Having been very critical of WANADOO on my Blog I feel I should complete the story and give one member of their Head Office staff a compliment.At long last this week WANADOO accepted responsibility for the problems we have experienced with our Internet connection.
We lost our connection on April 23rd and it was five weeks later that WANADOO finally accepted it was their problem all along. By then we had already called in three different IT experts at considerable cost because we were told by WANADOO it must be a problem with our computers.
This week I reached one man at the WANADOO Head Office and he was the first person in WANADOO who actually seemed to understand my anger and frustration as a customer - he had empathy and said sorry.
He apologised sincerely and offered financial compensation that I accepted. The cheque is on the way.
By the time I received this belated consideration it was far too late because by then I had already cancelled our subscription with WANADOO and transferred to BT Internet who so far have shown excellent customer care.
In many ways it is sad that people like the gentleman I came across in the Head Office have to suffer. He tried hard to repair ‘damage’ done to a customer – damage that, with a little care and understanding earlier on, would not have occurred!
The message for any company must surely be what I would call SSS – ‘Say Sorry Sooner’ otherwise you will wake up one day when it is too late and find your customers have left you. Not only that your ‘former’ customer will already have told all their friends and you will not realise the damage that has been done to your company.
8 comments:
What a great take away from that experience. It's a shame. But maybe the reason you had to wait so long for the proper consideration was that this person is a rarity in that firm. Maybe he needs to get another job :-)
Is BT hiring?
Thanks Ann.
I agree the man I spoke to at WANADOO should be working somewhere else. It is sad that some people have to spend their day apologising for the inefficiency of others. If I was in his position I would look for a company that valued customers.
BT have been excellent so far - they have kept us informed every step of the way in the ordering, installation and connection of our new Internet provider service. I hope they keep that standard - it really is not that hard to do a caring job in my opinion.
Good customer service is so important. More and more people are going to expect and demand it, especially in a world where mistakes so quickly get propagated through blogs. I'm having a lot better customer support experiences lately. I remember a few years ago, I would dread calling for tech support it would often be so bad (except for Apple care - amazing!)
Excellent post, Trevor. I remember when the customer was king, always right, priority number one. I haven't seen any advertising this effect lately. It seems companies are more interested in cutting expenses than providing world class customer service.
Glad to hear you finally got someone who knows what's important to keeping customers happy. Here's hoping (for Wanadoo's sake) that they put the guy you encountered in charge of mentoring all the new associates.
Harold, Troy and Phil!!!
Thanks so much for your comments guys.
I have now written my 'Lies, Damn Lies and Customer Care' article.
I feel better now have expressed my anger, frustration and disappointment. The written word is a great way for me to express myself.
We (the customers) shall overcome! I'm glad you've got your broadband back. Now it's my turn!!
FYI, Trevor. SSS is actually the initials of a neo-Nazi extremist group. Yikes!
Maybe I need to re-think the SSS!!! :-)
Post a Comment