Businesses obsess over pricing, packaging, marketing and product. But, as Robert Earl Keen would tell you, "It's the little things."
Take my cell phone service. I've been with Cingular for almost five years. I have a BlackBerry, and April is on an add-a-phone plan. There were three things going into Saturday that might have made me change that:
- April has been beating up on me about the fact that our monthly cell bill runs north of $175.
- I've been drooling over the new Blackberry Pearl, which is only carried by T-Mobile right now.
- My existing phone had some shortcomings-- Gary bitches that as a phone, it makes me hard to hear. And when I show off our mobile edition to prospective advertisers, it is mercilessly slow (and I'd seen it work fast on other phones.)
Even with all of that, I am a creature of habit. Changing cellphones and/or plans sounds like a big fat hassle. But, I found myself with time to kill at Northpark yesterday while a makeup consultant was completely botching a free makeover for April at Neimans (using colors that April told her wouldn't work). And, in the newly expanded section upstairs, there is an AT&T/Cingular store right next to a T-Mobile store. So I had no excuse but to inquire.
I started by talking to the AT&T people about our various service plans, confirming that the cellular was the culprit. But, I still assumed that BlackBerry service and my mega-minute plan costs were but necessary evils. Knowing that April would want to know that I'd done my best, I went over to the Cingular side of the store to hassle the clerk about our pricing. Nothing he could do on the service, but he did point out that both April and I were due for a phone upgrade at the "new customer" price. He pointed me towards their top BlackBerry, but I told him I was lusting after a Pearl.
"That's fine," he said with a sneer, "if you want a girl's phone."
At that very instant, I became a T-Mobile customer.
I marched next door and thirty minutes later came out with my Pearl, a stylish new Motorola for April (who was quite pleased), and a service plan that will save me $600 a year over my old rates while giving me 800 more minutes a month.
I was super-impressed with the customer service at T-Mobile. They even made me stop so they could check their service profile at my home, office and April's office before they placed the order.
But I never would have known that if the clerk at Cingular hadn't dissed me and my choice of phone. Inertia would have kept me stupid. (Even more ridiculous, Cingular will be carrying the Pearl in a couple months. Further, the Pearl is one of the best-reviewed new phones to come out in several years.)
Never make your customer feel stupid. Sometimes I rant privately about folks with lack of internet savvy misunderstanding our various services. But we always strive to treat those people with respect. If we don't, they'll almost certainly go a'shopping. And no matter how good you are, you can't win the comparison every time. So why send people shopping at all?
Comments
Blair Lovern Staff
Amazing.
I bitched about DirecTV last week: http://www.texasgigs.com/blogs/keepit...
Other side of the coin: My wife Liz and I have shopped at the same Circuit City in Plano several times the past week to buy a few things for our new house. You know why? Because they treated us very well the first time. We kept going back and by 4th time we were treated like kings.
You don't have to bend over backwards for a customer. But if someone goes just a little out of his way for me, then I'm going to remember. I never intended on getting so much stuff at Circuit City, but because they went out of their way initially (and also during the other times), they gained more business from me.
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
PUNCHbrad Anonymous
My jaw dropped when you quoted what that Cingular rep said to you!
I guess I'm prone to wanting a "Girl Phone" as well, because that "Pearl" has got me slobberin' all over my 8700c. I'll definitely be grabbing one in due time.
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Blair Lovern Staff
This is the phone the Cingular person uses
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
dheidle Anonymous
Customer service (or the rampant non-existence of it these days) is one of my "hot" buttons. It's unbelievable, but GOOD customer service has become nothing more than a business actually saying hello or thank you while you are at their place of business. Used to be, that was common courtesy and GOOD customer service was a business actually going out of their way to help you...
It seems I run into daily, but here's one of the more ridiculous examples of customer dis-service that I've had in the past few years...
I'm a home-improvement geek and own an older home that I'm slowly renovating. Therefore, I spend a lot of money at Home Depot annually... well, I did until last year. I'm at "my" Home Depot (Skillman & NW Hwy) to pick up some lumber. They are commonly "out of stock" on the items for which I'm looking at the time. But their propensity for customer dis-service is well-known in my neighborhood. The location stays very busy, but for some reason they typically will have 1 check-out line open for the line of 8-10 customers waiting to pay. Meanwhile, 6 or 7 folks in orange aprons are standing around by the customer desk doing nothing. Anyway, I digress... My Home Depot has the regular warehouse section (albeit one of the smaller ones around) and the Home Depot "Landscaping Center" next to it. Unfortunately, the 2 buildings are not connected via side entry doors like EVERY OTHER Home Depot I've ever been to. While I was there picking up the lumber, I realized I needed some lawn fertilizer. So, I walk over by the lawn equipment (which is located in the warehouse, NOT the Landscaping Cntr... figure that one out) thinking that they would at least have a few bags of fertilizer there. Nope. So, I seek out a guy on the next isle with the orange apron, and ask him if they have any bags of fertilizer in the warehouse. The conversation went like this:
Orange Apron: "No." Me: "Oh, OK. So you only have it next door?" OA: "Yeah, you'll have to pay for your stuff here and go over there to get the lawn feed." Me: "Wow... You guys planning on putting in an access via side doors to the Landscaping Center anytime soon? Most Home Depot's that I've been to have those." OA: "Well, do you have 2.5 million dollars?"
I was floored. The only thing I could say was "No, but I think the guy who owns Home Depot does!" Anyway, that was my last visit to Home Depot. The next day, I closed my Home Depot credit account, and opened a Lowe's account. I go to the Lowe's on NW Hwy in Lake Highlands on a weekly basis, and they know how to treat a customer.
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Elizabeth Eshelman Verified
I'm currently lamenting the purchase of an almost $400 sidekick, with too many small problems to name. Now I'm even more upset because the Pearl looks like exactly what I need. ARGH!
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
PUNCHbrad Anonymous
Blair... LOL!!!
Is it wrong that I now want that Disney phone too?
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Blair Lovern Staff
If lovin' that phone is wrong, I don't ever want to be right.
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Kathryn E. Palagonia Staff
I must say that liking a certain phone does not, in any way, make a person "girly." I am with T-Mobile, and even with my boat of a phone, I love the service. I get reception in tunnels and in school where nobody else gets service. Also, my phone has been through hell (falling off the top of my high school stadium and being thrown accidentally into a pool during a fit of rage) and back, but still works perfectly, except for those rare times it sounds like I'm under water.
You are not the person I would want to piss off or call girly. Maybe that is because you are one of my bosses, but oh well.
2 years ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Post a comment
(Requires free PegasusNews.com account.)