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8 companies that nail Customer Service

19 points by kevin_morrill 14y ago

dmor 14y ago
whoa, didn't realize you were going to do this with a Referly collection, not just on our blog. Is this a new way to blog? Happy accident!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
rogerbinns 14y ago
Compare and contrast with a US cell carrier - tmobile for example. In three months they have sent me 3 bills all of which are wildly wrong. There are columns of numbers and rows of numbers. None of the numbers add up to any of the other numbers. I got charged 6 regulatory fees in two months. There are numerous credits and unexplained charges. (BTW every single "error" has been in their favour.) They just sent me a text message saying my last bill was calculated wrong without further explanation. I'm online only (save the trees etc) and I see it has increased by about 10% without any explanation as to how. When I call them up, there is an automated system you have to say what you want 4 times to which it will say it doesn't understand 4 times, before letting you talk to a person. The person doesn't have caller id and will ask the same question the automated system did (eg last 4 of ssn). After 30 minutes they couldn't even figure out what was going on, and said to call back a day later. Presumably the hope is that someone else will have to work it out. The call a month ago took 90 minutes. It took the rep who worked for them 1h15m to work out what the bill was trying to say. It also turns out that what they show customers and what they show the reps differs. We had established that the final total was wrong, but she couldn't work out what all the numbers were or why they didn't add up to total, or why the total was more than it should be. They eventually gave me a credit I think mainly because everyone was just worn down. And then we get back a further month to when I signed up online. They will not let you select the plan until you pick a SIM card first. They mail you the SIM card. They start charging you the moment their systems accept the new account. This is before the SIM is mailed, before you receive the SIM card in the post (4 days later) and before you actually put it into any device. The reasoning is that you could call up and provision a different SIM card, and you are somehow supposed to deduce that from being forced to pick one and receive it in the mail. It is like they are trying to have the worst customer service possible. Or maybe they are hoping to wear customers out with bogus charges and confusion since these shenanigans are only discovered after the initial trial period is over and you are stuck with the contract. My experience with Verizon Wireless about 10 years ago was somewhat similar except nowhere near the same degree (they only screwed up two months of bills, always in their favour, and quicker/easier to resolve).
- kevin_morrill 14y ago
  Yeah it's very hard to have good customer service if you do it over the phone. I mention USAA in this list, which I love. They do most of their business over the phone, and are an absolute joy to work with.
  - rogerbinns 14y ago
    On the contrary it is significantly easier to do it over the phone (unless that is what you meant). Web sites etc can only do what they have been programmed to do, but are horrible at dealing with exceptions which is what is happening to me non-stop. My opinion is that the best customer service is the one that people have no opinion of because they never needed to use it in the first place.
KeepTalking 14y ago
I recently had fabulous customer service at the home improvement retailer Crate and Barrel. The experience was completely outstanding: - The sales person was never forceful and carried a sense of desire to help us pick the best furniture for our apartment. - The delivery was precise on the clock to the minute on the day and time specified. - The fabric had a very very minor thumb print when it was unpacked. All I had to do was to mention to the sales lady on our next visit. She knew my contact details, setup the exchange and made sure the furniture was out of this world. - Granted C&B charge premium rates but it is this sort of service that blows my mind.
klochner 14y ago
Title submission guidelines? The "8" should be removed, for: "Companies that nail Customer Service" I'm guessing that's why you were bumped from page one so quickly.
- ojiikun 14y ago
  Does anyone have any insight about the basis for this rule? Most of the guidelines seem pretty understandable, but this looks very arbitrary to a non-veteran.
  - klochner 14y ago
    HN disapproves of linkbait, the subject should stand on it's own without sensationalism. http://www.blueglass.com/blog/how-to-compose-a-compelling-linkbait-title/ http://www.blueglass.com/blog/how-to-compose-a-compelling-li...
    - ojiikun 14y ago
      That article is refusing to load for me, but I found a cache and the answer we're looking for is: "numerals at the beginning of an article are one possible heuristic to identify linkbait, as top-N or list-style writing are a common approach to such articles". And now that I've seen that heuristic, I can't help but chuckle that many, many articles on TechCrunch seem to be list-style. :)

19 points by kevin_morrill 14y ago

dmor 14y ago

whoa, didn't realize you were going to do this with a Referly collection, not just on our blog. Is this a new way to blog? Happy accident!

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

rogerbinns 14y ago

Compare and contrast with a US cell carrier - tmobile for example. In three months they have sent me 3 bills all of which are wildly wrong. There are columns of numbers and rows of numbers. None of the numbers add up to any of the other numbers. I got charged 6 regulatory fees in two months. There are numerous credits and unexplained charges. (BTW every single "error" has been in their favour.) They just sent me a text message saying my last bill was calculated wrong without further explanation. I'm online only (save the trees etc) and I see it has increased by about 10% without any explanation as to how. When I call them up, there is an automated system you have to say what you want 4 times to which it will say it doesn't understand 4 times, before letting you talk to a person. The person doesn't have caller id and will ask the same question the automated system did (eg last 4 of ssn). After 30 minutes they couldn't even figure out what was going on, and said to call back a day later. Presumably the hope is that someone else will have to work it out. The call a month ago took 90 minutes. It took the rep who worked for them 1h15m to work out what the bill was trying to say. It also turns out that what they show customers and what they show the reps differs. We had established that the final total was wrong, but she couldn't work out what all the numbers were or why they didn't add up to total, or why the total was more than it should be. They eventually gave me a credit I think mainly because everyone was just worn down. And then we get back a further month to when I signed up online. They will not let you select the plan until you pick a SIM card first. They mail you the SIM card. They start charging you the moment their systems accept the new account. This is before the SIM is mailed, before you receive the SIM card in the post (4 days later) and before you actually put it into any device. The reasoning is that you could call up and provision a different SIM card, and you are somehow supposed to deduce that from being forced to pick one and receive it in the mail. It is like they are trying to have the worst customer service possible. Or maybe they are hoping to wear customers out with bogus charges and confusion since these shenanigans are only discovered after the initial trial period is over and you are stuck with the contract. My experience with Verizon Wireless about 10 years ago was somewhat similar except nowhere near the same degree (they only screwed up two months of bills, always in their favour, and quicker/easier to resolve).

kevin_morrill 14y ago
Yeah it's very hard to have good customer service if you do it over the phone. I mention USAA in this list, which I love. They do most of their business over the phone, and are an absolute joy to work with.
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  On the contrary it is significantly easier to do it over the phone (unless that is what you meant). Web sites etc can only do what they have been programmed to do, but are horrible at dealing with exceptions which is what is happening to me non-stop. My opinion is that the best customer service is the one that people have no opinion of because they never needed to use it in the first place.

KeepTalking 14y ago

I recently had fabulous customer service at the home improvement retailer Crate and Barrel. The experience was completely outstanding: - The sales person was never forceful and carried a sense of desire to help us pick the best furniture for our apartment. - The delivery was precise on the clock to the minute on the day and time specified. - The fabric had a very very minor thumb print when it was unpacked. All I had to do was to mention to the sales lady on our next visit. She knew my contact details, setup the exchange and made sure the furniture was out of this world. - Granted C&B charge premium rates but it is this sort of service that blows my mind.

klochner 14y ago

Title submission guidelines? The "8" should be removed, for: "Companies that nail Customer Service" I'm guessing that's why you were bumped from page one so quickly.

ojiikun 14y ago
Does anyone have any insight about the basis for this rule? Most of the guidelines seem pretty understandable, but this looks very arbitrary to a non-veteran.
- klochner 14y ago
  HN disapproves of linkbait, the subject should stand on it's own without sensationalism. http://www.blueglass.com/blog/how-to-compose-a-compelling-linkbait-title/ http://www.blueglass.com/blog/how-to-compose-a-compelling-li...
  - ojiikun 14y ago
    That article is refusing to load for me, but I found a cache and the answer we're looking for is: "numerals at the beginning of an article are one possible heuristic to identify linkbait, as top-N or list-style writing are a common approach to such articles". And now that I've seen that heuristic, I can't help but chuckle that many, many articles on TechCrunch seem to be list-style. :)