The positives of customer service
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about a very positive customer service experience. In recent years it seems that I’ve been fortunate not having to deal with many customer services because you still hear all kinds of horror stories.
But last week my Samsung monitor died on me. I’ve been using Samsung monitors for about 8 years now (my first one still works and is used by my dad) and they have been doing their work admirably, but fact remained that I was faced with a broken monitor. It was still under warranty and a quick check on their website supplied the customer service number which I called.
The only slightly negative thing I can say about the whole experience is that the menu structure of their telephone system to get to the right department was a bit confusing, but for the rest it was top notch. I explained my problem and the representative thought it would either be the power supply or backlight. To get it fixed he would send me an email (I received it about 5 minutes after the call ended) with an UPS return label which I could put on the box in which to send the monitor. I could either bring it to one of the UPS shipping points or make an appointment to get it picked up and it would be fixed. A call to UPS later and my monitor was picked up on Thursday and returned to me the following Tuesday all ready to go with a replaced power supply. I thought that was some great service.
In that same week I had second positive experience with the customer service of UPC and that was a big surprise. UPC was one of the first to offer fast cable internet where I live and I was one of their first customers in my neighborhood. But their technical and customer service has been a nightmare. Luckily I have been getting a stable connection and there hasn’t been much need to call their support network. Although I was pretty satisfied with the service they provided I chose to switch to OnsBrabantNet because they offered a faster up- and download over fiber (something UPC doesn’t offer) while being cheaper. But I wasn’t just canceling UPC before I knew that OnsBrabantNet (which is a new service) offered a stable connection (the fact that the first half year is free for the fiber option helped) so I have been running the two side by side for about a month for testing purposes. The fiber proved to be stable and extremely fast so I went to UPC’s site to find the specifics on how to terminate my contract with them.
I was surprised to find that all I had to do was call. That made me a bit skeptical because of the bad experiences I had in the past, but I dialed the number and after 5 minutes it was all taken care of. I would receive a letter confirming the termination of contract and also a box labeled with a free shipping address to send the modem to. I have received the letter and the box will be send to me at the end of the month when my contract ends. It seems UPC has learned from their mistakes and have taken steps to provide a very positive customer service experience.
And as I concluded in my post from a while ago, it’s customer service where a company really can score points with their customers and it seems that companies are starting to take notice. I always believed that you find out what the real worth of a company or service is when something goes wrong and it’s their job to fix it. When it’s handled in a professional matter and a solution to the problem is provided people will come back for repeat business, otherwise they’ll just go elsewhere to find their needs met.
Tags: Personal
