Last weekend my mobile phone froze on me. However, as I was just 11 days from the end of a two year contract I thought it would be a no-brainer to get an early upgrade. How wrong I was! I have been a loyal customer with my mobile provider for well over ten years, yet the company was prepared to let me go for the sake of 11 days!
When I mentioned the foolhardiness of this policy to the manager she replied that she knew – had in fact been refused an upgrade to a customer just one day away from the end of their contract - and because of such restrictions she was actually leaving the company to work elsewhere.
Not wanting to be without a mobile phone service, I walked out of the door and into the next mobile phone provider shop just two doors down. What saved the day was having to get my PAC code over the phone – and for this I went back to the original provider. I had to hang on their phone for over 30 minutes, but I finally got through to someone who offered me an instant upgrade with no loss of cover.
As my personal opinion is that all companies are pretty much the same when it comes to customer service (or lack of it) I was happy to renew. However, when I mentioned the manager’s restricted abilities to the new salesperson, I was met with surprise and indifference.
Yet the company was within a whisker of losing me – and it is always, always, ALWAYS more cost effective to retain customers than spend marketing money on finding new ones. So I urge you to educate your staff to do whatever is reasonable to retain your existing customers.
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