Your Dollar Has POWER! (Make the Most out of it!)
Big game companies NEED to STOP ripping their customers off!
Source:
Listen big guys, you need to start treating your customers better or you're going to fail eventually... and to everyone out there who is spending money on services, give this a read. It's time we start holding service providers accountable!
You know how here on Steemit, you upvote something you like thus giving value to the content you're supporting?
Would you upvote something you didn't like? Probably not...
So, in the real world, why do we give money to the businesses/companies/service providers that aren't deserving of our support?
I know times are changing and long gone are the days of "the customer is always right" service sector but oh my goodness! Business owners, you have GOT to change up your policies and stop treating your customers like robotic, walking dollar signs!
So, let's stereotype a persona for this case study: you've collected a couple of million and now your business is high rollin', that's great news! People are flocking to use your services and you barely even have to try anymore because the ball is rolling for you!
That's great! You've "succeeded"! The world is all the more happier with your product/service on offering. You've brought something into the world that everyone wants or needs. (Wow, that's kind of a lot of responsibility...)
But wait, you don't get to just sit back now and reap benefits from people if you're not deserving! That would be ludicrous! Just because you OFFER something people want doesn't mean you're off the hook. Now you have to DELIVER. There comes the tricky part.
In the past couple of months I have run into some pretty big problems with some companies leading me to start this series.
If you know me, you'll easily see, I am a kind-hearted, loving soul who tends to prefer forgiveness and understanding over anger and viral attacks but, let me take my time here to detail a few of these experiences to further explain my position without defaming any particular company in the process.
I'll keep it classy for ya big guys and not expose ya, but take the advice to heart!
Airlines:
OH yes, let's just clump them together because at least over on this side of the world, they are top-notch at being a let down and will milk every extra penny they can in the process!
Real world example:
I stumble out of the car, wiping my tired eyes. I begin wheeling myself into the airport frazzled and emotional, spilling my luggage onto the scale, preparing myself for a last minute flight to Thailand to collect my father from an interrupted flight that was supposed to be going back to my home, in Bali. Turns out planes don't so much fly when volcanoes are going off!
The woman at the desk takes my passport and quickly demands that I show her my departure ticket.
"But ma'am, I don't have a departure ticket because I don't know when I am going to be able to fly into Bali with the volcano disrupting the flights and I already LOST A WHOLE TICKET'S WORTH because of this." (Oh more on that later, I promise!)
...
With gritted teeth, she looks down at me and confidently and aggressively she proceeds to strong-arm me into buying a ticket then and there before I can board the aircraft despite my desperate pleading.
I think I am being clever, knowing I won't be able to get a refund for any Asian budget airline without a huge hassle and I proceed to book a flight on a European airline offering a 4 hour free of charge refund policy.
Magically, misses at the counter can now with the glance of my confirmation ticket, allow me to go to the gates.
OK, that wasn't ideal but now, I'm set to go get on my flight. Sure, it's a $700 flight, but I can get a refund, so it's no problem... just keep swimming...
Got through security, quickly forward that confirmation to my family, waiting at a computer to help me initiate the refund. Get it processed immediately (within an hour) so, all should be good. No problem right? Wooo. Carrying on.
Well, I get on my plane and stop at my layover, I am sitting at the airport pondering all of the chaos that just occurred at the counter whenever I realize it's time for me to board my next flight.
Nuh-uhn-uhn honey, not so fast.
My gate is empty. What?
Oh hey! Your flight has been canceled (we didn't say anything right away but, surprise!) Have a seat and wait for another almost 7 hours before we can get something going for you.
But airline, I had plans to be somewhere 7 hours prior, that is not in any way acceptable!
That's really too bad, there's nothing we can do. Absolutely nothing. Stop asking. Nothing. Here is your courtesy $20 voucher to go get a meal while you wait.
But, it's Australia, airline. What am I going to be able to buy with $20? More importantly, how does $20 qualify as an exchange for 7 hours, the minimum wage in Australia is like $17...
Ma'am, there's nothing we can do. Your flight will leave at the new time. Take it up with insurance.
Well, that's just dandy. But, you know what, everything is OK.
Well isn't that next plane also delayed!
Then isn't the baggage delayed!
All the while, the airline employees were just hunkey-dorey, no problem here at all!
What is going on in this world?
Airline, you make a commitment to your customers when you offer a flight and they accept it. It doesn't seem right for you to be able to change your mind about following through with that when people are stranded from places they are needing to go?
What Happened Next:
On December 5, 2017, promptly after rush-purchasing a ticket at the checkin counter (under duress) I had it canceled within 1 hour of purchase. The airline offered a 4 hour window for refund so, I was assured it would be taken care of.
However (here's the catch) they would be charging a 20€ fee for processing. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME RIGHT?
You know what, it's OK, sure, whatever you need to do airline just get the $700 back on my credit card, please.
OK, ma'am, that'll be up to 30 days to process.
WHAAAAT? I literally canceled it immediately after booking it? Why can't you just stop the transaction?
We can't do that ma'am, just wait, it'll come through within 30 days.
Fast forward to now:
STILL NO REFUND! PS it's past 30 days.
I have called in 5 times, been refused every time to be transfered to anyone higher.
Each mechanical sounding voice I have spoken to has promised my refund is being processed.
Even when I explain how credit cards work and how now it's been on my card for a billing cycle and I am being charged a huge percent interest rate... they tell me to be patient.
(I am not sure how I am supposed to be patient when they are not processing something they said they would over a month ago, costing me money?)
So, whoops, this turned into a rant!
You know me, I don't like to be a negative Nancy but, I REALLY want to draw attention to how bad customer service is starting to become!
How can a company offer something and then get away with not providing on that?
Are you ready? This is where we get more into the gal you know and love ;)
Can we all stand together and try to make these companies accountable to us, as customers?
We're the ones paying for a service that we're not receiving!
We're the ones being inconvenienced and pushed around!
We can change this!
WE CAN DO BETTER!
Our money is like a vote, what we choose to purchase says if we are OK with something or not. This is a huge power we have that we're not taking seriously!
If you own a business, take this from me. I co-own a registered NPO in the USA (somethin' ya didn't know about me!) I studied organizational business and communication in university. I have a specialization in my field and I found that through those studies, one thing is particularly important when operating: YOUR CUSTOMERS!
If you don't have happy customers, you won't get paid. The end. That's the math.
Happy, satisfied customers are:
- more likely to continue to use your services
- more likely to recommend your services to friends/family
- more likely to join promotional or privilege services/offerings
- more likely to positively empower you on social media sites
- let's get to the point, CREATE YOU MORE REVENUE!!!
To me it's not rocket science. It's just being authentic.
Customers are resilient, they can be understanding and loyal regardless. We know in the case of airlines sometimes things don't go as planned but it's how you manage that.
Can you get your customers on another flight?
Do you offer them a re-route?
Do you offer a travel voucher?
Giving an option when something goes wrong is HUGE! People would be much more understanding in that case. Having them stranded and just saying tough luck, here's a sandwich. Well, not so happy customers, me thinks.
OKAY! Game time!
You tell me Steemians!
If you're an owner of a business, what would you do? What are your thoughts and policies regarding the welfare of your customers?
If you're a customer, what would you like to see from the service providers you use?
Sending you love as always,
XO,
I love what you're doing here!
We all have a say in what we want to patronize. We don't patronize bad content... The way companies or organisations treat customers is crucial to community growth. Let's all do something about this!
Awesome post ma'am
Hi @bash11 :) Thank you! We need to stand together on this and try to get changes happening! Examples like this really shouldn't be common place, but they are. We just have to take a stand and say we won't take it anymore. I'm happy to hear I've got someone else who feels the same! =D
My day job is as a business analyst, and improving customer experiences is what my role focuses on. There's so much red tape I want to cut, the problem with large organisations is that they are not agile enough to adapt to consumer's desires.
If they don't adapt, they'll die, and be replaced by other, better, more mutable and adaptable systems. If it was a blockchain purcahse for your ticket, at least the refund or transaction for it wouldn't take long.
I'd wager that they haven't even processed it. I'd be requesting that as they missed their lead time on the refund, they pay you the interest on your card (after you of course, provide them with documentation) - I think that's reasonable. :)
Hey @holoz0r :) I totally understand that the inner systems are warped and actually leave tons of room for stuff like this to happen with little room to do anything about it but I really hope we can stand together and insist upon changing that.
With the airline, I called in multiple times, waited on hold (paid for these calls because I live abroad and had to use Skype credit) and it was just a nightmare. )
I hope that everything ends up on the blockchain at some point but until then, I hope that people will start thinking about who they give their money to so we can take control of what's going on in this world.
You're right on the money. I am dealing with the complaints department now (guess what? They informed me it'll take up to 30 more days to look into my case)... it's a joke but, I'm not playing ball this time. I'm going to see what I can do to fix things, hopefully there's some red tape for me to cut through ;)
Use a chainsaw to cut that tape, not scissors!
Awww good call my friend! I bet you it will be much more effective! ;) <3
None of this surprises me in the slightest. These companies not only want to get bigger by all costs, they HAVE to otherwise their stocks will drop. That’s why I always support local business wherever I can. The people you deal with don’t have to answer to anyone and you can know exactly who and what you are dealing with and treat each other like humans.
In big companies, problems are basically just passed around so the blame is like a hot potato, when really the blame is no ones because sometimes these things just happen, but the company always secures itself as an entity, meaning it’s profits will be safe, while letting its employees and customers take the slack for them.
Still we can say that everyone’s to blame for supporting the biggest monster companies so religiously in the first place. How many times have I seen people choose Starbucks over a local cafe for no reason other than the fact that “Starbucks is Starbucks”, or complain about how unhealthy McDonald’s is while eating McDonald’s cause it’s “convenient”.
Oh, I am 100% on board with you there! I live in Bali and almost everything I buy comes from local initiatives that I support... I wish I could say the same for my plane tickets. It's so important in how things are going to support those small mom and pop shops, the local farmer's market, the entrepreneurs that are working out of their bedrooms. I love supporting locally.
You're so right about the blame game too! The employees of big corps often don't have enough permission or authority to even handle customer complaints or unrest so it does become a big game of having the customer suffer and wait, while no one wants to handle it. It's becoming worse and worse I'm afraid.
Funny that you say that about Starbucks. My father is visiting me here in Bali, where he could get a lovely cup of fresh Indonesian beans anywhere, yet every day, he drives 10 minutes out of the way to get a Starbucks because he wants what he knows and he says it's better to get more (large cup) than an organic, locally produced, quality cup. I just don't even bother anymore...
I really hope we can start to make changes and you know it does come from people like you who are making that conscious decision with their dollars so, high five @whatamidoing, thank you for this inspiration :)
Many yeas ago, before cellphone usage was ubiquitous, I worked for a vendor that handled customer servive overflow for AT&T. We were essentially customer service for companies who couldn't handle their call volume. But here's the kicker, we only had a fraction of the authority to do anything that an actual AT&T CSR had. So if you had a problem, you were overcharged, etc, it was our job to just make you eat it. That's literally the term that management used in our training.
Please don't judge me too harshly for working this job, I was very young, came from a very poor family and had no support, uneducated, and with no marketable skills. I needed the money, and I didn't stay there once I found something else that paid a survivable wage.
Anyway, the customers didn't actually know that they weren't speaking to AT&T employees. One day a lady called in with a shakey voice, noticeably upset. She had just moved into her new home and had scheduled her phone service to be transferred from her old address on the day that she was moving in (AT&T actually benefits from this, they don't have to prorate your account for any service interruption). So I pull up her service order and it's scheduled exactly one week later. When scheduling these service transfers the AT&T employee simply clicks a date on a calander in their service system, so obviously whoever scheduled the transfer accidentally clicked just under the date that was requested, which if you look on a calender will be exactly one week later. It was obvious, the CSR screwed up, AT&T should make it right, right? Nope, it's our job to make the customer eat it. All it would take is for me to call her local AT&T dispatch office and ask them to have one of their technicians go out to her house and connect the service. But nope, I'm not given that authority by AT&T because... reasons, I guess.
So I tell this lady that there's nothing I can do that she'll just have to wait a week for her service. Now here's where it gets bad, quit reading now if you don't want to get upset. Okay, she tells me that she needs the service right now because she has relatives and friends coming into town for her little girl's funeral and they'll be calling for directions (This was years back, not everyone had cell phones, remember?). I tell her to hang on, I'm going to get someone with more authority. I put her on hold, get up from my desk, and track down someone with enough authority to talk to AT&T. This is a vilolation of protocol and I might get fired, but screw it, they don't pay me enough to screw over a grieving mother. I get the person in charge, they're upset with me and give me a good talking to and tell me to just tell the customer to go back to her previous residence, that the service will still be on until the transfer. He then tells me that I he'll have to decide on my employment status at the end of the work day.
Okay, so I get back on the phone with this lady after having made her wait for almost a half hour because me getting a talking to was more important than getting back to the customer. I ask if she's able to go back to her old residence to use the phone. This is where I nearly break down, I still shake when I think about it. She starts quietly crying, the kind of quiet crying that you do when you don't have the energy left to sob your eyes out. She tells me that she can't go back there, her little daughter had accidentally pulled a large, unsturdy piece of furniture onto herself in the living room and the floor still had large bloodstain from where she died. That's it, I can't just sit there and do nothing. We had access, albeit limited, to AT&T's intranet. I find the local dispatch office's direct number. I call them and tell them the situation. So this is where they remember that they're human and disregard the violation of protocol and do the right thing and help this woman, right? Nope, this is where they tell me that they want to talk to my manager, I tell them to hold so I can go get the manager. I don't get the manager, I tell the grieving mother that I'm about to transfer her to her local AT&T dispatcher and that they definitely do have the power and the resources to get her service turned on and not to take no for an answer. I transfer the call. I hope that dispatcher did the right thing. I'll never know. All I know is that they reporte me and somehow, someone upstairs must've still had some humanity in them because I didn't get fired. I'd rather communicate with smoke signals than ever give AT&T my business.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I have read this 3 times and still don't know how to respond.
How incredibly awful for you to have to experience that... I am so sorry and I am haunted by your superiors' behaviours. It just makes me ill with no rationale.
I want to give you a good person award for doing what you did and honestly, to get a little bit spiritual, I bet you didn't end up losing your job because what you did was definitely the right thing to do and I think you're incredible for putting yourself at risk like that. So many people get so brainwashed by the rules that they can't step out of them for any situation.
You're the exception :) That makes me feel really joyful despite how horrible this situation was. The fact that you came out a shining light and helped that poor woman is a win to me <3
On another note SCREW AT&T! That is just the most disgusting thing I have ever heard. Where can we post this? This needs to go viral so no one ever uses them again good grief.
Good lord, you are so right. Every dollar is a vote and people need to wake up to that fact. Support better companies and take more actions to build us a better world. So sad that you had to go through all the misery of flying. The negative side of traveling much :D
Yes of course! I wish we would all just be able to see that and take responsibility for our votes! That's what they are but we don't even see that so we just keep accepting and allowing this kind of thing to go on. I really want to change that. If we were all more cognizant of what we purchased, we could really change things up. Companies would have to cater to demand. These are just my hopes for a better future for us all ;) <3 Thanks for entertaining me! XO
Exactly, it should always be in the back of our heads. But it's so easy to forget and sometimes really hard to find a decent option. I think that a lot will change soon since the world is becoming more awake about all the problems our earth is facing so companies are forced to change soon.
Let's hope so! We definitely need change! I think Steemit is a good example of systems we're moving forward to. Instead of staying loyal to social media sites that don't offer any benefit to us. we're moving over to a more valuable and rewarding system. I'm excited for the changes to come and I'm hopeful :) <3
I'm also really excited. And it's good to be here early so you get to know the platform and already have established yourseld when it booms :)
Just in the time I've been here, it's been an incredible 'boom', so I have huge hopes for the future here :) Yay! Steemon <3
my definition of a dollar is a cheeseburger.
thank you, McDonalds.
all right
Wao your information very useful
or we will repeat what we just did last time and some how there was no public outcry. That was they treat customers like crap, do bad things and when the shit hits the fan our government bails them out with guess what. More of our money and then they all retire happy wealthy lives.
Ugh no, I hope not... :/ Let's try something else where the companies are held accountable for their crap and we all stand up and say we deserve better (because we do!)
vote with your dollars:) great post
Thank you :) I really hope it inspired some thinking about this so best case scenario we can make a small change - seems to have so I'm happy :)