Whatever Happened to Customer Service?

8/10/20065:40:36 PM Link |  | Add comment

Customer Service, Opinion

The other night I was at a sort of a house warming party for my very best friends.  The husband was relaying a story about a recent telephone conversation that he had with a customer service rep.  It seems, that store 'x' (who shall remain nameless, although it's hard to avoid them with the amount of catalogs i get in the mail from them) had overcharged my friends $11 on the shipping.  When they called to have it removed they were told that the original shipping amount they were told was just an estimate.  No where was that communicated, either verbally or written, at any prior time.  The simple solution would have been for giant-store to just say, '"We're sorry, we'll go ahead and take that off for you".  But noooooooo...my friend ends up in a protracted 20+ minute conversation with the customer service rep.  During the conversation he asked to speak to her manager no less than 4 times.  The final time she yelled at him, "Hold On!"  He waited for about 5 minutes on hold and then she finally came back and, all huffy-like, said "we credited the $11".  He said thank you and hung up.

A couple weeks passed and my friends noticed on their bill that the store had actually charged another $11 - they were down $22 now.  My friend called the store's customer service line again, explained the situation, and the credit of $22 was applied - all in about 2 minutes.  It's amazing to think of all the time that was wasted by the first customer 'service' rep when it was such a simple fix.

It seems like I've heard more and more of these stories in the past couple of years.  On one hand I'm hoping it's not just me and my friends getting older and grumpier but on the other hand that would be a whole lot easier to correct.  Unfortunately, I see it in even such simple things such as asking someone working at a store, 'how are you doing?' and getting what seems to be a fairly common refrain of 'i can't wait for this day to be over' or 'i'd be a lot better if i wasn't here'.  

(As an aside, if you'd really be a lot better if you weren't there, then don't be there.  Find something you would enjoy doing more!)

In the end this conversation takes me back to real estate and a recent transaction.  There was a situation where the buyer of my client's home did not close the home by the contractual date.  We were told it would just be another day or two so we decided to hang in there.  Typically your first offer is your best and any offers after that tend to keep going down.  Putting the house back on the market, given the client's situation and the stigma that's attached to homes that fall out of contract, was not in my client's best interest.  Well, a couple days turned into another couple of days which turned into another couple of days.  The buyer, an investor from out of state, and then lender seemed to not understand the importance of actually living up to the contract and expediting the loan so that the property could close.

One afternoon I was having a conversation with a title rep, checking in to find out the latest information.  I also conveyed that this situation was very stressful for my clients and that our patience was wearing thin.

Her response to me:

"Well, tell them that's real estate"

Ugh!

What kind of answer is that?  I'm supposed to go to my clients, people who I now call friends, and tell them to suck it up because 'that's real estate'.

I'm sure the title rep did not mean the statement as flippant as it sounds.  But honestly, it's that thinking that drives me batty because it's pervasive within the real estate industry.  The people that are supposed to be protected and shepherded the most in real estate - the consumer - seems to not be at the forefront of the thinking for so many people within this industry.  So much of the drama that occurs during a real estate transaction is completely unnecessary and could be avoided.  If every link in the chain of a real estate transaction just remembered who we are here to serve, and took care of their parts with that in mind (much like they would want someone taking care of their own purchase or sale), then I think consumer trust in the real estate industry would skyrocket.

It's not that hard.  A little kindness.  A little consideration.  A good faith effort.  It goes a long way. 

Here's to customer service coming back strong.