Why is customer service rubbish?
Most of my professional time is spent sitting on statutory bodies representing the consumer, notably the Communications Consumer Panel and the Board of Consumer Focus. It’s a truism that so much customer service is terrible. It seems that so many companies spent lots of money and time seeking to win you as a customer and then treat you appallingly when, as one of their customers, you have a problem or a complaint.
According to this fascinating article in a recent issue of “The New Yorker”, the explanation is all down to “the efficient relationship paradox”. The piece concludes:
“The real problem may be that companies have a roving eye: they’re always more interested in the customers they don’t have. So they pour money into sales and marketing to lure new customers while giving their existing ones short shrift, in an effort to minimize costs and maximize revenue. The consultant Lior Arussy calls this the “efficient relationship paradox”: it’s only once you’ve actually become a customer that companies put efficiency ahead of attention, with the result that a company’s current customers are often the ones who experience its worst service.
Economically, this makes little sense; it’s more expensive to acquire a new customer than to hold on to an old one, and, these days, annoyed customers are quick to take their business elsewhere. But, because most companies are set up to focus on the first sale rather than on all the ones that might follow, they end up devoting all their energies to courting us, promising wonderful products and excellent service. Then, once they’ve got us, their attention wanders.”