Amy screwed up. She unintentionally offended a client and still feels terrible about it. Yes, she's human and that day, definitely not up to par. The client complained to the boss and the boss corrected her.  If Amy could have dug a hole and crawled in, she would have. She did her best to apologize and wishes there was more she could do to set things right. 

I sympathized. This has happened to everyone at some point in their lives, me included. I told her that but I'm not sure it helped.

So what happened?  Amy doesn't know.  There must have been some kind of short circuit between her brain and her mouth.

Since it is not in Amy's nature to be short or sharp with anyone, something must have interfered with her edit switch. Together we dissected the event and discovered that she answered the client's question, fully expecting a joking rejoinder. Somehow her attempt at humor didn't come across.  It is impossible to know now if her tone or her expression belied her words.  Her boss let it pass.  Amy isn't sure the customer has or ever will.  She will carry this with her for a long time, mentally flogging herself every time that customer name appears in front of her.

Some days we are masters of our words; on others, we can barely put a noun and verb together.  We see it in social media all the time. Tweets are either 140 characters of genius or the tweeter is back-pedaling because what she wrote made no sense.

Communication is an exchange. It is spoken, written, performed, or displayed. No matter how earnestly we try, sometimes we will not be successful in conveying our thoughts or intentions. At that point, we have to be willing to apologize and try again. A great deal may ride on our ability to have others understand us.  Everything from world peace to inner peace.

No Talking to Big Communications Company

Thanks to a certain large telecommunications company, I haven't been able to communicate for nearly two weeks.  Following two snow storms, the connection went from bad static to stoney silence. We had no land line and no Internet.  Thanks to smart phones, we were still connected but I wasn't able to update my blogs or perform some of the other tasks that are part of my writing life.

All our cables and lines are buried and, after 25 years in the ground, it's a safe bet that they are deteriorating. About ten years ago, ComEd had to replace their line. It's no surprise that water is now leeching into the phone line and shorting out the connection. Any non-techie could easily figure out what happened by the sound and by the timing. AT&T has a unique way of dealing with these issues.  They don't.

I tried to call their repair department but got nowhere. A visit to the Web site gave me detailed instructions about disconnecting wires in the box on the exterior of the building and using a phone to determine whether the problem was inside or outside the dwelling. We live in a multi-unit townhouse. There is no way we were going mess around in the exterior phone box and risk causing problems for our neighbors. In addition, we weren't about to go slogging about in three feet of snow to find a box that I suspect isn't there. When we moved in, the phone man worked out by the street.  He wasn't near the building.

So the giant communication company, AT&T, doesn't communicate. It is virtually impossible to speak to a human being and get real help.  The upshot is that we switched our service to a competitor. While this competitor is notorious for bad service, after being without phone or Internet for more than a week, we didn't have much choice. At least Comcast has human beings working for it. And while we got Internet magically this morning (another story), the phone still is not connected. A technician is due this afternoon. I can hardly wait to see if this giant communication company is any better at communication than the other one.

Sadly, there are few options for the consumer. In an age so dependent on communication, the providers of the technology are poor at it themselves because they don't have to be good at it.  We have to pay them anyway. 

Big Retailer has Big Problem

A friend of mine recently emailed a complaint to a large online retailer. He received a reply, obviously generated by a computer, that was designed to placate and dismiss. While my friend was aggravated by the lack of personalization, he will continue to do business with the company but will no longer buy the specific product that caused the complaint.

According to marketing guru Seth Godin, if a customer service protocol (your call center/complaints department/returns policy) is built around stall, deny, begrudge and finally, to the few who persist, acquiesce, then it might save money, but it is a total failure.

This particular retailer recently reported a quarterly loss.  While I suspect that part of that loss is that people have less disposable income, could some of it be the result of lousy customer service? This company operates on such thin profit margins that it has no financial reserves for providing good customer service. In addition, its formula for low prices and lousy service is spreading as it acquires other online retailers that are successful.  For example, my favorite shoe outlet is now part of this behemoth.  An employee there told me that the minute the reins passed from the original owners, his benefits were cut.

The only way any retailer can continually undercut the market is to shave costs in benefits, salary, quality, and service. You cannot do it any other way.  If we want to pay ridiculously low prices for everything, we must be willing to give up good service and good quality. 

I do not fault the retailer. It has made its position clear. I know exactly what this company stands for - low prices. It has been most successful in communicating this to its customers. It is up to us to decide whether or not we find this business model acceptable and are willing to support that corporate behavior by continuing to do business with the company.

Businesses communicate with customers through advertising and through service. We express our pleasure or displeasure with any company by where we spend our money.  Perhaps this retailer needs to listen to what we are trying to tell it.

Good-bye Post Office

Have you noticed there are fewer ads on television for the US postal service? I think the only one running currently is for flat rate boxes.  It's a good thing the Post Office isn't wasting money on advertising.  They might want to spend it training some of their workers on basic customer service things like courtesy and maybe even how to properly up-sell.

There is a window clerk at our local post office who always asks me if I want to rent a PO box, have need of extra boxes, or want to ship my parcel via express mail. Every time I am there, I get the same, tired, monotone spiel. I'm sure she has no interest in whether or not I actually want or need those services. Her manager said she has to offer them so that is what she does, sour face and bored attitude all the way.

Not long ago, I had to mail about twenty certified-mail envelopes. In case you haven't used certified mail recently, it's expensive. I don't object to the expense. The extra dollars cover the special handling. I do object to the reaction I get whenever I have a large mailing.  On this occasion, I was refused service by two window clerks, twice on the same day.  They were "too busy." Wait a minute!  The US Postal Service was complaining about being too busy?  

So much about where we decide to do business is influenced by the folks who perform the service. The jolly young man in the flat rate box ad seems happy to assist his customers. He is helpful and pleasant. All the good will created by that ad is squandered if the consumer doesn't encounter the same attitude when they walk into their local post office.The flat rate ad might get me in the door of the post office but finding out the clerks are "too busy" to wait on me makes sure that I avoid it as much as I can.

Businesses get into trouble because they offer bad product and/or lousy service. At my local post office, I know where the problem lies and it isn't with the product.