Bringing Quality Back to Customer Service

While this article fondly recalls the personal touch and convenience of customer service in the past, it also offers hope to frustrated consumers. Many corporations have realized customer retention is just as important as making money. Bad experiences with customer service drive consumers away and good experiences keep them. Consumers are taking back control by telling others what to expect. Let's hope great customer service, with live and helpful representatives, makes a lasting revival.

Far From Always Being Right, the Customer Is on Hold
By: Alina Tugend
New York Times
Published: May 24, 2008

REMEMBER the days when, if something went wrong with a product you ordered, you picked up the phone and there was a live person on the other end? Wait, there is more. You asked for customer service and were transferred — to another human! And that person perhaps even solved your problem.
I get a warm feeling when I think about that, like fondly remembering an old teacher. We have become so used to the impersonal and baffling labyrinth of automated voice systems at just about every company — and then poor customer service when we do reach an actual person — that we just grudgingly accept it....
Complaining about bad customer service is such a sport now that it should be an Olympic event. But I am curious about how it devolved into this, if there is anything I can do about it and if it is ever going to change.
A little history: These interactive voice response systems, known as I.V.R., which recognize speech or touch tones, began in earnest in the 1980s, and the idea was that they would cut costs by reducing the number of people a company needed to respond to customer complaints.
The trouble is, companies were more interested in saving money than customer retention.
“ ‘The customer is always right’ got totally lost,” said Michael Schrider, president of J. Lodge, a call-monitoring business (as in “this call is monitored for quality assurance.”). “It was ‘the customer is a pain.’ ”....
But things have started changing, for a number of reasons. For one, companies discovered that customer turnover was expensive....Another reason for this change is that the very technology that is driving us crazy is helping people fight back.
Consumers are posting their experiences with customer service online and warning people away from businesses that do not offer a good follow-up with customers. Secondly, there are Web sites that tell customers how to get around an automated system....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/business/yourmoney/24shortcuts.html?pagewanted=2&ref=technology

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Cellphone Spam : An Irritating Trend

Just when your computer filters became efficient enough to block spam, spammers are now targeting your mobile phone. Unwanted text messages may begin to hit your cellphone along with additional fees if you're not protected. Some carriers, like Sprint, regularly adjust their filters to block unwanted messages.

Spam Moves to Cellphones and Gets More Invasive

By: Laura M. Holson

New York Times

Published: May 10, 2008

If you thought spam on your computer was a bother, brace yourself: spammers want to find you on your cellphone.Cellphones have become consumers’ most personal technological devices. Some industry executives, along with consumer groups and security experts, are concerned that unwanted text messages on phones will be an even greater headache than unwanted computer messages. Cellphone spam is particularly annoying to its recipients because it is more invasive — announcing itself with a beep — and can be costly....

The fees that customers pay to receive messages are a source of profit for the phone companies. It is hard to estimate how much they make. Many consumers pay for a monthly plan that allows them to send and receive large numbers of messages. But for those without a plan, getting as few as 10 unsolicited text messages a month at 20 cents each would cost an extra $24 a year.
Communications companies say they are not interested in spam as a profit center. They want to one day exploit the power of customized advertising on mobile phones, and tawdry spam pitches threaten to make their customers hostile toward all commercial messages. The companies are trying to head off the problem before consumers revolt. The carriers regularly adjust spam filters to block offending messages. At Sprint, more than 65 percent of all text messages sent over its network are identified and blocked as spam before they reach customers....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/technology/10spam.html?ref=technology

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