Divorcing Service Providers

[Yvette Dubel]

Have you ever wondered why the nature of certain relationships goes unquestioned? But then when the demands for a divorce surface, some parties are shocked. Now, as someone who has been happily married to my husband for nearly 19 years I feel I know a little something about successful marriages. Different context yes, but good relationships have certain commonalities - trust, inspiration, positive associations, quality, meaningful - did I mention trust?

I am going use the telecommunications industry as an example because it has provided the most frustration for me personally, but they are by no means the only ones in this boat. I think we have moved beyond the ranting phase to the seriously considering divorce fork in the road.

Last year, after our cable company sold us (really my husband) on the numerous equipment upgrades they had made that would improve services - we seriously considered bundling our cable, internet, and phone services. I had vetoed this idea because it just felt like too much leverage to give one company that still had not won my confidence.

The timing of the name change was interesting as I had seen petitions circulating and heard that some customers wanted to sue the local provider. In what seemed a short time frame the local provider had undergone a name change based on what we were told was a sale-off of what had been the domain of Cox Communication to become SuddenLink.

I will spare you my nightmare stories of being given conflicting information when calling customer service, or what had for awhile become routine service outages - to make matters worse when I would call to report the outage (back when I had a traditional land line) the rep on the phone would often try to convince me the problem was on my end. I even had one guy yell at me and hang up! After a couple of service visits I was sure my equipment was not the problem. Of course, I called back to report this but what could they really do to fix the damage? Maybe free service for a few months might have softened the impact and represented sincere attempt to make amends but what company would go that far?

When I have gone to a restaurant and there was a problem - they usually offer you a free meal to get you to come back. Depending on how bad the infraction was - I may or may not take them up on the offer. There have been times when the damage done was severe enough that not only would I never consider returning, I would NEVER encourage anyone else to if asked for a recommendation. If it really makes an impression - I may blog about it, post it to twitter with a link....

I have had this response to whole communities - for better or worse there are those places that left such a bad taste in my mouth that I have become a huge proponent of the power shopping online provides to the local customer, no longer dependent on sub-par services locally available in some cases. This is the kind of thing that is going to really hurt regional economies because in addition to what is available online, it is the ability to connect with small providers in other places with whom one is happier to do business.

As money gets tighter, feeling good about where it is spent becomes more important than I think businesses realize.

Anyway, the company was acquired - new stationary arrived telling us about the change in name - and ownership. There has been plenty of marketing and PR promoting bundling of services. It wasn't until I had grown weary of billing errors by Sprint which became Embarq - charging for services I did not have and finding out that having them removed or being credited for those I did not catch until months later was not part of their policy, that I finally decided to let the "security" of my land line go. Interesting note, there were also rumblings of a law suit on behalf of residents, particularly elderly people, who were being milked for fees for services they did not have and had not ordered. Many of whom had their service terminated when they were unable or unwilling to pay - even in cases where they were clearly being charged wrongly.

Since having the bundled services, I will admit that most of the time it works - but when it goes out it is often at the worse times. Like during a skype conference call -

And it was during one of these episodes earlier this week when I needed to call in to report the outage and find out what was going on, but I had not charged my cell phone. And since my telephone was not working because the cable was out I became a bit more annoyed.

After my phone had charged a bit - I wondered why I was expected to be understanding about this and accept that they were doing the best they could to fix it BUT the same courtesy would not be extended to me. Suddenly I was flooded (again) with the realization that the relationship felt out of balance and far less than satisfying that it needed to for me to feel good about paying the monthly fee. If I had another option I would gladly explore it but they are the only provider option we have for actual cable. I could go with a satellite company but none of them has inspired anymore confidence from other customers I have spoken with. It seems we have all been conditioned to accept what is less than acceptable. And so I have become a supporter of taking provider selection out of state hands, in favor of new systems that would give customers more freedom and options...but even that is not the only option I see emerging.

If I were to have trouble paying my bill - why didn't I get that same understanding? The assumption, based on my payment history of always paying on time, that I was also doing my best to take care of the bill ASAP....instead my inability to pay would be promptly met with termination of services. I mentioned this to the customer service rep when I did finally call to get confirmation that there was a service outage in the area for the second time that week - he was clueless and had no reply. I don't think this had ever occurred to him.

More important than why we have accepted this for so long is the fact that this frustration is, in part, driving support for- involvement in innovation that will make these kind of provider problems a non-issue.

Although this interruption in service only lasted an hour or two - there have been times when it was out for a day and there was never a thought that the company should offer a discount or something to make it up to annoyed customers.

Increasingly this kind of relationship with service providers has felt way out of whack to me - and I have grown convinced that it is just the sort of thing that will fuel disruptive technology and the customer bases that will support it.

Since deciding to write this post I have realized that I have come to accept less from customer service than I really expect, sometimes much less. I prefer to pay bills using automation to avoid dealing with them at all. I have learned that trusting bills to be accurate is a mistake and that companies are usually less concerned about doing the right thing than they are getting as much money as possible from their customers. There isn't a branding strategy that will fix this, businesses will have to figure out how to address issues with customers specifically and individually and that is not how their systems are oriented. What is the solution?

Well, it doesn't help matters much that after keying information on the keypad the representative then ask you to repeat this same information. What is the point of that?

Much of what I see about customer retention has been informed by my experiences and those of people I discuss these things with and what I see overwhelmingly - is that with increased options made available by innovation, many service providers will see their business drop off dramatically with no chance to win them back.

Like a bad marriage - once the customer decides to leave there will be little chance of winning them back - really. If you can lure them back with pricing discounts, they will only stay for the duration of the promotion. Once it ends so too will that relationship.

As cell phones that can be used as modems lead to new solutions, local providers will find themselves up a creek without a paddle because competing primarily on pricing is going to hurt profitability and changes in brand will no longer be a viable fix.

What you say your brand is, means nothing if it does not match my experience with, analysis of, and intuitive response to it.
Protest art would seem the obvious response but since Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy is interested in something different altogether- I am interested in doing some artwork that will contrast this past experience with that of a new provider or providers better equipped for the service provider relationship I need and want. If you are such a company- we need to talk because once we connect, then I am that much closer to finalizing this divorce.

This may be the start of a blog series. Future post will explore - why outsourced (to India) customer service is sometimes much better, the implications about the failure of education to develop common sense and integrity & why increasing levels of education required for some jobs has not resulted in an improvement of service, speculation about industries positioned to be de-throned and made obsolete, and what all this has to do with Attention Quality and new approaches to branding.