Customer Service Patterns I

I've written a few times about customer service experiences, several great experiences (the "I Appreciate..." series), and one particularly bad one (the "Fighting Expedia" series). I've been thinking about what made the great ones great and the lousy one, well, lousy.

In the good experiences, the companies would do things they didn't have to do, while in the bad experience, the company went out of its way to avoid doing what it said it was going to do.

• D'Addario could've said "here's your missing A string;" instead they sent me two new sets.
• GSI Outdoors could've said "tough luck on the broken lid," instead they sent me a new lid for free.
• KBC could've said "that'll be 15 bucks for the new plate," instead they sent me a new helmet plate for free.

In each of these cases I wouldn't have been disappointed with the companies if they did their minimum, because they were not obliged to do anything more than that. What made the experience great (and memorable) was that they did more than they had to.

Expedia, though, said "book this trip, and we'll send you a gift card." (They didn't have to offer the card.) But after we booked the travel, they made claiming the offer a frustratingly difficult and exasperating experience. (And memorable too, in its own way.)

Of course, with effort we can think of adequately satisfactory customer service experiences in which a company would do what it said it was going to do to resolve an issue. Satisfactory, if unremarkable.

The good companies did what they did not have to do.
The adequate companies did only what they had to do.
The lousy company resisted doing what it said it was going to do.

What have you noticed about good and bad customer service?

I appreciate what D'Addario did for me

I play classical guitar. I really enjoy it; it's my golf.

I go through a set of strings several times a year, and I always use D'Addario Pro-Arte strings: they play nicely on my Alhambra 6P.

Something unusual happened at last string change: the set I bought had two Ds, but no A. I took a picture and posted a tweet about it, then ran out to the music store to buy another set.

When I got home, there was a reply from D'Addario offering to send two new sets of strings. I gave them my address, and they shipped them to me.

Thanks D'Addario! I appreciate it.

Fighting Expedia, The Conclusion

Well it finally arrived.

After four months, after being told

• You have to follow a link (which didn't exist) on a web page
• Your trip actually didn't qualify for the offer
• Please hold, your call is very importa... click
• Our offices are closed (in the middle of a weekday afternoon)
• It's not our fault; it's the card handler's fault

the card finally arrived.

I think I'm going to go buy a bottle of Advil.

I Appreciate What GSI Did For Me

This is something that happened a little while ago, and I've been meaning to tell you about it. Here goes.

You know I really enjoy coffee. All kinds. I've had French Press coffee before, but didn't have a press to do it myself.

We were at Mast General Store and in their camping section I found Lexan presses by GSI Outdoors. I liked the idea of a shatter-resistant carafe, instead of glass (I've gone through numerous glass espresso carafes). So I bought the press. Works great, good coffee.

Not long after I bought it, I broke the lid. Sigh. I wrote the company, asking whether I could buy a new lid. They wrote back, and said all I had to do was call them, and they'd send me a new lid. So I did, and they did too.

Thanks GSI! I appreciate it.

Fighting Expedia, Chapter 2

Well I wish I had something better to report. Right after I posted the last installment, I got a Twitter message from @Expedia, saying "sorry to hear you're having problems, please give us a call." I spoke again with Corey, and he again apologized, asked me to be patient, blamed various system failures, etc. I told him I'd wait to see what shakes out from BBB.

On October 8, two weeks after I filed the complaint from BBB, I got a response from Expedia through BBB, the essence of which was, sorry for the trouble, please be patient, it's not our fault, etc. I was particularly irritated by Expedia's statement: "If the card has not been received within the next two weeks then we may visit other options for this customer but we must have proof that the customer has not received the promotional item at that time."

BBB asked whether I was satisfied with their response and wanted to close the case (Seriously?) I said "No," because Expedia hadn't actually done anything. I think the case should be closed when they do what they had promised.

On October 18, I got an email from Expedia saying that the card was on its way!

Perhaps it's a good idea that I didn't hold my breath, because as of yesterday, November 8, the card hasn't arrived.

On November 1 I checked the status of the case and saw I had gotten a response (tagged "FINAL RESPONSE FROM BUSINESS") to my rejecting their earlier response (from October 8). It said they were sorry that I declined their earlier response, and they said the gift card was "resubmitted" on October 17. And because they're sorry for the inconvenience, they were giving me a $50 coupon to be used for future travel booked through Expedia. All I'd have to do is create an account with them (I used a guest account for the July trip), then call one of their reps with my case number to apply the coupon to my account.

Right.

BBB asked whether I was satisfied, and I replied "No," saying that all I want is the gift card, the coupon is worthless, and considering all the grief this has been ("your trip doesn't qualify," "you didn't click the [non-existent] link," "we're closed," on hold until disconnected, etc) I just would rather not do business with them at all. There are plenty of other ways to book travel.

The moment the card arrives, I'd be happy to consider the case resolved.

Imagine my surprise when I later log in to BBB to view the case, and find its status is "Closed."

11/01/2011 JAF BBB BBB judged complaint addressed
11/01/2011 Otto BBB Inform Consumer - Case Closed AJR
11/01/2011 Otto BBB Inform Business - Case Closed AJR
11/01/2011 Otto BBB Case Closed AJR

So I sent BBB a note asking "what gives?" I would have expected that the case would stay open until the case was actually resolved ie, that Expedia had done what they said they would do). BBB replied saying that they don't just hold cases open, but they said I could open another case if the card doesn't come. Thanks, BBB.

So after a month or so of trying to go the BBB route, BBB has not been a whole lot of help resolving the issue, and the card hasn't arrived.

Fighting Expedia

Retailers often entice customers into a purchasing decision by offering a rebate, bonus, or other type of promotion. The retailer expects, however, that a portion of their customers will not follow through on claiming the rebate. There's even a term for it: "breakage."

Back in July my wife and I made a reservation through Expedia for a stay in St Petersburg, Florida. We had a great time, no problem there. When we made the reservation, however, Expedia had an offer for a $50 Gas Card on completion of the stay. We thought, "That's nice, it'll help cover the cost of the gas to get there."



When we got back home, we went to the Expedia site to find out how to claim the $50 gas card. Their emailed response to our inquiry told us to follow a link, which actually did not exist. So when I called their customer support line, I was informed that our trip did not qualify for the $50 gift card. I pointed out that it did, and the rep forwarded me up the chain. That next rep dropped my call. I was sitting at the computer while on hold, and I posted a tweet: something like "I'm having a hard time solving a problem with @expedia" (I had later deleted the post). Very soon after that I got a message inviting me to call them, and they actually gave my wife a phone call about the issue. I called Expedia back and spoke at length with one of their reps, who apologized profusely and blamed various system failures, and promised that we'd receive the gas card within the next week or two (the itinerary status screen said the estimated delivery was 8/26). About this time (August 2) I made a post saying that I was happy with how Expedia was helping to solve the problem, and deleted the earlier post about the original issue. (I've not deleted the happy post: it's shown below.)



Fast forward to today, about a month past the delivery date. There's no sign of the gas card. I called Expedia, trying to contact the same rep I had spoken with two months prior, but instead the operator sent me to their "Tier 3 Service Department". After a few minutes on hold, a message on an answering machine informed me that their offices were closed (it was 3PM Eastern), and told me to leave a message. So I did. I gave them my name, itinerary number, and phone number.

It started to seem to me that they were not going to fulfill the offer, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Except complain. And I generally don't like complaining.

First stop: Google. A search for "expedia gas card problem" will show you a lot of people have similar issues.

Next stop, the Better Business Bureau. I was very surprised to find the BBB gives them an A+ rating. Wow. How'd they manage that? Anyway I filed a complaint, and I got a message back from BBB saying they've forwarded the issue to Expedia. I should hear something by middle of next month.

One of the things the BBB complaint asked for was what did I want Expedia to do. My response was basically, just honor the gas card like they said they would. But I still hate all the aggravation they have caused. What should they do to make that right?

Takeaways:
1. Try not to let the promise of a Free __________ unduly influence a purchase decision. Have you ever noticed how tough it can be to claim a rebate? To use those frequent flier miles?
2. Try to be reasonable; try to be patient.
3. Don't be afraid to involve the BBB, especially dealing with a BBB accredited business.
4. You have more influence than you think you do.

Let's Reduce Teen Unemployment

Unemployment among teens is 24%.

Let's reduce teen unemployment. Here are a couple of thought experiments, and then a suggestion.

1. Pretend you are holding a garage sale this Saturday. You've got a lot of stuff to get rid of, and so you decide to make things simple on your neighbors, you will price each individual item at $10. At the end of the sale, you might have $20-$30, and a ton of your unsold stuff.

2. Pretend that all the gas stations in your state decide to sell gasoline at $10 per gallon. What will happen is that everybody is going to complain, some people will drive across the border to get to cheaper gas, some people won't drive at all, and a few desperate souls will endure the new expense. The gas stations, though, will find they aren't selling much gas anymore.

Price floors create surplus.

A minimum wage law is a price floor for workers. A minimum wage law is going to create surplus workers, that is, unemployment.

What if the minimum wage law were only to apply to workers over 21 years old? What if an employer were free to pay a teenaged worker a minimum of say 75% of minimum wage? (I'm suggesting a minimum, not a maximum wage.) What would happen to teen unemployment? My guess is teen unemployment would drop like a rock.