he asked for my phone number, which I’d given the auto responder, and said he had to transfer me to “repair.”  YIKES.  I was on hold for a minute before the “repair” tech came on and then asked me for my phone number!  Again?  Why?  Then she asked not only for my name, which I’d given the auto responder!, but also my address for security purposes.  Now, if I’d wanted to have an unpublished phone number, a blocked-to-caller-ID phone number, or even to actually change my phone number I might comply with glee – maybe –  at the security questions.  But, to just ask the tech to give my phone number one more ring?  Please. It’s frustrating to say the least.

Does your blood pressure rise when you need a real person to answer a technical question about new software, your cable, your phone, your internet?  Do you ever stay on hold for what seems like hours, but is only :15?  Where are the real customer service reps?  Why do companies feel compelled to think their customers appreciate and want to listen to robots instead of personal service. Why does “press 7 for repair,” or “press 2 for waiting on terminal hold,” take over our world of customer service?

It took me three days, over :30 on hold during five phone calls and more than a dent in my index finger from pressing “0” to get someone to pay attention to my Direct TV cable cigarette-carton-sized black box on my tv screen.  Why three days?  Why did the customer service person promise me someone would call within 24 hours – and they didn’t – not 24 minutes?  I’m a new customer, and to get the settings on my phone, internet and cable set up it would be wonderful to get a follow-up phone call a day or two later to ask me if all was well.

Last week I took my car in for a check-up, and as I waited for the mechanics to give me an estimate, I heard the woman at the front desk make 10 follow-up calls to customers to ask if their car was running well, if they had any problems, and if they were satisfied with the work?  Wow, a company that actually cares about you, your car and their service.  I will definitely take my business back to them, and I will refer them to my friends.

I really hate those auto responders; the companies who use them may have to pay for my blood pressure medicine if I ever need it!

Good customer service doesn’t take much, and yet we’ve dumbed down our expectations, which is sad. A phone call.  A person.  A care. A dedicated company’s desire to help. Have these attributes of customer service gone the way of $1.00-a-gallon gas?