Freelance Writing Blog

Finding Expert Sources

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What’s on the iPod: More Than a Feeling by Boston Yesterday was one of those days where I thought I’d get so much work done. I had plans. I was marketing. I was writing. I was lining up sources for an article. Instead, I lined up pillows on the bed and took a long nap….

Wedding Redux

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What’s on the iPod: Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison Over. The weddings are now part of our immediate past, and the house is slowly returning to normal. The second wedding occurred on a beautiful Midsommar day and involved all the pageantry and color befitting Midsommar (or Midsummer, depending on your preference). Appropriate, since our groom (my…

Writing Banging Queries

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What’s on the iPod: Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore It’s a week off for me. Not intentionally, but the projects were finished early and others that were supposed to show up didn’t, so I get some much-needed time to myself. This house is cleaner than it’s been in years, and today is the day the…

Picture Perfect

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What’s on the iPod: Everything by Michael Bublé Meet my daughter and new son-in-law. On a picture-perfect day in an oak grove in Lancaster, PA, these two crazy kids agreed to marry each other. Nothing marred the day — not weather, not stress, not anything. The day started early with a spa trip for hair…

Free Advice Friday: When Clients Hold Checks Hostage

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What’s on the iPod: 1985 by Bowling for Soup Tomorrow. Tomorrow, my little girl becomes a wife. She’s waited for this, planned for this, since the first day boys became more than just playmates. I’m off today getting nails done, packing, and heading to the rehearsal venue in Lancaster, PA. A slow workweek was an…

Handling Controversial Writing Assignments

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What’s on the iPod: Best of My Love by The Eagles You are what you write, aren’t you? If you’re good at what you do, no. Recently, I wrote an article on a controversial topic for a favorite editor. I knew when I wrote it there would be debate. And boy, there has been. I’ve…

Writers, Work, and Weddings

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What’s on the iPod: Magnificent by U2 Today starts a week we’ve been waiting for. Five days from now, my youngest will become a married woman. But until then, there is much to do. At this writing, I am printing wedding programs. After I write this post, I’ll be marketing for an hour, then stapling…

Monthly Assessment: May 2014

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What’s on the iPod: Quiet Little Voices by We Were Promised Jetpacks What a month it was, and what a month it is about to be. Our floors are done, furniture is starting to come back, and my work day doesn’t revolve around sanders and smelly varnishes. What it does revolve around, and will for…

And the Winners Are….

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Thank you to everyone who left comments and participated in this year’s Writers Worth Month! I appreciate the way you took it personally — that’s the idea. Make it yours, and make it part of your action plan. As promised, we have some contest winners. Because you left your comments, you’ve entered. The winner of…

Crappy Customer Service

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Thanks to everyone for the fantastic month of Writers Worth! This year was especially terrific, and the conversations were educational. I’ll be compiling everything in an ebook (once I get everyone’s permission), and I’ll make it available shortly. Meantime, to our winners… I just got back from a weekend trip home, so the winners will…

12 responses to “Crappy Customer Service”

Cathy Miller

June 2, 2014

I don't think you have enough room (or time) for all the examples of bad customer service. I have often said is one of the saddest commentary on customer service is how surprised we are when we receive good customer service.

Whether it's customer service I receive or customer service I deliver, I try to focus on removing unintended barriers. No matter how well we plan actions, unintended barriers pop up.

Ask yourself – what was the goal? Can I achieve that goal and remove the barrier without harm?

I'll give you an example. An organization was offering comp'd airfare to an event to reward long-time participants who invested lots of time and money. Then they inadvertently set up barriers by putting up too many travel date barriers.

Did they have to have the restrictions? No. Could they remove the restriction and achieve their goal (rewarding their long-time participants) without causing harm? Yes.

Fortunately, they understood when I explained it that way and allowed the change.
Cathy Miller

June 2, 2014

Ack – edit before coffee – I have often said one of …
Lori Widmer

June 2, 2014

Cathy, that's something we should be playing to our advantage. Because good customer service is still a shock, we can "shock" our clients with our good behavior. 🙂

We're about to tussle with a bridal salon seamstress this week. She was stressed the last time we were in, and it may have been the reason she kept saying "What haaapened?" to my daughter's dress not fitting (medication-related weight gain). If she had said one more time "I'll take it out as much as pah-sible" one more time, we'd have had to come up with my bail money.
John Soares

June 2, 2014

Customer service is so important. Yesterday I ate an Asian buffet. The two hostesses spent a minute talking to each other before they bothered to acknowledge me and take me to a table, and then they did the same thing when I went to pay the bill. This was just personal chit-chat stuff about some other woman they know.
Lori Widmer

June 2, 2014

John, that is frustrating. It's as though you're interrupting. I remember seeing a receptionist pitch a fit because she had to walk a paper to a woman in the waiting room who had just sat down. The woman was using a cane and clearly had hearing problems, but the receptionist went behind the desk and started slamming things around.

Last time I ever went to that doctor's office.
Paula

June 2, 2014

If I were you, Lori, I'd cancel the card. Sure, your credit rating will dip a bit, but that would happen when they lower the limit, too.

Last week I discovered one of the banks I deal with was collecting $10 monthly fees from a seldom used account. When I called, they outlined several ridiculous ways to avoid the fees (basically deposit more money that I don't currently have or make 10+ ATM transactions per month, when I normally make none). I said, "At this rate, I'd be better off withdrawing all of the funds from all three accounts and leaving them under my mattress since the fees are more than any interest they're earning." He agreed to refund $20 in fees and waive the fees for the next few months so I'll have time to get the balance back up to the minimum.

Sometimes companies just need to realize how stupid and damaging their policies really are. Another case in point:

One month ago today it was announced my neighborhood grocery store would close May 31. The store thrived for nearly 60 years before a large chain bought it and intentionally mismanaged it. (How else do you explain the fact that they closed the in-store pharmacy a year ago and let all that floor space sit empty?) Half the city is outraged because the chain told the media it would be highly unusual for them to lease or sell the property to a competitor when they have another store just two miles away.

Bear in mind, the store that closed was the only supermarket in the center of the city, and most of the others are on the extreme eastern (wealthy) edge of the city several miles away. Shoppers are so outraged they're boycotting the chain's other stores, especially the "nearby" one they keep trying to steer us to. In a letter to the CEO I said, "If we have to go out of our way to buy groceries, it won't be from one of your stores. We're not loyal to YOU, we're loyal to our neighborhood store."

After realizing the company was unwilling to work with the city to allow another grocery in that location, our Aldermen and several citizens launched a social media campaign. We got loud and garnered a lot of news coverage. People contacted the parent company on our own. We held a rally at the store denouncing the no-compete clause. The day before the closure, the chain's PR person issued a carefully worded denial, saying "At this time we have no such clause in place …" A complete reversal from what they'd told the Aldermen. When I mentioned that quote to my Alderman at a second rally, he grinned and said, "We're getting to them!"

Other signs that chain is losing customers due to the store closures? They're having a local contest awarding $3000 of free groceries (most of that $3000 is made up of $50 gift cards). That's on top of $5 off coupons they handed out last week with any purchases at the store that closed.

It's taken time, but that chain is finally realizing their standard policies have hurt more than helped them. Why? They took their customers for granted.
Lori Widmer

June 2, 2014

Good for you for taking action, Paula! I'm about to get on the phone with the IRS. I'm being penalized and billed for quarterly taxes I've already paid. I'm not sure why, either. The notice I received did NOT explain much other than "You owe this" which was an amount $1,100 less than I've already paid for the quarter, so… WTF?
Paula

June 2, 2014

Argh. Don't remind me. I'll soon get a letter from the IRS for a couple hundred I still owe from 2013. (Hey, I underpaid for what I wound up earning, but I can't give them money I don't have.)

The thing I detest is all these ads about people who owe the IRS tens of thousands of dollars settling for pennies on the dollar. The scofflaws get a break while honest people like use get hit with fines? Not fair. But of course, fighting back with the IRS might get one audited…of course, they'd probably wind up owing me!
Paula

June 2, 2014

Make that, "I couldn't give them money I didn't have…"
Lori Widmer

June 3, 2014

Paula, those ads? Scams. Sure, they may find one person out of a million who gets a settlement that sweet, but I suspect the companies offering that are lining their pockets with money that should go toward an IRS tax bill.
Paula

June 3, 2014

Either way I resent it whenever people try to weasel out of what they owe while the rest of us get penalized for trying to pay our debts in full.
Lori Widmer

June 4, 2014

Me, too. I think it's too much entitlement. You owe what you owe. Suck it up and pay.