Does Customer Service Matter Anymore To The Big Companies?
Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2007
by Stephany Springer
MSN Money released its Customer Service Hall of Shame and it was no surprise the names on the list. MSN asked readers to vote on what companies had the worse customer service.
Forty percent of readers said that Sprint Nextel has the worse customer service. Second on the list for worse customer service was Bank of America with 30 percent of all readers writing in and saying the bank had horrible customer service. Following the top two in order for worse customer service nominated by the general public was Comcast, Time Warner, AT & T, Citibank, Wal-Mart, Verizon, Wells Fargo and Direct TV.
I found this list to be right on the money. Bank of America owns our mortgage. I can't tell you how many times we go to talk to somebody and get four different stories from four different departments. We will get letters in the mail and call about them only to be told to ignore them because they were sent from a different department. Can they all not get on the same page?
Comcast and Time Warner are also companies we have dealt with. Most recently, Comcast bought out Time Warner. We continue to have extremely long waits on the phone and the service is hit and miss. We have had dealings with them that haven't been very honest and often find at times one person will say what they think you want to hear only to find out a few days later that is something they can't do. At this point, we have no other options. We have to have internet service that moves faster than a turtle so we are trapped and they know it.
I think that is the key to all of these companies. They own the marketplace and they know it. I think it is sad that just basic respect has gone out the door. Today, for the first time in my life, I hung up on someone who handles one of my loans. She had said one thing last month that evidently she should not have said. With her manager by her side, she denied it. I guess in today's age you have to record all promises or get them in writing. I asked for our agreement today to be in writing and was told that "we don't do that." Of course they can treat me like this because they know they own me at this point.
I am not sure what it is, but growing up I don't remember those in retail acting so rude. Most of the time they went out of the way to help a customer. Today, it is simply no so.
Wal-Mart is a classic case of this scenario. Growing up in Arkansas, employees at Wal-Mart were always advertised as caring, friendly and helpful. Today, it is lucky if you can find an employee who has the time to even stop and help. Forget about calling to ask if they have a product, no one seems to have the time to look.
As a final note, I would like to say there are some companies doing customer service really well even now. One of our local stores down here called H.E.B truly is one of those places. The workers are friendly, extremely helpful, always going the extra mile to please customers. So if I had to vote for best customer service it would be H.E.B.
So what are your thoughts on this matter? Do you agree with the list for worse customer service? Are there other companies that should have been on the list? Do you know a company that shows excellent customer service? I would love to hear your views.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Stephany I have written to this topic for years. The answer of course is no. Simply put it is all about money and it always was. If you want take a walk through some of my articles on the tiopic and I bet we would be on the same page. Good job and best wishes RTMRobert-we are on the same page! Thanks for commenting! Thanks for writing and keep up the good work!
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