Customer Service Failure

A reader shared this story of their customer service nightmare with the company that hosts their web sites.

They wanted to upgrade their site package but the upgrade form was so confusing that they ended up creating a second account versus upgrading the current one.  They ended up with a new Developer package (which is what they wanted) on a new account on a Microsoft platform instead of Linux.

Here was their summary starting with week one

• Called Cust Svc – sent me to tech
• Call Tech – they sent me to billing
• Billing – sent me back to tech.  I told billing rep I was going to start record the call so they panicked and hung up.
• Called PR person (from press releases) – she said she would investigate and have someone called me

Week Two

• Left vm for PR person – no response
• Days later, sent em to PR person – no response

Week Three

• Wrote Global CEO – No response
• Wrote Global CEO after 1 week and asked him to have anyone just resolve issue – No response
• Wrote US CEO on top of email thread never responded – No response
• Finally found a marketing manager’s email.  Sent her the whole thread and told her this was her chance to be a hero.

Three calls and 30 minutes later they’re doing exactly what the reader asked for three weeks earlier:  canceling the Microsoft account, upgrading the first account to a developer package using Linux.  They also threw in 6 months free – $120 savings.

So many simple customer service rules ignored

• Just care and respond – It took four phone calls and five emails to find somebody to help…
  
• Act quickly – Sure the 6 months free was nice – but all the customer really wanted was their web site three weeks ago.  Three weeks of hassling was not worth the $120 bucks to them.

Companies like this stay alive with bad customer service because they rest on the laurels of “switching is painful.”  As upset as this customer was – the challenge of migrating multiple sites deterred them for changing.

But with no loyalty to this company when the switching barriers drop they will lose a customer.  In fact they have already lost a customer – the only question is when the loss will occur.