VINSON: Art of customer service lost on many today on The Murfreesboro Post

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VINSON: Art of customer service lost on many today

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By: MIKE VINSON, Post Columnist

Posted: Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:21 am

There are a couple commercials on television that do an accurate job of addressing the current state of quality customer service.

When I say “quality customer service,” I’m referring to any business that provides a product or service to the consuming public: privately owned businesses, major corporations, state and federal civil servants, and even politicians.

One television commercial goes something like this: A young couple attempt to walk inside a bank. However, there is a man wearing a nice suit at the front door. He halts the couple and asks if he can help them. The couple replies that they, merely, want to go inside and speak with their customer service representative.

The suited man laughs out loud and informs the couple that the bank ceased doing that — providing customer service — a long time ago.

Bewildered and upset, the couple tells the doorman again that all they want to do is go inside and speak with a bank employee. About that time, a tall, burly man, also dressed in a suit, opens the front door leading into the bank, walks outside, stands beside the suited doorman, and gruffly asks if there is a problem.

Using satirical reality, producers of this commercial have been successful at striking a nerve with viewers: Though the young couple only are seeking a simple service from a public business, a bank, they are treated in much the same manner as would be a bunch of rowdies attempting to gain entrance into a trendy nightclub. The bouncer has to come outside and help get the situation under control.

Another television commercial that does an apt job of addressing today’s poor quality of customer service is what I call the “Peggy” commercial.

In this one, you see a dilapidated shack in a snow-covered area, out in the middle of nowhere. Inside the shack is a bearded, nefarious-looking fellow, along with several other questionable-looking sorts. The bearded man, in an accent that sounds like, maybe, a mixture of Bulgarian and broken English, speaks into a phone and says, “USA Prime Credit. My name Peggy. You got problem?”

The camera then cuts to an attractive, well-dressed lady, cell phone to her ear, and she responds with, “Peggy? This is the third time I’ve called. It’s time I speak with a supervisor!”

The camera cuts back to the smiling fellow who says, “Supervisor is genius. I transfer.” With that, he passes around the phone to the others inside the shack, and everyone hollers “transfer” into the phone until it works its way back to the bearded ringleader, who says, “Hello, my name is . . .”

And the camera cuts back to the business lady, who says, “Peggy — come on!” She proceeds to stomp the sidewalk in disgust.

A little over a month ago, I upgraded my cell phone. In switching phones, I made it abundantly clear that I wanted to keep my original cell phone number. “No problem,” the technician assured me.

Sure enough, my old cell phone number worked for approximately 24 hours, then — presto, as though some unknown entity had intervened — my old number ceased working. Somehow, by some means, my new cell phone had been issued a new number.

Over a span of three days, I spent somewhere around six, blood pressure-raising hours on the phone with this particular phone outlet’s trouble-shooting number. If I heard it once, I heard it 10 times, in less than the most intelligible of English: “Sir, we must escalate problem to higher echelon” — then silence, followed by several minutes of rock music.

After the incident with my cell phone, all I could think about for days was the hilarious, but true, “Peggy” commercial.

Mike Vinson can be contacted at mike_vinson56@yahoo.com.

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Member Opinions:

By: rnf2d_mtsu_s12 on 2/8/12
There are not words to describe how much I agree. I put off calling any 800 number for as long as humanly possible. I let problems go on until I reach the point that I cannot physically take it any longer when I finally pick up the phone to call Comcast, Microsoft, or even any office at MTSU. I understand how many calls must come through a place like that on any given day and how tedious it must get trying to solve everyone’s problems. At the same time, I try to be as pleasant as I can be given the circumstances that have forced me to call this number, and it is so frustrating to not have that reciprocated. The best feeling in the world is to have a nice, quick experience that ends with the problem you had being solved. The other day I rented a U-Haul, had to go to the water company to get water turned on at my new place, AND not only had to call 1-800-COMCAST, but go into the payment center on New Salem, and I have never been more pleasantly surprised with how easy and productive each and every place was.

I assume it was a fluke, but maybe there is a small glimmer of hope for the customer service industry.

By: dhold on 2/9/12
This is so true about customer service these days. And it don't matter if it's medical, government, legal or your phone, it's the same thing with all of them. I love that Peggy commercial. It's do dumb that it makes me laugh!

By: saw5f_mtsu_s12 on 2/10/12
I think the reason that so many companies have poor customer service is that they know you have no choice but to stay on hold if you want your problem to be fixed. They know you have no choice but to stay on the line. Most companies have no problem losing a few customers due to poor customer service. They have plenty of customers who will never have to call customer service, and therefore will never have a problem. I have been lucky when calling customer service numbers, my current cell phone is through T-Mobile, and they have always been great to deal with whenever I have had a problem. I had planned to terminate my contract when T-Mobile merged with AT&T because of poor customer service when I was with AT&T a few years ago. Thankfully, the plans to merge the companies fell through. I have refused to do business with AT&T since they merged with Cingular and somehow gave my phone number to a new customer. When I called to ask what happened, I was given no real answer and no apology. I don’t miss them and I am sure they have enough other customers, that they do not miss me either.

By: fdz2a_mtsu_s12 on 2/10/12
Capitalistic societies, such as the United States, tend to demonstrate poor customer service skills. When companies achieve a desired amount of success, then it is easier to "write off" accounts with a minor impact rather than taking an adequate amount of time to work through the problem and find a plausible, fair solution. This could be partly due to low wages, an overall uneducated work force, or a lack of passion to help the public.
When workers are paid less, then they will not perform to 100 percent. It relates to Karl Marx's labor value-theory. Not to mention the United States is not near as educated as it should be given the technology and resources we have. A lot of people care less about customer service because they are only in the field to pay the bills.
I work at a doctor's office, and I see first hand what goes on behind the scenes. Some employees at my work will toss a patient around to five different people before actually solving the problem. This may be due to the fact that most employees aren't cross-trained to help one fully understand, appreciate that department.
Patients will threaten to leave the practice all the time because of low quality customer relations. Doctors, nurses or administrators won't even take the time to persuade the patient to stay with our practice--"On to the next one" type theory.
Most of the time people like to stick with mom-and-pop stores because they are more personable. I live beside an old market that has been there for years. They keep their prices reasonable, know you by name, and help you out when an unexpected situation arises. This is the type of customer service that I think everyone should illustrate because I always leave there with a smile on my face; And peace starts with a smile.