After years of putting up with poor call centre manners and recently my spate with 'customer service' staff at Three, I was about to give up on even using the phone to get help. Yesterday, I gave a call to iinet's help desk, assuming that I was going to be turfed from caller to caller, spend hours listening to annoying call connection ring tones and finally be put through to someone who doesn't speak English. I was pleasantly surprised that 'Deborah', my iinet helper, solved my problem in about 2 minutes. What surprised me even more, was the online survey form that came through the email minutes after, asking me to rate 'Deborah's' services.
Through the slow death of advertising and the increasing scepticism the public has about PR, customer service (and I guess the product actually being good) is one of the last few doors remaining to attract or retain customer loyalty. Heaps of research has pointed out that letting customers speak to a human who speaks the same language as them is about as important as putting up a giant $2million ad in
So why don't companies invest more in customer service? And yes, I am looking directly at my phone service provider - three.
