My wife visited the at&t store to get a new cell phone since hers died. The website said we were eligable for an upgrade so we thought great! She walked in and up to one of the service people who looked “super busy” texting. She said “my phone is broken, can I use my upgrade?” He said sure, all you have to do is pay the $18 upgrade fee and then the price of the phone (roughly $150 low end). Julie said forget that wondering how is this “upgrade” was any benefit to her. Then she remembered we needed to cancel our home phone, also with at&t, which she figured she would go ahead and do now. Turns out they don’t do that there. In fact you have to call a number and literally beg someone to cancel. Defeated and frustrated she left only to realize that her cell phone still didn’t work, so how was she going to call.

Why is customer service so under valued by big faceless companies? Why is it so hard to do right? Experiences like these leave a such a bad taste in your mouth which otherwise could have been great. And it’s only a matter of time before you spread the word to your friends. In this case a word of disappointment.

Marty Neumeier writes in Zag, “Every brand is built with experiences, whether the brand is a company, product or a service and whether it serves individuals or a buisness. The key is to craft those experiences so they create delight for the people who determine the meaning and value of your brand – your customers.”

In the same book he also writes, “Every brand is built by a community. Not just a community of people inside the company, but it’s partners, suppliers, investors, CUSTOMERS, non-customers, even competitors. It’s a complete ecosystem in which there are gives and gets all around. Everyone has a role to play, and everyone should be repaid for thier efforts.”

People need people, brands need people. Good will is good buisness.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Branding, Business, Random, Word of Mouth, brand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.