The Lie of Customer Service

It was my first significant job after college and I still remember my enthusiasm when Mr. Kummer detailed Prudential’s commitment to customer service and to doing things right. I remember too the shock I felt when they laid off Olga just shy of the time she needed to be fully vested for a life of benefits. Olga was German and stereotypically always punched in on time, never missed a day, punched out on time for breaks and gave each day her best shot. The company wasn’t about rewarding employees for good service nor did they really believe all that talk about their customers. That was when I grew jaded. That was when I fully understood the disconnect between what most large companies say and what large companies do.

Today I work for a large grocery store owned by a large company. The employees are union employees. The contract is up for renewal in March of 2014. Every Monday the President of the company along with the VP and a marketing guy broadcast a rah-rah-rah video. Today they highlit how much money this Company puts toward pensions and employee health insurance. This was prefaced and followed by words and pictures trumpeting the value of the employees to The Company. I suspect that is not the truth.

I’ve gone through a number of contract negotiations and each time both sides begin pushing their propaganda a year before the contract is to be ratified. Today was the opening volley in what will be the Company’s position. They give us health insurance and a pension. In return we should not even think about not accepting their proposals. Nor should we even remotely consider the idea of a strike.

As I watched the video today I thought, “What a shame that I can not trust nor respect this leadership team.” Words mean little when they are not followed by action. Currently there is a small fault between what we hear and what we see. My fear is that it’ll be obvious what’s shaking when the union and the company collide next year.

Picture courtesy Library of Congress

Alaska Air Technology or The Glory of Call-In Centers

What could possibly go wrong (heavy organ music-dun dun dunnnnn)? We just have our call-center employees handle each call with significant quality; but allow them only two minutes to do it in. That was the thinking of the call center at PruCare California, where I used to work. Yes, they've gone out of business. My dealing today with Air Alaska brought back vivid and horrible flashbacks from that period.

Much like the dad who says, "I spend 5 minutes with Junior every evening. But its quality time.", so went the thinking of the phone center I worked at. You had to take a minimum of 60 calls a day or risk getting written up; and never moving up, with the company. Forbid it that you should actually try to solve the customer issue if it took too long. Granted, the customer would be happy and not call back, but your call count would be in the toilet along with your promotion.

So, I've been emailing Alaska Air about adding last years flight information to my current Mileage account. I'd sent three emails to them, and learned from their responses that, yes, I could add last years flight if it was within one year of my informing them. Also, somehow, I have two accounts with them. Good information, all of it.

My fourth email back to them, clarifying all of my previous addresses and information got a response back that said, "Your concern cannot be addressed via email. You must contact the call center at...."

Which I promptly did. The girl at the call center could find no trail of my emails. She also informed me that no Debbie or Jenny worked there! I was tempted to scream into the phone, "MAYBE THOSE AREN'T THEIR REAL NAMES!" But why call attention to the obvious.

The girl at the call center, whose name also only had two syllables (Frieda), advised me that she could combine my accounts but she could not add my mileage from last year over the phone. No, I can't send it into her via email either. I have to freakin fax it in or mail it in. Because we're an airline; and even though we've lost thousands of customers, this is the way we've always done it!

Well, I'm sure all of those girls with the two-syllable names are on their way up the corporate ladder. One more customer call taken, one more email answered. Aarph!