When you are unhappy with the service of a business you can leave or you might contact the highest authority and ask for improved service.
I was a customer of a barter service company for over a decade. I liked the folks but things had gone bad. Before I quit I contacted the president of the company to try to improve things and give them another chance. I was surprised and disappointed by his response.
First I called the president of the company and one week later I left another voice message for him. Then I sent the following email. (The names have been altered to protect the guilty.)
--------------------------------
Hi John,
This email confirms the voice message that I left
for you today. This call was in follow-up to the voice message that I left for
you on November 21.
In that first message I asked to be reassigned to your best and most respected broker. I have been unhappy lately with the service but based on our long relationship wanted to give it another chance.
The lack of response, suggests that you don't value me as a customer. So please complete that silent message and close my account.
thank you
George Torok
------------------------Although I didn't get a response to two voice mails I did receive the following email which sounded promising.
He apologized, explained about his busy time and offered to comply with my request. He even asked about details of my dissatisfaction. This message seemed positive and hopeful to me. This was a good start to retain me as a customer.
------------------------
Hi George
My apologies for not getting back to you, you caught me in our absolute busiest time of the year, ie: we had a massive charity auction on Nov. 23 and a large Christmas party on Nov. 25 and now I'm out west supporting our franchisees here and interviewing for a new office in Tombstone.
I should have changed my vmail at the office to direct messages to my cell or my assistant.
I'm happy to look at re-assigning your account to a different broker but first I want to understand the issue that you have with your current broker or Barter Town in general. Is it lack of exposure?, lack of bringing you new business?, lack of response on following up with purchase requests?
Please let me know.
John
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What happened next?
How did this go off the rails?
What words jumped out at you in this message?
The word that grabbed my attention was the word "lack" perhaps because he stated it three times.
Watch for the next post to learn more.
This is a real life example of how to NOT build good customer relationships.
Here are the five chapters in this series of abusive conversations with the company president.
Chapter 1: Do You Trust the President of the Company?
Chapter 2: Saga of bad service and President with really bad attitude
Chapter 3: Saga of the President Missing the Save
Chapter 4: Saga of the Company President with an Attitude
Chapter 5: If the President of the Company Won't Help You
George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
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