WWYD: Put Up With Lousy Service or Take Your Business Elsewhere?
These days stellar customer service seems few and far between. Even companies with “good” customer service are often more like “acceptable”. While I don’t believe the customer is always right, I do believe if you are paying for a product or service, you should get what was promised 
and receive reasonable, polite service with a clue. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case lately in my life.
You see, I recently met the tipping point of unacceptable performance and customer service as it relates to technology I use in my business. As a coach and web technology consultant, I rely on web hosting to keep my primary marketing and business presence running. All my communications, lead generation, teleclass sign ups, resources, etc. all flow from my websites and blog. It is easy (with the right support) and cost effective since the work that I do is not limited to one geographical area. Because I rely heavily on my site being up and working properly, I rely heavily on my hosting company delivering what it says it will. That’s where the recent problems begin.
I have had the same hosting company (let’s call them spacypages to protect the guilty) for the last 3 years. Up until the last year, they had been pretty wonderful. Support, while a bit young and grungy, was always eager to help. Uptime and availability was always great. Sure, there are unexpected glitches and things that happen in the web world where sites and servers need to come down, both planned and unexpectedly. I understand that and at those times the company seemed to really communicate and care when things were down. In the last year, however, that all changed…
In the last year, every time I’ve had a problem (and they have been far too frequent for my liking) I would call customer service, get placed on hold forever and a day (not unusual in the tech industry I realize) with music that sounds like a radio station not quite tuned in so static abounds and heavy metal tunes float in and out. I could almost put up with this were it not for what happens once I actually get a live human being. I’d get a tech and then they would mumble and be thoroughly unhelpful. Now, I’m a web person and have been involved in all aspects of the web – networks to servers to programming to the boardroom and back again. So, I have a reasonable capacity for understanding what is going on and what they are talking about. That is IF they would actually tell me something of value. Lately it has been all about “we don’t support that”, “we can’t help you”, “we don’t know”, and “you’ll just have to redo your site” answers.
Up until now I had hesitated to move my domain name and hosting because it is essentially a pain in the butt and requires my site to be down for a short period of time. With all the other priorities happening in my life, I was lazy about it. Not to mention, I didn’t feel like losing money already spent for hosting.
What would you do? Put up with lousy service or take the plunge and move it all? Would you answer the same if you knew you just automatically renewed for the next year and might not get your money back?
It gets worse though. When my site was hacked no one cared. I had to rebuild everything and still don’t know how it happened (it’s not like I’m running complex applications with security holes hackers could exploit). The final straw was during a recent email outage when I wanted some answers. I went through the hoops described above only to be told “we have no idea when it will be back up.” Swell, I love having my main business email unavailable for more than a full business day. While I realize things break and need to be repaired – planned and unexpectedly, what I expect in these cases is communication. Is that too much to ask? Clear communication and a phone/online place to see network status and expected recovery times. I went to their 24 hour network hotline and was greeted with a “hello today is…” message that was two weeks prior. Guess that is what totally up to date customer service looks like to the space heads at spacypages.
Finally I decided I could take it no longer. Lost money or not (and I haven’t totally given up on a pro-rated refund yet) I had to move it all. How can I maintain a professional image and business on such a platform? So, I started the move to my preferred hosting at GoDaddy . (In fact, we recently moved Queercents there as well so we could be assured real, live, literate support people by phone 24/7.)
While it has been an irritating 2 weeks because of the delays in transferring my domain name and moving the site during off-time weekend hours, I am relieved to be complete. My last remaining hurdle is getting someone at spacypages to bother to even return my calls to customer service. This includes leaving messages directly on certain individual’s extensions who assured me they would take care of me and were upset by my bad experience. Of course this same clueless individual suggested calling him directly for tech support (but only between the hours of 9-5 EST and if he was at his desk) if I was unhappy with the support desk. Methinks the folks at spacypages are missing the whole point!
So here’s another twist on the what would you do question I asked a little earlier. At what point do you finally decide to take action and make the move from lousy service/product to a better alternative? How much pain or how much evidence do you need that something isn’t working before you take action? And, how do your decisions change if it means you may lose some money in the process?
I’d love to hear what you think’¦. And how your thinking may/may not change depending on whether the company you are working with is virtual or brick and mortar.
——————
Paula Gregorowicz is the Comfortable in Your Own Skin(tm) Coach and you can learn more at her website www.thepaulagcompany.com and blog www.coaching4lesbians.com .
——————
Paula: As you know, I would take plunge and move it all! Customer service is my pet peeve. Here’s a post that links to Tips for Getting Good Customer Support.
One step back is always worth ten steps forward.
Paula, in the face of poor customer service, it does not take much for me to speak up and say, “AW HELL N0;” then explain the incompetency; and then take my business elsewhere if I’m not satisfied with a company’s response. In this day and age, there is a competitor for everything. So at what point do I tolerate lousy service? Two strikes, and that’s it. They get one chance to screw up. They screw up again, my money is going to a company who wants to a build and foster a relationship with me – yes, even big corporations are willing to build relationships.
Losing money in moving my business elsewhere is not an option: it’s their screw up, so my money is staying with me either prorated or refund. There are regulatory agencies to ensure I keep my money if a business protests to giving my money back for a service they could not adequately provide.
How does this two strikes method work out for me? Well, I’ve been a loyal customer to several companies all because they make an effort not to screw up. Bottom line: it’s the effort to help a customer that really counts with me and keeps my business.
Probably go elsewhere, unless the lousy service doesn’t stress me. But most times it does. So go elsewhere if at all possible.
As a note, if this was Bluehost can you send me a quick note because they’re on my short list for possible transfers. Thanks!
I think the most effective way to deal with poor customer service is to vote…with your feet…and take your business elsewhere. I deal with several major telecom carriers in my job, customer service is a relatively foreign concept to them…I’ve ranted, I’ve raged…to no avail…until now…I simply flip circuits to a new provider…okay, so its maybe not quite that easy, but I still think the most effective message is: I’m outta here…painful though it may be! However the biggest problem is finding somewhere else where the service is better! Our cost-cutting has become the great equalizer…customer service is bad all over!
To me, the time issue is more important than friendly service. If I have a problem and I’m given a terse but correct answer, I’m much happier than if the person is friendly but wastes my time with clueless answers.
But there are times when a lack of friendly service is inexcusable, especially when establishing an initial relationship with a potential customer. A friend of mine won the lottery a few months ago. He walked into a large national bank intending to hire them to manage his money. While speaking with a rep, he asked to use the restroom. The rep explained they did not have a restroom for customers, and suggested he walk across the street to use one. He walked across the street… and to a different bank. They lost out on an account worth over a hundred million. Oops.