There have been many stories here over the years related to customer service. The Internet offers the potential for businesses, schools, governments, and hospitals to offer unparalleled customer service. More and more are doing so but there is a long way to go. When I wrote Net Attitude during the summer of 2001 I thought by now things would be different. This story will summarize two cases — one great and one much less than great.
In order to end on a high note, I’ll start with the not so great customer service from Symantec. Symantec is a great company and their technology protects millions of consumers and businesses daily with their anti-virus and firewall technologies. I use the Symantec Internet Security on some computers but on one of them I decided to try something different primarily because I find the renewal process tedious — where it could be a mouse click or two, it turns out every year to be long chats with call centers to get a renewal. When the renewal charge showed up as an American Express card transaction I called the 877 number on the transaction. I got a recording saying to call a different number. I called that number and got a recording saying the number was no longer in use and that I should visit us.norton.com/support. I went to that link where it said I could get help with subscriptions, product activation, product download, returns, or rebates. Clicking on subscriptions took me to a customer service page with the same set of choices as the prior page. None of the choices were what I needed so I clicked on "contact us" which showed me option for "Instant Online Chat". I clicked "Chat Now" and then was asked to go through a set of steps to install Microsoft ActiveX technology, which I consider to be close to a virus. The Symantec support structure only works with the Internet Explorer browser, which I do not use. Being a consumer oriented company I am surprised Symantec would impose IE on people when the current browser statistics show that Firefox, Netscape, Safari, and Opera have reached 43% market share. I am sure one of Symantec’s challenges is to get people to use their website instead of calling. Making the browser choice for consumers is not a good way to achieve that.
On the flip side of the coin is Amazon.The company started with a vision of great customer service a dozen years ago and continues to get better. A few months ago I bought a Linksys “Wireless-N Gigabit Security Router with VPN” from Amazon. After using it for awhile it became clear that it had a defect. I confirmed this with Linksys technical support. They said they could send me a reconditioned replacement or I could return the unit to the retailer. I chose the latter and followed the simple process online at Amazon’s customer service page. The Amazon "Your Account" page has just about everything you can imagine — return items, combine orders, track or cancel orders, and even change the payment method for an existing order. All of these functions are intuitive and easy to use. I chose "Return an item" and then was asked if it was a gift or if I had ordered it. I was then shown a list of all my orders (they can show you online order history going back more than ten years). Next was a selection of why the item was being returned. It was clear they are using artificial intelligence to then ask questions and take actions based on your responses. When I said the item was defective, an apology was presented, and with a mouse click a shipping label was ready to print, and they automatically notified UPS to pick up the package.
A confirming email asked if I was satisfied and I had to say no because I didn’t want to send the router back until I received a new one. When I clicked on "no" in the email a web page showed various options for resolving my concern, one of which was "Click here to speak to a real person". I clicked the button and 1 second later my phone rang. I told the person my concern and he completely understood and communicated to me in a clear and helpful way. He immediately put the UPS pickup on hold and placed an order for a replacement router for overnight delivery. "Is there anything else I can do for you?". What could I say other than thanks. Amazon made just shy of $1 billion in profit last year. Sales were over $13 billion. Is it any wonder? The company has made a huge investment in customer service and has always made this a priority. They were criticized for not becoming profitable soon enough. Now the company is valued at just shy of $40 billion. Many companies talk about customer service but Amazon really delivers on it.
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