All Victor Cohen wanted to do was
watch the hockey game.
It was the final game of the Stanley Cup
and he knew it was on TV. He rushed
home to watch the last part of the game,
but couldn’t find it. He went to the
“guide” that the cable company provided
on screen but it wasn’t there. (The
reason, by the way, was that the game
went into overtime and the originally
scheduled shows were showing up
on the on-screen guide instead of the
game.)
But, that’s not where the real problem
was.
Victor decided to call the cable
company. After holding for few minutes
and being reminded that his “call was
very important,” a customer service
agent finally came on. All Victor needed
to know was what channel the Stanley
Cup Final game was on. It was a simple
question.
Instead of a simple answer, the
customer service agent had to follow
the script and started asking his own
questions that started with Victor’s
account number, billing address and
more. Victor said he didn’t have his
account number handy, and couldn’t
see how that had anything to do with
what channel was showing the hockey
game. Couldn’t this rep just look it up?
After fifteen minutes of wasted effort on
the phone and a little channel surfing,
Victor found the channel. But it was
too late. The final goal in overtime had
already been scored. Game over.
This disappointing story can,
unfortunately, be told in many different
ways with many different companies
It’s simply a customer calling in for
information or help, usually with a
simple question that doesn’t require
knowing the customer’s account
number, billing address, mother-in-law’s
maiden name, etc.
But “NO!” – the policy or “system” gets
in the way of creating an easy and
simple customer service experience.
Let’s commit to empower ourselves
and those we work with to give direct,
authentic help always as the first option.
The bottom line… Be easy to do
business with!
