Customer Service around the world

Bell Canada in Customer Service denial

First of all - may apologies to those waiting for more posts.  I actually have a lot of great experiences from the last month to share from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Montreal, India and Ottawa.  I’ll get to them soon.

First though, Bell Canada - a company completely in denial about their terrible treatment of customers.  Because of their horrible service, over the last three years, they have lost the following revenue from our family alone: personal telephone, satellite tv, 7 mobile phone accounts.  I’m guessing the average revenue per month lost is around $600.  In three years then, their horrible service has cost them around $21,600.  Since cancelling everything, they have spent an extraordinary amount of time and money trying to get us back as customers.  The funny thing is that they just don’t seem to realize that, if they had provided even adequate service, they would never have lost me in the first place. (see this post: http://www.beldingskills.com/Blog/?p=104)

Our last connection with this self-destructive company was our business.  I’ll soon be cancelling this one too.  Without going into a lot of detail, here’s the story.  We’ve used Bell for our business since 1992.  Since 1997, we’ve had a dial-up account to use when high-speed wasn’t available.  I also would use the dial-up account at my cottage when I work from there in the summer.  The account was for unlimited usage, so my wife and I would often just leave the connection on, on both of our computers, all day.

Two years ago, we made some internal changes to our company, and we had to migrate the Bell account to the new entity.  We also moved offices, and elected to get Bell high-speed for the business as well.  I was told that the dial-up would remain the same. 

To my shock, we received a bill for over $340 in June for dial-up usage.  Apparently we now only have 20 hours of usage a month.  On reviewing my account, it appears we have had a number of these large bills since the accounts were migrated. In trying to explain and rectify the situation, Bell has been unyielding, and after a lengthy conversation with an unhelpful and uncaring representative, I’ve decided to switch all of our business services to another provider beginning August 1.  She didn’t care that it was Bell’s mistake in the first place.  So now they will lose our business as well, which will increase the monthly revenue they lose by over $1,000 a month. 

We’re just one little company, and  I’m just one person.  Imagine how many others they’ve been ticking off over the years and the cost of them.  BCE, their parent company, is in the process of a takeover.  I’m thinking, unless they bring in strong,  customer-focused leadership, it may not be a good investment for the new buyers.

Here are some other links to people commenting on Bell’s absence of customer service:

www.photojunkie.ca/archive/2006/12/bell-customer-service-sucks/
http://www.ellenroseman.com/?p=8
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/services/underdogs/furch.html
http://www.favvas.com/2007/01/23/bell-canada-sucks-or-how-not-to-practice-permission-marketing/
http://www.psyc3d.com/content/beware-of-bell-mobility
http://kempton.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/customer-services-bell-mobility/
http://bell-canada-stole.blogspot.com/2007/12/yet-another-unsatisfied-customer.html
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/terrible-customer-service-and-language-barrier-c51683.html
http://getsatisfaction.com/bellcanada
http://www.mynameiskate.ca/2006/02/dear_bell_canad.html
http://snowcrash.ca/blawg/2007/09/bell-canada-disservice.html

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Purolator recovery - More Northwest Airlines Horror Stories

To my unexpected and pleasant surprise, I received a human response from Purolator to the email I had written.   She apologized, and explained the situation to me.  I’m not entirely convinced about the explanation, but the effort was there, and it was a good one.  A pleasant change from Purolator in the past.  We’ll see what happens as the package is re-delivered…  My Brother reported an even more unsettling experience with them, so I guess I’m not alone.

On another note, I thought I should share this story out of The Consumerist (great website).  Despite all the abuse I seem to heap on Air Canada, I’ve said for a long time that Northwest Airlines’ service is the worst on the planet.  This is another great example:

http://consumerist.com:80/tag/northwest/?i=5013626&t=northwests-coach-choice-seats-are-a-complete-waste-of-money

I’m off for the next few weeks to Washington DC, Pittsburgh and L.A.  I’ll try to be a little more diligent in my blog writing!

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Dell Shines in service, Purolator Stinks

Last week my hard drive melted down.  Fortunately I had a backup that was about 2 week sold, so I didn’t lose everything.  In the process of getting it fixed, I found myself having a number of conversations with Dell reps. 

Say what you will about all the outsourcing of tech support roles to other countries, but the experiences I had were, by and large, outstanding.  In a very stressful time for me, the people on the other end came across as compassionate and eager to help.  I can’t say enough about them. 

There was a time, just a few short years ago, that Dell’s outsourcing strategy was looking like a horrible,horrible mistake.  But it looks like they have finally got people trained and many of the bugs worked out.  Kudos to Dell.

On the flip side is Purolator Courier, Canada’s largest courier company.  99% of the time, their deliveries are bang on.  But for those 1% of the times they mess up, they are absolutely evil in the way they deal with customers.  One of the Dell parts I needed to fix my computer had been sent via Purolator.  To make a long story short, I had a lengthy and fruitless conversation with one of the rudest, most obstinent men I have ever encountered.  

I cannot understand how Purolator survives.  Our company only uses Purolator as a very last resort now.  We have had far too many incidents of dealing with people who absolutely have no intention or interest in looking after their customers.  In our customer service workshops, I’ve heard dozens and dozens of horror stories. 

Folks, unless you enjoy people being rude to you, use UPS, FedEX, Loomis - anyone but Purolator. 

Posted in Customer Service | 1 Comment »

Montreal Customer Service

I’ve got a bit of catching up to do!

Early last week I was in Montreal.  Went to a new restaurant called Town Hall in the West Island.  Food was excellent - but more importantly for me, the service was amongst the best I’ve ever encountered.  Highly recommended!

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Cost of poor customer service - memo to Bell Canada

According to research on customer loyalty, acquiring a new customer can cost 6-7 times as much as retaining an existing customer.  Intuitively, this makes sense.  So why is it, then that so many large, sophisticated companies seem unable to grasp this.

Today I had a reminder of this, that I thought I should share.  Up until 2 years ago, Bell Canada was the service provide we used for our home telephones, all our business telephones, our personal and business cell phones, our high-speed internet and our satellite TV.  We had been a customer of theirs forever. 

I hit the tipping point two years ago after having a brawl with “Emily”, Bell’s automated voice system.  To make a long story short, it was just becoming progressively too difficult to talk with a human being who was interested or able to resolve the inevitable issues that arise. 

I wrote letters to senior people.  I made phone calls.  Then I gave up.  After all, why should I care more than they do?  So, I switch all of our personal and corporate business - thousands of dollars a month worth - to their competitor, Rogers communication.  We have been relatively happy with Rogers ever since - and for those times we do have issues, there is rarely a challenge finding a human willing to help.

Bell, apparently, misses us.  I quite literally can’t count the number of letters, cards, invitations and telephone calls we have received trying to get our business back.  Today, I got yet another letter from them.  They have obviously figured out that people are discarding their mail before even opening it now, because this new one was sent in an unmarked, plain envelope.  The first sentence was, “It would be a privilege to have you as a Bell customer again…”

The thing is, I was a customer.  A loyal one.  And their choice to neglect me cost them a great deal of money.  And the amount they have spent trying to get me back would have more than paid the hourly wage of the people I wanted to talk to in the first place.

But the scary thing is that Bell genuinely believes that their automated system, Emily, is an indispensable money saver.   Internally,their executives will tout from the highest rooftops the comparative costs per call when you have a person vs. an automated system.  What they have always neglected to enter into the equation is the cost of losing the thousands of customers - just like me.  British Gas found out the hard way.  It looks like Bell still has a way to go.

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Tim Horton’s save

In the sport of hockey, there’s the phrase ‘nice save’.  It’s used when one team has a brilliant scoring opportunity, and the other team’s goalie does something equally brilliant to avert disaster.  A fitting metaphor for the unfolding Tim Horton’s story, (see my previous post for details) given that the late Tim Horton was a legendary hockey player.

In less than 24 hours, Tim Horton’s, I believe, has recovered as well anyone probably could under the circumstances.  Whoever is responsible for their PR will be keeping their job for a while I think (unless, of course, he/she gives someone a timbit).  In a nutshell, from Tim Horton’s perspective, here’s what I suspect happened yesterday morning:

5:30 am:  Don Schroeder, Tim Horton’s president, wakes up to see his chain’s name splashed across every daily newspaper in the country, and sees it on every news broadcast.  He thinks “Oh crap!”

6:00 am:  He has already called his assistant who has begun to call everyone in head office, telling them to get their butts to work within the next half an hour.

7:00am:  They hold an emergency meeting to discuss what they’re going to do about it.  Don Schroeder uses at least one swear word.  At least one person suggests publically hanging the manager who fired the employee.

7:10am:  It occurs to them that there were actually three managers present for the firing, and the district manager had publicly and stridently supported the strict adherence to the corporate theft policy.  It then occurs to them that this is probably due to directives from head office, since this kind of behaviour rarely happens in a vacuum.  The public hanging idea is out, because they don’t have enough nooses to go around.

7:15am:  The woman is offered her job back, and all of the press is notified

7:20 am:  It’s slowly starting to occur to all of the managers, including the district manager, that maybe they did something wrong (although most still in denial)

8:00am:  It looks like the tide of ill-will might be unstoppable.  Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe & Mail, already has over 200 people writing in with comments on their website.  (by the end of the day, the number will swell to over 800 - one of the highest responses the G&M has ever had).  In at least 50% of these, people have vowed to never eat at Tim Horton’s again.

10:00am:  Tim Horton’s has received over a thousand emails and telephone messages from customers.  None of these customers expect a response.

2:30pm:  Tim Horton’s has pulled everyone off of all projects to ensure that each email and telephone call gets responded to.  The email is a generic, but not obviously so.  It is well written.  Most of the press is given regular updates, which includes the repetition of an unqualified statement that the firing was wrong, and that it has been fixed

6:00pm:  Everyone is exhausted.  Nothing to do but wait until tomorrow to see how it plays out in the media.

2:00am:  The managers involved in the firing still can’t sleep, but still aren’t quite sure why.

This has become a wonderful case history of how much of an impact one poor management decision can have on an organization.  It’s also a case study in how strongly people feel about policies and procedures that unreasonably restrict someone’s ability to deliver great customer service. 

We’ll be using this one in our management training programs!  Thanks Tim’s!

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Tim Horton’s Customer Service Blindness

Yesterday, a 3 year employee of Tim Hortons got fired for giving a customer a 16 cent ‘timbit’.  For those not familiar with Canada, Tim Hortons is Canada’s omnipresent and ultra popular donut chain.  One thing they’ve never been known for, however, is customer service.  Yesterday, they demonstrated that this lack of customer service is dictated from the top down. 

An employee saw a regular customer who was having a bad day.  The customer’s child was pointing at one of the little timbits, and the employee, in a gesture of goodwill, just gave her one.  For most people who understand customer loyalty, this ranks as a hugely wonderful decision on the cost-benefit scale.  The real cost to Tim Horton’s - probably less than five cents.  The benefit in goodwill and word of mouth - priceless.

Rather than celebrate the decision, Tim Horton’s decides the employee should be fired because of ‘corporate theft.’  The resulting press (eg. this blog) will now likely create tens of thousands of dollars of bad will.  Here’s a link with the bigger story:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080507.wtimbit0507/BNStory/National/home

 But this becomes a cautionary tale for all managers.  You see, one of the most common laments I hear from the senior levels of business is that employees don’t take enough initiative.  Managers can’t understand why so many of their employees are unwilling to go that ‘extra mile’ for a customer.  Well, Tim Horton’s has just sent the message to all employees that the risk in using their judgement is far too great.  Better they follow their policies and procedures in Zombie-like fashion, then to focus on customer happiness.

I’m very disappointed in a chain that has become a Canadian icon.

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Trans-Globe property management services - a nasty piece of business

I’ve signed a lot of leases over the years  - business and personal.  I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced an organization like Trans Global Property Management.  We’re moving our son into an apartment being leased by them.  They’ve used bait & switch tactics, we’ve been lied to.  It’s been a good many years since I’ve dealt with an organization with such questionable ethics.  Unfortunately, their building is in a prime spot, so they feel they can get away with mistreating customers. 

If you are ever faced with dealing with them, find another alternative in a hurry.  Their customer service, and their business practices, are amongst the worst I’ve ever witnessed.

Posted in Customer Service | 2 Comments »

California Customer Service

I’m back in Santa Monica (LA) for a few days.  Ann, who works at the front desk of the DoubleTree is absolutely outstanding.  When I open my own hotel, I’m going to steal her.  Down on the third street promenade is a Clark’s Shoes that I visited to get myself a new pair of casual walking shoes.  The young man working there was terrific, and quickly stripped me of $100 for a nice pair of shoes.  As I walked out of the store wearing them, his counterpart commented “I LOVE those shoes!  And they really look good on you!”  Even if her comment was just schmoozing (which I suspect it was), it was still a great touch.  I’ll definitely shop there again.

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Great customer service from United Airlines - and a missed opportunity

April 25 

When I got to the Wichita airport to check in, the very friendly United agent made a point to let me know that there was some inclement weather around Chicago that could potentially effect my flight.  Nice, I thought.  (See the last entry about customer service and setting expectations).  I knew that my connection was tight, so I asked her what my alternatives were should things go sideways. 

To my astonishment, she had already figured this out!  And not just for me, but for all the other passengers with connections out of Chicago.  She as delightful, and she tentatively rebooked me on the next (morning) flight out of Chicago.  I wasn’t happy about the possible unplanned layover, but it’s not like United can control the weather.  She was great.

 Too bad the flight attendant on the airplane wasn’t as interested.  She was obviously tired, and didn’t even have the energy to muster up a smile.  When the pilot came on to announce that we would be over an hour and a half before we could take off, some passengers responded with outrage (they, obviously, believe that airlines  do have control over the weather).

Overall, they did a very nice job.  The pilot kept us informed on progress, and tried to reassure people that the issue was a weather thing, not a United thing.

The next morning, at check-in in Chicago, the experience continued to be very good, with a gate agent doing a great job with passengers like me who had unexpected layovers.  More of the same good stuff in the United Red Carpet Lounge 

It’s important to note that while United’s service was excellent overall, they still missed a huge opportunity.  Let me explain:

I think I’ve talked before about the Service Recovery Paradox (SRP).  The SRP is the phenomenon whereby, if your business has an unsatisfied customer due to a service failure, and you do whatever it takes to make things right, your customer will actually be more satisfied and more of an ambassador than had service just gone right in the first place.

I refer to them as WOW! opportunities.  You see, the positive customer service experiences we talk about with our friends and family are inevitably when a service person does something to exceed our expectations.  Often it’s something unexpected.  Sometimes it’s just a little extra in acknowledgement of the customer’s situation.  It doesn’t have to be much.

In United’s case, they must have had dozens of planeloads of people in the same situation we were in - all of them stressed about not getting in on time and not making connections.  The situation wasn’t United’s fault, and despite the squawking of the passengers, they knew it.  United had a great chance to send the message to customers ‘we understand your stress - here’s a little something to make it more bearable.’  It could be a free drink on the airplane, a pre-printed card with the names and phone numbers of Chicago hotels, a free pass to the Red Carpet Lounge, a coupon for a free meal on the next flight - something, anything, to say “we Care.” Give your customers something positive to talk about.

Don’t misunderstand, I believe the United people were very good.  But they were more focused on damage control than on seizing opportunity.  The airline industry is extremely competitive, and every loyal traveller you can garner is like gold.   They need to look at the positive side of these stressful moments.

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Customer Service in Wichita

We miraculously touched down at the Wichita airport about 3 hours ago.   I’m not a nervous flyer, but after a half an hour of flying sideways, upside-down & backwards, I was beginning to twitch a bit.  A little more when the pilot aborted his first landing approach because of concerns of ‘microbursts’ at the airport.  Just my luck - the only thing I know about Kansas is the story of a little girl and her dog who got caught in a tornado, and I’m landing in the middle of a storm…  I looked for a yellow brick road, and didn’t see one, so I’m assuming I’m still in Kansas.

Anyway, so far I’ve had two experiences.  The first was while waiting for my luggage.  Now in most airports, they just let you wait.  It feels like forever, and is always an unpleasant experience.  Here in Wichita, however, a nice lady came on the announcement to tell us the status of our luggage, and that it should be ‘on the belt in about 15 minutes’.  Sure, I wasn’t happy about having to wait 15 minutes for my luggage, but now that I knew, I didn’t feel obligated to stand around and wait for it.  I bought myself a diet coke, found a seat, and did a little work.  Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, the bags appear.

There’s a ton of customer service research telling us how customer satisfaction is directly linked to customer expectations.  Manage the expectations, and you manage the satisfaction levels.  In this case, they managed my expectations - and then met them.  I was happy - as were all the others waiting.  And the bonus for the baggage crew inside the terminal was that they didn’t have to field a bunch of ‘where is my luggage’ questions.  15 seconds of someone’s time on the loudspeaker, and everyone’s happy.  Nice.

I am hoping, however, that my cabbie isn’t representative of Wichita cabbies.  He never left his seat - just popped the trunk and waved for me to put my luggage in.  Once inside the cab, it was quickly apparent that he hadn’t showered in a few days.  When I gave him a $20 for a $14 cab fare, he asked “you want change?”  “Yes,” I said.  “Yes I do.”

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Customer Service at Just for Laughs

 I just got off the phone from a young man who’s name I believe is Armand.  He works in the ticket sales department for Just for Laughs in Montreal.  I was trying to sort out an issue with our tickets for the upcoming summer festival.

I’ve simply never dealt with a better customer service representative.  He was positive, pleasant, polite and upbeat.  I will hold this experience up as the gold standard for how a call should be conducted.  His choice of words and phrases was excellent, and he comfortably balanced friendliness with professionalism.  He also made the effort to upsell, by trying to arrange hotel rooms as well.  Wonderful!

Armand - If you’re ever looking for work, I know a dozen people who would hire you!

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

More Pittsburgh Customer Service

It’s been over 25 years since I’ve been to Pittsburgh, and the city has pleasantly surprised me in many ways.  The biggest has to do with the customer service levels.  It very well might have, overall, the best customer service I’ve seen in a city in North America.  Hotels, restaurants, stores - so far the level of service I’ve experienced has been outstanding.  Even the TSA employees at the airport were friendly!  For the first time in my recent travels, I was sent to the ’special’ area of security for the full treatment - the metal detecting wand, pat down - the works.  It’s not a fun process, and the TSA agent that did it was exceedingly thorough and professional.  I’m glad, though, that it happened in Pittsburgh.  The agents were friendly, and made a concerted effort to ensure I was as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.  Proof that you can deliver great customer service even when doing a very serious job.

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

The People of Pittsburgh

Being in Pittsburgh at the moment is a little bittersweet.  On the one hand, it is an absolutely beautiful city.  On the other hand, I’ve had the misfortune to be here when the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team twisted the blade in the Ottawa Senators to put them out of their misery for this year.  Way too many happy people here on this sad day.

The people of Pittsburgh are, overall, exceedingly friendly.  The Holiday Inn Select here by Carnegie Mellon has the best service of any Holiday Inn I’ve seen.  From the front desk to the housekeepers.  The housekeeper on our floor may be the friendliest I’ve ever seen, and I would choose this hotel on my next visit just because of her. 

Another small but memorable customer service experience came from a little restaurant on 5th Avenue called Camilles.  I was stupidly trying to carry too much stuff - and talk on my cell phone at the same time.  The inevitable consequence was a semi-spilled Mango-Strawberry smoothie on the counter.  The woman behind the counter actually apologized to me!  She cleaned my cup, and offered to refill it.  The mess on the counter was seemingly unimportant to her as she inquired as to whether or not I got any on my suit.  Wow.

 On another note, I found this quite interesting article on dealing with multicultural customers.  I’m not sure I agree with all of it, but he does make a few good points:  http://www.exchangemagazine.com:80/morningpost/2008/week16/Wednesday/041601.html

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Customer Service in Washington DC

I didn’t get a chance to leave my hotel room much while in DC.  (I had to hang around in case President Bush or the Pope dropped by for a visit), but I did manage to have a couple of experiences.  The first was with the hotel - the Ritz-Carleton in Pentagon City.  As one would expect from a Ritz, the people were above average in attentiveness, and clearly well trained in customer service.  Having said that, though, things were different in their restaurant.  On a whim, I decided to time how long it took to get service.  It was 15 minutes before my waiter made it to my table to take my first order, 25 minutes for a drink to arrive, 55 minutes for the simple steak to arrive, and 90 minutes before I got my bill. 

I’m quite certain that the young waiter had not been doing this for long.  He seemed…uncomfortable…not knowing what to do next.  The worst part was when the steak finally came.  For maybe only the second time in my life, I found myself sending a meal back.  It was rare, and I had asked for medium.  I hadn’t really made a big fuss about it, but at that point the head waiter came over to apologize and take over.  That would have been a nice touch, if he had just said he was sorry for the error, and that he would correct it.  Instead, though, he made a point to blame the waiter - several times.  So much for looking out for your employees.

The next day at Macy’s in Pentagon city was a different story.  Macy’s seems to have a lot more staff than most department stores, and it makes a big difference.  I had a couple of people take an interest in my shopping experience, and in doing so probably doubled my purchase.  They were friendly, helpful and focused on their customers.  An unexpectedly pleasant experience in a large chain store. 

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

A customer service superstar at…Air Canada?

I fly a lot, and on a lot of different airlines.  And the customer service on a plane makes a huge difference to the quality of a trip.  After all, you’re stuck in a giant cigar tube for anywhere between 1 and 15 hours.

For those who read this blog regularly, you know of my general dissatisfaction with the uncaring attitude that seems to pervade the people who work for Air Canada.  It’s not as bad as Northwest in the USA, but sometimes it comes close.  There seem to be way too many people who have been there too long, and don’t see customers as people anymore. 

Having said all this, however, yesterday I met someone with Air Canada who I would put in the top five customer service providers I’ve ever met around the world.  It was very exciting.

I was returning from Freeport, Bahamas, and it was the final leg of my trip from Toronto to Ottawa on flight 464.  The flight on the previous leg from Nassau to Toronto had been good, and the flight crew pleasant and efficient, but I was tired, and not the least happy at the prospect of going from 80 degree temperatures to snow.

As I entered the small jet to Ottawa, I was immediately struck by the smiles and cheerfulness of the crew greeting us on board.  I caught two of their names - Christine and Melanie.  Wow!  I had the good fortune of being seated in the front row, so I had a great view of how they treated the passengers.  They were extraordinarily gracious, and seemed genuinely pleased to see each customer who came on board.  I must have heard “Hello” “Bonjour” “Welcome aboard” over a hundred times from the three of them - and each time sounded like the first.

The service director was Melanie, and she worked the front part of the cabin.  I watched her with the passengers, and I can honestly say I have never seen anyone better at combining efficiency (it’s only a 30 minute flight, and they serve a meal!) with fabulous interpersonal skills. 

I got to talk with her a little about customer service as the airplane taxied to the gate, and I was struck by her amazingly positive attitude toward her job and people in general.  She absolutely made my day. 

Melanie - if you’re reading this - if you’re ever looking for a new career, call me!  If I can’t find you a place in my company, I know 50 people who would hire you in a heartbeat.  Thanks for a great experience.

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Customer Service in the Bahamas

My tough life continues as I flew into The Bahamas this week.  I really am working.  Honest!

The Bahamas is (are?) a wonderful place.  They survive on tourism, and graciousness and customer service - at least to the tourists - seems second nature to most

My first stop is Nassau, and I was fortunate to find a taxi driver nicknamed ‘Whitey’.  (We got more than one curious glance- me being white and him being black, yet I was calling himWhitey).  Whitey personifies customer service, and if you’re ever in Nassau, I highly recommend you try and find him.  He claims everyone knows him, and this I don’t doubt for a second.  He’s gregarious, funny, entertaining, exceptionally knowledgeable about The Bahamas and the history here. 

Once you get beyond the tourist places, you find that Bahamians have many of the same customer service challenges as in other places.  The pace here is considerably slower than most cities, and I heard more than one (I think they were New Yorkers) tourist complaining about the speed things were moving at. 

I was staying in the Hilton downtown, and looked for things to complain about, but couldn’t find any.  Having said that, I did watch another guest of the hotel having a struggle trying to get the type of room she had requested.  The situation taxed the customer service skills of the front desk employee, who just kept repeating to the customer that “yergunnahafta” do a whole bunch of things - including waiting for the manager.  The scene was only enjoyable to watch because it gave me fodder for the blog.  ther than that, it was painful!

This morning I flew to Freeport, an island with a pace that makes Nassau look frantic.  Again with an amazing taxi driver - Carl.  Okay - so he dropped me at the wrong hotel.  But I think that might have been my fault….

These guys might even be able to teach London cabbies a thing or two about customer service - and the London cabbies are outstanding!

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

San Diego airport wins customer service awards

I thought I should pass this on.  It wasn’t more than just a few posts ago that I was heaping praise on the San Diego airport for its great customer service.  Apparently I’m not alone in feeling this way.  They won two awards this month!  Here’s the link:  http://www.sandiegobusiness.org/article_template.asp?ArticleID=736

Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Service in Santa Monica - and a new low for Air Canada

Will the person at Air Canada in charge of customer service please sit down.  It’s just not even funny any more. 

At the risk of seeming like an inveterate Air Canada basher, well, here I go again.  Or, should I say, here they go again.  This time, I’m not alone, as their new antics have appeared in at least two other publications: http://blogs.courant.com:80/travel_columnists_leblanc/2008/04/wow-air-canada.html and http://www.eturbonews.com/1999/air-canada-charge-customer-service

So here’s the deal.  Instead of just helping customers out when a flight is delayed or cancelled - as airlines used to do - now Air Canada will be charging for it.  And to make matters worse, they’re trying to spin it as a positive thing!  This is an airline which has cycled in and out of financial difficulty more than once, and they don’t seem to yet get the role their service obliviousness has played in it.  Yikes!

On a good note - a great note, actually:  I’m in Santa Monica, California at the moment.  My hotels of choice were booked, so I ended up staying at the Marriott Merigot on Ocean Blvd.  I have to pass on that the service (not to mention the food) at their restaurant Cezanne, is amongst the best I have ever received.  They were so gracious and attentive, I half wondered if they were simply confusing me with a celebrity like Brad Pitt (given how much alike we look, it would be an easy mistake to make).

There was another customer service incident in this hotel that’s worth relaying.  The general manager of the Merigot demonstrated extraordinary skill at conflict resolution.  I had arranged for some training materials to be shipped to the hotel in advance of my training sessions.  In a deja vu to an experience a few weeks ago with another hotel, when I checked in on the Sunday, I was informed, to my horror, that the materials had not arrived.  My session was to begin at 8am the following morning.  The people at the front desk promised to look around, but could not find anything.

The next morning I called the printer just before the session began, who informed me that the material had indeed been sent.  So, for the next three hours, while I conducted my session without the materials, an employee of my client doggedly stayed at the hotel insisting that they keep looking.  He went through a number of people before he found one willing to look in different places, then - voila - there the package was.

It was an abysmal service experience from a hotel chain that should know better - particularly at $340 a night.  When I related the story to the GM, he was mortified.  More importantly, he said and did all the right things.  These situations are never pleasant, but if you handle them well, you can still have a positive outcome.   Up until I spoke with the GM, there was no way I would ever stay in this hotel again.  Now, I would at least consider it.

Posted in Customer Service | 1 Comment »

Is customer service a dying art?

First, to everyone who regularly reads this blog, I apologize profusely for my untimely installments. 

To begin with, I had promised myself to tell you about the San Diego airport.  I was there in February, and had a positively delightful experience with a lady that works in the information center.  Wow!  Talk about an ambassador for the city!  Not only was she happy, knowledgeable and helpful, she positively raved about how great a town San Diego was.  If only we could clone her…

Over the next couple of months, I’ll be working in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Pittsburgh, Washington, Witchita, Freeport, Nassau - plus some others I can’t think of right now.  I’m really looking forward to the experiences.

I am getting a little concerned, however, about the state of customer service in general.  It may be my imagination, but things actually seem to be getting worse.  People who genuinely care about the happiness, or satisfaction of their customers seem to be getting fewer and farther between.  It is, of course, possible that I’m just getting old and jaded, but I’m not sure that’s the case.  (Okay - maybe the old part).

I find this surprising.  Customer service is being touted more and more as a key driver in business, yet so many companies refuse togive it more than lip service.  The good news, I guess, is that the people and companies who shine will just stand out that much more in contrast.

On that note, I’d like to pass on a quick bouquet to Roger’s Communications.  Yes, people of Canada, I mean Rogers.  They are far from perfect in terms of customer service, but they are light-years from where they were a scant 3-4 years ago.  I’m not sure what they’ve done, but they have quite handlily pole-vaulted over their principle competitor, Bell, in virtually every regard.

In our customer service training programs, we often have discussions regarding which companies are doing well, and which are doing poorly.  In Canada, Bell’s name is the most frequently mentioned on the poor side - by a wide margin.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have the willingness to be introspective enough to actually correct things.

On a final note - if you have any customer service stories - great or horrible, please share them!

Posted in Customer Service | 1 Comment »