By James A. Baker · Founder, Baker Communications
Early in the morning of “the day in question,” I discovered a problem with an online transaction where it seemed pretty clear to me that this company’s software system had experienced some kind of glitch that dropped a transaction off my account and cost me money. After wading through the annoying gauntlet of call routing queries, I finally was able to speak to a live person. I calmly, carefully explained what had happened – focusing primarily on the fact that the software had inexplicably dropped my transaction. Then I suggested that the company owed me a reimbursement, to which the live person replied, “No we don’t.”
I was a little bit stunned. I know this major US company very well, and I know that they spend huge amounts of money training customer service reps – their whole business revolves around customer service – yet, instead of offering empathy or making any attempt to clarify or understand my issue – this person jumped straight to NO! I spent the next five minutes trying to explain the unique nature of the transaction failure, and all he would say in return was that I accepted a risk by doing business on their site and they couldn’t be held responsible if something went wrong! Of course, the more emphatic I got, the more defensive he got. Finally, I asked to speak to his escalation manager, to which he replied, “Fine with me, but he is just going to tell you the same thing.”
