Our client from a week ago updated us on their ongoing ‘saga’ as we were interested to hear how the National Company that ‘takes care of absolutely everything’ had got on. Sadly, I have to write to say not that well!

When their ‘phantom fitter’ (who, by the way has done an excellent job no question of that) chased up with their warehouse a vital unit which had been noted on the original delivery note as ‘following on later’ he discovered that in fact it was not following on later! As a consequence the unit was dispatched urgently by carrier only to arrive damaged. This was unacceptable and so a further replacement has had to be dispatched. The result of this was that on the Wednesday night the job remained unfinished with our client none the wiser as to when the job would be completed.

Friday mid-morning and our client can stand the suspense no longer! They decide to telephone the company. It was answered by an automated service which requested they enter their 6 digit customer number using their keypad. They do and then spend the next 9 minutes paying to listen to a very indifferent ‘music on hold’ so when their Customer Care Co-ordinater (who is billed as ‘your point of contact throughout’) finally answered their first question was, yes you guessed it – what is your 6 digit order number! Exasperated our client asked if they would call them back. They agreed and took down the telephone number. Ten minutes passed and no call, so they called back and repeated the all too familiar routine only this time they spent only 5 minutes in the queue.

The Customer Care Co-ordinater (CCC) cheerfully advised them that the previous operator had incorrectly taken down their number, but the good news was the errant unit was to arrive on Monday, but they did not know the exact time, they were waiting for the warehouse to tell them and then they were going to ring our client. When asked why no one had been in contact previously to reassure them that the matter was at least in hand, the CCC sounded hurt and justified the absence of a call by reassuring them that they had told the fitter at 5.30pm that Thursday evening and that he had assured them that he would ring our client. The fitter (one assumes) was waiting to hear from the Warehouse the timing of the delivery before he telephoned. So when our client would have eventually heard from them is anybody’s guess.

Our client tried to explain that this was not really good customer service as it was not just about the redelivery of the unit, but the knock on effect which was putting our client to much greater inconvenience. They now had to rearrange a painter who was due to start on the Monday and the fitting of a carpet which was due on the Thursday. The more notice given to these people meant they in turn could accommodate the rescheduling into their workload. If not, then the completion of our clients’ job would be further delayed. Sadly, this CCC just did not get it, they have not been trained to take ownership.

Let me finish with a quote from the suppliers website ‘The installation itself is overseen by a regional Project Management team, working behind the scenes to ensure every job is completed to the highest standard. They plan, check, arrange, supervise, double-check and if there are any problems they sort them out.’

Why do you think that spending money on training ALL your people to deliver this aspiration is a waste of money? Tell me, because I am fascinated to know. By the time you have messed about cackhanded trying to sort things out you would have spent at least twice as much as an effective training programme.

Look, nobody is perfect, we all accept that. Customer service is about sorting it out when it does go wrong. When I was Director of Customer Service for a national wine & spirit wholesaler I instilled in the team the philosophy of taking ownership of the problem and sorting it out first, we would argue about any cost later. On a monthly basis I used to have long discussions with the Finance Director about the level of costs associated with sorting out the problems. We reduced this cost by identifying and then eliminating the root causes. One key step was to increase spending on training which ensured everyone reached the same level of competence and this was recognised through external accreditation.

As our client says, too often Senior Management won’t see their organisation as the customer does. You just don’t get it, do you Dolphin Bathrooms!

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