Getting Bad Customer Service? Complain About It

I was just reading Bob Bly’s blog post asking whether it pays to complain about bad products. He wonders if it’s worth complaining about poor service in restaurants or other places, and whether any one really listens.

It turns out they do. A few months ago, my doctor fired my insurance plan. It was disruptive, annoying, and irritating. I don’t go to the doctor often, but he’s convenient, he has my records, and I rarely have to wait.

Well, two weeks ago, I got another letter saying the economy is bad, patients’ options are limited, and the doctor’s practice was able to negotiate with the insurance company to ease some of the administrivia. So, he’d changed his mind. He would continue to take the insurance and apologized for the “disruption, hardship and angst” that many patients endured after the original decision.

I thought that was remarkable. He realized he’d upset his “customers” and he took steps to fix it.

Related posts:

1. What Can A Jar of Jam Tell Us About Customer Service?
2. CRM: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
3. A Customer Service Lesson from the Building Super
4. The Best Time to Invest in Customer Service
5. An Easy Way to Screw Up Customer Service