October 8, 2015- ISSN# 1545-2646
Customer Service IRS Style
For those of you who provide customer service to your clients and patrons, one way to teach your staff how not to perform is follow the lead of the IRS.
I’ve had the pleasure of having to deal with the IRS multiple times this year due to Tax Identity Theft issues. To date I suspect I have been on hold for no less than a 1/2 of a full 40 hour work week! Yes 20+ hours of dialing their number, being put in the hold queue and waiting to talk to a rude person which my tax dollars are paying to tell me various things which they can’t fix and it will be another X amount of time before they will get around to taking my case further.
Their services will place you on hold and then for no reason the line will drop dead only leaving you one option – call back and start over at the beginning of the wait queue. If you are waiting and the time gets close to their quitting time the line just drops off – not message, no warning – just dead.
When you finally get to someone they typically need to place you on hold multiple times and go look for answers, talk to someone or most likely take a break. One time I was placed on hold and waited for more than 1.5 hours. I finally had to move on and start over again another day.
Now any business with this level of poor service would be lambasted all over social media, Facebook, Yelp etc. The IRS just takes it all in stride. I actually had a person tell me that they had been on the phone with me for 18 minutes (after I waited for them to take my call for over 45minutes) and that they were now going to hang up and take the next caller even thought my issue had not been completely addressed.
This week if you compare your customer service to the IRS you will have glowing results. The fact is, the way you take care of your customer is vital to the longevity of the relationship and recurring revenue which your business will garner over the life span of the customer relationship.
Take a close look at your telephone records on time spent with your customers. Look at transactions, call backs, or any of the other ways in which you track your customers satisfaction with your company. Would you do business with your company?
Looking at improving your customer experience? Give us a call (313) 527-7945 at JKL Associates and we can make sure you are not replicating the systems of the IRS.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
Copyright – JKL Associates 2015
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JKL Associates
18530 Mack Ave #242
Grosse Pointe Farms MI 48236
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