Friday, October 26, 2007

When did Customer Service stop Serving the Customer?

Alright, I admit it. I am one to complain when things don't go the way I think they should go. Some will say that this comes from being the youngest sibling, I say it has to do with just wanting things to go the way they should and being willing to say something if they don't.
I spent today writing a lot of letters of complaint. Not because a lot of things went wrong today, but because today when one thing went wrong, it reminded of three other letters of complaint that I meant to write at the beginning of the month but didn't get around to. Hey, who says you have to complain right when the injustice is done? Sometimes time will give you perspective on a situation and remind you that some things aren't work complaining about. Other times, time will allow something to brew to the point where you point out every nit-picky little thing that went wrong and use that as fuel to ask for some really good compensation.
So, here's the story. Today I was booking flights for the Christmas holiday on my favorite airline. I received a certificate for $50 off my flight a few weeks ago and thought it was nice timing that I receive something like that when I can actually use it (usually I get those things and they expire the month before I would actually use them). So, I go online to book my flight (and one for my wife as well, since we would be traveling together it made sense to book us both together on the same flights) and when I enter the certificate information, the website says "no flights match that itinerary." Bull Crap! I looked just moments before and found the exact flight I wanted. So, I started reading the fine print on the certificate figuring there was something I was missing. Nothing! All of the seemingly exclusionary details didn't apply to the flight I wanted, black-out dates, flight class, price, everything seemed right.

Feeling somewhat defeated, I decided to go ahead and book the tickets and figured I could fit the battle with Customer Service. Surely they would see the error of the website and help me out. Well, I was pleased that Customer Service responded quickly to my concern (usually it takes 24-hours for an email to be returned, but this site said it would happen in less than 2 ... and it was more like 30 minutes!) but the response was anything but helpful (well, it was, just not the helpful I wanted). I was told the reason the certificate didn't work was that I could only book tickets individually with the certificate! That is STUPID! Why should I have to book tickets separately just because I'm using a certificate? I never did get an answer to THAT question! Well, I figured I could get Customer Service to serve me and "bend" the rules this once and just give me a refund of the $50 I over-spent ... no such luck. They were happy to tell me what I did wrong and how to fix the problem, but they were in no mood to actually resolve the situation for me. I mean, let's be honest here ... isn't it more work for me to have to cancel my purchase and re-purchase than for them to simply issue a credit for $50? Apparently not.

So, there I sat at my computer cancelling one set of tickets to simply re-book the SAME EXACT TICKETS minutes later. I even requested (and received) the same seats on the plane! But, I realized, 30 minutes of my time costs the airline nothing ... 30 minutes of their Customer Service Rep's time costs them something!
This then reminded me of the bad experience I had when I flew back to Oakland after having been in New York for an extended weekend. Arriving at the airport we were early (though I don't count it early when you hit the runway early, I count it early when you can actually get off the plane early) and there we sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes (now in my book, we were officially late at this point ... but I think the airline still counted us early ... afterall, the plane was on the ground in Oakland). We sat and waited ... and waited ... and waited. Finally we pulled up to the gate and we got off ... headed to baggage claim (which I am remembering is a fiasco at the Oakland airport) and there we stood and waited, and waited, and waited for our luggage. We waited for an hour with announcement of our luggage arriving. The LCD screens gave information on a variety of flights, but not ours! Finally, we ventured to the Customer Service desk (which in this part of the airport deals primarily with people who have lost baggage, so these are not happy people). I asked politely whether our luggage had arrived yet ... the woman looked at me and deadpan said, "that flight landed over an hour ago" ... No kidding? I was on that plane, that's why I'm asking. She then proceeded to tell me that the bags should have been delivered on the carousel but there may have been a delay due to the "security shutdown" ... what security shutdown? (I learned later the airport had been evacuated hours earlier due to a bomb scare ... a favorite pastime at the Oakland Airport). Well, I finally found our luggage ... no thanks to the Customer Service people who seemed to have all of the answers but didn't bother to share that information with any of the customers (who, like me, were standing confused waiting for their luggage).

Of course all of this was topped by the terrible experience we had at the Radisson hotel in New York. Now, I am pretty tolerant when it comes to hotels. I don't expect to get the Ritz on a Motel 6 budget, but when I pay over $100 per night for a hotel room, I have certain expectations of the type of room, safety, cleanliness, and service that I will be getting. Well, needless to say, the Radisson disappointed in most of those categories. Yeah, the place was clean (which does give it one star in my book) but beyond that, there was little to be excited about. The room was tiny. The "Sleep Number" beds were worse than camping with an air mattress. Housekeeping couldn't seem to get their job right (no clean glasses, incomplete towel sets, no refills on the shampoo, they didn't even vacuum the floor!) Service at the restaurant was worse ... when you walk into a restaurant and see 5 empty tables covered in dirty dishes, it should be a sign ... when you are ushered to the buffet without even a hint there is a menu, it should be a sign ... when you can't find a waiter to take your money, it's time to leave and never come back! Then to top things off, the hotel couldn't even provide a folio of charges at the end of our stay. They claimed that their computer was "running a report" and couldn't provide a statement. In the last 10 years I have never stayed at a hotel that didn't slip the statement under your door in the morning or provide it for you upon checkout ... something seemed fishy! Well, add to that the ride to the airport from the hotel shuttle where the driver seemed to enjoy the accelerator-to-the-floor-then-slam-on-the-brakes style of driving, I was about to lose my over-priced breakfast!

Alright, so you notice that I didn't mention the airline names in my ranting ... that's because overall, I still like the airlines that I flew. One more than the other, but I still like them. The Radisson, though, I don't recommend that to my enemies. I have to say that I've stayed at a handful of Radisson's in the last 5 years and they always seem to fall into that same category of "used to be nice, haven't been updated and now are over-priced with poor service" hotels that I would really rather not stay in!
So, what does all this have to do with Customer Service? Everything! Having once worked in that industry, I realize that it's not an easy job, but it's essential to any business. I realize that the point of customer service is to encourage people to continue to spend money with a company. So, how does a company do that? They listen to their customers. They make the customer's transactions simple. And if something is wrong, they endeavor to fix it, and hopefully without making the customer be the one to fix the problem.
Maybe I just expect too much from businesses, but I don't think so. I think businesses expect customers to put-up with too much poor service!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Is there anybody out there?

O.K. As you may have read in my last post, I am feeling a bit of a slacker for not posting more regularly. Thankfully I didn't say I would try to do better, because I would have failed miserably and simply had to say again that I would try to do better ... so here I am typing those thoughts anyway, maybe that's what a blog is for, to type the thoughts you don't have to type. Hmmm ... ponder that a moment.
I realize that in the grand scope of blogging there are two pretty essential elements. The first is that I, the blogger, would post things of interest often enough that you, the reader, will read them. More than that, I would hope you would find my thoughts interesting enough that you will stop by regularly to see what new thoughts I might have. This does assume some level of arrogance I guess that I would have enough to say or enough interesting things to say that you would want to take precious time from your day to read them. Hmmm ... ponder that a moment.

Alright, so besides studying ... you might be wondering what I've been doing lately. Well, I won't bore you with all the details, but I will highlight that I've been keeping an on a television show that our good friends Jason and Danae got us hooked on ... it's Heroes. Have you seen it? If not, I suggest you only check it out if you have a lot of time on your hands. We ended up watching something like 15 hours of last season's shows on DVD prior to the season premiere. Now at first this doesn't sound so bad, but I also failed to mention those 15 hours were watched in two days! Yes, that's called obsessive, but the show is that compelling (either that we're that weak when it comes to saying, "no, I won't watch 15 hours of television"). If you are already obsessed, like me, then you can waste further hours taking quizzes like this one ...

Which Heroes Character are you?
Your Result: Issac Mendez

Isaac is very confused and upset about his powers in the beginning, but he eventually comes to terms with them as well as with his destiny. He provides a strong moral base that all the heroes can rely on. Isaac can paint the future.

Niki Sanders
Hiro Nakamura
Claire Bennet
Peter Petrelli
Nathan Petrelli
Matt Parkman
Jessica Sanders
Which Heroes Character are you?
Make a Quiz

In other less than earth shattering news, I can't say I've been up to much. The usual reading, writing a paper or two. I did submit my application for internship which was quite a process. I've been working on the application for a few weeks now, answering a question or two as I had time and needed a distraction from other more important things. It's nice to have it done so I don't have to sweat the deadline for that.

I'm sure there are important things I could be writing about. Like the Green Bay Packers and their stellar season! It will probably be the last season in which I can write about Brett Favre and his athletic ability ... but then I've said that for a year or two now. I really think this will be the last season though, he's pretty much broken every record out there at this point and if this year's team doesn't win a Supper Bowl (which I'm not counting on, but wouldn't be upset if they did) then next year's won't be enough more likely that he should want to keep playing.

In my email inbox I've been saving a bunch of emails as thought starters for blogs, but I've now saved them for so long that I've forgotten what the thoughts are that they were supposed to start, so let me just say, so much for keeping notes!

In my final paragraph today, I would just like to ask the question from the title of this blog which hopefully is one that is near and dear to your hearts. Is there anybody out there? Does anyone actually read the wild ravings and crazy thoughts of this blog? I often wonder that and haven't really put any effort into finding any kind of tracking software to see what the answer to that question is (who knows, maybe it would be easier to track than I think). Are there topic you would like to see me rant about? Are there topics you would like to see me avoid all together (maybe like why I haven't written in a while, blah, blah, blah). I'm open to feedback, money, criticism, money, ideas, money, thoughts, money, travel vouchers, money ... have I mentioned that if you want to send me money for sharing my thoughts, I'm happy to take it ... or if you just want to send me money, that's o.k. too?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

It's been far too long...

I admit it, it has been way too long since my last post. I could give all kind of reasons for why I haven't posted a fresh blog in over a month, but alas it just hasn't been a priority of mine. I could even go on to say that I resolve to be better in the future, but I doubt that will be the case with my current slate of things to do.

In the last month I have made two trips to the East Coast. One for a retreat to Atlanta and a nice visit with a friend there. The other to New York for a wedding where we got to see lots of family, enjoy great food, and relax a tiny bit. In the last month I have also celebrated with friends, studied hard, written papers, taught Confirmation class, ate a lot of food, drank some drinks, washed clothes, led worship, and a bunch of other stuff I probably can't even think of but certainly will as soon as I click "post".
It is interesting how time seems to fly by at some points of the year. I was doing so well at posting thoughts and ideas for a while, but lately it just hasn't been on my mind. Maybe it's a good thing since I've had plenty of "important" things to do. Maybe I should be using this outlet for my thoughts and relaxation. I don't really know, but I know that it feels good to type some thoughts right now.
I wish I had more to say, something that matters, something that is deep and ponderous, but alas all I can say is, "it's been far too long since I last posted anything."
Now, it's time to watch Top Chef reunion (hey, we all have our vices).