Overall, I enjoy the work that I do in public relations, but there is one part of my job that I dread — and that’s relating to the public.
Um… wait. That’s not exactly right. (But it would be deliciously ironic.)
The call, in several intertwined variants
There is a very specific category of public interactions that rakes my soul with its fiery talons: dealing with customers who have had bad experiences with customer service.
Maybe you’ve had the pleasure of dealing with this situation. If not, feel free to imagine.
Your cell phone rings — it’s Sunday morning, it’s the middle of the night, it’s the middle of a family event, it’s some form of personal time, you’re in the middle of the road in heavy 75 mph traffic or in a snow storm — but you have to answer the phone. It could be a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. It could be the babysitter. It could be urgent.
Unknown number. As soon as you answer, a stream of invective pours through the phone and fills your ear, gushing bilious accusations and threats. Someone seems to have had a bad experience with your company and is threatening to call the media, his attorney, the Better Business Bureau, all his friends and his mom. Or your mom. That part’s not clear. There’s always one part of the story that’s not clear.
The only consistent part of the story is that the customer service agents were rude and hung up on him. (And yes, it’s almost always him, and they always hang up on him. Twice. Three times!)
So you take down his name, contact information and details of the problem, which takes about two and a half minutes, including phonetic spelling (Sierra. Mike. India. Tango… um… Hockey? Hotel? Just one H. Underscore. One. Niner. At…) then spend the next twenty minutes apologizing over and over again and trying to get him off the phone so you can actually try to find someone who can do something about the situation. He claims he wants speedy resolution, but more than anything, he wants to vent his spleen.
Venting complete, he demands that you resolve his issue on some ridiculously tight deadline that you can’t commit to because the call center (hundreds of miles away in another state) is closed until sometime after the deadline and the escalations supervisor probably won’t respond to calls and e-mails until the office opens. Then he keeps calling back to harangue you for not solving his problem in a timely manner. More time spent apologizing….
I’ll stop there. If you’ve been through it, you know how it goes.
Why do I get these calls? I have nothing to do with customer service, but my name is on the corporate web site. Sometimes, I’m the only human being listed on the web site, and that is perhaps one of the root causes of the problem. These people just want to be acknowledged and treated with respect.
The dread, in its several incarnations
I dread getting these calls because I empathize. I know what it’s like to be treated poorly by some faceless corporation. We’ve all been there. I’ll do what I can to address the situation.
I also dread consumer complaints because I’m powerless to make any real change. I can make a few calls, send a few e-mails and nag the customer service team to resolve the issue in a timely manner, but ultimately I have no ability to fix the problem. I’m just the PR guy. But I’ll do everything I can to get someone to help you.
Finally, I dread consumer complaint calls when I’m aware of the problem but we haven’t fixed it yet. I know that we’ll do the right thing and I’m sorry we haven’t done it yet.
So, sir, whoever you are… I’m sorry. Now let me get off the phone so I can help you. Please.
Well said. I’m the only “real” phone number listed on the web site for one of my clients, right next to the words “For media inquiries ONLY.” Yet I field multiple calls from people who have nothing to do with the media every day.
It’s frustrating, to be sure, but like you I’m empathetic. Just this week I was on hold with someone for 45 minutes, and my problem has still not been resolved. I understand the desperation, and the need to find a kind person who will at least make an effort to help me.
Great post Glen! It is a situation most PR people can emphasize with. I think it speaks to the desperate need for people to speak to human voices. Corporations have outsourced the human touch, which is why sites like Get Human are launched.
In the future, I hope there is a greater alignment between marketing and customer service. We always hear about the gap between sales and marketing, but not enough about the gap between PR and customer service.
Cori, isn’t it sad that you have to find a person kind enough to make the effort? And how wasteful is it that you have to stop doing your job (at whatever rate you’re billing) to help out customers, when there’s typically a whole department dedicated to that purpose?
(As I was writing this comment, I received a first follow-up question on an issue I escalated six days ago. They’re asking for something that I put in the original e-mail.)
Elaine, I didn’t know about GetHuman.com. That’s awesome. I even found a phone number I didn’t know about for one of the companies I represent. Thank you.
Incidentally, Josh Bernoff has started blogging about How To Be A Human on the forrester blog: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/how_to_be_a_human/
I just did this to the PR guy at my payroll company. But, I didn’t call him. I hate talking on the phone. I sent him an email, letting him know that I knew it wasn’t his job, but I knew if I contacted PR, it would be escalated to the right person at the company.
I didn’t want a call back, but someone called me, anyway.
So, sorry, all you PR people out there. I wish that the call centers did a better job, so your lives would be easier.
Julie, I’d much rather get an e-mail with all the details, because then I can forward it to several people, track who has opened it for follow-up purposes, etc. But I understand that people want to rant when they have to deal with (or perceive) poor customer service.
Great post Glen. Reasonable people would likely go through the proper channels to get their questions answered. However, some websites and product packaging seem to be designed to obscure a company’s contact details. Or, they might be designed to funnel the contact to the company’s (as opposed to the customer’s) most preferred form of communication.
It’s no wonder that calls end up in the laps of the only-findable person. I like how you handle these issues. IMO, it leaves the most positive impression in the consumer’s mind. In most cases, people just want to be heard.
When I write product communications, I like to put myself in the mindset of my 80 year old pops. “How can I make this really accessible to the least tech-savvy and most-unassuming person.”
I don’t think it’s unreasonable people, Swish. It’s frustrated people. Because, as you point out, they want to funnel contact to their preferred channel, not the customer’s.