Your Call Is Important To Me
Three days ago, I posted a video on YouTube about my experience with Pennsylvania American Water. At issue was a simple billing error that was exacerbated by the less than helpful response that I received when I placed a call to their customer service. I suppose that I should have been grateful that they answered the phone on a Saturday, but that was as good as it got on that day.
This is a story that just about everyone can tell because we’ve all experienced the frustration of feeling that our concerns were being dismissed. Customer service representatives often have scripts that they follow, which in theory, are supposed to quickly address the most common problems of callers.
But what happens when your problem causes the representative to diverge from the script?
Ah, there’s the rub.
I recorded this video after my problem had been resolved. It was just one of my regular vlog posts, with only 60 views as of this writing, but it seems to have reached the eyes of decision makers at the company.
Take a look.
This morning, I received an anonymous Email, ostensibly from a Pennsylvania American Water employee. Because it was sent to me and not simply commented on my video, I don’t feel comfortable quoting from the text, but I will say that it was a very nice Email that contained some very interesting information.
To the anonymous sender: I thank you for taking the time to send me that Email.
In summary, I was thanked for not lodging a complaint, and I was informed that upper management at the company had taken notice of my video. Also, employees are being coached on using common sense and logic when taking calls as a result. Finally, I was also assured that most employees at the company do actually care and want to help their customers to the best of their abilities.
You know what? I believe him or her.
Most people that I know do take their jobs seriously, and since we all have bad days, I know that people are not always at their best. I was frustrated with my situation at the time, but I didn’t want to cause a big stink or get anyone in trouble when I made this video. However, I am delighted that the video has apparently been well received and that the folks at Pennsylvania American Water are making an effort to improve their customer service, so that the next person in my situation can be spared some needless frustration.
Bravo.
——————–
Have you had a customer service experience that went from wrong to right? Tell me about it in the comments.
——————–
I’m so glad you got the problem resolved. Too bad it was as dramatic as it was to get to the resolution. But that seems to be the case in these situations.
I know I’ve blogged about this topic myself a few times. The best story I have was when we moved into our first house. The carpet company had messed up. At the last minute they would tell us they didn’t have the carpet in stock or it wasn’t on the truck or whatever. They missed two appointments to lay our carpet because of these excuses. To make it up to us they told us to go in and choose different carpet. I was mad because I liked what I had originally chosen but I settled for something else. That was the second appointment they missed. So we went into the store again. I am not a spoiled brat. I was not intending to pooh pooh every sample put in front of me but in all honesty, I didn’t like any of it. Because they knew the salesman had made a lot of mistakes they were kissing up to us. They kept bringing in more expensive samples. I didn’t realize that’s what was happening. I finally chose something I liked. It was twice the cost of what we had picked out originally. We didn’t have to pay the difference in price. So because of their mistake we got high quality carpet for less than half the price! Score! And my husband said things like, “I know you don’t normally install carpet on Saturday but you messed up and I expect carpet delivered on Saturday.” It was.
A year ago I posted about an unusual alarm on my insulin pump. It happened the same day we had a technician come to fix a phone issue. That all worked its way into my post. The name of the company and the fact that the issue wasn’t resolved after he left. I didn’t post it for results. I just talk too much! Someone must have Googled the company name because I got a comment from the company. I was irritated because the comment didn’t seem to match the post and it showed up after my husband had called the company saying the issue was not resolved. We figured out the problem and about 10 days later my husband said they charged us $50 for a problem we fixed ourselves. I was livid. And posted this: http://blog.felcore.com/2009/08/is-this-truly-definition-of-comcastic.html The charge was dropped.
I have learned that blogging, and in your case vlogging, can be powerful tools to get oneself heard. I’ve won a book by mentioning the title in a post. I got a $50 charge dropped. I even had Grace Rolek, the voice of Louise on Playhouse Disney’s Lou and Lou Safety Patrol post a comment because I mentioned that my kids drew pictures of the show when I couldn’t print them.
Customer service is interesting because everyone involved tends to make snap judgments of each other. Again, I’m glad you got it all resolved. You’re much nicer than I am. My husband is much nicer than I am too and that’s why he handles this stuff!
Thanks Tristan,
The situation was not so much dramatic as it was frustrating and scary. They were on their way to convincing me that I did have a big leak somewhere, so I was almost expecting to see a sinkhole appear at any minute.
Well, not really, but I was worried about the next bill.
You seem to have ended up with a whopper of a deal on the carpet, so although it might not have felt like it at the time, the experience was probably worth it for you. The carpet company tried to make things right, which, I suppose, is about the best we should expect. To expect that companies or people are infallible would be unrealistic. In my experiences, I’ve found that I can overlook just about any mistake, as long as there’s an earnest effort to correct it. I think that that’s fair.
Your alarm post is a prime example. No work done, followed by a bill. Crazy. I’m glad that you pushed back and were able to get that erroneous charged removed.
I didn’t really expect anything to come of my video. Vlogging and blogging are just creative outlets for expressing my views. They are also just hobbies — especially the video-making. They’re fun!
I don’t know if I’m really nicer than you, but I do tend to simmer on the inside rather than on the outside. I’ve seen lots of examples of people who lose it at the slightest provocation, and that strategy rarely works out well. So I’m all for taking a deep breath and giving it another try.
Ray