Showing all posts tagged customer service

In Family Time, Funny, General

Dear So and So: The “Nicki is off on one” edition.

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on 5 Comments

Dear Yorkshire Water.
Seriously?
You send us a letter saying our new water rates from April are slightly higher.
Ok, I can go with that though the tight cow in me is gritting her teeth.
THEN I wake up, yet again to no water!
I rang your customer services who said “we think  there is a burst pipe somewhere but haven’t found it yet”.
Really?
As a consequence the school has had to make the decision to close and although I now have water again (at last), I have extra children who have lost another day’s schooling.
We are not amused!

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Dear People who email me and refer to me as:
Curly&Candid
Mummy Blogger (urgh!)
Mummy (slightly creepy)
Nicholas (ok you are just taking the piss)
My name is Nicki, not Nickee, Nikki, Noo Noo or anything else.
If you pitch something and start with the correct name there is a chance I’ll keep reading.
Her who doesn’t think checking details should be overlooked.

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Dear People who email me to say my blog is perfect for:
Dog biscuits (I don’t have a dog)
Car care products (I don’t drive)
Items that fit people who are the the size of one of my legs (really?)
Have a quick look at the blog from time to time.
Thanks.

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Dear people who don’t scoop the poop.
There is a special (and rather stinky) place in hell for you.
Her who is training her kids to yell “LOOK MUMMY, THAT GROWN UP DIDN’T PICK UP THEIR DOGS POO!”.

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Dear 5yr old,
Please don’t chew the end of your school pencil and swallow a bit.
I got a call from the school to tell me you were ok but to inform me of what had happened.
1) This could have hurt you
2) When I see the school number on caller ID I panic
3) The conversation with the school manager (who was secretary when I was at school there!) went badly as I accidentally let slip that I am a pen chewer and somehow I now feel very naughty!
Love Mummy who doesn’t want you to chew anything but your food.

Have a good weekend all!

Dear So and So...

In Business & Blogging, General

The customer service divide – what is going wrong?

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on 6 Comments

Yesterday I experienced terrible customer service at the hands of a well known large company. I was bounced around six different departments (which included my hanging up and redialing, and not to freephone numbers). Different departments were quite rude about other departments, then myself. My query was never really successfully answered and as one customer service rep told me bluntly: “You are being fobbed off”. Great!

As a result of this I was left frustrated and angry but what saddens me most, is that I wasn’t surprised. Nowadays it seems that good service is the exception rather than the rule. When I do my shopping, be it online or otherwise I use a variety of retailers, both large companies and smaller, independent ones. Over time I have noticed that the levels of good customer service between these are widening. I rarely receive anything but excellent service from smaller retailers and on the odd occasion that there has been a problem, it is usually dealt with quickly, efficiently and pleasantly.

I have to wonder if more needs to be done with larger companies to narrow the divide. I know that the company I encountered yesterday have an extensive induction and training programme and that customer service is included heavily in this. What is going wrong? What can these companies do to pull their levels of customer service up? Do staff need to be monitored more carefully? Is this plausable, given the extra workload and expensive it would cause? I hate to see large companies written off / slated because of the actions of the few.

What is the answer? Do you agree that smaller businesses and services have much better service records than larger companies? Why do you think this is and what can be done in big businesses to bridge the gap?

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