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Anonymous · Guest

This just happens to be a personal experience that I wanted to share. This is the epitome of "hearing" your customer talking, but not "listening" to what they are saying.

The story starts out when I ordered a set of work out videos from a very large, well known company. I called in to order the discs. The girl convinced me to order the upgrade package and a bunch of upsells. (Let me just say up front, I am everyone's dream customer, I am a total easy sell) For purchasing the amount of stuff I did, I ended up getting a free upgrade in my shipping.

Now I am not necessarily interested in loosing pounds, but I want to get in shape and not feel like I need an oxygen tent after taking the laundry up to the third floor. The girl kept pushing diet pills etc, after about the 10th time of me saying no and explaining this, she said ok and processed the order.

I received my confirmation e-mail with tracking number. YAY! I am so excited, I just know I am going to pop the discs in as soon as they get here and get started.

The discs arrived and I took them down to the TV and was ready to go. I opened the box and the directions were just not meshing with the items I had in the box. Hmmm, I called customer service and was immediately placed on hold for about 10 minutes. Now, 10 minutes is not unheard of, but when listening to a looping version of "Hey Jude" on the pan flute, it seemed excruciating long and painful.

I finally got to speak with "Matthew". Matthew took down my information and read my order back to me. Excellent, he already has all the information he needs and is ready to help. Before he even asks how he can help me with my previous order issue or why I am calling, he starts trying to sell me additional diet products.

I nicely advised Matthew that I am not interested with purchasing any new products, and that I still have issues with my previous purchase. He then asks me to verify my information again, so I did.

I explained that I believe some of the discs were missing from my package as the "Quick Start Guide" keeps referencing discs that I do not have in my pack. I also advise that I see the package marked Deluxe (all my upsells) but I did not see the other discs being referenced.

Matthew reads my order back to me again and says that is what I ordered. I again explain I believe that some discs are missing from the package I ordered.

Oh! he says, like the light bulb has come on. "May I place you on hold while I check on this?" he says. I say sure. Another 15 minutes of "Hey Jude" on the pan flute. He comes back and again asks me to verify my information. Are you serious? Oh yes, he is serious.

Again with the information verification process. He reads the order to me again and says, "Ok here is what is in your package", and reads me a list of items.

He gets to the basics disc set, and I seized upon that like a thirsty man in the desert. That is it, that is the package I do not have, I tell him. Matthew just sounds disbelieving and says but you ordered it, so it should be in the box.

"Yes, I agree, it should be, but it wasn't. Can you please just send me a new set?"

"I need to speak with my manager. May I place you on hold?"

I want to scream NOOOOOOO, but there is no other way, so I get to listen to the haunting rendition of "Hey Jude" again. Normally I hate those every 30 second "Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line" messages, but at this point I would have given a lot for that interruption...especially in the high register parts.

Matthew comes back and says he will ship out the new set. Hallelujah!

He then begins to try to sell me diet pills that can be sent with free shipping in that package. I explain to him that am not interested in loosing pounds and just want to get in shape. He says ok, then proceeds to ask me if I would like information on how to lose 7 pounds in 7 days. Again I tell him no.

"How about a quick slim program?"

"No, I am only interested in my discs."

Ok, but how about a diet recipe book?" This guy can't be for real...

"No please just send me my discs".

"But you want to lose weight don't you? You want to be thin don't you? You..."

At this point I had to cut Matthew off. "Just send me the discs I paid for. Don't offer me anything else, don't send me anything else, just send me the items I paid for."

"Ok, I just need you to verify your address."

I am thinking well it hasn't changed since the last time you took me off hold and asked for it, but I did not want to be rude. Again we verify all of my information and just when I think we are done....you guessed it. I am put on hold while he enters it into the system.

When all was said and done I was on the phone for over an hour. With about 45 minutes of "Hey Jude". This phone call should have taken about 5 minutes.

Why did it take so long? Because "Matthew" heard my voice, he heard the sounds coming out of my mouth, but he did not listen to what I was saying.

Suffice to say I will never do business with this company again due to this experience.

So to recap, what did I learn as a customer service manager?

1. Make sure that your clients are being listened to.

2. Don't needlessly make your clients verify their accounts. Once should be sufficient and then, if shipping, ask if they would like to use the same address still or provide another.

3. Make sure hold time is minimal and productive.

4. And most important...never never ever use looping "Hey Jude" on pan flute as hold music.

Hopefully if you can see any of this in the service you provide your customers you change it right away. You never have a second chance to make a first impression.

- Meredith

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