Over the past six months, I have been going through the process of buying a new house and moving. Along the way, I’ve had a mixture of both positive and negative customer service experiences. The good were really good, and I made sure to adequately voice my appreciation, but many were bad and compounded by the feeling that I wasn’t being listened to or appreciated when I tried to get the situations corrected.

For example, the company we bought our new washer and dryer from delivered the wrong ones. We refused the delivery but wanted the problem fixed right away. We wanted the correct washer and dryer, but getting the company to even admit their mistake became more difficult than the eventual solution. As it progressed, we felt once the company had our money, their interest in us was gone.

Finally, we took our discontent to social media, and only then did we finally see our concerns addressed.

I’m glad we got our issue resolved, but at what length? How has customer service declined so much that it is only a priority when a company’s failings are made public? Why wouldn’t a company prefer to solve an issue immediately and completely so they can turn a negative situation into a positive one?

From this and other situations over the past six months, I’ve discovered how bad customer service has become. I can’t comprehend how or when this has happened, but I’ve heard from many friends and colleagues that this is all too common.

As a seller of products and services at Detroit Sponge, my one goal is to meet or exceed the expectations of the customer who trusts me with their business–especially if they have a problem.

As a buyer of products and services, I reasonably expect a few things when I have a problem:

1. Someone to listen to my problem.
2. Someone to acknowledge that there is a problem.
3. Someone to ask for or offer a solution.
4. Someone to follow through to the solution and make sure the problem is resolved.

So these are the things we strive for here at Detroit Sponge, because we want to treat customers how we would like to be treated.

Ultimately, we all just want to receive what was originally expected. If there’s a problem, it should be taken care of quickly, with adequate communication, and without hassle. We want to feel like satisfaction with the purchase is the goal, not just the taking of money.

How do you want it handled if you have a problem with a company’s products or services?

Continue reading...