Nothing makes me want to run screaming to my blog faster than an encounter with those elusive "customer service" units of nearly every consumer company I'm unfortuante enough to have to deal with. After nearly every encounter I just have this absolutely overwhelming desire to extract some kind -any kind- of revenge. And, just like they hope, I avoid customer service at all costs. Why don't they save us all time and just admit they just don't offer "customer service?"
Today, the New York Times published a story by Katie Hafner, The Hunt for a Human, detailing similar telephone odysseys into the ugly depths of customer service. Apparently I'm not alone, as the story sites the top dislike of customer service is not finding a human. And, as a responsible reporter, Ms. Hafner gives us the reasons why companies increasingly remove us from customer service. Reasons range from Amazon removing their customer service number from their web site ("because customers really do appreciate our self-service features") to companies complaining of too many mis-directed requests.
I'll resist the urge to ask Amazon why they removed their phone number if so many people were really using and "appreciating" all those self-service features. That unpublished number is 800-201-7575, by the way. And those companies complaining of mis-directed requests? How about analyzing them and coming up with a strategy to effeciently help your customer get to the right place??
But, I bury the lead. Ms. Hafner has given us a gem: the web address to a consumer handbook containing hundreds of U.S. corporation's customer service numbers and email addresses. It is published by the General Services Administration of the U.S. government: pueblo.gsa.gov/crh/corpormain.shtml.
Ahhhh. I feel so much better.
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