Sometimes management is insistent on working to turn around very dissatisfied customers as an organizational imperative.
“Well,” I have heard, “they are satisfied and they are staying as customers. Why spend money to make them more satisfied?”
Good question.
Here is why: companies need to build positive satisfaction bank accounts, so to speak, with customers. With a positive account, a customer will be more likely to forgive (but not forget) the next time they encounter a curt customer service rep, or have to wait twenty minutes to talk to one (while listening to a recording telling me there is heavy call volume and they really value my business [wouldn’t valuing my business really translate into putting more resource into answering my call more rapidly?]).
Here’s a personal story to this effect. I was a customer of one of the satellite television providers. I was reasonably satisfied with them. If they had ever asked, I would have given them a four on the one to five scale.
But, their standing with me was constantly based on the next encounter. They had flunked the installation test at the beginning of our relationship by both failing to show up as promised (they did not show at all) and then I had to call them to complain and reschedule.
The service had been okay. The few times I had technical problems, their reps were helpful.
Then I received a flyer from them in the mail, pitching me an introductory offer to start service (I am already a customer!) at less than half the price I was paying after being subscribed for more than five years. That certainly made me feel warm and fuzzy toward them. Moreover, they would not make the same offer to the existing customers.
My conclusion: they valued a new customer more than they valued me, a long-standing customer. My satisfaction is decreasing……………………………..
The kicker came when I was moving. I called to transfer the service from myself to my significant other who did not have an account and was not on my account.
So I made a phone call to their customer service center. The rep I spoke with confrontational, rude, and insistent that I would have to pay to cancel my contract (which had expired after two years of service; I was on month to month).
What did I do? I called their competitor and established service with them. They were more than happy to help, as you might imagine (and are continuing to provide good service three months later—right now, I would say they are a five).
The first provider had no reservoir of good will with me. And I left when the opportunity (and timing) presented itself.
What could they have done? In the case of the final straw, probably nothing short of free service for the grief they gave me. I am a realist: that was not (and did not) happen.
But if their management was less focused on shoveling new customers into the pipeline and more focused on retaining customers who had proved their value, the distasteful encounters I had with them might not have happened and I would still be their customer.
More to follow.
Comments welcome!
Dr. Bob
