In the past several months, I've been subject to the customer service processes of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, HP, and today, through my work, an Internet marketing vendor. Of the three, only the BMV provided quality customer service. In fact, it was outstanding.
With HP, you'll recall, we were asked to ignore the fact they had taken our computer in for repairs once (as per our warranty) and had failed. Then they asked us to roll the dice they could get it right with another crack at it. Today, the aforementioned marketing group tried to convince me they had fulfilled their obligations of our contract, despite the fact the clearly spelled-out 14-day timeline for completion ballooned to 53 days, and is still not completed. Obviously, I'm demanding a full refund on behalf of my company.
That only the BMV treated me with respect and dignity is important for two reasons: First, you just plain don't expect that from a BMV. Second, you just plain don't expect that anywhere, anymore. At some point, quality customer service became the exception, not the rule.
I've alluded before to the fact there is a crisis of respect in our world. That certainly enters in here, but I wonder if there's not something else in play: a crisis of entitlement.
A pervasive entitlement mentality yields pervasive bad service. The degree to which people feel they are owed their paycheck - without the due diligence to earn it - is the degree to which they will shirk their responsibilities. This is especially a problem in our nation, as we increasingly become a service-based economy. The intensity of a poor customer relations experience is magnified when the only tangible item for a problem that can be blamed is a person, not a defective inanimate object.
For what it's worth, I'm not sure the constant drumbeat from Washington about the "right" of people to obtain for free things most of us pay for is the best way to solve the problem.
What will? For starters, an increased emphasis on personal accountability and community responsibility, and a de-emphasis on the individual. Parents and teachers play a role here.
Then maybe one day we won't have to look to the BMV for a positive customer relations experience.
You feel me?
AF
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