Customer Service Horror Stories Spread Faster

In this day and age, when almost everyone has a mobile phone and almost everyone has that phone tied into their Twitter, Facebook, and blog accounts, the spreading of bad news can be out in the virtual world almost as soon as it happens. Due to the quick turnaround time, and mass audiences that can be reached quickly, companies really need to step it up when it comes to their customer service teams.

In the past few years, there have been a couple good examples of how fast and far bad customer service can travel. One that immediately comes to my mind is the one where the guy found it a real hassle to cancel his AOL account.

Now, I cannot say that this or similar events hurt AOL, but they sure do not help at all. Actually, I have to say, as much as I use the computer daily, I rarely ever hear anything about AOL any more, whereas they used to be all over the commercials and ads online. This is one of the big major ones off the top of my mind, but the blogs out there are filled with people ranting and raving against poor service at all kinds of places.  

Aside from blogs even, people with cell phones use apps, and people use apps such as Foursquare, Yelp, Google Places, and a host of other apps that help them find and rate places of all types, from shopping, food, entertainment, etc. It only takes a few moments for someone to now write a bad rating on an app for the whole world to see when they pull that place up.

With all of this in mind, you would think that more time and energy would be put into a more selective hiring procedure for those positions along with proper training of the employees. Yet, still it seems everywhere you go, you run into sub-par treatment. Maybe that is an overstatement due to the fact that bad service is more quickly remembered than good, and so I am only seeing the negative when thinking back. I am not alone in that thought process though, so that is another reason why it is so important for companies to stay sharp and always be on their toes in providing great service. You may give great service half of the time, but it is not remembered as much as the bad service is.

So, if you are seeking to enter into a position where you will be providing customer service of some sort, please be sure you go the extra mile to consistently provide the best service that you can. Otherwise it can come back to bite you and your company.

Do you have any horror stories to share? Let me know about it in the comments section below.