Despite what the title of this blog post implies, AT&T service representatives all did a good to excellent job helping me solve (maybe) problems with a balky DSL connection.

So this post is not meant to slam AT&T, but rather serve as a teachable moment. Because sometimes good intentions and even good actions don't add up to genuine customer loyalty.

Loyal to AT&T? Not so much

Speaking of loyalty, I suspect AT&T thinks I'm a loyal customer. I've been a DSL and business phone line customer for 10+ years, since switching from another DSL provider that let me down. When I've interacted with AT&T staff, I've generally been pleased.

But cracks are appearing in my presumed loyalty. When my wife and I moved into our new condo, we decided to split our business between AT&T and Comcast. Both have bundled services for TV, phone and Internet, but we didn't feel comfortable putting all our digital eggs in one basket because:

• Comcast's cable service went down occasionally, which is no big deal for watching TV but a big problem if it means (in my mind at least) an Internet outage.
  
  
• AT&T's U-Verse was (in my mind at least) unproven for TV/cable replacement. Our friends liked the service but we couldn't figure out if/how the cabling would work in our condo.

So when we moved in, the edge went to AT&T. But we decided to try Comcast's VoIP for our home phone. And keep our options open for the future in looking for an integrated service.

Fear

Why do I roll my eyes every time I need to call customer service? I’ve noticed this a lot ever since we introduced the VHT Conversation Bridge.  You may do it too. It happened again this past weekend when I wanted to know if I could buy a refurbished iPhone 4 for my wife.  Hers is starting to flake out a bit and instead of buying a new 4S, I wondered if it would be cheaper and easier to get a refurbed 4 that could get us through until the next iPhone came out this fall (hopefully).  Like anybody, I looked online first for information. I saw something about refurb iPhones on the website for $49, but it required a new two year contract. This wouldn’t work because it would screw up her upgrade when the new 5 came out. So I thought of calling the store to see if they had any before heading over there.  When I called, there wasn’t a menu option that properly suited my request, so I pressed ‘zero’ three times like any normal person would.  Fortunately, there wasn't any hold time. A woman answered the phone and I explained to her what I was looking to do.  She kindly indicated that they did not sell any refurbished phones at the store and that I would need to call the customer service center.  In that moment I found myself rolling my eyes while letting out a sigh of exasperation. I kindly thanked the woman and hung up.  Why did I roll my eyes?

I rolled my eyes for the following 5 reasons:

1. I was going to have to snake my way through a menu system, listening and wondering when to press what.

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A few weeks back on the The Ride I wrote about how the automotive industry placed third compared to other industries in our CE Benchmarks Study in delivering high levels of customer satisfaction.  I’m here to tell you today that there are exceptions.

As I write this, I’m sitting on a ceramic step of the service department at an unnamed automotive dealership waiting for my vehicle.  Why?  There are no seats left in the already overcrowded waiting room.  Let me be clear.  I am not writing this to trash the dealership.  There’s already too many avenues through which customers can do that.  Rather, I’m much more interested in what can be learned from this very disappointing experience.

What’s gone wrong in the last 90 minutes?   Realtors selling your house will often refer to “curb appeal.”  This dealership has none.   Watermarks stain the front fascia; paint is faded and the brick is dirty; customer parking is extremely limited; used car signage looks like it was done by the  5th grade class from the local public school; there was a 20% discrepancy between what I was quoted for a regular scheduled maintenance last week when I booked the appointment and what I apparently will pay today.  Today is higher.

A strong business culture that is aligned with superior business goals outperforms their competitors by light years. These are the organizations who have figured out how to delight their customers and even make them smile. After all isn’t the Zappos’ motto “powered by service” incredibly motivational which delivers a message of trust and reliability? Zappos has worked hard to develop their culture resulting in a high percentage of return customers; a much more lucrative business model than having to find new clients.

Deciding on what a business wants to accomplish is part of its core values and related to its overall culture. Customer service should be one of the top priorities, and the commitment to pleasing customers and delivering “out of the box” services should never be discouraged. When building a culture all employees need to participate, all levels of management needs to encourage and inspire, and business owners need to place themselves as role models to encourage the process.