One of the worst experiences I’ve had with customer service was my recent interaction with Con Edison. For those outside the NYC area, this is the power and gas company. I had to get the power turned over into my name at the new place. I called ConEd and asked them to have the power to the apartment switched in my name. They proceeded to tell me that I had to fax them some pieces of information to prove I wasnt the previous tenant since they scooted on their bill. So I understood that and besides, I didnt want to be responsible for their bill. I faxed everything they asked for over to them and called them back at the specified time. They proceeded to tell me that the lease wasn’t up to THEIR standards and told me what I needed have on it to be accepted and to refax it. So I did what they asked, even had my landlord rework it accordingly and called back. They proceeded to tell me that I now needed a notarized letter from my landlord now because the lease was different than the first one I faxed over.

Yup, you read that right…”because the lease was different.” They told me to change it and I now needed my new landlord to get a notarized letter and fax it to ConEd stating that the lease was ok because it was changed according to what ConEd asked for to get the power turned on in my name. That’s pretty much when I got so frustrated that I couldnt believe I was emerged in this stupidity. My landlord couldnt believe it either, so he wound up calling them up and after a few days of that, he told me everything should be squared away with ConEd, because they told him that. Now this was when I was moving all my stuff into the new place so I didnt get a chance to call up immediately. When I did, I was told that my landlord had not called and that all my paperwork was deleted from the system and I had to go through everything again, including the notarized letter because there was a note on the account that the lease didn’t look legit. Now I lost it, I asked the guy on the phone, “so you rather not have me as a willing and able paying customer, by making me jump through all these hoops again, but protect a delinquent nonpaying customer and still get no money? That makes total perfect sense, thanks for your help.” After speaking with my landlord yet again, god bless his patience, I got a call from a supervisor over at ConEd and finally got the service transferred into my name.

The middle of the road was Time Warner. The only reason it was middle of the road caliber was because the issue I had was a defective box. But that was something I figured out by taking my bedroom cable box and plugging it into my living room and seeing if I was having the same issue. Which I didn’t, but by then I had already spent an hour and half online with tech support which ended in them having to schedule out a tech to my place. So after the week in between, when the tech got here I explained what I did, he ran some tests on the line and just swapped out the defective box.

Now in saving the best for last, it was 1800-Got-Junk. Yup, those of you that are fans of the tv show Hoarders, this is the service where a truck comes to your place and a team of guys take out your junk and either recycles it, donates it, or junks it. I had a bunch of stuff that I just didnt want to bring along to the new place such as a twin bed, loveseat, and just some household items. The main guy, Justin, that I dealt with was top notch. Very respectful to my place and items. He and his guys were extremely courteous and made things like the appointment time totally my call and based on my availability and time. It was pouring down rain, and they didnt even blink. “We do this all the time, just a part of the job,” he replied with a smile, to me talking about how crappy the weather was. You know that feeling you get after an experience and you want to tell everyone about it and even to go use/have it? That’s how I feel about these guys. Would totally use them again and very much recommend them as a service.

What I took from this is that customer service is about respect, communication, common sense, patience, and understanding. I’ve always tried to strive to communicate fully to my clients and potential clients alike. Making sure that there is nothing lost in translation. Even if there’s something that I’m not in control of but I know that my client will have to go through, I will let them know about it, so that they can at least prepare themselves and whatever materials they may need. All of us in business end up on both sides of the fence in customer service. Try to think about that when you are on either side, and remain respectful and use common sense.

Today, with technology in everyone’s hands, it’s so easy to spread the word about an experience. I had a friend of mine tweet about a terrible service experience he was having at “one of those large warehouse stores” when he was trying to rent some tools. No more than a few minutes later, did he receive a tweet back from the corporate backed Twitter account asking him if they could help. I thought that was pretty cool, that at least they were watching and listening to what was going on, even if on the ground, the local employees didn’t seem to give a crap. With all this technology though, such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, etc, it makes a bad experience spread like wildfire. If you check in to a place on Foursquare, you see the Tips right there in front of you. If there’s a bad experience because someone’s chicken wasn’t cooked at a restaurant, guess what? I’m not getting the chicken!

To me, this is an opportunity for businesses though. As Gary said in the video in the link above, this is a transparent and authentic world we live in now. If someone leaves a bad tip on Foursquare about the chicken, as the company, why not turn that around and offer a free appetizer with the order of the chicken. On a bigger scale, a company such Sony, when Playstation online service was hacked, at least they came out in front of the world and apologized and said they screwed up. That I can appreciate. Transparency is key in business now. People can read when someone is a genuine person. So no point in trying to “cover up” a mistake, or give the standard “we are looking into the issue” speech. We know you are human, and humans mess up, just own up to it.

I’ve always been a pretty transparent type of person. It does carry over into my business world as well. But I do think the people I work with appreciate it. If a potential client comes to me and asks me to design something, but I’m not equipped to for that project, I say so. I try my hardest to find a solution for them though. If it’s referring them to someone else, or getting them a link to an online service, or whatever it may be, I don’t feel that leaving someone hanging in the air is the right thing to do. Sure I don’t make any money from that person directly, but I have gotten referrals back, and even clients from those potential ones that I had to pass on that gave me a good word to their friends.

I think this also applies to people’s colleagues as well. By this I mean, managers being straightforward with their teams. C-level being honest with their Directors. It filters down as the environment of a company. If everyone is out to cover their own butt, then no one reaches out to help a fellow co-worker when they have an issue, because if that issue blows up in their faces, guess who’s name gets attached to it as well. If there’s one thing that startups have going for them, it’s the atmosphere of accomplishing their goal, launch date, application release, etc. Everyone knows the end goal, they all work together to strive to achieve it, and people don’t have issues reaching out to one another to lend a hand. I’ve worked in both environments and I much rather work in a place where my superiors talk to me like a person, not a peon, and I can reach out and offer help where I can without it coming back to bite me.

So the next time you are working and something messes up, or you know that you aren’t offering your best to a customer, think about being completely honest and transparent. If there’s a better solution to the customer, offer it. See what kind of response that you get from doing so, I guarantee that you will get a smile and a “thank you” in return.

Posted via email from Jason Resnick’s posterous