Thursday 11 October 2012

Customer confusion service

I'm feeling a little under the weather and feel the need to rant.

Never in my life have I encountered such poor customer service as I have here in London. Not every company and every time but I've now had two very appalling experiences in a very short time. I'm not generalising that customer service is overall bad - I've also had very helpful and delightful experiences. But when it's bad, it's really bad. The gaps in customer service quality seem to be just as huge as the gaps in welfare. You get the really impressive ones and then on the other end there are the absolutely horrendous ones. As a Finn I've come to expect at least decent correspondence with customer service. Not always amazing or incredibly friendly, but a least stuff gets done in an acceptable time frame. Now encountering these infuriatingly confusing and difficult people on the receiving end of my enquiries, I'm left with my eyes rolling in amazement and great frustration.

First I was trying to book an appointment for a massage and facial I had a coupon for. I emailed twice, used the contact form on their website twice, all in a month's time so I did give them a week to reply each time instead of harassing them every day. Finally when someone could be bothered to get back to me, they clearly had not even read my emails and had no idea what I was after. I didn't get an apology for their poor performance and my wasted efforts, just a very blunt response asking what my enquiry is about - which I had already explained in all of my messages. After this I finally got the answers I was looking for quite promptly - it was just the hassle of getting someone to actually acknowledge that I had contacted them and I had a question that needed to be answered. It took a month. A month.

Now I'm trying to book a reflexology appointment with a different company. So far I think I have managed to confirm an appointment for my desired date but I'm not sure about the time, although I suspect it might be 7pm. I asked and didn't hear anything for two weeks so today I asked again, replying to the same thread so the earlier emails would be there too. This is the exchange:

"Hello,
I didn't receive a reply for my earlier email. Would you have anything earlier than 7pm on November 16th? If not, I'll keep that appointment but would appreciate if you could find an earlier time. Thanks!"

"sorry ca you call to book thanks"

"Hi, no I can't. Emailing was fine earlier and should be fine now too.
I've booked an appointment for 16th of November and if I understand correctly (this hasn't been very clear from your part) it's at 7pm. I would now want to know if you have any other available appointments for earlier that same day. If not, I will keep the appointment I have but if possible would like to move it to earlier."

"You have mentioned many dates and times I really don't know which day you like to come and what sort of time . Can you please be sure , and let me know"

Now I don't know if I'm just being unreasonable, but I didn't think my mentioning the same day over and over again was so confusing. I haven't mentioned any other dates, that is the day I had in my original enquiry and that is the day that has been booked (I hope). Would you have understood what I was asking from the emails I sent?

1 comment:

  1. Haha, oh dear. Even as a Finn I knew what you were after. Btw, what is reflexology?

    ReplyDelete