Murphy's Law: Customer Service. Is that an Oxymoron?
Murphy's Law: Customer Service. Is that an Oxymoron?
A corporate contact of mine from a major dental porcelain distributor recently called an airline to utilize points earned over the last several years to travel to Europe with a friend on vacation. Neither had enough mileage from individual frequent flyer accounts to qualify for a free ticket. A third party to this story offered to transfer 20,000 miles as a gift to make the whole thing work.
Everyone transferred their American Express Reward Points (which this airline honors) into their respective airline accounts. The customer service agent for American Express was very nice and informed them that the points would be transferred and credited to the respective frequent flyer accounts instantaneously.
The airline was a different story. They were informed that it would take up to 72 hours before the points could be transferred from one frequent flyer account to another. Until this occurs, the reservation would not be confirmed. As a complication, the itinerary that was arranged with the airline could only be held for 48 hours.
Over the next 48 hours, there were a total of four additional calls to try to confirm the itinerary without any luck. Each time they were informed that if the points were not transferred close to the 48 hour deadline they could call and ask for an extension for up to 72 hours. They called the additional four times because my friend’s credit card was charged over $200 to transfer the miles and his frequent flyer account had been debited 20,000 miles - immediately. Yet, there was nothing in the account
On the sixth call close to the 48 hour mark to ask for another extension, he was told that the last leg of the trip could not be extended because it was on a partner airline. They offered to rebook on their airline for this leg to be able to hold the reservation for the additional 24 hours. However, this change suddenly would cost more points. Unhappy with this answer, they asked to speak to a supervisor.
The supervisor accessed my friend’s account and acknowledged that my friend had been debited 20,000 miles. The supervisor now claimed that it would take up to seven days to transfer the miles not 72 hours as the five preceding employees had claimed. He then asked if they had read the terms and conditions on their Web site and that the phone agents are not Web experts and they would not know their own company’s policy. He refused to confirm the reservation despite the fact that he could see on his computer that my friend had been debited 20,000 miles. You get this all too familiar picture of what service can look like in America today.
Then my friend called American Express.
He still held an additional 11,000 miles in his account. He asked if it would be possible to transfer the remaining balance to me and if he could reasonably purchase the remaining 9,000 miles required to confirm the reservation. Not only did the operator transfer the remaining balance directly but he loaned my friend the additional 9,000 miles needed after hearing the story. The operator said he wanted to do this because my friend had been a customer for more than 10 years and he wanted them to have a good trip. The 20,000 miles were transferred instantaneously and the trip was saved.
Wow! What a classy end to another unfortunate customer service story. What has happened in our country today? Is customer service an oxymoron that implies that businesses will only give lip service to service and insist on policy and rules adherence. I hear stories like this all the time across many different sectors of our economy including airlines. What can we do in our dental laboratories to be like American Express and not like the airline in this tale? Let’s vow to make the rules fit our best customers, the 20 percent or so who account for 80 percent of our revenue and profit.
American Express, Ritz Carlton, Nordstrom, Morton’s and others like them have mastered the art and science of customer service. The art is obvious, the science a bit covert. These companies know that customer loyalty is the most prized possession. The most engaged clients, willing to pay more than the usual, customary and reasonable fee for goods and services, are truly the most treasured asset.
Take your customer service team to dinner (guess where), put them up at a hotel (Ritz Carlton, OK at least a full service Marriott concierge level) and maybe even splurge on a shopping spree at Nordstom when you exceed your target goals and objectives. Taste what fine customer service is all about and then copy that in your laboratory. It will go a long way towards developing client satisfaction and loyalty, which is needed even more to thrive in these challenging economic times.
