It strikes me how much the little interactions with a company matter.
I wanted to point out the stark contrast I recently experienced dealing with Comcast and Vonage. I currently use Comcast for my internet and cable and Vonage for my phone service at home. Last week, I had a problem with each service and my experiences with the respective customer service departments couldn’t have been more different.
Vonage:
Last week my Vonage line stopped connecting after a number was dialed. I called customer service and was connected immediately with a Vonage rep. He asked what the problems were and said he was going to make a change on his end. He wanted me to reset my unit and he would call me back in 5 minutes. 5 minutes later (on the nose) I received a call back to check in. The problem was solved and I was a happy camper.
Comcast:
The next day, my internet and cable went out suddenly. I called Comcast and was put through a painful task of selecting the proper menu options before being taken to a live person. I waited on hold for 15 minutes before being connected to a live rep. After explaining my problem, I was asked for my phone number to get my account up (which I already supplied to the recording). I was told I had been transferred to the wrong call center and they would transfer me again. I waited on hold for 10 minutes and then the phone went to busy signal.
I called back and repeated the process only to be told I was AGAIN transferred to the wrong call center (and yes I waited another 15 mintues for this). This time I was successfully transferred to another rep. He told me that there were no outages in the area and my service should resume in 30 minutes, if not call back. I asked for a direct number explaining that I kept getting transferred to the wrong call center. He told me there was only one number to call….oh well.
I waited 30 minutes and then called back since the service was not on. This time they said that something was clearly wrong with the line to my house and they needed to send someone out to fix it. As it turns out, a Comcast rep had been told to deactivate a line in the area, since he wasn’t sure which one to deactivate, he cut them all on the pole (getting hard to find good help these days).
The kicker is that while I am on the line with the rep the second time through, after complaining to him about how awful their customer service was, he tried to upsell me on switching from Vonage to Comcast phone service. The audacity….why don’t you try fixing the problem before asking me to spend more money with your company.
The point of all this is that I am now telling a story. Both of these companies already have me as a customer, but the way I choose to talk about my experiences has an effect. It will effect others who are not yet customers. It effects if I choose to spend more money to acquire more services (ie: use Comcast for my phone too). Don’t ever look past how you are handling customer service. Your most valuable assets are your clients. It costs a lot to acquire new ones and even more when you alienate the ones you have.
AttorneySync is a law firm Internet marketing consultancy that specializes in law firm websites, legal blogs, and professional law firm seo strategies. 
