Take Five with Jvswag

ave you recently looked into a job application, maybe a loan or just following a link on the internet to get more information ? If you have you may have run into the annoying pop-up below: Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page? Your dream job is ONE STEP AWAY! Register to view the latest job openings in your area. Press CANCEL to continue. Press OK to continue, or Cancel to stay on the current page. It's like someone there has come up with a way to keep you from leaving their page. Most of the time the site is possibly for a job or perhaps a loan or a school. Having spent time recently on what I thought was a job application turned into a front for a school. Aside from the pop-up, I received three emails and two voicemails saying I had not completed the information. How is that for someone watching what you do and where you go on the internet. Imagine walking out of a market or retail store and a clerk steps in front of you and says, "sure you want to leave, y

Remember when you drove into a gas station and sat in your car while it was filled with gas , had your oil and tires checked , your windows cleaned and someone said have a nice day? Not since the 70s. One would pull into a service station and almost Immediately two or three smiling guys wearing matching white shirts, bow ties (yes they did wear them) and dark uniforms swarmed all over your car. One would lift the hood, pull the dipstick to check the oil and squirt some water in the radiator with no extra fee. Another checks and inflates all four tires to the required pressure and asks if the spare also could use some air. He would then spray water on the windshield, towel and squeegee it off while meticulously cleaning the front windshield and all other visible panes of glass. The last attendant would lift the nozzle and pump leaded or unleaded gasoline into the tank and give you the total for the gas , walk back into the office and return with your change. Sometimes you even get a

Are you one of those shoppers that mind your own business, keep the table clean after you eat, do not reorganize a store's interior and do not make a spectacle of yourself in front of others? There are however, a small minority of customers who are so self absorbed they do not care about their surroundings and other customers. They come off as rude and haughty. Here is a list of situations where the customer needs a "get with it" reminder. 1) Did you ever drive around a crowded parking lot, finally see a spot and as you turn in there is a shopping cart in the middle. Safeway, Lucky's and Trader Joe's in San Ramon and Pleasanton are always crowded lots. To whoever left it there.........wish them a flat tire on their way home. 2) You are in another parking lot, you park with no one on your left and on your return there is a huge pickup truck or van over the line and you have have about ten inches to open your door and squeeze in. To whoever owns that vehicle....

If you have ever answered calls in a call center, you probably heard these words several times. "I WANNA SPEAK TO A SUPERVISOR". From working in centers and knowing people in other centers, these happens at least once a day or several times a week depending on the type of business. Raise your hands if you have ever received this type of call. Thank you. From the company's standpoint they always want the agent to take care of the problem. Sometimes the callers will not budge and will insist on talking to a supervisor. The type of business could be banking,cable.phone or internet.These problems may involve fouled up orders, no shows for appointments, billing inquiries or just general gripes on their "customer experience". Folks let me first let you in on a little secret. About half the time the call will not be transferred to a supervisor. A real supervisor being a person who hires, fires, writes reviews, signs your time sheet etc. Most supervisors may not have t

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?

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.

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.