Friday 17 February 2012

Virgin on the ridiculous - how not to deal with a customer complaint !


The eminent UK Customer Service guru, Chris Daffy – talks a lot about wows and ouch in respect of the way that organisations treat their customers. A wow being something fantastic whereas as an ouch is the opposite.

When any organisation has ouched one of its customers, to the extent that they decide to complain, this presents a massive opportunity. Daffy talks in terms of ouch, wow and recovery !

Research shows that if an organisation successfully resolves the customer complaint then that previously disgruntled customer will become incredibly loyal to that organisation. In fact they will go even further, in some cases, telling their friends and becoming a real advocate for the brand.

So a massive PR opportunity exists. Imagine my dismay and disappointment when I received a standard, cut and paste, letter informing me that my complaint had been received and that Virgin Media aim to be in touch in the next two weeks.

So rather than ouch, wow and recovery I’m even more annoyed with Virgin Media. In fact more annoyed than I was feeling when I wrote my letter of complaint. It’s more like a quadruple ouch !

In this day and age of customer choice this just isn’t good enough. My message to Virgin Media : either employ more staff to be able to resolve complaints in a way that befits customer expectations or ideally improve your service in the first place, so customers don’t need to resort to complaining.

Simples !



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