Monetary Bribes do not Customer Service Make...

I have just spoken to my best friend who has had a dreadful time with Carphone Warehouse on her mobile contract. The bill has consistently been incorrect and not to the contract price...she has now come to the end of the contract so went into store and said that she wanted to end the contract.

The store offered a couple of great deals to try and keep her but she said that no money would change her mind because she wanted to be treated as a valued customer i.e she wanted service not freebies. The man asked her if someone could ring her and she said yes....True to their word they phoned. A Carphone Warehouse guy said "Ok what will it take to keep you?" She explained it was not about money, it was about being listened to, about receiving acceptable customer service....guess what happened next?

The guy promptly put the phone down! Clearly he did not have a superb contract deal that would solve that problem :)

She said she was so frustrated that when she met her friends she told them, she told me, she told her family - (imagine how many people's perceptions of that brand have been affected this weekend?)......in this modern world, advertising is the price of having to cover up for the actual brand experience.

The interesting part for me, was that she wanted to be valued, she was not money focused..in fact what she was saying was "I don't want free as that gives you an excuse for unacceptable service..I want to pay but in return you value my custom..."

Brands are not and never will be built on who has the largest advertising budget, they will be built on who has the ability to deliver consistently on their brand promise in store, not on paper.

Comments

[Karthik Bangalore India]

Anna,
Happy New Year.

Yes, Interesting post. Many companies take an effort to build the customer base. Once they reach the threshold level or feel that the customer base will survive, they loose focus to retain them. Customer retention is one area where many average companies suffer. They are always on the lookout for the new /entry level customers whose expectations can be met. They miss a big point that at some stage customer retention is key to growth.

Karthik.