Do you know who your customers talk to?

Category: Editorial

I have been listening to Adam Curry, who could claim to be the founder of podcasting. His Daily Source Code comes out about three times a week and is a mixture of personal observations, 'podsafe' music and news on developments in podcasting.

He is based in Guildford, UK, and had a mobile phone from Virgin Mobile. Unfortunately somebody submitted his number to a blacklisting agency. These have been set up to disable phones that have been stolen. Unfortunately Adam's had not and he wanted to use it. In his podcasts he described how he had tried to get his number removed from the blacklist and various customer service episodes with Virgin that might have been entertaining to listeners but failed to solve his problem. Eventually he gave up in disgust and now has a new phone from T-mobile.

I wonder whether he would have received better service from Virgin if they had known that he would be broadcasting his experience all around the world?

I have a similar situation. On 14 February I had a new phone line installed by BT, who own the local loop, with a view to obtaining service from Toucan. On the 18th I sent off an authorisation form for Toucan to take over both my broadband and my telephone service. In April I received an invoice from BT for telephone calls. How could this be? I contacted Toucan and was told that the migration had not gone ahead and that they were not able to provide my phone service. They would chase BT. They sent me another authorisation form and this was sent to BT by recorded delivery. But still no action, even though I was chasing them more than once a week and twice reported BT to Ofcom.

Eventually, on Thursday 14^th July they agreed that BT would not be able transfer my service without an authorisation form and they would send me another one. Now nine days and several phone calls later that has not arrived. So, after five months I am still paying BT for a service I do not wish them to provide.

I am telling more than 8,000 subscribers worldwide about this experience as an example of how poor customer service is readily reported in this Internet age. Once, I was taught that customer complaints are important because of the feedback, but that people who do not complain are more important because they might tell 20 people. Things have changed. They might tell 2,000 people, or 20,000 or 200,000!

We help organisations develop their vision, mission and values. Values are important if they are translated into behaviours so that everybody understands what is required, what is acceptable and what is not. In some countries, inappropriate behaviour can prove expensive in the courts but the impact on morale is also important. With general access to e-mail, grapevines are much faster and reports of incidents can spread very rapidly.

We have been asked about training needs analysis and 360° feedback. In this week's coaching notes I include a comprehensive guide to what is required. BuddyCoach™ is an on-line Training Needs Analysis tool to help individuals discover their strengths and development needs, and prepare personal development plans. It is currently available at no charge. So, why not bookmark it or try it today.

This is the last newsletter before our break in August, so may I wish those of you in the northern hemisphere a great holiday with time to relax, reflect and regenerate. I look forward to welcoming all our subscribers back in September.

I shall be visiting Lance Secretan's Higher Ground Gathering and CoachVille during the break. I shall also be spending some time developing new products – if you would like to stay in touch during August, then remember you can subscribe to the Brefi Group RSS feed.

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