Phoesune

I have worked in call centers in every possible position from the lowly customer service phone jockey to the exalted Program Manager for a multi-national call center. I was once again astounded by the complete disregard of the corporate world for the quality of customer service. Corporations have done a very good job of beating the living hell out of customers and then finding ways to force more money out of them “legally”. It appears that they have found the sweet spot of financial extortion that is just below the expense of lawyers and a little above the perceived need for the service. Corporations have replaced quality products and service with borderline customer service. They spend their money to protect the profits they have already won with no regard for the profit they hope to gain in the future.

Our dilemma as the consumer is that we only have choices form the various options provided by corporations following the same policies and performance as each other. So when we reject company A because their product was substandard and the ensuing customer service we received during the attempted resolution fails to provide a satisfactory resolution, we are then forced to choose another company that follows the same basic principles. The saddest point is that eventually either the company we rejected or the company forced upon us will buy each other, returning us once again to our doomed experiences.

Call Centers are built on the principle of fielding and defusing customer dissent. It is not, as is written in the many company promotional pamphlets, to enhance, improve, or please customers. The first goal of any modern customer service center, including tech support, is to lower the cost of providing mass produced lower quality products. If a company made a quality product, with a good interface and consumer adaptability, then the need for a customer service department would not be entirely necessary. 95% of all calls to customer service call centers are prompted by the product or service not working as advertised or intended. The other 5% can be equated to informational inquiries, misdirected sales calls, and customers trying to take advantage of the company. If the companies made better products they would need less customer service but they would unfortunately not be making a very good profit.

Part of this is our fault, we the consumers always seeking the lower price has driven the value down on the products and companies are force to compete and cut these corners. We think often only of the price of manufacturing the product to perform the function we seek when we buy it and not the value of the product if it were designed to last. We have termed this Walmartizing of marketplace. Eventually, if we don’t stop and consider the consequences of purchasing “adequate” products, we will be reduced to choosing between two separate piles of junk to call our own. (joke: Republican or Democrat…sorry had to)

There is an old saying I also consider with every purchase. “Pay for quality and buy it once. Buy junk and pay for it a hundred times.”

So ask yourself next time in the store, “Why should I pay so much more for this when I could get this other thing over here for 20% less and it’s the same thing from a different company?” When you think about it, if all these companies are squeezing their staff, suppliers, and the rest to trim costs…then the product that costs more is more likely to have a better value, and if not, then you can at least count on them to have a well staffed Call Center to handle your return.