Friday the 13th is traditionally a good time to watch scary movies, but that doesn’t mean the fright should extend to your business.

If your phone systems are complicated, it’s hard to reach the right department, and hold times are really long, you may be scaring your customers away.

Multichannel Merchant reports (Feb. 10, 2009) that a recent survey of e-tailers found that service levels have slipped considerably in the past year. The report found that the number of e-tailers offering 24/7 service access has dropped to 27% (from 39% the year before), and the shipping times had increased to nearly 5 days.

However, the biggest problem was customer service rep knowledge. There’s more outsourcing (to save money), training levels have dropped, and the reps don’t know as much about the products as they should. Customers are frustrated, because they can’t find what they want, get product questions answered correctly, or solve problems.

The article quotes E-tailing Group President Lauren Freedman saying, “‘There’s not enough emphasis on building a customer service culture anymore.” What happens is that “bad” culture leads to poor email service, a poor call center, and finally, …”you open up live chat and you’re bad at that too!”

There were some bright spots though. The service winners included Brookstone, Lands’ End, Brooks Brothers, and Bluefly.

Meanwhile, I had an excellent “customer service” experience when I called the city of New York City information line the other day. Instead of trying to figure out which of the gazillion possible city offices to call when you have a problem, you just dial 311.

Here’s what happened. I was looking out the window and saw lots of water pouring out of my neighbor’s town house, into the yard. Something was clearly broken, but I had no idea what or who to call about it (neighbors weren’t home). So, I called 311.

After one or two push button choices, I got a real person. I explained the problem and she transferred me to the Department of Environmental Protection. I repeated it, and after speaking with a supervisor, the rep decided the problem required the fire department. She connected me, and gave ID info to the operator. I explained the situation, and the 911 operator notified the fire department.

The whole thing took maybe 5-10 minutes. A fireman was at my door (to look down at the problem) about 3 minutes later.

They turned off the water (it was deep enough to slosh around in) and the immediate problem was solved (though I understand the owners found a big mess when they came home).

If a big bureaucracy can do it… you can too!

Photo:wordridden

The demise last year of BlueSky, a company that specialized in fulfilling orders placed from the catalogs of non-profits, left many people thinking that the nonprofits had ripped them off. Customers were left with cashed checks, credit card charges — and no merchandise.

It’s a customer service and public relations disaster, particularly since many of the organizations affected didn’t have any of the order information and couldn’t tell who’s missing what.

According to DM News (4/9/08) Winterthur [the decorative arts museum in Delaware], “… refused to take any responsibility for orders placed with catalogs sporting its name and logo left unfulfilled by BlueSky.”

“ ‘Winterthur is not responsible for resolving issues related to the operations or outstanding orders of BlueSky Brands and does not have information on the orders that have been placed,” the company said in a statement on its site. “Credit card issuers may be able to assist in resolving billing disputes with BlueSky Brands for those orders paid for by credit card.’ ”

On the other hand, The National Wildlife Federation reacted by collecting inquiries, sorting them and working on developing a plan to manage them; the Smithsonian posted a Q&A on its site.

The best time to invest in customer service is before something like this happens. Have policies in place that encourage your reps to go out of their way to help customers: check on which store still has a particular book in stock, or where they can find their favorite flavor of your pasta sauce. The second best time is after something like this happens. Instead of washing your hands and walking away, try to negotiate on your customers’ behalf with your vendors, investigate what happened, and do your best to make it right.

Photo: brycej

Is it worth complaining about poor service in restaurants or other places?  Does anyone really listen?

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.