Business communication improvements
Last week I send out this tweet about my experience with the business division of KPN (For non-Dutchies: the guy I talked to at business support told me that if I wanted to know the phone number of our newly closed contract, I should call someone close so he/she could see the number). I was amazed about the fact that a company that had communicated every step of the process so well thus far, pretty much stumbled on the last piece of information. And such an important piece as well: knowing which number to communicate to your customers/contacts to be able to contact you is crucial in being reachable.
Reason for contacting KPN in the first place was the fact that I had to arrange a new mobile contract for a new account manager at my job. So, after comparing the offerings of the 3 largest mobile providers, I decided to go with KPN. The ordering side was pretty straight forward: go to the site, create an account (email received with account details), log in, place the order. After that I received an email with the order confirmation and a mention that we would be contacted by a courier to make an appointment for delivery of the phone. Within 2 hours we were called and delivery was scheduled for next day between 9 and 11 in the morning and received a confirmation of this by email as well. Next day, at 9:45 the phone was delivered. We received a confirmation mail of this as well. So far so good.
I opened the box, took out the packaging with the phone and the sim card. Also enclosed were a packing slip and a summary of the mobile plan. Nowhere was the phone number mentioned. Before I called support I rechecked the contents of the box and the emails I received. No mention of the number whatsoever. So that’s when I made the call and got that reply I mentioned above. He did also say that maybe because of the fact that the contract would be activated at the end of the month (our choice) I would receive an email when the number was activated. That might have the number on it.
So in summery: they send you an email with the details of your account, they send you an email to confirm the order. They send you an email to confirm date and time of delivery. They send you an email when it’s delivered. But they “might” send you an email when it’s activated which “may” hold the information of your phone number. Why would you gaff on the last step of the process? I cannot believe that a company like KPN isn’t capable of doing this right. What first started as a positive experience with a company I haven’t had many dealings with before, now left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
I think this is a great example of how a company could improve greatly on their communication to their customers by just adding/sending one small, extra (essential) piece of information. KPN isn’t the only company I’ve dealt with that has this problem, but it’s the most recent one I came across. Customers shouldn’t have to contact a company to receive essential information. They should get it automatically.
Tags: Viewpoint
