3 Examples of Awful Customer Service Your Biz Won’t Want to Imitate

by smallbizbee · 13 comments

What constitutes really great customer service? What constitutes really awful customer service? While conducting research on this subject for budget hosting company 34SP.com, I came across a few examples that really stretched some boundaries.

Some Truly Awful Service

Although these are stories of big brands, the lessons learned can be applied to small business customer service as well. Here are a few brief examples – all of them pretty bad.

Verizon’s Callousness

Let’s say that someone in your family dies. It’s a bad time, lots of stress and details to be sorted out. What if you tried to cancel the dead person’s phone service, but the phone company wouldn’t let you? What if you even produced the official death certificate and they still refused to shut the account off? That is precisely what happened to Cynthia Lacy according to a published report at the St. Petersburg Times eEdition.

Ms. Lacy’s father passed away in June of 2009, but since Ms. Lacy didn’t have her father’s PIN number to access the account – Verizon didn’t discontinue the service until March 2010. This is despite the fact that Ms. Lacy sent the company a copy of her father’s death certificate. It took the intervention of the media shining the spotlight on her case to get it resolved. You can read the whole story here.

Kevin Smith “Too Fat to Fly”

Then there is the recent dust up involving Hollywood direct Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines. Mr. Smith is known for directing such films as Clerks, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the recently released Cop Out.

During a recent flight, Mr. Smith was asked to leave the plane prior to takeoff for ”being too fat”. Being a media savvy promoter, Mr. Smith proceeded to live-Tweet and fully publicize his ordeal. According to published reports (this story was picked up by numerous large national media outlets including Wall Street Journal, USA Today, ABC, and the Los Angeles Times) Mr. Smith said he was already seated on the flight with armrests down and seatbelt fastened.

The Southwest captain deemed him a ‘’safety risk” due to his weight and he was ejected from the flight. The ensuing backlash abated somewhat when Southwest issued apologies on Twitter and on the Southwest website.

From the apology post, ”First and foremost, to Mr. Smith; we would like to echo our Tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you. We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines.” So good job by Southwest to admit a mistake and take responsibility. If you’d like to hear a lengthy description of the incident as told by Kevin Smith himself, you’ll find it here.

Toyota’s Fall From Grace

Automobile manufacturer Toyota recently demonstrated that even a firm known for high quality and service can quickly fall from grace.

The short story here is: Toyota began to receive complaints regarding ‘’sticking accelerator pedals”. Since the problems were first revealed, the company has continued a slow-motion service and communication debacle. In late January the company issued this statement, ”Toyota announced it would recall approximately 2.3 million vehicles to correct sticking accelerator pedals on specific Toyota Division models.

Toyota has investigated isolated reports of sticking accelerator pedal mechanisms in certain vehicles without the presence of floor mats. There is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position.”

Subsequent quality issues arose with the brakes on the Prius as well. Although the company has now taken more aggressive steps to correct these issues, rival car manufacturers have eroded the company’s market share in new car sales. You can follow all of the details via Toyota’s news pages.

So What’s the Key to Great Customer Service?

If there is a common thread of learning that connects these incidents it is: proper communication is key. First, properly communicating and adhering to strict operational rules regarding how the business is run to employees. This means that everyone in the organization knows and understands policies and proper procedures. Second, communicating with the customers and being as transparent as possible in the face of any problems. Companies that excel in communicating often excel in service as well.