This evening about 6 a possible client called one of my colleagues. I rang the number given. It didn’t work. That was just the start of well over an hour’s fun and games.
I am a bit of a persistent old sod, so I tried a few times more. Still no luck.
So I went to the website of the firm my enquirer worked for. A fairly substantial firm. They had several offices. But not one name or picture of an individual anywhere on the site. Just office numbers.
How could I find my man?
Aha! They had something at the bottom of the website: “We’re always happy to help. Contact us!”
I clicked … and it took me back to the list of offices. Nobody human to talk to.
But no!
They had a chat facility.
I went there, and it said: One of our representatives will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 5 minute(s). Thank you for your patience.
After ten minutes I was about to give up, then someone replied.
“Where can I find Mr. X? Which office is in? Do you have his email address?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have that information.”
So I said, “If they don’t give you that rather basic information, there’s nothing you can do.”
Then I was asked to say what I thought of the chat service, and was it any help. Very droll.
Then my colleague told me that the man who had contacted us was actually the Managing Director of the whole business.
I wanted to tell the chat people that. So I went back there. This time things looked better.
One of our representatives will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 1 minute(s). Thank you for your patience.
But they weren’t. I ran out of patience after half an hour and gave up.
I was going to complain, but then I saw the procedure. In the unlikely event of a complaint first try this, then that, then the other and if that doesn’t work do this – and not one person’s name anywhere.
So I realised I would lose the will to live and wrote this instead.
People like to deal with people. It’s as simple as that.
They were probably all too busy congratulating each other because they never get any complaints.
A perfect demonstration of why they need your services Drayton! Whether they are smart enough to follow your advice is a different question, of course! I suppose it’s encouraging that the MD rang you…although if the staff don’t know who he is, I guess that says something!
The big giveaway is that they are estate agents. Just one level above politicians
Hi Drayton,
Organisations who brag about their level of customer service are often hopeless at it. Those who quietly go about their business are often much better at it. A true paradox!
Keep up the good work!
Kindest regards,
Richard
Those people never got back to me, though I did follow up. Estate agents are the worst. We’re being screwed around by two right now
If it’s a substantial firm, it’s going out of biz, so buy their name and make money with it.