http://www.mortaine.com/blog/2007/01/13/two-experiences-with-customer-service Blog for Stephanie Bryant, a 30-something writer who travels full-time. And her husband, Johnnyb. Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:29:41 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.mortaine.com/blog/2007/01/13/two-experiences-with-customer-service/comment-page-1#comment-10405 Customer Service Do’s and Don’ts - Home Business Carnival #16 at Start a Side Business Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:59:59 +0000 http://www.mortaine.com/blog/2007/01/13/two-experiences-with-customer-service/#comment-10405 [...] Stephanie approaches customer service by contrasting an almost perfect experience with Cingular with a pretty bad one with her bank. In one case, the company has empowered its employees so they can do something to help the customers, and clearly the other one has not. Why were these two experiences different? I think it’s because of the amount of power I felt in each case, both my own and the company representative’s. In the first, the customer service rep was authorized immediately to give me a sizeable refund, on the spot, and to request a further review. I felt as though someone was able to do something about it. [...] [...] Stephanie approaches customer service by contrasting an almost perfect experience with Cingular with a pretty bad one with her bank. In one case, the company has empowered its employees so they can do something to help the customers, and clearly the other one has not. Why were these two experiences different? I think it’s because of the amount of power I felt in each case, both my own and the company representative’s. In the first, the customer service rep was authorized immediately to give me a sizeable refund, on the spot, and to request a further review. I felt as though someone was able to do something about it. [...]

]]> http://www.mortaine.com/blog/2007/01/13/two-experiences-with-customer-service/comment-page-1#comment-10394 Lis Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:42:00 +0000 http://www.mortaine.com/blog/2007/01/13/two-experiences-with-customer-service/#comment-10394 I don't like giving out my ssn in general. Yesterday I was in the car and got a call from a number i didn't recognise. I answered and a recording said, "this is kohl's dept store, if this is Lis, press 1" so i did. I wsa asked to hold, then another recording came on and said, "Please enter the last 4 digits of your SSN and press pound". I was like, um, NO. I waited, and it told me that again. NO. third time. No F-in way. I waited for a rep to come on and explain what was going on (i do have a kohl's charge card) and a recording asked me to call a number back. I was like WTF? Do people really fall for that? There's no way I was giving my SSN out to anyone who calls me. I just don't get it. I don’t like giving out my ssn in general. Yesterday I was in the car and got a call from a number i didn’t recognise. I answered and a recording said, “this is kohl’s dept store, if this is Lis, press 1″ so i did. I wsa asked to hold, then another recording came on and said, “Please enter the last 4 digits of your SSN and press pound”. I was like, um, NO. I waited, and it told me that again. NO. third time. No F-in way. I waited for a rep to come on and explain what was going on (i do have a kohl’s charge card) and a recording asked me to call a number back. I was like WTF? Do people really fall for that? There’s no way I was giving my SSN out to anyone who calls me. I just don’t get it.

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