Customer service is the new marketing.
— Derek Sivers
Mind if I make a prediction?
I last predicted Hillary would win in a landslide; but here's my prediction anyway:
Before the year 2525, for once a CSR won't blame me for her company's mistake.
Blaming customers for her company's mistakes has become every customer service representative's default response to problems.
I'm unsure when the practice began, and unsure why.
It truly vexes me.
Maybe I'm in an unwitting member of a customer-rewards program designed by Lex Luthor. Maybe I'm on a shared list of losers. Maybe in a prior life I was Stalin's sous chef and this is payback.
I don't know the reason, I only know it happens to me repeatedly. Just this month:
- A CSR for Cloudburst (a lawn-sprinkler company), when I called to ask why I hadn't heard from the firm, insisted I never mailed back the reply form from its direct mail solicitation. But I did; I remember, because I resented needing a stamp.
- A CSR for Michaels (an art supplies retailer) told me I was a dodo to arrive at its door for a curbside pickup before the company's app advised me to do so. Telling her I don't have the app on my phone earned me an exaggerated eye-roll.
- A CSR for Young Explorers (an e-retailer of toys) said I was to blame for the fact the company shipped a talking laptop to me and billed my grandson's credit card. When I informed the rep that I'm 66 and don't need a talking My First Tablet, I was still blamed for the mistake; and when I said my grandson was 2 and didn't have a credit card, I was blamed once more.
- A CSR for M & T (a bank) told me it was clearly my fault the bank didn't receive my online application for a new checking account; the fact that Russian hackers had hijacked the bank's website a few days before was immaterial. (I immediately hung up and called the three credit bureaus to set up a fraud alert, FYI.)
If indeed customer service is the new marketing, your marketing sucks.
Sorta like my ability to predict.
