It may come as a surprise (or not) to find that some businesses purposefully deliver poor customer service in order to increase revenues. However, there is more to customer service than meets the eye.
Why Do Some People Find Bad Customer Service Useful?
When you fail to satisfy client expectations or provide a pleasant experience, you provide poor customer service. Do you have images of your employees being nasty or neglecting people’s requests? It goes further than that.
Sometimes poor customer service is the result of a poorly executed support strategy, such as when clients must navigate a series of questions before receiving assistance.
The most annoying aspect of this situation is that some firms purposefully fail to enhance their customer service. They put it on the back burner in order to prioritize other objectives. Some even believe that poor customer service is an effective tactic. This is why.
Cost-cutting: When organizations need to decrease operating costs to compensate for low margins, many turn to customer service, which is pricey and not always regarded as critical.
While metrics help organizations run more efficiently, they can often drown out important goals. Employees may lose sight of the ultimate purpose of providing a good client experience in order to satisfy KPIs.
Companies such as internet and cable providers frequently have monopolies in their service areas. Because subscribers have no choice but to stay with them, they don’t put much money into customer service.
Companies choose to spend less on support agent training in order to deliver cheaper products or services. There’s a reason why dollar stores and no-frills airlines are so popular: people will put up with subpar service in exchange for a better value.
Some businesses purposefully create a complaint process that prevents clients from successfully resolving their issues. The ultimate goal is to avoid remedy payments that reduce corporate revenues. The approach employs tiered structures that require users to jump through hoops before receiving a result.
Real-World Examples of Why Poor Customer Service Is Bad
Good customer service will assist you in both retaining and gaining new clients. After all, individuals are more likely to suggest companies that deliver a positive experience.
So, what precisely is lousy customer service, and what are the consequences? Here are a couple such examples:
Inappropriate Customer Service
Customers must be treated with respect by businesses. Employees should go above and beyond to exceed expectations. However, some firms fail to fulfill even the most basic standards of decency and politeness.
Gasp, a now-defunct Australian fashion label, was once embroiled in a notorious email incident in which their area manager supported a store assistant who insulted a customer. Instead of backing down in the face of increasing public scrutiny, the management boasted that the publicity was causing a boom in their business.
However, this assertion was called into question, especially since Gasp’s operations manager apologized on national television three months after the incident (and two weeks after the store closed).
Failure To Provide Real-Time Support
Failure to give real-time support is today unimaginable. Your company is expected to respond to client inquiries 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whether through live chat or chatbots. You should also not be lax with your social media profiles.
This was demonstrated by an incident in which a frustrated British Airways client paid for a sponsored tweet to spread the word about missing luggage. For eight hours, the airline did not respond to the post, saying that their Twitter feed was only active during specific hours. The client also chastised British Airways for not having someone monitor their social media accounts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Certain customer care systems are designed to wait until a customer’s problems reach a breaking point before addressing them. Some businesses even equip their customer service systems with technologies that evaluate a caller’s rate of speech and tone of voice to determine how upset the caller has grown.
Such was the situation when an AT&T cable subscriber requested if the business would match a better rate offered by Verizon in order to retain a long-term client. AT&T refused, only to cave when the customer was on the verge of transferring to Verizon.
In The Post-Pandemic World, Poor Customer Service
The Covid-19 epidemic has resulted in long-term changes. We’ve changed our purchasing habits. Simultaneously, 78% of respondents in a PwC survey expressed concern about the economic costs of the health-care issue. Meanwhile, the same study found that 50% of consumers are interested in new items and brands.
According to the results above, turnover rates are anticipated to rise. This encourages businesses to work harder than ever to retain their loyal consumers, especially given that it costs five times as much to acquire a new client as it does to retain an existing one.
Businesses must act quickly to meet customers where they are right now. This involves going online and improving your digital platforms during the pandemic. But here’s the catch: With more firms embracing digital, competition is heating up. We can no longer afford to forgo exceptional customer service for other measures, especially when a plethora of solutions are available with a few clicks. Even organizations who used to gain from poor customer service must reconsider their strategy.
Excellent customer service is still more effective at retaining and attracting new consumers. In the long run, this means increased profitability and sustainability for your company.
