Why Customers shout at Companies

We used to shout at our TV sets, but no one on the other side could possibly hear us. Most of us have found ourselves shouting--or wanting to--because of a nearly universal sense of frustration that large corporations were doing everything the could not to listen to customers like us.

I've been reading the Church of the Customer blog by co-authors Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell for well over a year and find their views and passion for customer evangelism to be valuable.  I sometimes envy the great stories they either find or amplify. The case of a customer so angry with T-Mobile to post this message on his or her back window is a sign of the frustration we all sometimes feel.

Now, I've heard very little bad about T-Mobile and when they were my carrier I liked their service but their signal just didn't work in my area. But don't you just want to know what this car owner went through before going through the car customization effort?

This is the power of word of mouth. At least two bloggers have now posted this photo.  If you are about to make a decision on a new mobile carrier, you now have a data point of an extremely unhappy customer.

If T-Mobile blogged, this customer may have posted a comment there.  The customer may have been irate, but I'll wager you the dialog would be less damaging than this photo will prove to be. People are more polite when they think you are listening.  The blog is just the best current tool in letting customers offset rage and teaching a company where they need to improve if they wish to serve their community.

In the same post, Jackie and Ben mentioned Dell who earlier this year announced a $100 million plan to improve customer service, then acted commendably, in my opinion, a couple of week's back when the battery issue, er... exploded. These two announcements have moved me from a certified Dell hater to a cautious, slightly suspicious Dell watcher. In short, they are starting to turn me around. Their blog has evolved from corpspeak to not so bad and continues to unevenly improve.

All they need to really turn me around is to hear real users--perhaps people I know and trust--to tell me about good experiences they have personally had. Perhaps that day will come soon, perhaps not.

It may surprise you to know that I'm rooting for them.

Comments

[David]

What blogs have used it, Shel?

I've been wanting to do a post on T-mobile for a while this is good incentive.

[Kewith Collins]

I'm with you on watching Dell attempt a change. From the inside I can tell you its not that they don't know they need to sort this out. It's more about how to go about it, the time required and whats the best things to spend money on - and knowing them well how much to spend. The blog is low cost and effective - the challenge is the time needed to do it, and everyone at Dell is run off their feet.

The good news is that I can be the first to tell you about a recent good Dell service story: http://www.keithmcollins.com/2006/08/beating-customer-expectations.html

Another thought is how does someone researching the web measure all the information available. Is it about volume of
posts on a subject or the noice created. My point is best explained by example. Given the mobile operator experience I was on the recieving end of terrible customer service a couple of weeks ago from Orange, I am sure they are all as bad as each other - but how do you discover which operators really are the worst? Or more interesting the best? It all seems a little hit or miss with anecdotal evidence I keep seeing. My sense is as you said it's all about trusted sources.

[Mark Rose]

I am very impressed with the Dell blog because it shows the inner workings of the company. They "show the work" - problems they are facing, what they have to go through to address them. Also, they used the forum to counter a story on them in major media - quick response, confident enough to know what they needed to say. Real people are posting, facing the stresses (and maybe then some) we all do. And they are getting talked about. We're not hearing a lot about the H-P blog right now, are we?

[Damon Billian]

"But don't you just want to know what this car owner went through before going through the car customization effort?"

My immediate guess is that the customer is upset about a contract issue? Having worked for a mobile carrier before, most (if not nearly all) carriers require one/two year contracts because they subsidized the cost of the phone for the customer.

And while the internet is most certainly a great place for venting about a product/service, people should always keep in mind that there are two sides to every story. I would be very interested in hearing T-Mobile's side of the story (is the customer under contract, etc.).

I wonder if T-Mobile attempted to do an outreach to this guy at all?

[Jim Durbin]

T-Mobile does have a blog, but it's aimed at job-seekers. It's called wirelessjobs.com.

I wrote about the issue as well after Jackie wrote the story - showing that the other wireless carriers have worse Google rankings. It's linked at Jackie's blog. The T-Mobile blogger comments, also.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

He he. I'm not happy with T-Mobile either. I don't usually resort to blogging bad customer service though, preferring rather to highlight good service. But luckily I wasn't under contract anymore, so I just yesterday in fact I switched to another carrier. I was less than impressed with their nonchalent retail employees (and I went to several different shops). (My 14-month-new cellphone suddenly stopped working is the reason I went in.)