Service — a thing of the past? Part I
I have recently been reminded as I go about checking off the errands needing to be run, the bills needing to be paid and the negotiating needing to take place, that there is a growing trend in our small community. What now, you may ask? I”m talking about a few of our local establishments and the people they choose to employ. I”m talking about as a retailer or customer service representative, the apparent myth that you are supposed to strive for excellence and satisfy the needs of your customers or clients. I”m talking about the goals that used to be created by employers for their personnel to maintain a standard of quality customer service, which leads me to my point. There seems to be a lack of of good customer service in our small towns.
It has been a very frustrating time for all of us in this economy. When people need help the most in these cold winter months, I have found that there is one propane company that goes above and beyond to help their customers. They are willing to provide assistance in payment options as well as maneuver their drivers to help the people that have children and just need some warmth. I understand not all companies do this but mine did. They are based out of Lakeport and are the type of people who actually remember what the definition of compassion is and how to apply it.
That leads me to another utility provider that I recently dealt with. The other side of the story. This company shut off my service after they had just received a $200.00 payment from me, which I absurdly thought would actually show an effort on my part. Not the full bill, but an effort just the same. Little did they know I had been trying to contact some of their assistance programs to help me pay a very large balance that was created in part by this company”s own mistake. I hold myself accountable for my own part, don”t get me wrong, but their mistake did lead me to fall farther behind in an already paycheck to paycheck life. So … my point? While I was at work, my husband and 5-year-old daughter, both of whom were sick with this flu going around, drove down to the office of this company to beg them to turn on our service. After being told that even after our payment the week prior, we still needed to pay hundreds of dollars just for them to flip a switch, he paid what we didn”t have and was on his merry way. That was at 10:30 a.m. At 6 p.m. he came into my work with our three daughters, two of whom were sick with this horrible flu, and informed me that this company still had not sent anyone to the house, even though we had done our part and they knew we had sick children. I proceeded to call the local number to this office since I had just a quick inquiry and there was a 43 minute hold on the 800 number. A woman answered, I introduced myself and told her my husband had been in that morning and that I just needed to check on the status of our service. It all went downhill from there. This woman, let”s call her “Rhonda,” was completely aghast that I had called that number; asked me how I got it and that it was an employee”s only line. Well, my mistake! No one had ever told me that before. She told me I needed to call the 24-hour line and the whole time she acted like she couldn”t believe I had done such a thing. How dare I! As I started to tell her I was so extremely sorry to bother her, with just a drip of sarcasm, she hung up on me. This is the woman who represents this large company? Wow! Kudos to her and her excellent customer service. Upon being hung up on while at my own job, I was so angry. Regardless of what number I called, I was their customer and this was how I was treated when I hand them over far too much money every month as it is. She is the face of that company and quite frankly, I don”t know how she has a job.
Jaemi Nunn is a Kelseyville resident, wife and mother who has recently encountered too many cases of poor customer service. Read the conclusion of Jaemi”s commentary in Thursday”s edition of the Record-Bee.
