One of the essential things for every business is customer service. Working in the utilities industry, I need to know that if there is a problem, you have access to great customer service.
One of the first things I ever look for in a utility supplier is how good their customer service is. In UK, many of the companies have been criticised about their service. It was hard to get through to them and often it was hard to get anything done promptly unless a real emergency.
When I partnered with the company I work with, I wanted to know I am selling services that are not only great value, but backed up by customer service. Many UK companies have been known to use call centres and there is no guarantee you will talk to someone from UK at all! To me, this is not acceptable because how can someone in India know my little corner of UK for example.
I want to share some of my customers, and colleagues’ customers experiences with customer service.
Customer Service Experience
The first experience I will share with you is from a friend who is a customer of the company I am partnered with. It’s all about broadband:
During a hot spell a couple of years ago, and with roofing work going on next door, I experienced problems with my broadband and phone connection.
I called customer service and they arranged an appointment with the relevant company to deal with the problem. I thought there was a problem with the supply cable to my property because it looked to be snagged on the scaffold next door. When investigated further, it came about that the cable was all ok and tested out fine.
I discussed things with the engineer and asked could it be heat, and the problem ended up being excess heat in the supply cabinet up the road. I had 2 options; a good phone line with dodgy broadband, or good broadband and no phone. I chose the good broadband option.
Because of the problem being with the supply, I had to wait for the company to get permits to dig up the road to deal with the problem. This was the 3rd party company.
During the several months ongoing, my supply company customer service kept in regular contact and updated me. I didn’t ask them to do this and was always kept up to date with developments.
When everything was fixed and I had my phone line back to normal, the customer service arranged for a reduction of bills due to the loss of the phone. This is excellent service and everything was carried out with little fuss on my part. I could trust them completely.
I have contacted customer service since with other small problems. Every time I had the same experience or help and understanding. They are excellent!
This is an example of customer service that takes full care of the situation for the client. They stay in touch until they get their full service back and 100% functional.
But this is the experience of another person dealing with one of the large companies. They had ordered fibre optic broadband that needed to be installed from scratch:
I ordered fibre optic broadband from one the top UK companies. They sent out an engineer to survey the job. They told me there was a problem with the cable and they would need permits to get the work done. This was the 3rd party company who installs the lines for the supplier.
The engineer told me they would report back to the supplier and tell them.
I had to pay for the installation, which was ok because I was going to have fibre optic all the way to the telephone socket. I was going to have the fastest broadband available in the area. It was also going to be more stable.
At this point, I was happy. It didn’t take long for me to be very unhappy.
I called several times only to be told I hadn’t paid for the service, which I had. Then I was told they would have to send an engineer out. I told them I had the engineers report in front of me.
To cut a long story short, it took 3 months to get my broadband connected and many calls to the company to find out when I would get my installation finished. It was only after telling them to forget it and demanding a refund from the supervisor that they actually got the job done.
I’m happy with the broadband itself and thankfully have not had to deal with customer service again. If I ever do, and they are not better, I will leave without question because it’s too much of a headache!
I know the company I would prefer to work with just from these 2 examples. We all pay for a service and we all deserve to be treated fairly and with understanding.
I hope you found this article on the importance of customer service useful.
