What is good customer service?
I work for Cingular customer service and I think Cingular's customer service problems have been greatly exaggerated. the reality the merger is not perfect but it is not as bad as some people have made it out to be. I have spoken with customers who ask me for things that I cannot give. Like free phones and accessories and waiving fees that cannot be waived. there are times when I am able to make an exception and give a customer exactly what they ask for. Then they believe they received excellent customer service and I was fair and helpful. If I cannot do what you are requesting I always come up with an alternate solution but sometimes that is not well received. I think that I am very fair with my customers and my decisions are very solid busi...
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Man i couldn't agree with you more. It's like people just don't understand business sometimes! They wouldn't expect going to McDonalds and getting a free hamburger, so why the hell should we just give away things? Cingular is a great company no doubt, however people tend to think we suck as a company or much yet as customer service just because their wish isn't our commands alot of the time. We have policies and procedurwes, just like every other company in the world, whether is a cell phone company, fast food, or a damn movie theater. Customers, I don't mean to be rude or mean -- that's not at all what I'm trying to be...but still at the same time, when it comes to calling in wanting credit for something, think about the company first ...
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thegreatrep said:
but.. The customer is always right! Right? 🙄 👿
not when they use 500 minutes over their plan and claim they didn't use it, even though we can look at the calls and see they were all long calls to their home phone...
he have a courtesy credit policy in place for a reason - for people that REALLY had a misunderstanding about something.
going back to the original poster - you are right, the people that claim to have poor experiences fall into one of two categories:
1. people that didn't get the unreasonable request they wanted and complain about it
2. a rep having a bad day. - this is one that a fellow REP at my store got when she called in to CS once. The CSR told her sh...
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thegreatrep said:
not when they use 500 minutes over their plan and claim they didn't use it, even though we can look at the calls and see they were all long calls to their home phone...
Heh, that's where I make a huge (perhaps overly huge) deal about the usage and offer to send them to the fraud department. "You're positive you didn't make these calls! Oh no! Perhaps it is cloning fraud... no, all these calls are off of the same tower. That can't be it. Uh oh! I think I kno what's going on! Someone might be stealing your phone and making calls from it! Forget fraud! I'm going to call 911 right now and let them know that someone's burglarizing your house!"
he have a courtesy credit policy in p...
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johnnyslick said:...thegreatrep said:
not when they use 500 minutes over their plan and claim they didn't use it, even though we can look at the calls and see they were all long calls to their home phone...
Heh, that's where I make a huge (perhaps overly huge) deal about the usage and offer to send them to the fraud department. "You're positive you didn't make these calls! Oh no! Perhaps it is cloning fraud... no, all these calls are off of the same tower. That can't be it. Uh oh! I think I kno what's going on! Someone might be stealing your phone and making calls from it! Forget fraud! I'm going to call 911 right now and let them know that someone's burglarizing your house!"
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simplymarcus said:...
I work for Cingular customer service and I think Cingular's customer service problems have been greatly exaggerated. the reality the merger is not perfect but it is not as bad as some people have made it out to be. I have spoken with customers who ask me for things that I cannot give. Like free phones and accessories and waiving fees that cannot be waived. there are times when I am able to make an exception and give a customer exactly what they ask for. Then they believe they received excellent customer service and I was fair and helpful. If I cannot do what you are requesting I always come up with an alternate solution but sometimes that is not well received. I think that I am very fair with my custome
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Cingular used to be more generous with credits and adjustments. But in the last two years Cingular has stopped giving away the house. the original thought was giving a lot of credits would help keep customers from canceling their service. From my experience I have seen more customers get credits then cancel once the credits run dry becuase they just wanted free service for a month or two. Credits do not keep customers from canceling it just delays the process a little bit. Odds are if a customer is unhappy they will leave. cingular tried giving away the house it does not work it just creates more problems than what it is worth. Verizon does not give away the house they do issue credit to customers who are good customers. AT&T wireless I wil...
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simplymarcus said:AT&T wireless I will not comment on because they no longer exist.
Whether you want to own up to it or not what a competitor does or did affects the way your present or future customers think you run your show. If a former competitor did it better they will not be happy with you if you do it worse than they do now such as hours that you're in the office. You'd think that with cingular being the largest mobile provider in the US that they'd have full-time customer service instead of short hours on Saturday and no service at all on Sunday.
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littlefuzzbear said:simplymarcus said:AT&T wireless I will not comment on because they no longer exist.
Whether you want to own up to it or not what a competitor does or did affects the way your present or future customers think you run your show. If a former competitor did it better they will not be happy with you if you do it worse than they do now such as hours that you're in the office. You'd think that with cingular being the largest mobile provider in the US that they'd have full-time customer service instead of short hours on Saturday and no service at all on Sunday.
I agree with the customer service 24-7 comment. That should be there. But the service aspect ...
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Customer service is open on on Sundays in some markets. In the union contract I would have to be paid a shift differential for working on Sundays. I doubt with call volume at night being really low will the hours for customer care ever be extended. AT&T wireless gave a way a lot of money in order to keep customers from canceling and they still had a high churn rate. I am not saying other carriers giving away a lot of money does not affect customers expectations when they have contact with customer care about their issue. I am just saying that AT&T is no longer around partially because of all the giveaways.
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simplymarcus said:
Customer service is open on on Sundays in some markets. In the union contract I would have to be paid a shift differential for working on Sundays. I doubt with call volume at night being really low will the hours for customer care ever be extended. AT&T wireless gave a way a lot of money in order to keep customers from canceling and they still had a high churn rate. I am not saying other carriers giving away a lot of money does not affect customers expectations when they have contact with customer care about their issue. I am just saying that AT&T is no longer around partially because of all the giveaways.
Two Points:
1. AT&T's Churn at the end was unusually high for them because of cu...
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If I purchase something from a store, or in this day & age, from a stores website, MOST of the stores that I have dealt with will allow exchanges or refunds through any of the stores in the chain. Why can't I go to a Cingular store for a refund or exchange on something I purchased from Cingular.com. I have all the proper documentation. This is my Cingular complaint so far. 😁
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elroysfd said:
If I purchase something from a store, or in this day & age, from a stores website, MOST of the stores that I have dealt with will allow exchanges or refunds through any of the stores in the chain. Why can't I go to a Cingular store for a refund or exchange on something I purchased from Cingular.com. I have all the proper documentation. This is my Cingular complaint so far. 😁
I did it and have friends that have done it and had no problems at all. You just have to make sure you have the receipt that comes in the box with your order. I believe (if I remember correctly, its been a while) that it is a sticker type of thing.
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Depends on the store. That is up to the individual store. Because u did not buy it from them they can turn u away within the first 30 days and redirect u to point of sale.
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Good customer service is about listening to the customer's concern, acknowledging their frustration and offering the best possible solutions to resolve that concern. If the customer asks you for something that just is not possible - a free phone with no contract extension, waived shipping and no upgrade fee -explain to the customer what you CAN do for them, and keep it positive. If the customer insists on demanding that free whatever, explain to the customer the business reason for denying their request. I deal completely honestly with customers and rarely run into problems. I tell the customer if they would like a free phone then I am willing to provide it, as long as there is a 2 year contract. If they balk at the contract I explain why th...
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