We’ve all been there.
Sometimes, you have a bad customer service. It does not define your brand. But, it is a great learning opportunity. What went wrong? Could it have been avoided? How will you prevent the same mistake from happening again?
While positive customer service stories can help you define your model for exceptional customer service, the negative ones are just as important. Negative customer experiences shape the way your customer experience changes to address potential or existing roadblocks to customer service success.
Here are 3 great examples of large companies who have lost customers due to a lack of great customer service. We’ll also show you how to fix these issues before they happen to you (without having to spend a fortune!).
Let’s start with retail giant, Walmart.
Walmart’s problem: Lack a strong customer service team
Retail is a tough business, and Walmart is not known for hiring the best people. Since their budgets are low and customer engagements are high, they often run into trouble with customer service. The problem isn’t just on the customer side. They also struggle to keep customer service employees happy at work despite tackling a long list of complaints each day.
They need to find a way to deal with customer service issues better and faster without spending more money or hiring more experienced customer service representatives at a higher cost.
Walmart’s solution: Automating pieces of their customer support process is a great way to filter simple customer service issues. Introducing an online customer service portal makes it fast and easy for customers to get their customer service requests answered. It also allows Walmart customer service representatives to deal with fewer customer service issues each day.
Next up is AT&T.
AT&T’s problem: High volumes of poor customer feedback
This telecommunications giant is a huge target for customer service attacks. If cell service goes down, their customers are very unhappy. The competition is always advertising against poor customer service as a reason to switch. These high volumes of poor customer experiences require proactive communications.
AT&T’s solution: Sending regular emails and surveys to gain insight directly from the customer helps alleviate some of these pain points. It also provides opportunities for AT&T to improve their customer experience and lower those call volumes proactively.
Now, let’s talk about ShoeBuy.com.
ShoeBuy’s problem: Don’t deliver on promises like free return shipping
As with any web-based company, customer service issues can quickly become poison. It’s so easy for customers to leave a bad review based on a singular experience, dragging reputations through the mud. Sometimes, however, it is deserved.
Promising something like free return shipping and not delivering is a huge faux pas. Here’s a review directly from ShoeBuy’s website:
This came after the customer tried to return a pair of shoes under the guise of their “free shipping” promise and was charged for it – twice. Tsk, tsk.
ShoeBuy’s solution: Integrating pre-paid return labels into their customer service process would make free return shipping a seamless process for ShoeBuy. They could set and forget these types of customer service requests, avoiding the backlash from bad customer experiences all together. It’s cost-effective, provides better tracking, and simple for both parties!
If you are struggling to meet customer service expectations, or simply want to provide a better customer service experience, visit www.supportsync.com. We offer a free 30-day trial of our product support software with everything from returns management to custom online portals and integrated shipping.
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