Lansing Small Biz Customer Service Rants

March 25, 2009 by jford
Filed under: Uncategorized

Note: This is not a normal post on how search engines impact small business.

Okay, we are in a recession, right. So someone tell me if I am off my rocker in being miffed by the lack of customer service and process I am seeing, and how there is opportunity here to make supposed money in this economic environment.

Situation 1: I receive a direct mail piece from Case Credit Union saying I am qualified to re-finance my truck, which is through them. Now, I completely realize that this does not automatically mean that I will be able to refinance it, and that I will get a lower rate/monthly payment. I figure I give it a shot. I call, and of course get lost in the phone directory, and have to hang up and call back. Once I finally reach someone, I talk to a very nice customer service lady. She takes my information, and of course we get to the credit check situation. Spare some details, we go through my information and she states she is going to go to underwriting on it. Now, this while process goes about 40 minutes on the phone. I now have some time invested in this. I realize I may not qualify for the re-fi, but figure it’s worth the shot. She does not give me a time when I will get a decision, but we end our call. That was Thursday. It’s now Wednesday AM. No call. What is wrong with this picture???

Situation 2 Hot tub repair. We bought our house in July of 2007. It came with a hot tub, and we enjoy it. Within the last month, it has started leaking into my deck. I understand the hot tub is coming of age, and this is normal. I figure I can tear it apart and investigate, OR given the disaster that that would develop from me trying to do that, I will just call and have someone come out and look at it. I understand this is going to cost money. I try searching on some keywords and actually really have a tough time finding someone to call. I finally find a firm, Hot Water Works. Very nice website, good verbiage regarding their service. I am convinced. I call. First, the guy can’t take my call because he is “upstairs”, so I need to call him back. I understand that, ourphones here can be odd as well. (thank you Comcast). So I call back. To paraphrase the conversation, Nope, I don’t know the model, OK, sounds like the pump. My question: How much to come out - Answer - $95. OK, I guess I can do that. They need me at the house when the guy comes, etc. He shouts over to someone next to him about going out to Mason that day, muffled response on background, and then he tells me that he will figure out a time and call me back. It is not the next day. No call.

Getting impatient, I do more searching yesterday afternoon, find Dietz Pool, which is a well-respected pooland spa supply company in Mid Michigan. I call, talk to a more friendly person. He says he will get with a service person and call me back. No call.

My hot tub continues to leak and ruin the deck wood. I will continue to make payments on a truck that has become an awful money pit. In the grand scheme of life, these are tiny issues. That is not the point. The point is that there are 3 examples of situations where I have MONEY TO SPEND IN THIS ECONOMY. And the response I get it is…… crickets.

Situation 4: This is less a service issue, and more a courtesy and a truer reflection of these times. Last week, I was leaving the IT Council meeting when my 2004 Chevy Silverado with 121,900 miles makes an exploding sound, and will NOT go forward in drive. I can go in reverse, I can limp it in the first gear. And I do all the way to Shaheen Chevrolet, which out of probably bad, lazy habit we tend to go to for all of our cars repair. I am sure this has cost of thousands of extra dollars over the last 6 years, but that is another story for another day. Regardless, the service there was good, my tech manager was receptive to my pain of my truck dying, etc.

The only concern I had was this: Shaheen’s courtesy car gave me a ride to Enterprise rental car around the corner. A very nice lady helped me with my car an paperwork, and away I went. Got the terrible call later that afternoon that a sprocket in the truck’s transmission had to be rebuilt, and it was going to be between 1700-2000 dollars, (of course with labor discount - yeah good one)

The next day, Shaheen got the truck done on time, which was great, and I went to turn in the rental car. $67. For some reason, I was under the impression that Shaheen was going to pick this up. Cough - $1854 of work had just been done, do you think there were going to pick up the $67 tab for the rental car. Rental car lady calls dealership to verify. Ah, no. ”Customer pay, and he should know that” Why would they. Why would they do that for a loyal customer that has always gone to that dealership for repair and service. I can only imagine in a better economy that this would have been covered. As a result, I will be looking for a new oil change place for both our vehicles, not to mention repair service.

Situation 5: Over the Christmas break we had some nasty wind at our house, and lost some shingles. I wasn’t sure if this meant replacing the section of the roof, the whole roof, etc. First call was to my MEEMIC insurance agent, Winston Insurance in East Lansing, which of course just simply gave me the 1800 MEEMIC number. (I really think I should be an insurance agent) Anyways, I did the normal phone chain battle and got connected with a MEEMIC claims rep. She gave me the instructions - pictures, two quotes, $500 deductible, etc, and her contact information. Having never filed a claim before, this was all new to me.

Well, did some Google searching and found Exteriors of Lansing. Got connected with a very nice lady there. She was to come out and do an estimate — the problem was the weather. We had a good deal of snow, and she wasn’t actually able to see the damage. I held off on getting a second roofing firm lined up until the weather cleared. Finally she was able to come out a month later as the snow cleared. Didn’t need a new roof, but could just replace it. The cost really was barely above the deductible. Got a secondary quote. Went back to the MEEMIC claim rep, had to push her a bit to get a response, but within 3 business days she got back to me. All got approved, and Exteriors came out to do the work. Check from MEEMIC came quickly. Good customer service, good story.

A week later, we got another horrible wind storm. I lost more shingles in the same problem area, including some of the newly patched ones. Some of the other shingles we flapping in the wind. Called Exteriors. ”No problem, we will come back out and take a look” I thought, cool. That day when I got home, I when to look, and I couldn’t really tell what had been done. It appeared that the shingles had just been patted down, and I wasn’t sure if this was just them settling after the wind, or if they had actually came out. Given the forthcoming rain forecast, I was concerned. Called Exteriors next morning. My contact was not in, but the lady transferred me to the service coorindator. He has not heard anything of this, and it wasn’t in his records or job schedule. Okay? Takes down my information, says they will take a look, doesn’t give a time frame. Concerned, I call back later in the afternoon. Relay the story to the another person, and she says: “Yes, they were out yesterday, I overheard them talking about it this morning” WTF? So I ask if my original contact is in, not until tomorrow morning is the response. At this point, I am very confused.

Next day call, talk to my original contact. She says they will send someone back out. (?) That evening, check on the roof, and the whole section up to the peak was replaced. Now, that is good for me. And I commend Exteriors of Lansing in their work. But I don’t know if I would recommend them due to the massive confusion. The lesson here is process in customer service. Couldn’t all of this confusion have been avoided? You would think there would have been more a process in place to take my call, answer my questions, and let me know what was going on. AND at the very least a follow up phone to say that the work had been done, thank you again for your business.

I know, with absolute certainty, where all of our clients at Netvantage Marketing stand. Sometimes our clients are confused about results and reports, but we immediately get them on the phone to address those needs. They are NEVER left in the dark. Granted, we are in a position where they aren’t bringing us a broken truck. But, if a client calls or emails, we call back right away. A client called my cell phone last Friday night at 7:30. I answered. Same client texted me at 1:30 on Saturday with a question. I answered immediately. And of course you can imagine that if someone calls looking for assistance with SEO or search engine marketing, we immediately respond and get them their information within 24 business hours. If we wrap up an engagement with a client or one of our web design partners, we always follow up with a thank you.

I don’t have my MBA in customer service, but I think as a relatively new small business owner I am paying more attention to how other small businesses handle their clients and prospects. And in this “recession” I am confused how a business would just leave money or client satisfaction on the table. Please respond to this and tell me if my expectations are too high, or misguided. Again, in this recession,,,,,

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