At the risk of turning this into the “customer service blog” I’ve got two more customer service related stories for you. While the first is yet another bad customer service experience (it doesn’t rise to the level of anti-customer service as I’ve talked about before), the second is a true story of very real and very, very good customer service. A true rarity in this world.
The On-Hold Abyss
I was having some issues with my laptop and put in a call to Dell to help me out. I dialed the number and like always got the automated attendant. After punching in my service tag number and selecting the options for my particular issue I was promptly put on hold.
And that’s where I stayed. On hold. No hold music, no voice telling me the next available representative will pick up shortly, just silence. For 12 minutes. Now, after investing that much time on hold you don’t just want to hang up because then your wait starts all over again, but I suspected something was wrong.
So while I stayed on hold I used my cell phone to call customer service. I dialed the number and like always got the automated attendant. After punching in my service tag number and selecting the options for my particular issue I was promptly… connected to a real live person.
My suspicions were correct. I was the victim of another automated system screwing up the hold/transfer process and putting me into some kind of on-hold abyss where nobody ever visits. Like banks discontinuing the drive-up teller years ago only to start providing that service again more recently, I’m hoping that automated phone answering systems will soon be a thing of the past. I won’t hold my breath!
How Everybody Should Do Customer Service
Several weeks ago we submitted one of our clients websites to the JoeAnt Web Directory. Like the call to dell discussed above, our submission was placed in some kind of abyss. They got our money, but lost the submission. When we called to find out what happened to our submission, we got one of the best customer service responses ever!
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have apparently over looked this entry. I have fast passed it for immediate review. For our mistake, we’d like to offer you a life-time sponsored listing.
Now I would have been happy with a month or two, or even a refund on our submission and a free listing. But JoeAnt went much further than that, offering us a lifetime sponsored listing. How cool is that? Way to go on the customer service gang! You’ve got a true fan.
Oh, and if you are looking for some exposure for your website, consider submitting it to the awesome JoeAnt directory!