Customer Disservice!
50 Ways To Lose Business
Why do some successful businesses fail?
Process – desire for “efficiency” – overtakes substance – the consumer experience.
Strategic Growth can be undermined by failure for senior leadership to remain current with the needs of their targeted consumer.
GEICO GETS GUNKY
Give GEICO credit for great commercials; I want one day to meet their Gecko spokes-lizard!
GEICO has been our automobile insurer for over 25 years. Generally good service, at a fair price, and easy to work with customer service.
Until someone took out our driver-side mirror.
Our first contact with GEICO pointed us to an auto body location. The cost was less than our $500 copay and the shop would provide a loaner car.
The auto body repair shop, when I arrived for my appointment, informed me that they would need the car for ten (10) days and that I was on my own to rent a car during this period.
Second GEICO person apologized for the first and told me my insurance does not cover a rental car. She did say that I could take the repair anywhere—which I did.
When the THIRD GEICO person refused to pay for the repair—as their preferred shop was cheaper…even though a rental of 10 days would have been a multiple of the repair at either.
Maybe they could have ONE system where EVERYONE at GEICO could, at least in theory, sing from the same sheet of music.
The gecko may need to get off his media tour and get back involved with the customer experience!
HERTZ HURTS
Rented a car from Hertz at the Hollywood/Burbank Airport. Visible damage on the right driver-side front panel. Took a photograph. Got the checkout Hertz employee to note on their form the damage. Two days into the rental, the trim around the right front wheel came loose and was banging against the car. I removed the trim piece and protected in the back hatch of the vehicle (one of the clips for holding it in place was missing).
When I turned the vehicle in, I detailed the above. A month later I get a claim for $1100 from Hertz for the damage. I submitted the above information to their internal review group. No response…until Hertz turned to a bill collector. Lesson—make sure your systems protect the customer (and not just the company).
WISE ISN’T
My wonderful assistant lives in the Philippines. Every two weeks, I pay her using Wise (and they take a cut for the currency conversion). Worked without a hitch for nine months. Then an annual audit on their side determined that they had in their system the wrong EIN for my firm.
Thirty days later, after three long telephone conversations with customer service (where, while nice people, none had a clue how their system gets fixed when there is a problem), two attempts to set up as a new customer (their suggestion), but my emails—already in their system—were a block to setting up a new customer account, and over five times filling out and submitting the same questionnaire (with never any response), I took my business to PayPal. The cost is 3x Wise…but PayPal works as promised!
BOTTOM LINE.
Losing long-term clients and customers reflects directly on leadership. If the foundation of a firm is weak, strategic growth can result in implosion—the weight of success can result in the collapse of the firm.
No firm is perfect every time. Build into your process ways for clients to be heard above the noise of growth.
BTW—When I completed my own year-end review, I found two on-point themes. My clients were happy with the services I provided and said my fees were appropriate. On the other hand, my initial response time ran weeks, rather than hours.
In the NFL, the phrase is that “the best ability is availability.” I’m no good to anyone if they must wait more than 24 hours to connect.