A Tale of Two Companies
Like most businesses in a tough economy, I have been looking for ways to cut costs. One of my greatest costs is telephone… cell phones, land lines, and 800 numbers are a huge percentage of my fixed monthly overhead. After investigating several options, I discovered that I could cut my phone expense by hundreds of dollars a month by switching from ATT to a VOIP service. As a speaker on customer service, my biggest fear in all of this was getting in a position even for a short time of missing calls or having 800 numbers hanging in telephone cyberspace not being able to find me.
My fears were calmed when I spoke to the representatives of Ring Central. This is a company which had been recommended by other speakers. Even though their customer service and sales personnel were obviously from another country, their voices were easily heard and articulated in such a manner that communication was as easy as if they were in the next room. The representatives without exception were well trained in the principles of customer service, constantly using my name, and telling me every step of what they were doing, what I could expect, and what I needed to do to smoothly make this transition.
I wish the same could be said for ATT. My land lines and 800 numbers were “ported” to Ring Central in mid June and here we are in September and ATT still can’t seem to figure out a way to stop billing me. I have now made at least 4 phone calls, each close to an hour in duration, speaking to some people who seem sincerely interested in helping me and some who definitely need a customer service refresher course. In my last phone call I was quite exasperated by the fact that a promise made in the previous phone call by a supervisor to get this finally corrected had never been fulfilled. The representative tried to tell me that ATT still provided my phone service and that was why I was still being charged. I knew that to be false as Ring Central has a wonderful feature whereby I receive a text message on my cell phone every time my main business line rings. (This is an optional feature that might seem cumbersome to some, but for a speaker and trainer who is rarely in the office and often out of town, it is heaven!) I told the representative that I knew for certain the lines had been ported due to this feature. Her response…. “Maam, if you knew everything, you wouldn’t be calling us… isn’t that right”. What was my response? “Get a supervisor on the line RIGHT NOW”. While the supervisor was kind and assured me that this would be resolved, I have heard that before. When I told her what the other representative had said to me, she didn’t even acknowledge it or act concerned about it. To me this was a grevious breach of service etiquette and one that certainly demanded at least a statement of regret by a “supervisor”.
So what is the Common Sense message here?
1. In a tough economy, be sure you have a pricing structure that your customers can afford. That doesn’t mean to give the farm away, but find a way to meet the budget needs of customers in a cost crunch.
2. In bad times, make sure your service is not just up to par but exceptional. Ring Central is proof positive that a small company can compete against a huge one by training an exceptional service and sales staff. If the voice on the other end of the line on my initial call of inquiry had not been competent, courteous, and confident, I probably would not have made the switch no matter how much money I was saving. Reaching more competent, courteous, and confident representatives during and after the transition reinforced my decision as a good one. This leads us to the next point.
3. A new customer is the easiest kind to lose and the easiest to make into a walking advertisement for your company. By the way… did I tell you to check out the Ring Central website? www.ringcentral.com
Does your staff need a common sense service wake-up call? Call Teresa today!
800-797-1580 email: tallen@AllenSpeaks.com