Customer Service Nightmare Story

If you’re in customer service, I highly recommend you check out the most recent broadcast of This American Life.

The theme of the newscast is “The Middle of Nowhere,” and Act 2 (fast forward about 34 minutes into the show) details the frustrating, hair-rending efforts throughout 2003 of one of the producers of the show to reverse $946 in bogus charges from her then-long distance carrier, MCI Worldcom.

The show should raise some great issues in your mind. For instance, as a telephone service provider, do you think it ever makes sense to tell a consumer that no one at your firm can be reached via a direct phone number? To tell a consumer you can’t do a three-way call with another vendor involved in a dispute because “you don’t have that technology,” even though it’s a service you sell? If you don’t want to be a service laughing stock, the answer should be “No.” An emphatic no.

One would hope this tale is a rare instance of incompetence to the nth degree. But think, as you listen, of how many times your customer has been promised a call back which was never made. How many points of disconnect are there in your customer complaint resolution process, and how can they be eliminated?

And the most important question: how does the average customer get out of phone tree service hell if they don’t have a friend in national media?

Figure it out before you are the next featured segment in some national media.