Of course we’ve all heard the sentiment that a satisfied customer will tell a few people but an unsatisfied one will tell anyone who will listen. When the Internet started to become a more social place, companies started to realize that their customers now could tell the world about their negative experience – just look up any company with the word “sucks” after their name. Companies that already had good customer support realized they had to do even better while those with crappy support were at least more exposed.

There is no doubt that this is good for the consumer, but recently I was giving a speech on customer service and I gave a tidbit from my personal consumer life that seemed to really resonate with the crowd. I explained to them that there is transparency in the levels of customer service that current customers are receiving and that as a potential consumer it is actually pretty simple for me to gauge the number of support issues and the way they are handled. This transparency can and does impact sales well before the point of purchase.

In the offline world when someone has a customer support issue they generally will have one of two ways of resolving it. Either they call the support number provided or they have to head to the store and seek live support. In either case generally the exchange between company and customer is private to the outside world.

However in the online world one of the ways I like to investigate a product or service that I am contemplating buying is to head directly to the support page or forums and see what problems customers are having and more importantly (to me anyway) the responsiveness of the customer support staff at said company. It’s a level of transparency and a window into what life would be like as a customer of this company that I can’t get elsewhere. I of course can and do search the blogosphere and use Twitter to seek out other’s opinions, but I find that by doing a quick scan of the support forums I can find out (1) if the product is plagued with issues and (2) how quickly and efficiently those issues are dealt with.

Some companies make you register to enter these forums and that’s ok, I don’t mind giving up a little information if it means I get to look behind the curtain of PR and Marketing to see what’s really going on with the product and company.

So what’s my point? You can and should be using this tidbit as a way to look at your own company.

Try dealing with your company as a consumer – what are the difficulties? Where does the company fall down? Take the time, call your customer support line, is it a good experience? Head to the support forums on your website and post a problem – how long until someone gives you a well thought out (not a pre-written form letter) response?

Every once and again you need to step back and put yourself in the shoes of your consumers experiencing problems – how does your company look then? Where can you make improvements?  The transparency of support is something that can be a big plus if your company does it well but I just don’t think enough companies remember to put themselves in the shoes of the consumer in an after sales capacity.

As always your thoughts and comments are appreciated.


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