Responsibility
Back in 1995, after many, many Gorden’s and Tonic, my
partner and I decided at a quarter past stupid o’clock in the morning to write
a letter to Iceland. We had just
consumed a ‘Beanie-Bar’, a chocolate bar with smarties in it. I can’t tell you the actual contents of the
letter because we were very merry, but we know it started with and went along
the lines of “Dear Customer Services Type Person” and then yorped on about the
gorgeous chocolate bar, and it could only be better if they made it bigger and
a little cheaper, but other than that it was very gorgeous and tasty. A couple of weeks later we got a reply,
written in good humour it said that they “passed our lovely comments on to the
gorgeous chocolate buyer – the chocolate not the buyer, although he is very
nice” and to say thank you for “making them smile”, they enclosed a voucher to
buy more gorgeous chocolate bars, signed “The Senior Customer Services Type
Person!”
Last week, I received an email at work outlining how a provider of telecare services for vulnerable people were going to charge us an exorbitant fee for a service that they could have done as a good will gesture. They have had the contract to maintain and service this equipment for over ten years that I know of, probably longer, and although they could tell us how to do the simple task we required, they wouldn’t. I replied ‘That’s classic Name of Company! Never knowingly helpful when they can so charge you a fortune, which is why we should tender for the new hardware rather than simply go with a single tender as suggested by XX’. The problem was, I hit the ‘Reply All’ button not realising the provider was on the circulation list! Bugger! Sadly, the recall facility didn’t work with third party email systems, and they got to read my pearls of wisdom regarding the quality of their customer service. I replied to an initial reply apologising for my mistake, and then informed my manager of the latest dangler I had dropped.
Now if that were me, I would have thought, Right here’s an
unhappy customer and we stand to lose a contract worth several hundred thousand
pounds and the associated maintenance contract. Instead, I got challenged to “explain
how I am qualified to make such a judgement. . . ”
You can imagine I was thrilled, and told the provider that I
would not be explaining myself to her, and that with respect the matter was now
closed. However, I was sat next to a
colleague who was trying to keep a straight face when two minutes later the
phone rang and the stroppy goose was trying to locate me and my position within
the organisation.
Whatever chance they had of winning me over has since gone,
and the poor opinion I have of their company has been reinforced. Iceland on the other hand brings a smile to
my face whenever I think about some cute and gorgeous chocolate buyer counting
out his smarties. . .
This week’s Brain Fart will be exploring the spirit of
responsibility in the modern world and how we tolerate piss-poor service on a
daily basis. Why? Just why?
