The venerable news magazine, 60 Minutes, did a segment on an Italian company called Luxotica. If you missed it, watch it. It’s worth your time. Luxotica makes eyeglasses. Pretty much all of them. Forget the “brand” on your specs; From Ray Ban to Chanel to Tiffany, they’re all designed and made by Luxotica.
And Luxotica sells eyeglasses. From Lenscrafters to Pearle Vision to Sunglass Hut, it’s all Luxotica. When Oakley sunglasses tried to break free of Luxotica’s retail control, they were crushed. Luxotica refused to sell them, and they ceased to exist, because no product can exist if the market refuses to carry them. Then Luxotica bought them at a garage sale, and now they exist again as one of the many Luxotica brands.
And the fabulously stylish fashion eyewear from Versace is no different than the pedestrian, old school Ray Ban aviators, except for the logo glued to the frame, carrying with it a few hundred dollar premium as a litmus test of how we perceive vanity and what we’re willing to pay for it. As Luxotica’s CEO proudly noted, as long as we’re willing to pay big money for pretence, it must be worth it.
And we laugh at Honey Boo Boo Child? Only because we don’t recognize ourselves.
Over at What About Clients?, Dan Hull calls out customer service, the job available to those who didn’t make the cut as assistant manager at Dairy Queen. The people who eventually get on the line after seven minutes in heaven on hold, with such pre-recorded gems as “we care deeply about you and someone will be with you when they’re damn good and ready.”
In the cases of all of the foregoing but GEICO and Enterprise [Dan’s two customer service stars], there are of course some good, but mainly bad, moments. With respect to my nightmare companies, customer service–which no one said is easy to institute and keep up–is a cynical joke. I would have far more respect for them if they just admitted they simply do not care. In the meantime, I would very much like to see customers at counters and on phone lines everywhere start to act up–and demand better service and treatment. For example, you are the customer, and if the store, bank, insurer has made a mistake, they should correct it proactively rather than giving you another place to go or another phone number to call.
If they do not, get a little loud, folks. Tell them you expect better; you are a long-time or merely prospective customer, but one with money. You came ready to do more business or that all-important “first business”, which is a valued “moment of truth” for every seller. And, hey, you don’t call them back during regular hours. They take a message and call you back, Jack.
While Dan is absolutely right that it’s a cynical joke, taking advantage of our collective “politeness” and wimpish inability to stand up for ourselves, the problem with getting loud and rude is that the people on the other end of the phone either couldn’t care less or have no authority to do anything to help. They’re peons reading from scripts. Whether you buy or not changes nothing in their lives. Yell all you want. They just move on to the next call, asking “is there anything else I can do to help you today?”
You can ask to speak to the supervisor, but that’s the person who was promoted because she excelled at persuading people with reasonable concerns to go away.
When an annual membership fee appeared on my “no fee for life” Chase British Airways credit card the other day, I called customer service. The year before, they sent out a notice that they were changing the terms of the card to include a fee. I called then and was told that it was a mistake as to me, as my card was no fee for life, and my card would be coded so I would never be charged again. The fee was back this year.
This year, the CSR told me they had to charge me, and they sent me a notice. I explained. The gal ignored what I said and explained to me, using small words, that I now had to pay the fee. So I asked to speak with her supervisor and went through the same explanation.
The Chase supervisor, Anthony Wilson, began by explaining that the law required them to charge a fee. This shuts most people down, since any mention of The Law puts the argument outside their scope of knowledge. I told Anthony that was idiotic. Ultimately, he informed me that they were charging me a fee whether I liked it or not because, well, that’s what they did.
Let me add, there is no credit card in the world worth paying an annual fee. None. Never. If your card charges a fee, get a different card. Don’t even get me started on the scam of debit cards. And so I canceled the card. Guess what? I don’t have to pay the fee.
My pal, Wally Olson, runs a blog called Overlawyered, that embodies the concept that we sue over anything and everything. His point is well taken. The flip side, however, is that businesses sell us garbage and treat us like serfs and fools. And the harshest truth is that so many of us, in our own business life, do the same to others, even though we’re great at rationalizing our own trespasses while getting angry at others. We’re not necessarily hypocrites as stupid. We just can’t seem to connect the dots anymore.
So the only credit cards in my wallet carry no fee. I wear old Ray Ban sunglasses, and reading glasses from the supermarket that no one will mistake as being Chanel. Sometimes, I get loud and rude with customer service reps. Most of the time, I don’t bother. They aren’t even grocery clerks, but bit players with a short script.
Imagine what would happen to Luxotica if ten million people realized they were being taken for a ride? Or what would happen to the Chase British Airways credit card if ten million people said “no” to paying a fee? Would it reduce your life to meaninglessness if you didn’t wear Chanel sunglasses?
Then take a look at how you treat your clients and ask whether you’re any better than a customer service rep named Helen from Manilla? We can demand better. We can give better. We were once real and can be that way again.
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I saw that story. It’s like the mafia for eyewear. I thought the CEO was…oh crap..I put a client on hold to read your post and comment. At least my client is being told his call is very important to us.
I saw your picture this morning of the apples they serve in the American Airlines Admirals Club. They look like MacIntosh. I thought they stopped serving MacIntosh in 1967, when somebody figured out they taste like mealy crap, and Granny Smith apples became popular.
And what’s with calling it the “Admirals Club”? Admirals are in the navy, not the air force. Don’t you think you ought to tell AA that the name makes no sense?
I cant really tell you about anything that happened in 1967, but I will get to the admirals club name change as soon as they address the apple issue.
No wonder AA is in bankruptcy.
I make the following statements on information and belief . . .
1) for some companies, it is their purposeful business model to provide mediocre to horrible customer service; this to drive away customers who actually care, have expectations of quality products and services, and consciously and constantly evaluate the true value of their business transactions; 2) such strategies leave behind a pool of customers that are apathetic and more easily duped – called fat, slow-moving rabbits where I come from; 3) depending on the product(s) and/or service(s), such an intentional and self-regulating culling of the herd can lead to very high profits;
You see, these companies have great insight into some fundamental characteristics of human beings – most of the time, most of the people are either: a) stupid; and/or b) lazy. This can be mathematically proven. There is a ton of CA$H to be made preying on the stupid AND lazy, or just the stupid, or just the lazy; the only demographic that predator companies need to actively avoid and/or disengage from are the smart AND hard-working . . .
The only question this raises is whether these companies are as astute as you suggest. If so, we’re doomed, as they will never run dry of stupid and/or lazy customers.
I worked for IBM as a hardware service rep (Customer Engineer in IBMspeak) from 1977 to 2003. When I started, customer satisfaction was the top priority, always. The goal was to always exceed customer expectations. In 1994 all that changed. We were told never to exceed expectations, only to meet them. Steadily efforts were made by management to reduce those expectations. Woe betide the CE who got a glowing letter of praise from a delighted customer! I started out loving my job but after 1994 it became pure hell. Chances are the customer service rep you are so angry at hates his job almost as much as you hate talking to him. What a world.
Thanks for coming out (even though you didn’t provide a real email address, but sometimes I let that slide). I remember back when IBM was the gold standard, and it deserved to be. It’s fascinating that being the gold standard will get you fired, as the last thing a business wants today is to increase customer expectations. Yet nobody wants to talk about how this impacts our economic decline.
Your remark “…have no authority to do anything to help…” is closest to the mark. The vast majority of service reps have little to no ability to actually do anything to resolve your problem. They can route your complaint to someone who can do something about it (sometimes), but the first person you speak to about an issue generally can only indentify your problem, and direct your call to the correct department.
You might, if you complained loudly enough, get whoever is on the phone initially, fired. But that won’t solve your problem.
At Chase, you never reached a level where the decision to charge a fee was made. No one that you talked to had any authority to remove that fee. That’s one of the points of customer service; to insulate those who make the decisions from people who complain about them.
That’s why getting angry with the CSR is an indulgence, but rarely useful. They exist so appease callers and insulate people who don’t want to deal with angry callers. On rare occasion, one can reach a supervisor with authority to fix a problem, and who will actually do so if pressed, and that’s why we bother trying at all, but it’s rare and, as Hull correctly notes, it shouldn’t be a test of our fortitude to fight to the point of making someone we pay money to do the right thing.
Yet that’s our world, and if we truly need Chanel sunglasses, where else can we turn?
Oh, it is with certainty we are all doomed — no one gets out alive!!
Having said that, it is a paradox or, maybe better still, a cruel sick joke of our existence that it is possible and even easier for a business to profit from providing shoddy goods and services to the stupid and/or the lazy than it is to produce real value for the smart and engaged customer . . .
To many business, the phrase P.T. Barnum is widely, but erroneously, credited with saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute” is indeed correct . . .
But in the interest of fairness, I must also state that there are lots of great companies out there that provide value to the smart and active customer; however, it is not without a bit of irony that these businesses have to work smarter AND harder to serve such customers . . .
Lots? First, you need to define great companies and value, and then we need names. Bear in mind, this will most likely reveal far more about you than you might prefer.
“I wear old Ray Ban sunglasses, and reading glasses from the supermarket that no one will mistake as being Chanel.”
Why? You can buy prescription glasses from China via online sites (I used Zenni Optical and Glassesshop .Com) which are perfectly fine – my optician lady checked them and the were perfect. $7 + $5 ship from Zenni, $1 + $6 ship from Glassesshop (I swear). They’ll do prescription sunglasses for no extra charge, and they’ll add an extra frame for half price.
Why pay more?
Mind you, I still can’t read your damn captchas.
Thanks for the mention, Scott.
Of course most Customer Service Reps are non-accountable! But please act out anyway. On the phone–and especially in public at counters and in stores. It’s all we got, folks. If everyone started doing it? Low-level supervisors on up would start to notice. Trust me.
But you need something on the scale of a revolution here. You need: (1) A call to arms by the people who pay plus (2) noise. Lawyerly thinking, Western logic and sensitive New Age solutions and approaches won’t work here; in fact, that’s what the CSR plant life and its semi-literate bosses want and count on.
Painstaking civility and “what’s the use?” thinking will make things worse. Let’s go a little hillbilly on these folks. Make them send a message to their bosses.
Because I break them and lose them all the time, and so I’m always buying more.
You do as your conscience guides you, li’l hillbilly. I will be there to bail you out. Eventually.
Sucks because Oakley was a great company, started grass-roots in the Motocross and BMX industries, originally making goggles. I have several pairs of their sunglasses and they’re great. At least they tried to fight the good fight.
There’s no room for outliers in a Sunglass Hut world.
OK, I’ll take that challenge . . .
Lots = enough that I have personal knowledge of that, when extrapolated to the entire planet, is a really big number, like in the millions. By one estimate, there are approximately 200 million businesses in the world. It is my belief, based on my own life experience, that at least 1 in 200 companies would qualify as “great” in my book . . .
Great = I am highly satisfied with the products and/or services I procure from them; I don’t hesitate to turn my money over to them for said products and services; I actually enjoy interacting with individuals representing the company when required; I am confident that when there is a glitch or perceived problem, they will work with me to solve it quickly and in a fair manner; and I’ve done enough business with the company to believe that my good experience with them is more than a statistical fluke . . . In two word, these company provide: “FANTABULOUS VALUE” . . .
My list?? Restaurant Hayakawa, Universal Imaging, DeCal Works, Leisure Concepts, Amazon, Apple, Disney, to name a few . . .
I’ll give you amazon. Apple presents a problem since it’s nearly impossible to get someone on the phone if there’s a problem. Disney has been fine by me, but I’ve had others who disagree. The rest I never heard of.
Some can be good at one thing, horrific at another. Take Verizon, for example. Tech support for Verizon wireless is fabulous. Everything else sucks. Same with Cablevision, except it sucks even worse than Verizon. Just examples, but neither represents a Fantabulousd Value, which tends more toward being “I actually got what I paid for” as opposed to “I got more than I paid for.”
The lower our expectations, the happier we are with mediocrity.
Sometimes, if you shout loud enough or swear enough, or hang up while the rep is talking, your call is automatically flagged for review by the Contact Centre Management software – it detects stress patterns, or “bad words” – this usually means a manager has to review the call to find out what is going on. However, you’re still just shouting at a person who is just doing the job they’ve been paid to. I’ve done that job, and it’s soul destroying.
I prefer overt acts of passive-aggressive Consumer Disobedience; like phoning the 1-800 number for long rambling chats in my spare time (they often aren’t allowed to hang up unless you become abusive); have a pool with your friends to see who can have the longest pointless call; mailing back any prepaid envelopes with scrap paper inside; basically, cost them money that they’ll never get back. Don’t get even… cost them real money. It’s the only thing capitalism understands.
Do you actually think the bosses will listen to the complaints from CSRs about customers? For one thing, CSRs are not allowed to complain about callers. Yes, you can threaten them, harass them, call them all the names you want. They’re forbidden to respond to your provocation under pain of termination. Even if the low-level supervisors got involved, they’re generally only one or two steps above the people you first talk to.
All of this, of course, is presuming that whomever you talk to is an actual employee of the company you wish to complain to; quite often not the case. The third-party call centers literally have NO authority to change or even challenge a decision from the company they are representing. Even if you could speak to the CEO of a call center, he couldn’t alter a decision made by Chase (as an example) concerning fees for accounts, no matter how much trouble you created.
If you truly wish to change this, you’re going to have to find ways to get in touch with real people from the actual company at a high supervisor level. Yes, this will be difficult. But harassing CSRs from contracted companies won’t change a thing, except perhaps your state of mind.
I guess I respectfully disagree, Bruce. Your points all make sense–but too much sense.
First, my argument here extends to actual physical stores, too. Second, I am not suggesting that people lose it in a store, or on a phone line, with abandon. Third, for phone lines, I think that you need to get to a supervisor (employees you can usually get to and will often listen) for my notion to work. But folks do need to get off their knees. Do some work. And lead a little.
Although I’ve done corporate law for years, everything I do is informed by being a P&G brat growing up in 5 cities in a “store culture” where buyer behavior is studied carefully. True, I am not a marketing expert or even a “customer care” expert–but I have written or spoken about client service (for lawyers and other professionals) for nearly 20 years. I even suggest that employees go out and watch long lines in front of thriving independent coffee shops, Pike Place Fish in Seattle or any place which seems to attract lots of happy folks–and then tell me what they see.
This is a street and “store floor” thing. When the seller won’t give the customer a choice or a better alternative, nothing happens until customers at a “store level”–here, stores and phone lines–start piping up. I am confident that if consumers got off their knees and acted out a bit in mass that bosses for less-than-model companies would listen. You need a bit of a revolution here to change bosses and companies who have decided they do not need to change.
No, what folks would need to do is to ‘vote with their feet’. A sudden drop in sales will initially lead to a few firings, but it’s possible that the company will decide to find out why people have stopped buying and change their policies. Companies certainly won’t respond to a rasher of complaints; they’ll simply pass on the increased costs of customer service to their customers.
This becomes more difficult in the case of monopolies, since you simply have to do without rather than switch companies.