Customer Service
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An integrated brand touches and defines all aspects of your company. It’s true that advertising has a lot to do with how first-time customers and non-customers view your company, but customer support defines how existing and former customers will view you.
Network Solutions, my former Internet host, has a very low level of customer service. When you submit a request by email, it takes a few weeks to get a response – often a useless one. When you call, you are directed to very kind people who can do nothing more than submit a support ticket on your behalf. Often, it takes another week to get a response from another department you’re not allowed to contact directly. It can be very frustrating, particularly when your service problem relates to billing.
American Express, on the other hand, has an incredibly high level of customer service. You can call for any reason and a customer service operator will walk you through any issue or problem you might have and explain to you what will happen next on their end. No waiting to see whether or not the issue will be resolved, it’s wonderful to be a customer!
You’re probably wondering where this is coming from. Until this month, this site and domain were both registered and hosted through Network Solutions at a relatively high rate of $120/year. In January, I made the decision to transfer to a new host and disabled the “automatic subscription renewal” feature. Early this month, however, a charge of $150 appeared on my American Express card for my renewed hosting service. I had already started the process of transferring my domain, so this was very frustrating.
I called immediately, and a very nice woman put a ticket in to the billing department, gave me a customer support reporting number, and told me everything would be resolved in about a week. Today, I received an email from the billing department informing me that it was their policy to not refund subscription charges. Ironically, my original contract doesn’t expire until July, so the money isn’t actually paying for anything yet.
I called again, and talked to another polite customer service rep who confirmed the no-refund policy and promised to submit another ticket to the billing department anyway. He didn’t think it would make a difference, though, and tried to talk me into using the service I didn’t want in the first place anyway.
This led me to call American Express, where I talked to Wally. He understood the situation and was just as upset as I was. He has suspended the transaction on my account and promises American Express will resolve the issue and secure the refund for me! In addition, he promised to send me a letter within the next week explaining what steps they would take in the resolution and promised a follow up in 6-8 weeks to explain what happened between American Express and Network Solutions.
A total of three hours on the phone with Network Solutions led to nothing but more hurt and angered feelings from a customer that has been actively campaigning for their services with his friends, family, and colleagues. Fifteen minutes with American Express completely solved the problem and created a new product champion out of someone who never really like credit cards in the first place.
Which one of these companies mirrors your customer support department?
Hi Eric,
I work for Network solutions. Sorry about the experience you had. Would love to make this right for you. Is eamann.com the domain name you are referring to. If you would like to send me an email my contact info is here http://tinyurl.com/6gsz66 or DM me @shashib on Twitter. Hope to make it up to you.
Shashi
Shashi,
Thank you very much for the offer! Actually, I received a phone call today from someone else in the organization who promised to take care of the disputed charge for me and fix all of the problems with my account. I contacted my credit card and closed down the dispute on their end as well and am just waiting to hear back from Network Solutions.
Again, I appreciate the offer of assistance! I’m happy that everything is finally working out.