As recounted last month in “How to Lose a Customer in 10 Days,” even when your competition is limited to a single entity, you can’t afford to convey the message that you don’t care about retaining your existing customers. That is the situation that has been established by the duopoly for internet service in my area. Both Optimum and Verizon are guilty of letting their customers slip through their fingers by focusing all their marketing efforts on acquiring new ones and not being at all responsive to customers who have been with them long term.
As I reported, I had stuck with Optimum for several years through several rate hikes, but I balked at the latest one that exceeded 20%. Calling the company did me no good despite my explicit warning that I would drop their service in favor of Verizon that would give me its best rate for new customers. This wasn’t an idle threat, and I did indeed order the Verizon service.
Though things did come to a fairly happy resolution, they didn’t play out quite according to plan. Here’s what happened.
No show and no clear communication
I had a Verizon activation service call scheduled for a 2-hour window. I was ready and waiting from the start until the end with no appearance from the service person and no update about the time accessible on the site.
I called the customer service number and got the recorded warning that the wait time exceeds 20 minutes and that I’d be better off getting the rep to call me in the next half an hour. I opted for that. In the interim, I tried to get real time information by utilizing the chat. That just increased the frustration of the experience.
The first rep clearly did not understand how their site works. She just told me my scheduled service time and failed to realize that the time had passed, which is why I wanted information. She insisted I would find that information at a particular URL that only had generic Verizon Q&As and nothing about my service order. The second chat rep was much more apologetic but still clearly had no access to real information that would have been helpful.
About 25 minutes after the window for service had elapsed, Michael, the one assigned to do it, sent a text – despite the fact that I had clearly identified email rather than texting as the way I wished to receive communication – that merely said he would be there “soon.” He did not offer any further clarification, and when I finally got my call-back from Verizon customer support, they had no clearer insight into which time fell under “soon.”
Expectations, service, and communication make or break a brand relationship
I explained to the customer service rep that I spoke with that the activation visit is the first real interaction I would have with their brand’s service, so messing that up was a huge turnoff. Michael’s failure to respect the appointment window showed a lack of consideration for living up to his brand’s promise of delivery by a set time. Also that there was no reason offered or even a set time for his eventual arrival pinned time showed a further disregard for the customer’s time and concerns. If the fault were Michael’s alone, that could be said to be a failure in proper training for the service people, which is a letdown but not necessarily enough reason to give up on a brand altogether.
Verizon’s failure to provide the most basic information sought by a customer is a fundamental failure given that it is in the communication business. Certainly, the connectivity that it has in the way of wireless phones should keep the companies apprised of its service and people’s locations in real-time. But no one could give me an update about the whereabouts of the service person when I asked.
Given that Verizon invested so little in its first impression with a newly established customer, I decided to call Optimum with the update that I had ordered the Verizon service. That was the magic pass to gaining a lower rate than the one Verizon offered as its promotion plus a credit on the previous month’s amount that was billed at the higher rate.
I didn’t go through all this just to put myself in a stronger negotiating position with Optimum. I was ready to stick with Verizon once I made the switch, but the combination of employees who clearly don’t care about how badly they represent the brand and the customer service people who are not given access to any real information to be of service turned me off completely.
Put your best foot forward
For any business that establishes a continued relationship with its customer, this experience serves as an object lesson in what not to do. A brand makes its impression through the people who represent it to the customer. So, it’s vitally important that they are fully on board for the brand’s message and its promise of service delivery. If they don’t take that seriously, or if they are not empowered to actually help the customer who calls them, then they weaken rather than strengthen your customer relationship.
A bad first impression can be fatal because you haven’t yet built up a positive credit that outweighs it. Building a good relationship requires a ratio in which the positives outnumber the negatives. John Gottman is famous for establishing that in terms of romantic relationships, but it applies to businesses, as well. Consequently, your customers may forgive an occasional slip-up if they find that most of the time you do succeed in meeting their expectations. (That’s the way I feel when my deliveries from Target fail to come through because they have been canceled or delayed; it’s annoying, but forgivable because Target does meet my expectations more often than not.) However, if you don’t have that history already in place – conveying a lack of both caring and capability on the first interaction – it could sabotage the relationship.