This time out I was reading an article by Ron Bourque, a consultant and speaker in Windham, NH, on how customer service has dwindled through the years.
His article not only reminded me of something I'd written earlier but also of an experience I'd had. Mr. Bourque wrote about a change in his email service provider screwing up so that trusted emailers couldn't email him any longer.
I experienced that in reverse. People I'd been emailing for years suddenly stopped getting my emails. More accurately, only people with the same email service provider. A large email service provider so that this glitch was affecting people in six states.
I contacted the provider. "Oh, sorry, you're listed as a possible spammer." My personal email account is on a possible spam list? "Oh, sorry, no, it's because your content varies so much that our system decided you were a spammer." Then tell your system that I'm not a spammer. "Oh, sorry, I can't do that. You have to go to this webpage..."
As Mr. Bourque wrote in his article, why do I have to fix this company's problem?
"Oh, sorry, you can always get a personal email account with us. It's free and will solve the problem."
You could have fried eggs on my forehead by this point in time.
I contacted the folks no longer receiving my emails and explained the situation to them. My emails are getting through now. No idea why, really. For that matter, "Oh, sorry, I don't care." I'll solve my own problems and am happy to help people solve theirs when they ask, but this was a bit much for me, and evidently Mr. Bourque, to stomach.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
I'll be speaking at the San Francisco April '07 Emetrics Summit on Quantifying and Optimizing the Human Side of Online Marketing on May 7, 2007. Come on by and say hello.
» This isn't customer service, Part 2 from BizMediaScience
Customer Service and deBranding, Part 2 [Read More]
Tracked on: March 8, 2007 10:19 AM | Permalink to Trackback