Customer Disservice
Robert Rouse
October 24, 2005
*frusˇtraˇtion (frü-strā'shәn)
n.
1. The condition that results when an impulse or an action is thwarted by an external or an internal force.
2. The blocking or thwarting of an impulse, purpose, or action.
The easiest way for a corporation to frustrate their customer base is by not caring enough to speak with their customers.
I run into this problem sometimes when attempting to contact a company by telephone.
"For Spanish, push 1"
After this, there is a potpourri of choices. If you're lucky, one of the choices will be "to speak to a customer service representative press [insert number here]." However, many companies today are so sure that your problem can be answered by one of the other options, they've completely removed human beings from the equation . . . or so they think. They forget that the person calling isn't just an account number which can be entered, they're also a human being who may just have a question that can't be answered by pushing a button.
What has happened to customer service? Are we so inconsequential that we no longer matter? Is this a bad turn in the development of human interaction? Questions continued to pop into mind as I continued my search for a human being on a call to my cable company (or any other entity out there with menu assistance).
I suppose I should expect this sort of treatment, after all, I'm only a lowly voter. I'm not a source of money for lobbyists and congressmen. After all, it is the corporations that have the ear of the government and these same corporations know that congress isn't about to screw with them. They get the big tax breaks, they get to outsource jobs to other countries, and they get all the judgments against people like me in the court system.
However, I have found their weakness. If you cannot get in touch with a living breathing person, push the button that corresponds with the option of "if you wish to discontinue your service." For some odd reason, in most cases, a real human being will suddenly appear on the other end to talk you out of stopping the flow of your dollars into their coffers.
Oh, I'm sorry, I must have pushed the wrong button, I was looking to speak to an account representative.
Sometimes they don't know what to say, so you must SLOWLY talk them through to what you want. After all, their cheat sheet doesn't usually have information on how to reschedule a service call.
definition
from Dictionary.com
n.
1. The condition that results when an impulse or an action is thwarted by an external or an internal force.
2. The blocking or thwarting of an impulse, purpose, or action.
The easiest way for a corporation to frustrate their customer base is by not caring enough to speak with their customers.
I run into this problem sometimes when attempting to contact a company by telephone.
"For Spanish, push 1"
After this, there is a potpourri of choices. If you're lucky, one of the choices will be "to speak to a customer service representative press [insert number here]." However, many companies today are so sure that your problem can be answered by one of the other options, they've completely removed human beings from the equation . . . or so they think. They forget that the person calling isn't just an account number which can be entered, they're also a human being who may just have a question that can't be answered by pushing a button.
What has happened to customer service? Are we so inconsequential that we no longer matter? Is this a bad turn in the development of human interaction? Questions continued to pop into mind as I continued my search for a human being on a call to my cable company (or any other entity out there with menu assistance).
I suppose I should expect this sort of treatment, after all, I'm only a lowly voter. I'm not a source of money for lobbyists and congressmen. After all, it is the corporations that have the ear of the government and these same corporations know that congress isn't about to screw with them. They get the big tax breaks, they get to outsource jobs to other countries, and they get all the judgments against people like me in the court system.
However, I have found their weakness. If you cannot get in touch with a living breathing person, push the button that corresponds with the option of "if you wish to discontinue your service." For some odd reason, in most cases, a real human being will suddenly appear on the other end to talk you out of stopping the flow of your dollars into their coffers.
Oh, I'm sorry, I must have pushed the wrong button, I was looking to speak to an account representative.
Sometimes they don't know what to say, so you must SLOWLY talk them through to what you want. After all, their cheat sheet doesn't usually have information on how to reschedule a service call.
definition
from Dictionary.com
Print
Email
