When someone who works in marketing has a bad customer service experience, it’s ugly. But when someone who works in marketing—and has a marketing column—has a bad customer service experience, it’s a new article.
As you may have derived from my last article (http://directmag.com/lists/0601-lists-dont/index.html)
I’m in the process of a bit of a home fix-up. As such, I’ve had the chance to do quite a bit of business with one particular home improvement company in both its bricks and mortar locations as well as its online store.
I receive a lot of direct marketing materials from this company each month. So before I tell you what went wrong let’s discuss what went right. I got e-mails. I got postcards. I went to the store and bought. I went online and bought more. Chalk one up for the marketing group. They will place me under the desired column in their campaign spreadsheet and be happy. They shouldn’t be. They have problems. Big problems.
So let’s talk about what went so terribly wrong. Like many companies, the Web side and the retail side are not only different divisions, they are totally different companies. When things go right it’s seamless. When things go wrong it’s the continental divide.
If you are sending out postal mailings or e-mailings to presumably drive online traffic, you had best be completely sure that whoever is running your Web operation is plugged into your basic philosophy and ready to handle the customers that your marketing is sending their way.
My problem came up when a small appliance ordered required installation, an apparent gray line between the actual retail company and its Web partner company. On the Web site there was absolutely no mention that this item would not be installed. As a matter of fact, my order process mirrored that of other in-store appliances purchases which were installed without incident.
When the installation team showed up this time, however, they handed me a box and a paper to sign for receipt. No installation. While they waited I made my first of many calls to online customer service. Via their on-hold message I realized I was calling a completely different company.
I was informed that although there is no obvious mention of the “no installation policy” on the item, there was some buried disclaimer page that stated the information. We discussed this issue and finally I was promised a $75 gift card to reimburse me for the money I’d now have to pay a handyman.
The card never came. So I called and e-mailed again…and again…and again. The problem was that I wasn’t dealing with the big retail corporation but the small online firm representing them.
In the meantime I actually made additional purchases at their retail locations to complete my projects. I also continued to receive marketing materials—and updates via social networking avenues.
After a frustrating month with no resolution I contacted the company via their social networking, assuming that the marketing folks would at the very least be glancing at the posts. Finally, I received a phone call from yet another customer service rep–this time from the actual company--who was remarkably able to rectify the situation within a matter of days.
The bottom line in all of this is that if you are inviting a customer into your store or onto your Web site via direct marketing you need to be a hospitable host. If the customer experience is horrific your campaigns will fail and you’ll never really understand what went wrong.
Carol Lustig is marketing director for Sonny's Enterprises, a direct marketer of automotive aftermarket products.
