Express Marketing Memo

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We ate dinner at a local restaurant last night. It’s not something we do very often. Dinner out is a luxury, especially for a self-employed couple with two growing businesses!

It didn’t start well. We waited over 20 minutes in a not-crowded restaurant for a meal that was presented poorly. The 7 oz. sirloin was accompanied by about 1-1/2 sliced mushrooms and a huge gob of garlic mashed potatoes that weren’t all that warm. Ten minutes after we had our meal, our salads arrived … with the wrong dressing.

Anyone can have a bad day, and I’m not usually critical when the waitress or the cook make an honest mistake. But this particular waitress wasn’t interested in getting it right … she wanted us to know that it wasn’t her fault. She actually said it “wasn’t her job” and “I didn’t make the salads.” After which my husband said, “we’d like to talk to the manager.”

Here’s where the story changes. The manager apologized for the poor service and offered to make it right. He made no excuses, thanked us for bringing it to his attention, and credited us for both of our meals. We left the restaurant feeling like we had been listened to and hopeful that our dining experience was just a temporary glitch at an otherwise decent place to eat. We’ll be back.

Now here’s the thing: As my husband and I were waiting for our meals, then waiting for our waitress, we both had the same thought … service this poor deserves to be recognized.

We’re living in what many call a Web 2.0 world. We are more connected now than ever before. Look at the proliferation of business review sites … and how reviews are integrated into search results. Before we ever visit a restaurant, a hair salon, the local mechanic, etc., we can see what others have said about their service. Does the contractor show up on time and get the job done right the first time? We base our buying decisions on what others have said about a product or service.

The quality of your customer service is your brand, especially in today’s interconnected online world. Any business that ignores this fact, does so at its own peril. Excellent customer service is your most important marketing activity.

Talk back to me. Do online reviews impact your buying decisions? Have online reviews helped or hurt your business? Do you review local merchants and service providers? Why or why not?

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We’ve been Nextel customers for ages … switched over to them years ago because their local customer service was phenomenal. I met with a Nextel rep over coffee and she sent demo phones home with me – one for my husband and one for me. We tried them out, loved the direct connect feature and signed a contract the next day. They even bought out our old cell phone contract with another company. We were thrilled and we told everybody who would listen about this wonderful new (to us) cell phone company! Our parents and a few friends signed up for service as a result.

Times have changed. Nextel has become Sprint and local customer service representatives are a distant memory. Still, that’s not a problem, or at least it wasn’t until they lost their consistency. Two customer service incidents this week have convinced me that the company has lost its edge.

In the first incident, we were overbilled and not by just a little bit. We’re talking over $100 worth of overcharges on my husband’s phone. It didn’t add up. He hadn’t talked more than our plan allowed. So he called customer service and was given totally bogus information … basically that he didn’t know what he was talking about and that he had no recourse … pay up.

Since I had arranged the contracts to begin with, I followed up with a phone call to customer service. My customer service rep apologized for their error, fixed the obvious mistake in our plan, credited us for the amount we should never have been charged and explained everything clearly. Same company … but this time we had reached someone who cared.

She also explained that we’d qualify for a substantial discount when we renewed our plans, plus a discount for each phone upgrade – even checked to be sure we’d really qualify for their “best” discount. Make sure you request the renewal first, she cautioned, because if we upgraded our phone before requesting the renewal discount, it would no longer be available.

So today I called back, with every intention of renewing our service contracts for another two years and planning to purchase two new phones.

But today’s rep was a guy with a thick foreign accent who countered the information I was provided yesterday. That plan renewal thing is handled separately by another department, but he could get them on the other line to “ease my mind.”

And that “best” discount we qualified for was the exact same discount available to everyone else ordering by phone or online.

I said “no, thank you.” Apparently I’m on an authenticity kick, but I’m tired of dealing with different people from the same company who give out entirely different answers. And don’t tell me that we qualify for a special deal when it doesn’t really exist! Just lay it on the line … show me the real value … tell me the real cost, and allow me the dignity of a real decision.

They’ve probably just lost a customer and it wasn’t because of a poor quality product or poor reception. Rather, it’s because they’ve forgotten that they’re not the only company on my radar. My contract is up. I was ready to sign on the dotted line … right up until I stopped and asked myself if I wanted to do business with a company who can’t give me a straight answer from one phone call to the next. Not likely … goodbye, Sprint!

Photo Credit: ninjapoodles on Flickr (Creative Commons)

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