That’s Customer Centered
I still keep my personal blog at two click exchanges. I do that for lots of reasons. I feel a little sentimental. My little blog found it’s first friends in such places and I still like exploring them. I also like to watch how such things work. The business models interest me. I want to watch as they introduce new features. I want to see how each community reacts to them.
Brand You and Me
Over the last year, I got to be good friends with a tech at one click exchange. Rachel was like me, a nice one. They had a problem for a few weeks with a spell of trojans. It seems everyone tried to crawl onto my computer I caught four or five in three weeks.
Actually my virus program stopped those trojans in their tracks before they hit me. Each time I would contact Rachel, and in very Janice Myint fashion, she would ask for the facts and get right on tracking down each trojan. We’d work together.
You’re On Your Own Customer
Tonight, I wrote with a problem. I said that when surfing I couldn’t leave comments. I mentioned that two other people had emailed me that they had run into the same issue. I pointed out that it seemed to kill the whole purpose of reading while surfing, if I can’t leave a comment. The new tech returned a suggestion of what might be wrong with my computer. (It wasn’t.) He then said I might disarm my firewall — thinking of the earlier trojans, I didn’t think that I wanted that solution. He then decided the problem was Blogger.
I suggested that he might ask the population at the click exchange whether this was a problem for more than just the two or three of us. He said it wasn’t. When I asked him what the big deal was in asking he said
The big deal with asking? That’s just not how things are done when there isn’t any evidence of a problem.
So, if you can get me more data . . . go for it! Ask the people that are having the same problem to send a ticket too!
Did I Just Hear That?
I was a little surprised that the burden of proof that a problem existed was put on me — the customer. Sounds a bit like “Do my job for me.” Sounds a little like he could use a lesson in writing a friendly email, too. I replied with these words
Dear customer,
Do it yourself.Thank you, I hear you.
I will take care of my own problems.
I appreciate the conversation and learning about how your enterprise looks at these things.It’s cool. I can deal with that.
Have a great night.
Liz
He probably should have left it there. He didn’t. Instead he wrote back.
I’m glad you understand that it’s impossible for me to do anything at this point since I can’t produce the problem.
Don’t Pretend I Said That
I hadn’t said that.
Please don’t put words in my mouth.
I understand that you want me to take care of my own problem and that you are not interested in whether other members of the population might also be having the same problem unless they bring it to you.That’s cool. Not to know about the problem is one way to deal with the situation.
I also understand that you have no interest in seeing the problem from my point of view. That’s fine too. I was just writing a post about it for Successful-Blog. Do you know it? We talk a lot about thinking like customers and Brand You and ME
workng as a team together.That’s the fun of being a blogger. Everything is blog fodder. 🙂
Have a great night.
I keep hearing the Earthlink commercial in my head, “When you have a problem I will treat it as if it is my own.”
I don’t think he knows that one.
I would be wrong if I not tell you that the conversation wasn’t over there. I woke up to more this morning.
I would also be wrong, if I told you it got any better. It wasn’t worse either. It was more of the same really. I finally said I didn’t have time to do his work, thanked him, and said I’d be happy to use another click exchange where I could make my comments.
What He Didn’t Get
The man in this story didn’t get five things I can think of. These four
- That he gets paid to solve problems and I don’t.
- That his click exchange isn’t the only one.
- That I can go somewhere else to get service like that.
- If enough people do what I do, the first bullet won’t stay true.
and then there’s the biggest one of all . . .
I didn’t necessarily want him to fix the problem. I would have been satisfied if he valued my membership and showed an effort to help.
Instead, I felt like I had to jump hoops to get his attention, then maybe . . . Anyone having this problem with a click exchange, do contact them.
Tell them I sent you.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
See the Customer Think Series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE
