Out and about yesterday, we migrated to the only restaurant we all agreed upon — El Nopal. We eat there often and the waiters always recognize us when we walk in the door. Being Sunday after Thanksgiving, the place was packed and a couple large groups were already seated.
Rather than give a play-by-play of the experience, I’ll just say we waited almost an hour for our meal to be delivered surrounded by crying kids. And no chips…
Funny how you can be loyal to a place for years and one really bad experience can taint that. One spoiled experience and I have no desire to go back in the immediate future.
I haven’t had cell service for about 2 solid weeks now. My carrier, AT&T, keeps telling me I’ll be back to normal “tomorrow.” Tomorrow never comes…
So, I posted the following on their Facebook page:
But it gets even better!! Others commented — all agreeing with the degrading cell service AND customer service — and their “Social Media Specialist” (the one with poor grammar that can’t spell) ignored me and responded to another person that commented:
Seriously, you guys, this is about as pathetic as it gets. Grrrr!
If you’re responding to an email with an apology, you should take special care to actually SPELL THE RECIPIENT’S NAME CORRECTLY.
Just that one careless mistake and the apology loses traction. If the sender really cared about me and my business — and if they were sincerely sorry for their error — they would’ve at the very least taken time to use the spelling of the name my mamma gave me.
If you engage in written correspondence with customers/clients/prospects — and you want their business and loyalty — I suggest you take that extra millisecond to look at their name and spell it correctly in every single thing you send.
-Shelley (NOT Shelly, Shellie, Shell, or Michelle)
Having worked in a bank, I’m extra sensitive about my credit report so I was more than upset when a collection appeared there. For a mere $67 balance — after having been a customer for decades — Charter Communications felt they were left hanging for an unpaid bill. Upon selling the house in the Ville, I cancelled all utilities and paid the final bills with exact shut-off dates so I knew with 100% certainty this blemish on my credit report was in error.
I answered the phone a few days after finding the collection item to the voice of an old friend telling me my name was in the paper. “In the paper?” I asked. She explained there was a listing for Indiana Unclaimed monies and I was on the list. She sent me to the website, gave me the numbers listed in the newspaper and voila! There was indeed a refund for me! You’ve probably already guessed who it was from… Charter Communications.
What you wouldn’t guess is that they owe me $151.31. After having cable service for all those years, they couldn’t just send me a check for what I overpaid — AND they place me for collection of $67 — money they already had?
It gets even worse though… I called them AGAIN and they show the $67 outstanding balance; they show the refund of the equipment fee; but there’s no record of the $151.31. And better yet, they don’t plan to do one thing about removing the collection amount from my credit report, but asked that I simply pay the bill again and go through the process to collect the money from the Indiana Attorney General (meaning it would show as a ‘paid collection’ and remain on my report).
They don’t offer services at my new location… I can’t be a customer anymore. So why make it right?
BECAUSE WHEN YOU MAKE AN ERROR — YOU OWN YOUR MISTAKE AND FIX IT (or make it right). Policy barriers and dealing with employees with poor work ethics and no authority to right wrongs is tiring.
And finally… today I’m remembering those who died in active military service for my freedoms.
I had an issue and had to call Apple support. Afterward, I received an email survey. Being in the Ultimate Customer Experience® business, I find it interesting what companies think their most important feedback is. For AppleCare, here’s what they want to know:
The Advisor had excellent communication skills.
The Advisor was knowledgeable.
The Advisor was helpful.
The Advisor cared.
The Advisor listened.
There wasn’t one question asking if my problem — my technical issue — was resolved.
While I think those 5 questions are extraordinarily important, I also think it might be nice for Apple to know if my easy to talk to, knowledgeable, helpful, caring, listening Advisor was able to SATISFY my needs and FIX my issue.
I ticked the “strongly agree” box on every one of the above, then Googled until I found how to get my ‘broken’ Mac specific app to work. Oh well… still have major love for all things MAC.
