Customer Service And Synergy

After experiencing broken promises and sloppy customer service in different occassions, disecting the cause of a poor service or unmet customer expectations can be value adding. Allow me to share briefly some of my experiences:

1. I subscribed to a telecom company who offered a wireless phone and internet connection but I ended up frustrated since it can’t be relied upon. Drop calls are normal occurence as well as intermittent or no internet connection at all.
2. I also subscribed to another telecom with their “quick install” gimmick. Indeed, the unit was installed the same day. We were promised activation in 3 days, because of the long holiday break. But it took them 10 days to activate the DSL and phone unit.
3. Poor service in banks are also common,
   • I was inconvenienced for 2 days, unable to to withdraw money from my account. As consequence of bank mergers, the accounts has to be converted and transactions suspended for 2 days. We were not informed, though, ahead of time.
   • In a different bank, I applied for a cyber account so I can receive payments via paypal. I was made to understand that I will be notified when my card is ready for pick-up. 2 weeks after, had I not called their customer hotline, I would not know that I need to call the branch to check if the product is ready for pick up.

It seems to me that in the examples I set above, the passion and commitment of one unit is not shared by the rest. The sales group, in it’s eagerness to generate revenue, will give promises and set expectations with a customer. However, the technical group, operations and other support groups and bosses may not be keen on supporting, much more keeping the commitment. These, could be, because of lack of coordination and/or dissemination of information, office politcs and other reasons. At the end of the day, we have unsatisfied customer and the image of the company is damaged.

For whatever reasons, the internal problems of the organization, should not short change the customer, take advantage of them or inconvenience them.

In my opinion, all companies should have a strong leader who can synergize the passion, and strength of the different functional groups. While it is understood that the function of some groups are to check and audit, all groups must bear in mind that delighting the customer should be the core focus of any company to ensure repeat business in the midst of a competitive environment.

Customer service starts with respect to the customers, synergy also starts with respect to team mates.

What do you think?