For background, see "What Customers Want, Companies That Bend the Rules", Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes, 2012-06-30
How often have you gone around and around with a "help" person following a script? How often have you gotten above and beyond help that solved your problem in minutes? I bet in both cases the CEOs got huge salaries that make us wish we had their pay for one year in a bank. I bet in the first case the person got a meager salary to keep "expenses" down. I bet in the second case the person was give some free rein in making sure the customer was satisfied.
A friend often wasn't getting my emails. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. I went to his house to see what his setting were. I could find nothing unusual.
I had taken my laptop and tried sending him email. His provider, CenturyLink, wouldn't let me. I tried the usual tricks of changing the settings in my mail program, Microsoft Outlook. Nothing worked.
I called my ISP, Hickory Tech (also CPInternet), and spoke with a knowledgeable person in Minnesota. He said that CenturyLink blocked access through other ISPs (or something like that). Almost every time I've called my ISP, I have received helpful service.
I called CenturyLink. The support person, probably half-way around the world, never understood the problem. She put me on hold several times to consult with "higher support". We just went around and around with me repeating the same thing over and over again. I finally told her that we were getting nowhere and I hung up.
Ironically, my friend is getting all my emails now. Did "higher support" diddle with something? We'll never know.
From something I read recently, CenturyLink's call center might be in the Phillipines, now competing on price with India. I'm rather certain that Hickory Tech's support is in Mankato, Minnesota. The latter are probably making more in a day than the former in a week or even a month.
Interestingly, if I want to use DSL, my only choice is CenturyLink. Back from the dialup days, I've been using a local ISP that was bought out by a Minnesota telecommunications company. I had a choice in selecting the ISP. I've heard that CenturyLink wants take that choice away.
The size of a company is not always a measure of customer service. Small companies might ignore customers and big companies might give excellent advice.
When my previous laptop went belly-up, three weeks after the AppleCare contract expired, I went to Best Buy to get a new one. The Geek Squad took out my old hard drive and sold me a USB case to put it in for use as an external hard drive.
Things went fine until I upgraded to a new OS level. Suddenly my computer wouldn't recognize the external hard drive, my wife's with an older OS would. I sent email to the manufacturer of the hard drive case and never received a reply. I went to Best Buy for another reason and asked about the hard drive. The Geek Squad employee, the same woman that did the diagnosis on my older computer, told me to check the preferences. I didn't find it in System Preferences, but I did find it in Finder Preferences – showing external drives in the sidebar was not checked.
Say what you will about Best Buy, but it made a smart move buying The Geek Squad and giving them some latitude in helping customers.
