Words That Kill

Want to lose a customer fast? Memorize these phrases: "That's our policy." "That's not my department." "You are wrong."

You have been taught repeatedly that these lines are poisonous -- they kill loyalty. Although it is hard to believe anyone would utter such toxic words, you don't have to go far to find furious customers who could have been saved if they had not been served a dose of bad service.

"THAT'S OUR POLICY."Herb Jacobus could star in his own sitcom about his terrible phone-buying experience. When Carrier X offered him a special promotion that included a $50 rebate on Sony phones, he bought two. However, when he tried to collect the rebates, the carrier demanded the packing slip that came with the phones. Jacobus had disposed of it when he opened the box.

"They billed the handsets to my phone bill, so they have proof that I bought them, but they won't give me the rebate," he said.

So if a CSR can pull up the account and see that Jacobus clearly purchased two Sony phones, why can't the vendor give him the rebates? Company policy.

"That is the process and the policy that we have in place with that vendor to process the paperwork to get the rebate to the customer," Carrier X said. "A receipt is what we require to process those rebates, and that is clearly marked on all the information."

Ed Legum, The Edmond Howard Network president, said when you allow a policy to stand in the way of taking care of customers, you will lose that customer forever.

"It is a poor decision to hide behind a policy because you are saying you have no flexibility," he said.

Instead, Carrier X should have empowered the CSR to write a note to the vendor and authorize it to give Jacobus a $50 rebate on each phone.

Later, Jacobus took his handset into a retail outlet to get it reprogrammed when the carrier added a city to its network. He was in line behind 30 other people. An hour later, the store only had helped eight people. Two salespeople were reprogramming handsets, even though four stations were set up to do so. Jacobus noticed two salespeople, one of whom was the store manager, hanging up a sign.

"I went up to them and asked, 'Don't you think you ought to be behind those machines?' They said, 'We have to get these signs up. We are graded on how our store looks.' I would think they also are graded on how upset customers are," he said.

"THAT'S NOT MY JOB."Legum said this "not my department" type of phrase is another big killer. More than 60% of traffic in retail stores is service-related, yet wireless stores usually don't have enough people to handle service issues. Salespeople have other responsibilities. They are judged on acquisitions and, as this store manager said, how the store looks. If they program one phone, 50 phones, or no phones at all, it will make no difference on their evaluation form. The answer, Legum said, is dedicated customer service in every retail store to handle these issues.

"If you have two people waiting on 50 customers, you are dramatically under-manned," he said.

Mark Landiak, Corporate Dynamics president, said it is amazing how much money carriers spend today on save teams compared with front-end customer service.

"Can you think of any other business where it is acceptable to be number 50 in line? This carrier should decide if it is rewarding the wrong things, or maybe this is a manager who misinterprets or misprioritizes what the company is trying to accomplish."

Carrier X explained that, by design, only certain people can upgrade and reprogram phones because it is such a technical function. Most of its salespeople are not trained for this process. It plans to open several other store locations this summer and to staff them with more people who can handle technical issues.

When Jacobus complained about the wait, the manager said his store was the carrier's busiest store in the country, and he suggested that Jacobus visit another store location.

"What a swell customer-service guy," Jacobus said.

Sending a customer somewhere else is a retail sin, Legum said.

"If it was in any other kind of company, it would be out of business," he said.

Landiak said this carrier's procedures are driving its processes, which drive people to take actions that make no sense. Instead, people should drive processes based on common sense.

"YOU ARE WRONG."Ray Bollin's phone bills typically are about $50 each month, so he was concerned when one wireless phone bill showed a $120 balance. Upon inspecting his bill, Bollin noticed roaming charges from Oklahoma City to a number in Overland Park, KS, that he did not recognize. Because he never travels near Oklahoma City, he immediately called customer service and asked for advice.

"Basically, they told me that it is virtually impossible to bill me incorrectly, that nobody could have made a phone call from my phone, and that I must have called the number," he said.

After hearing about cloning, Bollin called a second time and asked if perhaps his analog phone had been cloned. Carrier Y told him that it was not likely in this case. The company reiterated that it is impossible to bill a customer if he did not make a call. Finally, Bollin logged onto the customer service Web site and repeated his situation in an e-mail. He never received a return phone call, page or e-mail.

"I left it at that," he said. "It is so frustrating. As soon as my contract is up, I will never renew."

Carrier Y, however, said Bollin has two phones with the company, and the disputed phone number appeared on both phones.

"We think maybe he has forgotten that he has been to (Oklahoma City)," Carrier Y said. "He made calls minutes later on that phone to his home number from the same area." As a result, it gave no compensation.

According to Legum and Landiak, the point is not whether Bollin was right or wrong. The amount of money Bollin disputed is trivial compared to what he spends with Carrier Y over one year.

"It is not a matter of right and wrong," Legum said. "It is a matter of pure dollars and cents. You have just lost $1,800 over three years because you were right. Those are very strong principles, but stupid business decisions."

Not to mention all the prospective customers Carrier Y will lose when he tells his story to friends and relatives.

"Every time he sees the carrier's ad, it is a constant reminder of how miserably they treated him," Landiak said.

It is obvious where Carriers X and Y went wrong, so what should you do instead? For starters, Landiak said, take care of the customers' problems right away.

"If you rectify service problems in the customer's favor immediately, in 95% of cases they will do business with you again," he said.

Next, take a close look at your organizational structure. Legum noted that few wireless companies have a vice president of retail or director of retailing. In addition, put a store manager at every location who will ensure the store runs properly.

Both Legum and Landiak suggested that you do some mystery shopping, which is an inexpensive way to monitor your retail outlets. You might find that your managers are suggesting that customers such as Herb Jacobus go down the road to a less-frequented location for service. Imagine their shock when, instead, they keep on going down that road to your competitor. Then you have lost them for life.