Of bad service and other killers of business

There have been many articles written lately on what is wrong with the economy.  Amongst many questions  being asked are why are businesses going under, why are banks no longer lending money, why are order books closed and why are people losing jobs.

In general this whole disaster is being blamed on some vague thing called the global economy. And another expression bandied around is the word recession. But most economists are not able to explain what is really going on.

I don’t know either. So don’t ask me! However, one thing I am certain about is the fact that those companies who were cheating, lying, playing by shady business practices, caring less about their customers and more about the bottom line, are suffering the most.

One thing this economic shake down is going to do is bring forward the companies that show some kind of ethical business practices. Those companies who actually care about their customers might survive a bit better.

Regrettably it almost certainly means that companies who have monopolies or are state sponsored in all probability will continue to operate as if there is no tomorrow. One such case is BT. I have recently had the misfortune of having to deal with this entity.

Horrific is not even the right word. What I was trying to do was move my service from one physical place to another, in fact just down the road. I phoned the number provided, for such an occasion, on their website.

And that was when the fun started. After having been passed onto various departments without any apparent reason, and being cut off at almost every change of department, I gave up and just ordered the same service at my new place of abode.

I was informed that my service would be terminated at the old residence and activated within 8 hrs at the new one. Three days after the promised date I phoned to find out why my new service was not activated that is why the existing service had not been moved.

As I did not have a landline, I was forced to use my mobile. And every time I phoned in I was informed that the call was going to cost me. Well, what was I to do? Not much choice. Gnash my teeth.

I phoned the helpline. I was told, while waiting endlessly for an operator to answer, that I could check my order online. While waiting I went online (thank goodness for Vodafone) and typed in my order number in the slot provided. It told me they had no record of my order. So there went that idea.

What was even worse was the number of times I was cut off. This meant I had to go through the options again. And there are many, many options. There is no such thing as a central reception that puts your calls through to the relevant department. And the most annoying thing was that as I got to a human voice, I would get cut off. So start all over again.

I actually cannot recall how many different people I spoke to and how many different departments I got to. There was the initial helpline person who put me through to central Billing. Billing put me through to technical faults and technical faults sent me to customer services. And there was more than one person per department involved.

In the end, there seemed to be some kind of answer. The exchange feeding my new flat had not managed to complete the job of sending the signal through to my new flat. And as it was a Friday, and nobody worked on Saturday and Sunday, nothing was going to happen before Monday. Full stop.

So there was nothing wrong anywhere. No broken lines or service, no major problem. The exchange down the road had just not wanted to work on a Friday afternoon. And that was it. The pub had called.

But nobody at the first three departments could tell me that. Worst of all, when I had cancelled the previous service nobody said to me, hey best you cancel your service the day before because nobody works on a Friday afternoon. You will have to wait until lunchtime Monday for your telephone if you cancel on Friday morning.

Out of the myriad numbers of people I spoke to at BT there were two or so folk who really tried to help. One could almost feel that their pride in their work made them shoulder the misdemeanors of their colleagues. They were trying to keep the ship afloat. Good for them.

But it wasn’t really the people answering the phone that I felt were to blame. It was the fat cats at the top of the ladder who have a) installed a computer system that defies any kind of description that could include the word efficient b) the people handling the phones have been beaten into submission by an inefficient system that they can’t fix.

All in all, this must rate as a huge fail in customer service and delivery. And I do not believe that I am actually saying this, but it makes the South African equivalent actually shine. Who would have thought I would ever have a kind word to say about Telkom and it’s in print. But there you have it.

You want your business to survive this turbulent time? Be super excellent in every bit of your business and everything you do. Your customer will be so stunned they will be eternally grateful.

Customers have been so abused in the past that they are actually grateful when they get a tiny smidgen of good service. They gush with disbelief and they will use your service or product regardless of cost.  Maybe that will be something positive that will come out of the recession.

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