“Frustrating Your Customers”

A customer received a reminder call from a cleaning service 24 hours before a scheduled appointment.  The customer wanted to cancel the appointment because there was a conflict with family being home during the scheduled cleaning time.  They were told that they could only cancel an appointment with 48 hours notice to avoid a $50 lockout fee (normally assessed when cleaning staff are unable to access a property during a scheduled appointment).

“They focused internally on one policy without looking externally at the impact and reviewing other policies that impact the customer to ensure that there is consistency, fairness and alignment. Policies designed to protect an organization, don’t by default have to hurt the customer.”

 

“No Confidence Policy”

The customer sent in money for a subscription, received a card in the mail stating they’d received his order, but a month passed and he saw no magazine.  He went on their website to Customer Service, and was directed to email them, which he did.  He received an auto-generated response asking him to go to the FAQ’s on the website.  When he chose ‘my magazines aren’t being delivered’ he was told he’d need to speak to someone personally.  Then he received this email:

“Thank you for your e-mail, you should receive your first issue next Wednesday morning. If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me further."

Kind regards,
Michael

The customer was frustrated because he wasn’t addressed by name, nor was there a specific email address provided for ‘Michael’, nor was it clear why the magazine had been delayed.  He doesn’t know whether this was typical of the experience he could expect in the future or if it had been a one-time oversight on the magazine’s part.