I Digress: Another Rant About Customer Service

I just couldn’t contain myself, so I’m jumping up on my customer service soapbox.  Please note that I am not receiving compensation of any kind from the companies mentioned favorably below; I’m simply sharing my opinions and observations.  The photos accompanying this post were taken at the Missouri Route 66 Welcome Center Rest Area located at milepost 111 (eastbound and westbound) on Interstate 44 in Conway, Missouri.  The picnic table shelters are all miniature versions of Route 66 buildings, and they are ADORABLE!  In case you’re interested, we enjoyed our picnic lunch in the Texaco gas station.

Customer service has been a frequent topic “around the campfire” here lately.  Regular readers might remember that Alan and I are sticklers for good customer service.  Over the course of the past several weeks, we’ve had an exceptional run of bad customer service experiences, mitigated by a couple of shining stars.  It boggles our minds that management at so many companies does not stress the importance of good customer service with their staff.  Alan and I are favoring two main reasons for this inattentiveness to customer service and satisfaction.

One reason is companies of every type are having difficulty staffing their businesses; therefore, any employee is better than no employee, even if that employee can’t or won’t perform his or her job well.  A warm body is better than no body at all.  The other reason is the pervasive “It’s all about me” attitude that seems to have affected society these days has stormed the walls of corporate America.  If the former reason is true, than businesses (and customers) across the country are in a pickle.  I feel sorry for companies that want to do right by their customers, but are simply unable to do so due to the employment situation.  If the latter is true, then it’s time to plan funeral services for ethics and integrity.  My guess is that it’s probably a combination of both; chances are there are other factors at work here, as well.

During the past few weeks, we’ve made appointments with representatives of three HVAC companies to provide proposals for a new furnace in our home.  One provided us with an estimate on the spot.  Another provided an estimate by the end of the business day.  The third promised an estimate by the end of the business day, and it never arrived.  When Alan called the company the next day (a Friday), he was told that the rep was out due to a family emergency and that we would receive the estimate on Monday.  After no proposal arrived on Monday, Alan called on Tuesday morning, and was told that the estimate would be provided on Wednesday – and it was.  But it included an estimate of only one of two options we had discussed and for which the rep agreed to provide a price.  Alan and I are not hard-hearted.  We both understand how family emergencies can impact our lives, and we truly empathize with the rep who was dealing with a death in his family.  All it would have taken was a quick call from the company office, letting us know that the rep would be out and the estimate would be delayed a week - we would have had absolutely no problem waiting.   But when the company failed to deliver on its promise – twice – our perception of its trustworthiness and customer service policies were negatively impacted.

We have purchased a number of sets of car, truck and trailer tires over the years from Tire Rack.  We order online, the tires arrive the next day and we schedule an appointment with one of the installers listed on Tire Rack’s website.  We just ordered tires for my Tahoe.  A local, family-owned company with an excellent reputation (and with whom we’ve done business in the past) is on the list of installers.  Their knowledge and experience allows them to command a higher price for their services.  We understand that, and have willingly paid for the excellent service they provide.   In this case, when I requested a quote for mounting and balancing my tires, I was given a price that didn’t agree with the prices posted on the Tire Rack website.  I asked if the price included their $40.00 fee to reset my TPMS system and was told it did.  When I informed the rep that I didn’t need that service (Alan has the required tool and does it himself), the rep said they “had to charge for it anyway.”  Seriously?  You’re going to charge us for a service we don’t need and you’re not going to perform?  Not on our watch.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.  Alan communicated the incident to Tire Rack simply to make them aware of what happened and point out that the information on their website was misleading.  The Tire Rack representative with whom he was chatting assured Alan that his concerns would be forwarded to Tire Rack’s installer liaisons for follow-up and a Tire Rack representative would report back.  Alan was optimistic that we would receive the promised reply.  Honestly, my cynical self didn’t believe a word of it.  Yet, by the end of the day, we had received an email from the Recommended Installer Program Coordinator at Tire Rack, informing us that he had spoken with the installer.  The installer promised the Program Coordinator that we would not be charged for the TPMS service if we didn’t require it.  Yay!  A victory for consumers!   But wait – there’s more.  In turn, the Program Coordinator promised us that, if the installer reneged on its promise, Tire Rack would reimburse us the TPMS service fee.  Imagine that!  A company that backs up its products and services!  It annoys me that I’m so surprised.

By that time, Alan and I had decided that we didn’t feel comfortable scheduling an appointment with the original installer.  Call me cynical, paranoid or whatever.  I didn’t want to pick up my Tahoe only to find that it had been keyed or damaged in some other way.  My fear may have been irrational, but the risk of retaliation was not one I was willing to take.  When we informed the Program Director of our decision to move on to another one of Tire Rack’s installers, he assured me that he understood and asked that I contact him if we had any issues with any other installer.  Beyond thanking the Program Coordinator profusely and promising to keep him posted, I can’t say enough good things about Tire Rack.  This company that has my back also has my business.

Do you remember the old "Meramec Caverns" barn billboards?

Here’s my final complaint - and you, my fellow campers, may be familiar with the culprit.  A few days ago, I was transferring a waterfront campsite reservation at our favorite lake to our son and daughter-in-law.  The reservation had been made on ReserveAmerica.  In the ReserveAmerica system, when you cancel a reservation, the site immediately becomes available in the park’s inventory.  So, if you need to cancel and you coordinate with someone else who wants the campsite, the other party can immediately pick up the reservation after you hit “cancel.”   We’ve done this in the past with friends and family members, and we’ve never had a problem with a transfer.  Until a few days ago.

When we talked about transferring the reservation, Ryan and Anya told me which dates they were going to pick up, and Anya gave me their debit card so that I could make the transfer early on a weekday morning when they’d be getting ready for work.  (We have a great relationship with our kids, and our daughter-in-law actually likes us.  Go figure.  We already had their user name and password for ReserveAmerica because we’ve made reservations for them in the past.)  So, around 6:00 a.m. one day last week, I signed in as Anya on my desktop computer and got ready to book the site.  I then signed in as me on my phone, and canceled my original reservation.  When the site came up for re-booking, I snagged the dates the kids wanted and entered their debit card information.  When I hit the button to confirm and process the payment, ReserveAmerica sent me a special message:  “We have encountered a problem.”  That’s it.  No information as to what the problem was or what I was supposed to do about it.  I had double-checked the debit card info before I hit “confirm,” and I couldn’t imagine what else could have been incorrect.  However, the screen was locked and there was nothing I could do.  When I tried to refresh the screen - poof! - no more reservation.  Since ReserveAmerica holds your reservation for 15 minutes while you provide the information required to process it, I figured that the site was going to pop up as available once the clock ran out on my 15 minutes.  I continued to refresh the availability map for almost 30 minutes and the site never appeared as available.  Waterfront sites at this particular campground are extremely difficult to snag, and the entire campground sells out regularly.  I really thought I’d lost their waterfront site and I was distraught with a capital D.  I didn’t want to take time out from refreshing the screen and checking availability of the site until I was sure the 15 minutes had expired because I was afraid someone else would grab it.  Finally, I went into the page on Anya’s account that listed her current reservations – and there it was.  The kids were good to go – and, apparently, had been for the past 15 minutes.  So, WHY did I get the message that ReserveAmerica had encountered a problem?  And why did they not tell me what the problem was and what to do to correct it?  If there was no problem, why did I get the alert at all?  Based on past experience with Booz Hamilton (the company that holds the contracts for both ReserveAmerica and Recreation.gov), it wouldn’t surprise me if nobody at ReserveAmerica knows what happened.  Or cares.

I know I said that was my final complaint, so I won’t even tell you about the cashier at a local diner who shoved our receipt in front of me and abruptly directed, “Sign the top copy.”  (Oops.  I just did.)  When I turned around to give Alan “a look,” she must have noticed because the “thank you” we received was exaggeratedly polite.  Oh, well.  As far as I’m concerned, customers shouldn’t need to raise their eyebrows in reference to rude service.  In case you’re wondering, yes, Alan had noticed her attitude, too.

Does everyone have a bad day once in a while?  Absolutely!  An occasional lack of excellent service can easily be attributed to short staffing, illness, trouble at home, or a business rush among other things.  But when the occasional turns into the consistent or management of a business makes it clear that customer service isn’t a top priority, we consider that a signal to move on and direct our dollars elsewhere.

Are there companies that get it right?  Yes, indeed!  Consider the afore-mentioned Tire Rack.   Based on our experiences with them, they’ve earned our loyalty.  We also include in this category Outdoors RV Manufacturing, the small company in La Grande, Oregon, that builds our brand of travel trailer.  From the minute I first emailed the company for information eight years ago and received a cheerful reply from Kevin to our most recent interaction with Dave in the Parts Department when we were attempting to find a rim for a second spare tire to match those on our rig, staff members at ORV have gone above and beyond the call of duty for us.  They stood behind their product when we had an issue, and Todd in the Service Department has been the source of all kinds of helpful information during the seven years we’ve owned the trailer.  Friendly, professional, helpful, welcoming and knowledgeable – ORV‘s exceptional staff consistently provides exceptional service.  Just last week, Alan and I bothered Todd, once again, and we received a prompt, informative and friendly reply.  If we decide to buy another travel trailer in the future, we agreed that we’d be hard-pressed to look beyond Outdoors RV.

Okay, I’ll get down off my soapbox now.  It’s usually pretty easy to push my buttons in reference to customer service, so I’m not going to promise that I won’t get back up there in the future.  My sincere gratitude and a big round of applause to all of the companies that get customer service right and, in the process, make happy campers out of customers.

 "To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity." – Don Alden Adams

A couple of days ago, when I was halfway through drafting this post, I picked up a voicemail message from Jen at our local electric company, telling me that the tenant at our rental house had requested the electric be turned off as of March 31st.  She asked that I call in to their customer service center which I did.  When I called, I was told that (1) I wasn’t authorized for access on the account (?!) and (2) there was no record of anyone calling me about the cancellation of service.  At that point, I asked to speak to a supervisor, and I waited on hold for 10 minutes before I hung up.  That afternoon, a letter arrived from the electric company detailing the same information Jen had provided on the voicemail.  So, I scrawled a note on that letter and dropped it back in the mail to the electric company.  Do you want to know what my note said?   It said that we sold that rental property three years ago, and they might want to contact the current owner.  It’s a good thing my Doc isn’t monitoring my blood pressure.  Then . . . Alan recently ordered a new tonneau cover, rails and racks for the truck.  They arrived in two packages delivered by Fed-Ex.  The tonneau cover was damaged, and the company provided Alan with two shipping labels because they wanted the entire order returned.  Alan called Fed-Ex and they picked up both packages two days ago.  Yesterday, as I was proofreading this post for publication, we received a delivery from Fed-Ex.  It was one of the packages they had picked up at our house the day before!  You can’t make this stuff up.  Or maybe you could, but I didn’t.