ISSUES WITH BALLS
HAS CUSTOMER SERVICE DIED OR HAVE WE JUST FORGOTTEN WHAT IT IS, ASKS ASHLEY BALLS.
I AM REASONABLY
confident that many readers will have already encountered what I went through earlier this week but it needs some publicity – if only to minimise the number of future victims. The business in my sights is the ubiquitous software supplier Microsoft.
In starting my observations on this it may help to begin with a definition of customer service that most of us will understand. On looking for something straightforward and non-technical I arrived at the following which was taken from Wikipedia:
“Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. The perception of success of such interactions is dependent on employees ‘who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest’. Customer service concerns the priority an organisation assigns to customer service relative to components such as product innovation and pricing. In this sense, an organisation that values good customer service may spend more money in training employees than the average organisation, or may proactively interview customers for feedback.”
In plain English this means that the continued success of a business is predicated on the quality of its products and the suppliers’ interest and ability to support them when things go wrong. Modern car companies are a good example. Twenty years ago, a 12-month guarantee was all you would get; it was grudgingly supplied and had exceptions. Today, three to five years is quite normal and often accompanied by roadside assistance and even free servicing.
My story about Microsoft is as follows. In May 2015 I needed a new laptop and after some research selected a Microsoft Surface and a subscription to Office 365 using the Windows operating system. Office 365 is a cloud based version of Office and sold with ‘free’ cloud storage for documents, data, photos etcetera.
Both the hardware and software are excellent products and work well. The cloud based software is easy to use and gets updated automatically so users have the latest version all the time. I have recommended the solution I adopted to many others who have been similarly satisfied.
Things started to go downhill recently when, like all other users, I was informed the volume of cloud storage bought as part of the annual subscription was to be drastically reduced. Presumably having captured many millions of users the idea was to pump the price and make even larger profits. If the volume of sales was so much higher than expected that the storage costs became uneconomic then someone in marketing can expect to be looking for a new job.
Like many users, I have changed my email address. In my case I have relocated and have a new ISP. Microsoft were informed, though the process was far from straightforward and eventually involved hanging on forever to a call centre.
A few weeks later the trouble started. Firstly, I received messages every time I opened my laptop telling me I had exceeded my cloud storage allowance and would I like to buy more.
I opted for the NZ$3 a month option. A receipt arrived immediately; which was quite normal. However, the storage did not arrive, or at least not using the email communication channel I had moved to and which Microsoft knew about.
Quite why an email account migration doesn’t automatically change the communications channel is a mystery as email address changes are hardly rare.
Trying to sort this out has been a mission and started with Accounts. After hours online with a helpful messaging service representative nothing was achieved as she didn’t have the authority to change communications settings. I was referred to a techie, who after several more hours of messaging had not advanced my problem one bit. That person in return has referred me to someone else and finally gave me an email address to communicate with.
In the interim I have had two messages asking me how well Microsoft performed at fixing my problem!
Meanwhile, they have my subscription, and have not fixed the problem and I have no backup.
It seems no one will take responsibility, no one ever calls back and each individual at the call centre has almost no flexibility to act.
At every level the concept of customer service is an illusion and the notion that customers’ time may actually be valuable doesn’t exist. We are hapless cash cows for an offshore based company whose profits soar in inverse relationship to their worldwide tax contribution.
If I ran my business like that I would soon have no clients.
For the record my email address is afpballs@gmail.com. I’ll report back if Microsoft ever make contact.
1. My last two cars have been new Skodas, one purchased in NZ and the other in Spain. Both have been very well covered and very well supported by the supplier.