“How Did We Do?” Questionnaire

I recently received three questionnaires asking me to reply or post how I felt about the service I received. In each case, I was extremely satisfied with the overall service, but I had follow-up encounters that required extra effort on my part or were not responded to. These encounters upset me and made me reluctant to respond to their questionnaires.

In one situation, I was supposed to receive a final document that hadn’t arrived. When I emailed asking about it, I did not receive a reply. Everything else they did for me was superb, but this left a bad taste for me.

In the second situation, I was missing a bi-weekly newsletter from a few months ago and wasn’t sure if it hadn’t arrived or if I had misplaced it. I wrote a letter to their customer service address two months ago, and neither the missing newsletter nor a reply has arrived. I recently followed up again. It is for a subscription I have been getting for over two dozen years, and I am very happy with otherwise.

In the third situation, I receive weekly and monthly landscaping services, and the company failed to update their systems after I called and provided new credit card details. I received an email that the monthly service was being halted since my credit card expired, and I did not provide a new card to charge. When I called to explain I had already provided new card details, I was told that while the services were performed by the same people, the bookkeeping for the monthly services is handled by a different team. I needed to provide my new card details to the monthly services team to reactivate those services. I expected the two teams to communicate with each other, and I resented having to make a second call.

These are tiny annoyances for otherwise great services, but irritating enough to wonder what happens in the back office, and if I should recommend the companies.

I have been advising the business community throughout my long career, and I have observed that truly successful people and businesses place extreme importance on any client interaction or correspondence. While a single customer letter, comment or complaint is unlikely to be earthshattering for the company, it was important enough for the customer to write or call. These things that are important to customers should be addressed in a timely and thorough manner.

Running a business is hard work with many movable parts. However, it should never be difficult for customers to interact with you. My advice is to prioritize customer satisfaction and your customer service department.