Tag: customer service

I’m turning the tables today, with a question to visitors to the blog, following an article from Bill McGee of Consumer Reports. He has an article in USA Today this week on “When customer service is lost in translation,” with a focus on customer service provided by some of the largest travel companies in the States.

“Recently USAToday.com asked readers to share their experiences with these foreign call centers. After sorting through your responses, it’s clear that many of you are not satisfied with such service.

“But it’s a no-brainer decision [closing domestic call centers and outsourcing the effort to places like India] in more ways than one: The immediate gains in labor costs need to be weighed against the long-term losses in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

“Quite frankly, when USATODAY.com solicited reader feedback on this topic a few weeks ago, I was concerned that some of the responses might be xenophobic (or even racist). Instead, I found nearly all the correspondence was even-handed and respectful. What became clear is that off-shoring customer service is different from off-shoring other functions and not all jobs can be lumped into the same “foreign outsourcing” category. Whether we like it or not, there are companies in other countries that theoretically could make better and/or cheaper transmissions, cellphones, or running shoes.”

I recommend McGee’s “things to keep in mind” when you call for assistance:

• Always keep a detailed log of your reservations calls, including names, dates, and times.
• If you’re not clear what is being said, either ask the agent to repeat it or ask to speak to another agent. Never agree to something you THINK you understand.
• Don’t be afraid to request a supervisor. In some cases, this will mean being transferred from a foreign call center to a domestic call center.
• Ask the agent to follow up with an email confirmation.

Today’s question for you: have you had a good or bad experience with Microsoft or other major industry customer service agents? I’ve posted some of my own experiences and thoughts (click here) but I’d like to hear from you.

No, I don’t have a lot of free time coming up to fill. 😉

As time and space permits, I’ll post your comments (keep it clean) on the blog with your experiences and follow up with our folks in customer service as well as the product groups in future posts.

Tags: Microsoft, customer support, Windows XP, customer service, customer satisfaction.

Also avaiable via http://bit.ly/zG56h4

Christopher Oster writes in MSN Money about the “companies topped a list of more than 400 nominated by MSN Money readers,” and ranked the worst performers in the poll in their own “Top Ten” list. 

“Last month, we asked readers to tell us about their worst customer service experiences, and more than 3,000 responded within 24 hours of our request. Now, with the help of pollster Zogby International, we are introducing MSN Money’s Customer Service Hall of Shame, a ranking of the companies whose service is most often rated “poor” by consumers.

“The results are in, and one company ranks below all the rest: Sprint Nextel, one of the country’s largest wireless-phone carriers.
great customer service is not hard.

“At right is the Bottom 10, ranked by the percentage of people who said a company’s customer service was “poor.”

Some included in the list are not surprising (this is my personal view, having shopped at several of the retailers mentioned), but I was surprised at a couple of the “dishonorable mentions” in the article (listed here). In my opinion and experience, Wells Fargo and Dell rank consistently high.

I have had excellent in-person customer service at Wells Fargo: the latest experience was when my son opened up his first savings account, and without first knowing if I even had an account at the branch, the staff (thanks, Efi) treated him like a high-roller flying into Vegas for a six-figure weekend. Better, when he came back to make a deposit of a whopping few bucks in birthday haul, they remembered his name and once again rolled out the red carpet (and cookies).

As for Dell, we have Dell computers at home and I have a desktop in my office, among others, and have written here and here about some of my (generally positive) experiences with Dell’s customer support (all, so far, via chat and email). Related to the experiences we have at home, AFAIK Dell had no idea of my affiliation with MS when I pinged them, and they’ve always been professional and courteous. There was one experience where we ‘stumped the band’ with an esoteric software application problem, that was eventually solved with a bump up to second level support… and they called me back on their dime when they had the answer, rather than keep me on hold.