Michael Maoz

I often am asked if I really experience the customer service stories that I talk about during conferences. I answer the question with a question: “Haven’t you got a story that is equally improbable but true about a service experience?”

That usually wins me another great anecdote to tell at another time. My most recent was five minutes ago booking a rental car. I opened my corporate policy statement on rental cars, got the Corporate Account Number to give the agent, and then called the call center. I had just rented a car to travel on client calls to New York and Boston the week before, booking with the same company. They had no record of my reservation and no information on my billing information, name, address, or preferences. The local pickup spot is closed in the evening. I live in a rough neighborhood. The agent quoted me rates that did not match my corporate policy, and terms and conditions that had nothing to do with those I’d received the time before and the time before that.

It will all be OK. I’ve learned that this company has good reason to keep no information about the customer in the hands of agents. They don’t have a proper contact center with security policies and privacy measures, and they don’t have a CRM system or analytics to figure out a pattern (like: oh! did you move from the spot you have been picking up cars the past 12 years?).

The last thing they would want is to show customers that they care, or that they recognize their economic value, or to engage proactively. Better to flood the media with advertisements, and get into search engines and sponsor events. Keep filling the marketing funnel and the let the leaky sales and retention bottom of the funnel fend for itself.

What was I saying? Anyway, I often am asked if I really experience the customer service stories that I talk about during conferences. Did I already tell you that one? Oh. Sorry, let me start again……