Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Walgreens are all limiting customer choice in the grocery and drug store aisle. Why aren’t their customer service and support organizations following suit?
In line with the economic downturn, many retailers and consumer product good firms have realized that limiting customer choice can actually help drive purchase decisions.
The “Paradox of Choice” movement has evangelized this idea. But it seems the message hasn’t trickled down to service and support…yet.
Posted on 11 February 10 by Pete Slease
A week ago I contacted my publishing company to request a new login and password because I deactivated my old e-mail address. The bottom of the email submission form page listed some basic e-mail turnaround times and operating hours. Not a terrible wait time, I thought, and thanks for setting expectations.
Fast forward 24 hours, the response read: “Go to our site, enter your User ID and we’ll send a new password to that address.” Sounds good right? But…my User ID was my old e-mail address. Strike #1. So for round 2, I was more explicit in my request.
Fast forward another 24 hours to the second response: “Go to our site, enter your User ID and we’ll send a new password to that address.”
Yep. They sent me the same response (verbatim) two days in a row. And the worst part is that this type of email “resolution” is the norm in my experience, not the exception.
Call me the jaded contact center geek, but it seems that the usefulness of email as a service channel has expired. I recognize some B2B interactions may be an exception to the rule – given more regular customer interactions – but for most service interactions, it’s a poor channel. Read More »
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