Category Archives: Customer Service

*sigh* I Hate Being Stuck at Home, Waiting on a Delivery

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So much for them being here first thing, since its now 11:30.  Its a dishwasher basket I ordered for the top rack of our dishwasher for nipples and sippy cup valves and the like.  I am really not impressed with City Link, by the way, if anyone in the UK is thinking about using them for deliveries.  They won’t redirect the package without repaying the shipping fee!  And the company that I ordered from is telling me if it gets sent back for non-delivery I have to pay them a £15 re-stocking free or pay to have it delivered again!

This is why I usually have things delivered to work.  There is always someone there to accept delivery, Monday – Friday, 7:30 – 5:30!  I just wasn’t sure how long this would take to deliver and was afraid it would be after I was on leave!

So shoe shopping is on hold, maybe until tomorrow, depending on what time the delivery arrives.  I may go after lunch, if the delivery ever gets here!

Now, That Was Good Customer Service

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So Simon and I purchased this fantastic hot chocolate mix from Tesco several weeks ago. It was Cadbury Bourneville. It was great because it was made with 100% dark chocolate and was unsweetened, so you could add as much or as little sugar as you wanted. Perfect for this diabetic.

Well, like most things I find that I love, it had disappeared off the shelves the next time I went to buy some. So I went to Cadbury’s website. Not there either.

So I sent them a message, telling them how disappointed I was that it was now gone and how fabulous it was. And I just got a lovely reply, thanking me for my email, that they appreciate that I enjoyed the product, but that sometimes products get pulled for lack of overall interest.  He also said he would let his marketing department know and maybe they would bring it back.

That was good customer service.

So, As I Mentioned

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I was out shopping on Saturday.  And OMG the bad customer service…

Item 1 – I popped into Carlton Cards to buy some wrap for some gifts we are giving at work.  I pick out what I need, go up to the counter, where there are two women putting up Halloween items.  I stand there.  I look one woman in the eye, raising my eyebrow.  She turns her back on me.  The other woman finally turns around, says ‘oh’ and says to a woman I didn’t see, sitting on the floor ‘are you on register?’  Why the first woman didn’t tell the woman on the floor that I was there, I don’t know.

Then I am in Primark, doing my usual ‘oh look, bras and pants for £4 a set!  Buy buy buy’ and I get up the cash wrap to pay.  The woman working at the till next to the one I am at is *screaming* over at her co-worker about a dress and did they have it in her size.  When they didn’t she then said “Dammit.  I’m gonna kill you!”

So Bad Customer Service All Around.

Well, I Wouldn’t Call it Bad Customer Service

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But it sure is annoying.

You see, we have several bookcases and a display case being delivered tomorrow by Argos.  Between 7am and 6pm.  So I called to see if I could get a smaller delivery window.  Say, 7 – 12 or something.  Nope, can’t be done.  They have no way of knowing what time the things will be delivered.

I wouldn’t exactly call this *bad* customer service.  But it certainly isn’t good customer service.

How hard could it be to give me a smaller window? They must know, at this point on the day before, what else is scheduled for delivery in Belfast tomorrow.  So why can’t they narrow it down for me?

When we purchased our washer/dryer, I was given about the same delivery time. But I was also given a number to call the day before to get it narrowed down.  So Curry’s for the win on that one.

I am going to be home all day, regardless.  But now I won’t be able to do *anything* without worrying about missing the delivery.  Not even pee.  So thank god for cordless phones, I guess.

But, really, Argos, you should try and narrow it down for people.  It would be very helpful.

How to Piss Off Your PA

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As I’ve mentioned before I am the Personal Assistant to the Senior Management Team of my company.  I am also the Office Manager for the whole office.  And the Official Office Geek.  I have many roles.

At the moment our regular accounts manager is on maternity leave and we have a temp in.  He’s an ass.  A total unmitigated ass.  He wouldn’t know how to be polite if you hit him with a polite stick.  And, trust me on this, the last thing you want to do is piss off the PA/Office Manager of any office.

Do you know what happens when you do?  You get no coffee.  Or biscuits.  You might not even get paid.  You certainly won’t get the office supplies you think you so desperately need.

So many people think that Admin work is low brow or easy.  It is neither.  A good PA, and, to toot my own horn, I am a very very very good PA, can make the difference between an office that runs well and one that runs like crap.  My office runs well.  Very very very well.  Because, as I just said (still tooting own horn over here) I am very very very good at my job.

I keep the SMT’s diaries in order.  I keep the kitchen supplied with good coffee and tea.  I keep the supply cupboards full.  I keep the phones answered, the computers working, the filing done.  I don’t do any of this alone, I work with a good team.  I have an excellent receptionist, an excellent projects assistant and, usually, an excellent accounts manager.  Us girls (as we are all women, whereas the SMT is all male) kick ass on a regular basis to keep a science park where 1200 people work ticking over.

We keep the lights on and the hot water coming.  We pride ourselves, when we are asked for a file, to be able to put our hands on it without thinking about it.  We are the Admin Team.  Don’t mess with us.  You won’t like what happens if you do.

So, if you have a PA or an AA or a Secretary, thank them.  Thank them for putting up with the shit work you make them do (filing sucks, okay?).  Thank them for the coffee they make and the phones they answer.  A Please and a Thank You goes a long way.  A happy Admin Team is a happy office.  Always.

What’s The Point?

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Apparently there has been a call for a ‘content boycott’ on Live Journal for tomorrow, to protest the removal of new free accounts.  Forget the fact that it has apparently turned into an Anti-Semitic statement, I want to know what the hell the point is.

How, exactly, does not posting content hurt LJ or its parent company?  Lack of ad revenue?  People will still be accessing the site and seeing the ads, don’t tell me they won’t.  Of course they will, to see if anyone posted anything or if they are boycotting.  Also?  LJ is still going to charge for *having* an LJ tomorrow.  They don’t charge by the day, of course, but they also don’t charge by content.  So what the hell is this going to prove?

I think its just like the ‘don’t buy gas’ boycotts the US has had.  So you buy the same gas you would have bought on that day the next day or the day before the boycott.  So you post what you wanted to post tomorrow, today or Saturday.  Totally pointless.

Granted, Live Journal has majorly screwed up lately.  There was the mass journal deletion episode, there is now an ‘adult filter’ feature on the site and they just announced that you can’t make a free account any more.  You either have to have ads on your LJ or pay for your LJ.  BUT, they are not removing basic accounts, just not allowing any new ones, so who are they hurting? New users?  Okay, bummer for the new users.

But LJ is a business.  They are in it to make money.  Granted, totally free and ad free accounts do lead to revenue generation, but they are pretty solid in the market.  Greatest Journal, who quite a few people went to after LJ screwed up with the closing of accounts last year, couldn’t take the strain and everyone I know who moved over there? Has moved back to LJ.

So boycott, don’t boycott, its up to you.  But don’t expect it to make a damn bit of difference to LJ’s new owners.

On Sunday Shopping in a Christian Country

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First of all, stores aren’t allowed, by law, to sell anything until after 1pm. I do not know if this is a UK thing or an NI thing, but I actually like it. It means you can hang out at home on Sunday morning either doing nothing or doing whatever and not feel like you have to be out and doing. Yes, I realize it is this way so people can go to church. I must remind my readers here that I am Jewish. Even if I went to a religious institution on the weekends, it wouldn’t be on Sunday mornings.

However, the shopping tends to suck, as there are no deliveries on Sunday mornings. Why they don’t just get double deliveries on Saturday, I don’t know. But could you imagine half empty shelves in a store in the US? Never gonna happen, not even in the Deep South. Here it is a regular Sunday occurrence.

This, to me, is, once again, bad customer service.  Even people who go to church might go shopping after.  And what do they find? Very little on the shelves.

Northern Ireland really needs to come into the 21st C.  And soon.

Be There When You Said You Would

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So today the plumber was suppose to come by to look at the toilet in our En Suite bathroom.  It works but not well and sometimes you have to flush twice.  He never showed up, never called.  We don’t have his number to call him, as it was arranged through our Landlord.  Who will be getting a call on Monday.  Yet another example of crappy customer service.

I realized I was lecturing on proper customer service, but never proved I knew anything about it.  I do.  My early career, just after University, was in CS.  I worked for Telecom USA Published, who was acquired by McLoed in 1996.  I left there when I moved to California.  They published telephone books and I worked at their customer service desk.   Then, when I moved to California, my first permanent job out there was with Proxim as the tech support Admin and first line tech support.  I worked there for a couple of years before moving on.  So I do know what customer service is and the difference between bad and good customer service. I’m not just talking out my ass!

I still, in some ways, work in customer service.  Our tenants are our customers at NISP and my SMT are my direct customers.  And I give good service.  I may bitch, to my co-workers, even to my bosses, but I always do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.  And that’s the true hallmark of good customer service.  It doesn’t have to mean bending over for the customer or giving in to unreasonable demands, but it does have to mean doing what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it.

Whether that is showing up on time to fix the toilet.  Or getting the papers done for a meeting.

And if you can’t do it, then call, send an email, hell put up smoke signals.  Don’t just leave your customer hanging.

I do not believe the customer is always right, because they aren’t always right.  But they always deserve an explanation of why things didn’t go as planned.  And really, its not too much to ask.

If No One Complains, Nothing Will Change

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So we are waiting for a part to come in for our boiler. We were told it would be in in a week about a week ago. No part, no call from the boiler man. Our boiler works, but keeps overheating, which is a pain in the ass.

When I mentioned to Simon how annoyed I was that we hadn’t even gotten a call with an update he said, “Well, British repair men.”

Nope, sorry, not a good excuse. There is *no* excuse for poor customer service, ever. And until people start complaining about things like that, nothing will change, ever.

There are sparks of good service in the UK. We have ordered a new shelf for our ‘fridge as one of them was broken. I ordered it online and have received two emails now with updates as to what the delay is. I am not angry about the delay because I was told there would be a delay.

There used to be a TV advert for some airline, I don’t remember which, with a bunch of people waiting in a meeting room. They are getting more and more restless as the clock goes 20, then 30 minutes past when the meeting was apparently scheduled to start with no one starting it. Then a man comes in and says “And now you know how our customers feel when a plane is delayed with no explanation. Let’s get to work.”

That’s all people really want. An explanation. Some idea of what the problem is and about when it will be resolved. Whether its a missing boiler part or building a whole building that is behind schedule.

And until people start to ask for answers, none will be forthcoming.

And that’s the key to the customer service problems in the UK, and Belfast in particular. No one wants to complain. So nothing changes.