Today I had to contact a vendor over a potentially serious problem we were having with some of their equipment. They have a nice little automated package to which you send an email and from you which a new case is automatically created, support personnel are contacted and an initial response sent.
I marked my issues as needing immediate attention and went about my business waiting for a reply.
Three hours ago a reply would have been timely. A reply now might save a good part of someone’s derriere. A reply any later than, say, right now will get me a little wound up. Like Tasmanian devil wound up.
Anymore, every industry is a service industry. A three hour response to an issue isn’t even remotely acceptable. You might not be able to solve my problem as quickly as I might like, but at least let me know you’re working on it. Via a real person.
With live chat support, 24x7 email and phone support and the long list of other support means now available from virtually any company if your company doesn’t supply top notch customer service you’ll pretty much be immediately behind on the customer service learning curve. And any company that isn’t supply either great service or who doesn’t have a monopoly just isn’t going to make it.
It may seem obvious, but clients are a company’s number one asset and any company that doesn’t jealously protect and nourish that asset is going to lose it.
