Take Five with Jvswag

Being in London recently,McBug was amazed that checkout clerks in grocery stores are SITTING rather than standing. It takes the pressure off of standing your whole shift and improves the customer experience. When will this come into play into the United States he wonders. Are you listening Lucky's, Safeway and other retailers?

McBug said he had one of the greatest customer service experiences ever. At a dentist office no less. Instead of browsing through a magazine and waiting to have his teeth checked and cleaned, the receptionist took him into a side room where there was a ....gasp.. a massage chair. He spent almost eight quick minutes in dental heaven before the assistant popped in and announced the doctor is ready for you. Can't we do the cleaning in here he exclaimed.This is at Tr-Valley Dental in Pleasanton. Makes you look forward to the next visit. McBug has a physician visit next week.Don't expect a pleasant report on this McBlog then.

Having worked in several contact centers, my buddy McBug is just amazed as to why people will wait on hold 30 minutes or longer to complain about something. There was the one person who called at a newspaper circulation department because the Safeway Flyer was not in the daily paper. One head scratcher. Then there was another who called their credit card provider claiming the balance of $5,456.98 was wrong. Her findings showed the balance at $5,455.89. two head scratchers there. To show that cable tv watchers are not left out, one said their remote was a tad slow in changing in changing channels. Whatever a tad is this gets three head scratchers. Finally at an online bookstore, the customer wanted a refund on the book she purchased because the ending was too depressing. McBug smiles through all this and delivers as one company says " Galaxy Class Service" !!!!

Mcbug today is so confused by all the different promotions that come across his desk. In banking you have someone create their own credit card. They still have to make the minimum payment though. In cable, telephone and internet there are double plays, triple plays, buy two get one free for a month, grand slams, take it to the house, going yard and hat tricks. What happened to buying one product at a time and seeing how well the service goes I ask? This is 2010 the company says. Remember..... abc..... always be closing.

How many times do you hear from someone in a call center that they get a call of "I wanna speak to a supervisor". Not a manager...or someone who knows what they are doing...or the boss. Chances are when this call is transferred, I hate to tell you that the person you get is not a supervisor. May be a lead, or floor walker or senior rep ( who get paid an extra buck an hour to do this) . That's their job. Most real supervisors don't want to hear someone rant and then tell the customer " it can't be done". Believe me this happens in most major centers daily.

My friend mcbug feels that customer service would vastly improve if companies treated their people like ...well people rather than a numbers on a sheet. They in turn would treat customers better and would not feel a rush to wrap this call up under ten minutes and take the next call. What one company does as far as stats, talk time, following a script is copied by others.