Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches Customers are the lifeblood of any company, especially startups. Good Morning Silicon Valley provided the following on how NOT to treat customers:
“Hours after Matt and Danelle Azola returned from their honeymoon this week, they had to evacuate their home in Ramona, Calif, just ahead of a wildfire. Their home was destroyed, and they set about dealing with the endless string of details that disaster leaves behind. One of those details was to cancel the Dish Network.
Danelle Azola described the exchange in a TV interview: “I called there to let them know that our house was destroyed, to cancel all the stuff, and the first thing they asked me was if I had a chance to grab their receiver for the satellite dish. And I told them 
no, that was the last thing that was on my mind. So then they told me I would have to pay the $300 for the receiver. … I asked to have the bill postponed until we got reimbursed from our insurance and she said sorry, you have to pay it as soon as you get your bill in the mail like any other normal bill.”
In an office somewhere, there’s an AT&T customer relations executive pounding her forehead against the desk repeatedly. ”
Watch the interview, and learn from it. Hank
I’ve had similar experiences with other customer service reps. After being treated like Danelle was, it makes you not ever want to buy a product from the company again. In this particular scenario, the situation has been broadcasted to internet users everywhere further damagine AT&T’s credibility. It’s likely that everyone that watches this video will have an aversion towards AT&T’s services.
This is definately something I am going to learn from. This
is a lot more then, “The customer is always right” saying.
Businesses are supposed to take care of their clients and
consumers in order for them to keep doing business with them.
People will hate being treated like the way this couple was
treated by AT&T. The least thing you can do is treat your
clients like a human being, and show that you have some
sympathy for them through a hard time like this. Have good
business relationships with clients and also have a kind
heart.
The problem that comes from treating a customer badly will result in the loss of her and all of her friends and relatives. Everytime that someone brings up Dish Network, they will pursade that person from buying Dish Network to not buy it. This becomes an even bigger deal when the person that you victomized goes on national TV and convinced thousands that your product is horrible. I will bet that the majority of the people who listened to that interview will not buy dish Network because of it.
I’ve had cingular for about 2 years now and every time i called customer support they were very helpful and fixed everything no problem. I haven’t dealt with them since they changed to AT&T but i hope i’m not treated like this when i call now.
The reality is that right now companies are under pressure to make enough profit in each quarter to make sure that the share prices don’t drop but rise. To do this, a lot of (bad) CEOs have decided to cut down quality customer service, resulted in scenarios like the one seen in this video.
I have dealt with a lot of large companies that have treated me in similar ways to problems which obviously were not my fault. It seems like businesses today really don’t care about their customers at all and I am seeing it more and more in very large companies. There is a niche market for companies that can provide good customer service to their customers. People like to be treated fair and with some dignity, most companies either don’t care about this or just plain don’t deliver this type of attention to their paying customers.
This is just rediculous. I am sure AT&T has heard some bizzare excuses before, but couldn’t they turn on the tv and realize that this was really happening? Who in their right mind would even ask those victims if they had their reciever? That’s very disturbing.
I dont really know what to think, during disasters like this it is really hard to do the right thing especially for big companies like this its not like you owe a friend 300 bucks and you can pay him/her when you want. I do however think that AT&T should make some statement saying that all the people in the counties hurt by the fire have an extra 3 months or something like that to pay their bills because of this unforseen natural disaster.
I’m not surprised to see this since I’ve experienced AT&T/Dish NOTwork customer service first hand, and they have the worst warranties/customer service. I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to keep their customers satisfied by giving them new equipment which they get for dirt cheap and as a result they keep their loyal customers who pay over $500-$600 for cable every year. I’m sure someone lost their job there after they saw this on TV.
I haven’t dealt with AT&T yet but I have dealt with Cingular before and it wasn’t terrible. The saying though that the customer is always right is normally true whether the company wants to admit it or not. I know that for a business the main form of advertising is word of mouth even if they do have commericals people will still here what their friends have to say about a product and not always trust the commericals. It can make or break your company depending on what people say about your company!
Wow, this is horrible. I’ve actually had pleasant experiences with
customer service reps,for the most part. However, I have Dish at
home and it is always a mess dealing with them.But still, I can’t
believe a living breathing person would treat someone whose home
just burnt to the ground that way. With the competition that Dish
has in satelite television, this kind of customer service can be
devastating to a business. And with this story being available
through the internet and other media, bad news for Dish.