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Scale should never be an excuse for poor customer service. Customer service is part and parcel of offering a service to customers. A failure to offer good custo

Scale should never be an excuse for poor customer service. Customer service is part and parcel of offering a service to customers. A failure to offer good customer service is a failure of your service, period.

turbinerneiter 6y ago
You pay them 120 bucks per year. I get great customer service at the local record store, where I pay 30 bucks for an LP.
- stevenwliao 6y ago
  What kind of service would you expect if you ask them to give you a list of every LP you've ever purchased from them?
  - Karunamon 6y ago
    ...I mean, video rental stores and libraries have had the ability to pull that data for a long time. Many companies, even small ones, offer loyalty programs, which would also mean they have a list of your purchases available.
pacamara619 6y ago
Exactly, companies just see people who need support as pure cost, since they can't make money off someone who already paid for the service, they treat you like garbage.
tashoecraft 6y ago
I think the internet age has changed this. The pure cost to offer customer service is insane for the costs users are paying. If you want good customer service you're going to have to pay for it, but the market has shown that's not going to be a option, because not enough people are willing to pay for it. Great customer service used to be a differentiator, but for many services, cost is way more important, and customers are willing to pay.
- falcolas 6y ago
  If companies weren't making millions or billions of dollars in pure profit, I'd be more inclined to agree with this line of thought. But their profit/cost ratios are high enough to offer more customer service than they currently are. And ultimately, it's not the customer's fault that the business is not working from a sustainable business model.
  - tashoecraft 6y ago
    But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. I don't believe spotify is making millions or billions in pure profit. Their competitors are able to position their products as loss leaders. I agree some companies could do much better, Google is a massive example, but you still have to remember the scale. Read somewhere, If 0.1% of your users require customer service per day, and it takes 10 minutes per user, you'd need ~21k people working 8/hours to handle it each day.
    - iuguy 6y ago
      > But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. They wouldn't offer great customer service, they'll offer what they feel they can get away with. And there were competitors but they were pushed out (remember RDIO?, good times).
      - falcolas 6y ago
        Yeah. Companies tend to think "why get some of the profits when I can cut corners and get all of the profits". Especially when the corners aren't mandated by law (and even sometimes when the cut corners are mandated by law).
      - dvtrn 6y ago
        remember RDIO? wow. I do now. Why did they shut down?
rdiddly 6y ago
Moreover, the obvious response when you see the poor company is in such distress from too many customers, is to do them a favor and stop being their darn pesky ol' service-wanting customer.
- falcolas 6y ago
  Exactly! Suck it up and accept that you just gave Facebook hundreds of dollars as a charitable donation and move on with your life.
chrischen 6y ago
You’re assuming competing services at the same price points are offering better customer service, which is doubtful.

turbinerneiter 6y ago

You pay them 120 bucks per year. I get great customer service at the local record store, where I pay 30 bucks for an LP.

stevenwliao 6y ago
What kind of service would you expect if you ask them to give you a list of every LP you've ever purchased from them?
- Karunamon 6y ago
  ...I mean, video rental stores and libraries have had the ability to pull that data for a long time. Many companies, even small ones, offer loyalty programs, which would also mean they have a list of your purchases available.

pacamara619 6y ago

Exactly, companies just see people who need support as pure cost, since they can't make money off someone who already paid for the service, they treat you like garbage.

tashoecraft 6y ago

I think the internet age has changed this. The pure cost to offer customer service is insane for the costs users are paying. If you want good customer service you're going to have to pay for it, but the market has shown that's not going to be a option, because not enough people are willing to pay for it. Great customer service used to be a differentiator, but for many services, cost is way more important, and customers are willing to pay.

falcolas 6y ago
If companies weren't making millions or billions of dollars in pure profit, I'd be more inclined to agree with this line of thought. But their profit/cost ratios are high enough to offer more customer service than they currently are. And ultimately, it's not the customer's fault that the business is not working from a sustainable business model.
- tashoecraft 6y ago
  But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. I don't believe spotify is making millions or billions in pure profit. Their competitors are able to position their products as loss leaders. I agree some companies could do much better, Google is a massive example, but you still have to remember the scale. Read somewhere, If 0.1% of your users require customer service per day, and it takes 10 minutes per user, you'd need ~21k people working 8/hours to handle it each day.
  - iuguy 6y ago
    > But if there was a profitable model where they offer great customer service wouldn't they? Or at least a competitor would come in who did. They wouldn't offer great customer service, they'll offer what they feel they can get away with. And there were competitors but they were pushed out (remember RDIO?, good times).
    - falcolas 6y ago
      Yeah. Companies tend to think "why get some of the profits when I can cut corners and get all of the profits". Especially when the corners aren't mandated by law (and even sometimes when the cut corners are mandated by law).
    - dvtrn 6y ago
      remember RDIO? wow. I do now. Why did they shut down?

rdiddly 6y ago

Moreover, the obvious response when you see the poor company is in such distress from too many customers, is to do them a favor and stop being their darn pesky ol' service-wanting customer.

falcolas 6y ago
Exactly! Suck it up and accept that you just gave Facebook hundreds of dollars as a charitable donation and move on with your life.

chrischen 6y ago

You’re assuming competing services at the same price points are offering better customer service, which is doubtful.