Best bad service

Habr is not a mournful book. But, nevertheless, with a given frequency, articles appear on it that talk about those or other problems faced by the users of the site. Today I saw a review about working with Dragonard hosting , and even earlier a review about Pay Pal .
And I thought, why most of the companies that, in essence, provide services to the client, live at the expense of the clients, treat them with such neglect? Why in the era of the Internet, when 10 dissatisfied users can create enormous anti-advertising, companies continue to make mistakes after mistakes and do not care about their reputation? Why do large Internet projects hire high-class and highly paid developers, but they save on technical support, which in essence is the face of the company when communicating with a client?

I thought about it. Over the past ten years, I have had many problems working with various companies. And these companies I remembered for a long time. But the most paradoxical thing is that those companies that created a problem for me and then solved it correctly left me only positive memories. Moreover, I tell everyone about them and highly recommend it.

Las Vegas and the Free Ford Mustang

A few years ago, I first visited the United States. One of the cities I visited was Las Vegas. Without going into details, I will say that I needed a rental car. And since it was Las Vegas, all the rentals that I found offered exclusively luxury cars: Ferari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche. They were called: Dream Car Rent.

I took the cheapest - a red Mustang convertible. As a security deposit, they blocked about $ 3,000 on a credit card, which they promised to return 2 days after the car was returned. But when I arrived to give the car, the block was not removed, since I paid in cash, but they forgot about the credit card. A week later, I ran out of money. I was in Atlanta and could not pay for coffee. Needless to say, what I felt at that moment.

When I returned to Russia, I found the phone number of the company where I rented a car. On Skype, I told them that I had such problems because they forgot to remove the block of funds on my credit card. I just wanted them to fix this error. But they did much better. They promised not only to remove the block, but also to return all the money for the rental. So they did. I am a tourist from Russia who may never visit Vegas again. It is in such cases that you understand the true meaning of the phrase "every client is important to us."

Obmen.ru: Buy an apartment, the army as a gift

A similar story happened to me in Russia. Only its ending was not so positive. I decided somehow to commit such stupidity as buying an apartment on credit. Many options were analyzed and an offer was chosen from the company exchange.ru . They pledged to take on all the functions of obtaining a loan and the transaction itself. I just needed to pay quite understandable money for this. Moreover, I believed that it was better to trust the professionals than to fill the bumps myself.

When I said what my initial amount is, they recommended that I increase it so that it reaches 40% of the value of the property, since in this case the interest on the mortgage will be lower by 0.25%. And given the size of the loan, this is about 60,000 rubles overpayment.

In general, the money was found among friends and acquaintances, and when the loan was issued, it turned out that the promised reduction in the interest rate did not happen. Since the loan manager from the company Obmen.ru had to indicate the amount not 40%, but more than 40%. At least a ruble. When I called there, their answer simply shocked me, to say the least. I just described the situation. He said that I was unpleasant that this happened. And he asked if it could be fixed.

The head of the department (it seems the Novostroek department), a certain Bukhrenko Sergey, simply broke all my ideas about how an employee should talk with a client. And not because he constantly stuttered, but because it turns out, they gave me a loan with violations. No military card. That I should be grateful for his work. And if I still call, he will inform not only the bank that my loan be withdrawn, but also the draft board, so that they take me away to serve. Can you imagine? I paid this company almost 200 thousand rubles for services, and their employee threatens me with the draft board!

Despite the fact that I entered graduate school that summer, it hit me very much.
Further communication was about the same. As a result, he promised that the company will return me the commission for the loan processing services (about $ 1,500) and I can pick them up when I arrive at the office. And when I arrived at the office, they told me that no one promised me anything, and in general, why am I worried? I have such a good salary!

Several years have passed since then, but I still recommend that everyone not contact the exchange.ru company. Even if they have good employees, even if they got rid of Mr. Bukhrenko. My reviews about Exchange.ru will only be negative. Moreover, when I met my housemates, it turned out that I was not the only one who was thrown like that.
But how could this problem be solved? You just had to admit your mistake when communicating with me. Recognize the mistake of your employee. Just apologize. It costs a lot. But that did not happen. One unbalanced type undermined the reputation of the entire company with such a good domain name.

Weather on your phone

MTS I have been their client for about 10 years. I even remember why I made such a choice. Megaphone for students and youth. MTS for business. Beeline - a cross between the two. At least at that time they were positioned that way. And then some MTS news, advertising, weather began to come.
Long wait for the response of the operator to ask to disconnect this nonsense. Your call is very important to us. What irony is to hear more than a minute! A serious company, positioning itself in the market as a company for business, was engaged in such repulsive shares. I seriously thought even to disconnect. And, in general, I can no longer call myself a loyal customer. And you just had to ask the operators to apologize for connecting the imposed service and provide for its quick disconnection. Then how real it turned into boring instructions for connecting to the Internet assistant from MTS.

Great service, great support

Some of the most pleasant memories I have left are from Ivideon. We in the offices needed to install video surveillance with the ability to view via the Internet. We tried many options. From self-made to “professional systems”. Yes, very expensive solutions would probably solve our problem. But we could not afford to spend more than a certain amount.
And here our system administrator found ivideon.ru through Google . This was still when very few people knew about them. We opened a demo , saw really working cameras. I really liked it. They tried to connect the cameras we had already bought and ... nothing came of it. They were not in the list of supported equipment. In addition, the cost was absolutely incomprehensible.

I just called there. And I really was surprised. It seemed to me that on the other end of the wire was not a trained technical support specialist, but a person who really wanted to help me. And this despite the fact that, it turns out, the service itself is completely free in the functionality that we needed. In the future, they planned to sell additional paid options, compatible equipment, but the service and applications themselves are and will be free.

Our camera was not supported. I asked the system administrator to send them her name and model. The next day we received from Ivideon beta software that already supported our cameras. And the next day, they called back and asked if everything worked out for us.

Perhaps this was the initial stage, but now they have grown and become worse. Perhaps that technical support specialist is no longer working there. But I still had very pleasant memories from talking with a person from this company. And when I hear that someone wants to install a video surveillance system - I recommend Ivideon. We can say that I just became their fan. They did not earn a dime on me. But I learned about them, I was inspired by the quality of their work. And without knowing it, he brought many other customers to their company. When I take out my iPad, show how I can see my offices anywhere, tell how wonderful this company is, I will not advertise them by will. And I think that this is the only way to work.

Resume

I have listed several stories from my own life that arose as a result of communication with the customer service of a company. It probably reminds me of Carnegie’s analogies in style: one young man did like this, and then he got this. But, it seems to me, real examples are the most revealing. I apologize to those for whom the article has too many letters and little meaning.
Since I’ve been on a hub for a long time, I know that comments will surely appear: And what did the author want to say? What is the meaning of this article? Why on Sunday evening does it clutter up the Internet with unnecessary bytes?

Very simple. I want to say that if you are creating a startup, a company. It doesn’t matter if it is innovative technologies, sales of buns or an interesting online project. Think about the service. Do not repeat these mistakes and take advantage of the positive experiences of others. Why spend a lot of money on advertising and promotions, then to merge customers due to errors in the organization of the support service? Learn to accept the truth - the client is always right. Make him your friend. Give him what he wants and more. Surprise him. Learn to admit your mistakes. And then, your business will go uphill! Since a hundred loyal customers will help you much more than thousands of dollars on AdWords with a dozen extremely negative reviews on the Internet.
Teach your employees this. Create an appropriate culture. It's not easy, but worth it! Remove, in the end, the lines at Sberbank!)



And most importantly. When you see other people's mistakes and find the strength to correct them, you create the best company. The best service. You can throw down those who have reached the pinnacle of success and do not see your problems, customer problems. Who put a bolt on your business and quality of work, thinking that you can do nothing, sitting on the Cote d'Azur and the company will still be profitable. Notice this, correct and take their places. People will be grateful to you for the best service! I will use your product!

PSI understand that the last paragraph is somewhat idealized for Russia. Since in the same Moscow there are more than 20 million people, it is possible to sell damaged pies in the transition without damage to reputation for a long time (few people read reviews about pies). But if you are planning a truly world-class venture (are you planning? Otherwise, why are you on a hub?), Then without high-quality customer service, provided that the niche is already occupied by someone, it will be almost impossible. In fact, the best service may be the only competitive advantage today, in an era of saturation of the market with goods and services.