The Customer Is Always Right, Right?

Even if the dumb fools are wrong, for a business to survive, grow and demonstrate a customer commitment, they have to hold even the most difficult of customers highly. The customers, ultimately pay the bills.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

One thing I learnt many years ago, is just how strong word of mouth can be. The influence of viral marketing is still not as great as simple word of mouth. Word Of Mouth is the single best form of marketing out there.

I’ve had a negative experience recently, and I’ve tried very, very, very hard to resolve that with them. They have ignored many emails and fax requests to them to address simple issues about something we purchased.

They read the emails – we’ve got read receipts confirming that – and we’ve even got emails showing the hand off of the issue, however, it gets ignored.

I won’t go into the details of it, because it’s now the target of a Fair Trading complaint – they had ample warning that it was going to go there if they failed to respond, they didn’t. To be exact, I indicated to them that the alternative to responding and resolving the complaint would involve ‘more than 3 specific actions’ – and I’m committed to it.

The Fair Trading complaint is just the beginning of resolving this issue, once that’s resolved. The company involved also has broken certain regulatory aspects of another body they are a member of, we’ll get to that after. I’m going to set about a few other items that should in theory, see the issue gain the right attention.

Word Of Mouth is the best form of marketing. I can only tell so many people about the negative experiences. But that’s OK, I have other, more interesting, concepts that I’ll use to compliment word of mouth.

I’ll even collect enough data on it, and once complete, publish it. The even more amusing bit is, the resource used, is actually advertised by the company involved.

If I were the responsible party of that business, I’ll have definitely addressed the issues raised, it’s not like they were overly difficult to address either – it’s a case of looking at what we have in writing from them, comparing that to what actually happened and proposing a resolution. All up, maybe 30 minutes of time. Piece of piss.

Even if it were to take far longer than 30 minutes, a simple “We are looking into this” would give them some credit, and probably have averted the complaint to Fair Trading and reduced my desire to research and determine other methods of resolving the issue – I would have simply waited!

There are businesses out there that do care about customers, I have to say though, the best service comes from sole traders, they own and run the business, you quickly get an idea of the person, whether they know their shit or not, you get a fair dinkum price, and if there are issues, they’ll probably take the time to sort it out, rather than ignore you and try to hide behind the company.

Some companies though, do have complaints teams in operation. I’ve seen this in banking and telecommunications. I know Australia Post has one but it’s not very effective!

Resolving customer complaints is rarely difficult, it’s a case of looking at what the customer is having issues with, thinking about whether they are right, or wrong, and in either case, proposing something that quells the complaint – be it a small gesture of good will, to canceling the entire transaction. Costs of doing business really.

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