Within a space of 48 hours, I recently experienced two extremes of customer service.
At 7.15 am on a Sunday morning, I received a text and email from my bank. Thirty minutes after initial contact, they phoned me.
They were alerting me to the fact that three fraudulent payments were transferred out of my bank account overnight (that’s not a credit card, it's an actual bank account, which is way scarier!)
They asked me to complete a virus scan on my computer and iPhone, which I did and found nothing untoward. The bank said this was often the case, but a good idea to do the scan anyway, in case ‘something strange’ appeared.
The following day, my bank’s Fraud Department called me again to follow up and to make sure I understood what was going on. They spent time explaining the process, helped me set up a new login and password (which is now as long as my arm!), and changed my transfer limit (at my request).
They also told me they would be refunding the funds into my account, which could take until the end of the week. No problem. As soon as they got off the phone they followed up with an email which clarified everything we had discussed.
I was hugely impressed and they made me feel like they had everything under control.
During the same period of time, I emailed my IT people to ask for help with scanning my computer. I have excellent virus protection, but couldn’t find how to run a scan myself. Being a Sunday, and after a bit of investigation, I eventually found the correct icon to click on, ran the scan and everything was good.
The IT people called me back late morning on the Monday. I explained I no longer needed their help. It was a three-minute conversation.
The next day I received an invoice from the IT people. They charged me for 15 minutes work. After querying the amount, they were adamant that the invoice was justified.
It wasn’t for a very large amount, but large enough to make me feel really annoyed and a bit ripped off. After all, they took their time to get in touch with me… and when they did eventually call, they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
I paid their invoice and have since moved my business over to another IT company, which has given me amazing advice many times over the years and never charged me a bean (I would have happily paid for their support).
On another note, isn’t it amazing how we sometimes ‘get used to’ or simply ‘tolerate’ things...?!
The keys on my keyboard felt ‘sticky’ and my mouse really wasn’t working as well as it should. I’ve put up with both for such a long time. Like, a really long time.
Enough is enough, and inadvertently passing by a computer store one day, I treated myself to a new keyboard and mouse.
Wow! What a difference! My fingers now bounce when I type and my mouse is a smooth-operating dream!
The moral of my ‘rant’ is to say…
Never ever put up with poor service
Don’t be afraid to find a new provider when necessary
Tell your friends, family, and colleagues about awesome service when you receive it
Don’t put up with substandard equipment
Treat yourself once in a while (you deserve it!), and…
Regularly change the password for your online banking.
