TGIF – Let’s Trick The Customer

As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.

Quote of the Week:

“Well if this is the wrong number, why did you answer it” James Thurber (How come wrong numbers are never busy?)

Humor Break: Remember “Laugh-In”? “One ringy-dingy….” aimed a spoof of customer service at the phone company and concluded with the message, “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Phone Company.”

Stat of the Week: February is around the corner. It is the month of Love (Valentine’s Day). I thought I would declare the month “Customer Appreciation Month” and focus on the customer. Since it isn’t quite February, I will begin a “Customer Unappreciation Article”. Pepperdine University Professor David McMahon wrote a scholarly yet very readable article about how to manage customer waiting time. My Stat of the Week is pretty loose this week, but in the article he lists a number of ways to deal with wait times. The whole article was so logical and well-reasoned that I couldn’t help but sit back a feel satisfied…until I started to challenge some assumptions. Two in particular stood out. (1) the organization’s time is more valuable than the customer’s and (2) the purpose isn’t to minimize or eliminate wait times, but to make wait time more palatable. On second reading the article is all about how to trick the customer. My favorite example, how a telephone company kept customers waiting and charged them for the waiting time.

Action Tip: If you haven’t lost your sanity but want a quick way to voice a complaint and (maybe) even get a response, try the 3rd party website MeasureUP .  If you have lost your sanity and really want to rant, google “ihate(name of company)”. Here is one of the most popular rant sites. I have even considered using on several occasions: ihatedirecttv Blog. (Not well done, goes from earliest posts to latest post???, lots of literacy issues, but lots of posts.) I have read that Direct TV monitors this site for statistical purposes and according to one source on the site, action was actually taken.

Volunteering: One place being put on hold could be deadly is with teenagers in trouble. Every town needs consiencious adults as telephone volunteers. Google “teen telephone crisis hotlines” for a crisis center in your area. Don’t wait. Don’t leave them waiting.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.