Friday, May 30, 2008
MSN Publishes 2008 Customer Service Hall of Shame
byEarlier this week, MSN published the results of their 2nd annual, 2008 Customer Service Hall of Shame Survey. The national online survey, conducted by Zogby International polled 7,724 randomly chosen respondents and includes 140 companies from 14 industries. Several companies including Sprint, Time Warner Cable and Comcast have appeared on the list both years. Topping the list this year is AOL.
With a few exceptions, many of the companies appearing in the top 10 or even top 20 are companies who deal in communications; offer complex services and have a large user base. An argument could even be made that some of these companies are in a marketplace where there is little competition and therefore they are not compelled to differentiate themselves on service. Whatever the reason, in our current economic environment, companies need to realize that cutting back in areas of customer service can only hurt business in the long run. Consumers will continue to demand more and will become increasingly more price conscience; resulting in higher customer churn and costs if you are not meeting their needs.
We’ve all seen stories of poor customer service, whether it’s a video posted to YouTube about a person who tried to cancel their subscription to AOL or a story shared through email and blogs. Some of them simply seem so absurd and unbelievable that they are funny unless you are on the receiving end or even the company who ultimately may loose customers because of a poor experience.
In stark contrast to the companies at the top of the list who received poor ratings from 30 to 40 percent of respondents, companies like Marriott, Sheraton, Amazon.com, and Google all received poor customer service ratings from less than 5% of respondents. It’s no coincidence that many of these companies are often sited in publications talking about customer loyalty and company growth. They understand the value of their customers and cater to them over shareholders.
I believe the lesson to be learned here is when the going gets tough, remember first and foremost that your customers are ultimately responsible for keeping your doors open and their needs and concerns need to be addressed accordingly.
