So... if you've read my posts lately... you'll find they're mixed with a lot of customer service experiences, entreprenuerial topics and friggin' how excited I am to finally be getting OFF AT&T and back on Verizon.
Quick Sidebar : Truly at the end of the day, I guess it really doesn't matter what large company you deal with at one point they ALL suck. It's not to say that little companies don't suck (cause they can and do) but for the most part... at one point, they all suck. I don't know if it's a combination of factors or a single factor but my gut tells me it's a combo. FYI... I know I'm totally off topic from BlueLounge, but I promise I'll get back to them. I think the factors relating to why vitually all big companies suck is because :
1) The sheer number of times you have to deal with them
2) The sheer number of employees they have working for them
Here's why I think mostly it comes down to these two things:
1) The more you have to deal with a large company, the more times you're open to having a bad experience. Case in point for Time Warner: The sheer number of times I have to call that godforsaken company b/c the internet drops (probably at least 2 times per night, especially if we have 2 computers streaming Netflix) simply means I am bound to have a bad experience. More interactions = More potential points of failure. One nagging point of failure that keeps agrivating the piss out of me each time I call TimeWarner to trouble my internet connection, is that when we moved, my wife established the service w/ TimeWarner. We're a cell phone only family (no need for land lines anymore right? :)) so when you call and establish service w/ your cell phone.... from that point forward it auto recognizes the account your calling about. A time saving mechanism, that normally should work very well, but unlike Verizon's prompt system, TimeWarner doesn't ask : "Are you calling about the service associated to the phone number 123-456-7899? Instead it just assumes you are. So.... in our case where I established service with my cell phone at our old residence (and the account has since been closed) it says "Sorry... the account you're calling about has been closed" Then in order for the dude in tech support to help you.... you gotta have him look up the account with my wife's cell # so they can begin the troubleshooting process. Why not simply add my cell phone number to the account so that the automated system recognizes that I'm calling about the new service we have.... and not the old service? OMG! Seems simple to me. BTW.... I loved, loved, loved the other night when I called at like 12:10am (cause of course the internet went down when I was trying to order my iPhone from Verizon!) and got a hold of a dude in India name Tom Jones..... I thought that was super funny and it made me smile. Imagine this being said in my best Indian accent "Helllllooooo, Mr. Haden, this is Tom Jones and I will be assisting you tonight with excellent service" I told him.... "Tom.... you already have my friend!
2) The sheer number of employees big companies are required to hire to take my calls @ 12:10am means you're bound to get a hold of crabby Kenny.... or bitchy Betsy.... and who can blame these people for their poor disposition? I'd probably be pissed too if I worked for AT&T wireless and all I heard all day long is "Your service sucks" Anyway, you're bound to get a hold of these people. But.... like everything, there are rare exceptions to the rule. Quick BestBuy experience that happend last weekend: So I bought online a new MacBook Air from BestBuy (BTW... if you'r a Mac fan and you own a MBP, and you don't need a suped up machine for graphic stuff or whatever.... you'll love the MacBook Air... I have the 11.6" model... and it is so light and kickass! I can't put the thing down! And I even recently got an iPad from my good buddies Stanton and Mike, and yet still, I'll reach for the Air 95% of the time)
Anyway... I digress yet again. Back to BestBuy. So I order online and have the order set for local pick up that day. Figured the wife can swing by the store on the way back from breakfast and I'll be entertained all day Sunday... setting up my new system. Anyway, so I order it... and call the store when they open to ensure they got the order and that it's ready for pick up. I speak to this kid Tyler.... who orginally sounded like he wanted to help, but later turns out was probably up partying hard last night and was like "OMG get this guy outta my hair, I've got a splitting headache" Tyler says, "Sorry, can't help you with this... you gotta call the 800 number" I'm like "Tyler.... when I ordered the mac, it said it was available and in stock @ your location, why do I have to call this 800 # to find out where it's at? He replies, "It's the way our system works... they have to release the order before we can pick it and put it aside for local pickup." I think well... this partied out kid coulda put me on hold and called the 800 number himself... but clearly he was too busy looking for Advil to help. So I call the 800 # and speak to Marie.... who sounds like she's somewhere in Missippi by her Southern drawl. So Marie.... sweetheart that she is.... first suggests that I need to call the store back and tell them that they need to "acknowledge" the order so it can be released. I respectfully say, "No. Marie.... it's not me who needs to call the store to tell them to acknowledge the order, it's you who needs to do that. Let's not forget Marie.... in this scenario, I'm the customer" She says.... super politely, "Hold the line sir, while I call the store" When she comes back on the line, she says, "Sir.... I was able to get a hold of Tyler, the same Tyler you spoke to, and told him he had to "acknowledge" the order so we can release it. He's doing that now... and your computer should be able to be picked up in 20 minutes" I said.... "Marie, you are my hero !! You've solved my problem, and now my wife doesn't need to yell at me because she's standing at BestBuy waiting for Tyler... who had too many Gin and Tonic's last night to figure out this order" Consquently I got Brian Dunn's (CEO of BestBuy) email and wrote him to say what an awesome job Marie had done. Side Note : Brian... next time... endear yourself to your customers and take the 2 seconds it would have taken to reply to my email yourself, rather than forward it on to one of your customer service managers who eventually reached out to me to say "Thanks for your business"
OK.... so FINALLY on to BlueLounge and why supporting the little guy is a noble 'cause. In the midst of big enterprise, corruption, greed, squeezing every red cent of profit from their consumers, big companies tend to suck. Even Apple who I hold near and dear to my heart sucks at times! But by and large, little guys can't afford to lose customers, so for the most part (at least in my experience) they go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure every customer is satisfied. That's exactly what the fine folks @ BlueLounge did... Heck... they didn't really even have to go above and beyond. You know why? Their products we're available, their ordering system worked. I ordered the products (they make these super bitchin' cord holders.... so if you're a freak like me you don't have to look at eight thousand wires underneath your desk, they all fit in this nice little box) on a Sunday... and got them like on Wednesday. Nice! Then I tweeted out to the guys @ BlueLounge to let them know what an awesome job they did... and they acknowledged that.
Which... I gotta say... brings up another point (I'm just flowing w/ thoughts today... must be b/c it's the weekend and my mind is in weekend mode :) ) Anyway... back to my other point.... a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about this cool ass little company that got it's start on KickStarter. They make a watch holder called the Lunatik for the new iPod Nano, which doubles as a watch. Another side note : the only bummer I think about this apple product is that if you're like me... you never take off your watch. It's water proof.... and you just wear it all the time and don't think about it. That Nano, which doubles as a watch always needs to be charged... and god forbid if you forget you have it on and jump in the shower real quick... you're screwed!
Anyway... back to this guy Scott, boutique maker of the Lunatik and Griffin, a large manufacturer of Apple accesories that makes a similar product to the Lunatik that they just released @ CES. So I write the post... use the twitter handles in the header text so that each perhaps sees the post. And.... you know what? The dude from Griffin actually replies and the Lunatik guy (maybe he was busy) didn't. Anyway..... the guy really endeared himself to me.... especially since my post was about how Griffin kinda copied Lunatik's idea (perhaps... not really sure it went down like that) and would eventually drive Lunatik perhaps out of business or at the very least make it tough to compete, cause Griffin's product was cheaper and way more widely available. So the Griffin guy, by responding, actually got me to become more of a fan of their stuff, just by commenting on my post. Thought that was cool! Although Griffin.... gotta say, I don't know if you have a product like this... but I just bought the Iomgega iPhone 4 charger 'cause it's a charger and backup device all in one.... that's a pretty cool little product!
OK... I've wasted enough of your time today.... go do some work !!
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