All of us have horror stories about the medieval torture we've endured when we called a company's customer service department. The endless voice prompts, the messages which tell us that it would be better if we serviced our selves on the (much faster) web site, or if we are not so bright and have nothing else to do, by all means we should continue to hold, because after all, our call is so important...
And isn't it interesting that those same folks were so easy to contact, with such a short hold time and so helpful when it came to taking our money? Just one of life's little mysteries.
In spite of all the announcements in the business press regarding "Customer is King", "CRM" or "Customer Relationship Marketing", nothing has changed in the area of customer service call centers. Customer Dis-service is still king.
Actually, per our 2006-2007 Customer Relationship Marketing Research things are getting worse.
So, now it's 2008 and we deserve better than this shoddy treatment.
I have an idea for how to get companies to change their approach to customer service. It requires your help. I would like to ask readers of the Huffington Post to share your experiences.
The findings from this survey will, among other things, help quantify the impact of experiences with customer service call centers on three critical areas: willingness to purchase from the offending company, willingness to recommend the company and perception of that company's brand.
These factors are the lifeblood of a company's financial success. If the research data indicates that poor customer service is negatively impacting these business indicators, we can use this data to compel companies to change these practices.
Results will be published in this blog. HuffPost readers will be able to use the research findings to educate companies where you work regarding the financial damage they are self-inflicting by cutting costs in the area of customer service.
So please speak out and share your experiences.
As soon as we get a good sample size, we will tabulate the data and present the results in this blog.