The Squeaky
Wheel
by
Clark L and Kathryn H. Kidd
We are becoming
increasingly convinced that 2002 will become known as “the year
when customer service died.” Airlines are eliminating meal service,
cutting seat size, overbooking flights, and one airline is even
having the audacity to charge double fares for those who cannot
fit into their tiny seats. Clerks in many stores act as though
they are doing you a huge favor just to wait on you. Even companies
that we used to trust have treated us so poorly that we probably
won’t be customers again. You would think that with the economy
in the dumps, companies would be doing all they can to retain their
customers and build customer loyalty. But as you read in the daily
paper about the sins of Enron, WorldCom, Xerox, and others, perhaps
customer loyalty is as “out” as polyester tuxedos.
Our latest
disappointment was with Federal Express (FedEx) – the overnight
package delivery company. FedEx has spent millions of dollars to
convince the world that they are the one company that can always
guarantee an overnight delivery. If you saw the movie Castaway,
you remember Tom Hanks as the fanatical FedEx manager who would
run performance drills, drive employees to their physical limits,
and move heaven and earth to make sure your package arrived at your
door on time. The message was that even though FedEx charges more,
the added cost was worth it for the peace of mind that your precious
package was in the hands of fanatic professionals. We guess real
life cannot be like the movies.
We recently
had a problem with a computer printer, so the manufacturer sent
us a replacement via overnight FedEx delivery. The printer had
not arrived the next day, so we went to the FedEx website to check
on the delivery status via the tracking number. The result was
that the package had been picked up on time, but was last seen at
the FedEx hub in Memphis. This did not look good. We called the
FedEx customer service people, and were informed that our package
had experienced an “operational delay,” and would be delivered the
next day. There was no explanation as to what this meant, nor was
there any apology or sympathy on the part of the representative.
When the package did arrive the next day, the FedEx driver denied
that a delay had occurred, instead blaming the shipper for not shipping
the package on time. This was not true, as our web tracking showed.
Once again, there was no apology, and no sympathy or concern for
the needs of the customer. Getting the printer a day late was not
really a problem, but we were somewhat offended that no one at FedEx
really seemed to care that a formerly loyal customer would not be
as loyal in the future.
What can you
do if you have a similar experience? Should you move on to a different
company, or should you try to convey your unhappiness to the company
so that they can try and remedy the situation? If you’re in the
latter camp (as we are), the next step is to sit down and write
a letter of complaint. One of the things that have made this task
easier is Planet Feedback (www.planetfeedback.com).
This website will assist you in writing letters to companies and
organizations, and will then deliver them for you.
First you are
asked about the type of letter you wish to write. In addition to
complaints, you can write a letter to ask a question, make a suggestion,
or compliment the receiver. In our case we picked the complaint
option. Then you type in the name of the company or organization.
Here is the real beauty of this service. It keeps a file of mailing
addresses and contacts for all major companies. Once we selected
Federal Express, it knew the name of the recipient and the mailing
address for the letter.
Then you are
given a number of screens where you have to select the general area
of your complaint (prices, customer service, delivery), your level
of annoyance, and how likely you are to give repeat business to
the company. Don’t worry too much about this part. It uses this
information to compose portions of the letter, and you will have
an opportunity later to edit the entire letter before it is sent.
Like many such
websites, you will be prompted to enter your email address and a
password in order to use the service. Registration is free, and
it doesn’t take that long to register. An advantage of registration
is that Planet Feedback will keep track of your address so that
you don’t have to supply it each time you write a letter.
Now we come
to the meat of the letter. You are given two boxes, one where you
describe the general nature of your complaint, and one where you
suggest ways in which the company could correct things to make you
happy again.
Once you are
to this point, you will be shown the draft of your letter. This
will contain the name of the person to whom you are writing (in
our case it was Frederick W. Smith, the CEO of Federal Express),
and the contents of the complaint/remedy boxes that you typed.
It will also contain text based on some of the other boxes you checked.
For example, if you stated that you were “Very Dissatisfied” because
of the experience, your letter might contain the sentence “I am
very dissatisfied with your company, and will probably not deal
with you in the future.” At this point you can make any changes
you wish to the text of the letter. The portions generated automatically
by Plant Feedback are often helpful, but sometimes they are just
distracting and should be removed.
You can also
check a box to indicate whether your address should be included
in the letter, and whether your letter may be shared with others.
We will talk more about this last option later.
The final step
in composing your letter is the “Influence Wrapper.” This is a
feature that allows you to send copies of your letter to others.
You can specify the names and email addresses of friends or family
members, and they will also be emailed a copy of your complaint
letter. Another nice thing about registering for the service is
that these are remembered and shown when you compose future letters.
Planet Feedback will also use your Zip Code to determine the names
of your congressional representatives, and it will give you the
option to include them on the recipient list as well. We don’t
think our representatives would be particularly interested in a
Federal Express problem, but we have included them on previous complaint
letters that could have legislative implications. Once you have
checked the appropriate boxes, just press the “Send Now” button
and your letter is on its way.
As we mentioned
earlier, you are given the option to share your letter with others.
One of the nice features of Planet Feedback is the ability to read
letters that others have sent. Even if you never write a letter
of complaint, this becomes a great consumer resource to see what
others think about a particular company or organization. If you
are thinking of buying a particular product, you might wish to check
here first to see what others think about the product and the company
that manufactures it. When we checked the Federal Express area,
we found a number of interesting letters, including one from a woman
who was still trying to get FedEx to admit that one of their trucks
had run over her dog two years ago. Be warned that readers can
also respond to your shared letter. Several people told the dog
lady it was her own fault for letting the dog run free, and that
she should get on with her life. You may not want to share your
letter unless you are prepared for the opinions of others.
We have always
thought that companies should be notified when their performance
does not meet expectations. Thus, we have been writers of complaint
letters for years with varying results. Even in these days of waning
customer service, there are companies that will take honest complaints
seriously, and will try to remedy their poor performance. But there
are others that will simply ignore your complaint and move on to
the next customer. Although writing such letters is never fun,
Planet Feedback does a lot of the work for you. And even if the
company never responds, you will feel so much better by venting
your anger through the keyboard.
*****
Many sites
such as Planet Feedback require you to have some kind of user name
and password before you can use their service. Although registration
is often free, there are usually different rules about what characters
the user name and password may contain. Thus, you may end up with
slightly different access information for dozens of sites where
you have online accounts. If this is a problem for you, then you
might want to check out PassKeeper (www.passkeeper.com),
a nifty little utility program that we have used for a couple of
years. The product is free to individuals, although the author
does encourage a $10 “donation.” When you install it, you select
a master password that must be entered when you start the program.
But once you are validated, you can add/delete/modify/reference
entries for all the websites where you have online accounts. It
is a slick little tool, and one that will become more valuable as
more of our lives move online.
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