BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
21 Jun 2006

If you pick up any business magazine these days, one word can be found on cover pages, within special sections and in most articles.  That word is Innovation.  You know what I mean if you pick up Fortune or Business Week.  I’m sure Business 2.0 also talks about that as well, though I had to cancel my subscription this past month (it’s a great magazine, though I just don’t have time these days to read many mags).

Anyway, I am not saying that innovation is not important.  Au contraire, I like to think that I have made a career out of being creative and coming up with - and following through those ideas - a ”Crazy Idea of the Day” every day.  Basically, a new way to innovate, change things, shake things up.  I apologize about the shameless promo, but it’s true.

But these days, while innovation is the buzzword du jour, many companies seem to forget about all of the other things that are equally important.  Today, we’ll talk a bit about Service.

When I began writing ages ago, I promised myself never to use my platform to bitch and complain about the poor service I got from a company.  I won’t start today.  But what I will do is use an example I went through yesterday to show how much some companies lack common sense when it comes to the service they provide, or lack thereof.

The company in question shall remain nameless (yeah, right) cause I do not like to bash companies unfairly, though this one deserves to be bashed for the lunacy they put me through yesterday. 

Here’s the story: My super-duper all-in-one printer, copier and fax (yeah, you can narrow down your picks already, I know) has had a problem since I bought it.  Essentially, all outgoing faxes get to the recipient with a massive black box on it, shriking the content of the fax by 50% and making it impossible for the recipient to read it.  If you are sending out a big black rectangle via fax, this would not be a problem.  But since I rarely send those puppy out and actually have the audacity to expect my recipient to be able to read the fax, this means that my fax is essentially useless.  It has been since Day 1, but every time I have called since I bought, the company “was experienced high call volumes,” so I never got around to it.

We run what you would call a small and medium sized company at WatchMojo.com, you know, exactly the kind of firm that technology companies should target, because once they win us over, they have a lifelong customer as we grow.  And when a tech or new media firm grows, it goes from 1 machine to thousands in the span of a few years.  That’s the kind of growth that companies need, especially publicly traded ones (I know, you can narrow down the company even more).

It should be stated that for 18 months, I worked in a call center for the largest financial company in the country, I was a pretty darn good employee, so I know a thing or two about a) call centers, b) call center employees and c) the frustration from customers who call into them.  I know, more shameless promo, I am sorry.  But keep reading, it’s worth it.

Yesterday, I had to call said company to find out why my fax was acting like that.  It’s a laserjet product, not a color printer, yet for some reason, every time I would call in and prompt the automated system for “laserjet printers,” I would get routed to the colored printer department.  What this means is that after waiting 5, 10 or 15 minutes and becoming impatient and irate, customers are told:

“Sorry, even though I work for the same company and can help you on colored printers, I don’t know ‘you know what’ about regular black and white laser printers.”

“Do you know you are experiencing this problem with your automated system,” I asked.

“Of course,” I was told.  “We’re working on it.”  Great, can’t wait for y’all to start working on my printers, methought.

Forget the fact that I am talking to someone in Calcutta.  I do not mind that.  I really don’t.  That makes sense to me because the employee in Calcutta probably appreciates their job more anyway, I know that is so not politically correct to say, but it’s my opinion.

As I was waiting to get transferred to the right department, I thought: first off, as a general rule, dividing up your call center reps by product is not really smart.  It means reps who handle product 1 might be taking more calls than reps who handle product 2 even if there are more calls coming in for product 2.  I know, I know, call centers analyze call volume by product line.  That’s BS.  I worked in call centers long enough to know that call centers work in the “do enough to avoid the dam from crashing”  mindset.

All to say, dividing your reps by products is not smart because it means that your training costs will be higher over time.  Last but least, since most of the problems involve troubleshooting, this means that one rep who gains experience cannot deploy it over all product lines etc.  Of course, I am not here to tell you how to run your business, but the fact that a consumer is telling you he won’t buy your products in the future should make you listen.

All to say, after spending all morning on this matter and not fixing the problem, the company was kind enough to offer sending me a replacement overnight, fixing my machine and then sending me my machine back when it’s fixed (assuming it’s fixed).  This would be good, only problem is that the price they quoted me turned out to be wrong… that took some more time to clarify, further frustrating me.

Of course, maybe if the rep would handle all products, he would go through more of the pricing involved and not misquote prices, but hey, now I am being fastitious.

If you have been reading thus far, great.  Here’s the best part: the company sent me - via email - a form to fill out.  They asked me to print and fax back the form. 

Mind you, 99% of the companies in the world have more than one printer and more than one fax machine.  But as a startup with one printer in the office, I asked, “can I simply email them back the info?”

No, I was told, cause this company, whose name is synonymous with printers (I know, you should start to know who this company is by now) and who was the 9th company to register a url (ever! click here to see the entire list and find out who the company is) does not accept emails from consumers.

Does not accept emails?

Are you kidding me?

Then and there, I was going to toss out my printer outside of my window.

When I worked in the call center, from 1999-2001, my employer too did not accept emails.  That was ludicrous then, but it was 1999, after all.  For a technology company’s call center not to accept emails in 2006 is as backwards as backwards can get.

Then and there, I decided that indeed, we needed more printers and fax machines at our offices, but guess what, at it stands right now, guess whose product it won’t be.