By now you’ve heard about the recent episode in which an AOL customer recorded his conversation with a hostile customer retention phone rep.
AOL tried to pass off the rep as a rogue, but earlier this week, AOL’s customer retention manual got posted online (hurry before it’s removed), and the company’s aggressive set of policies and procedures came to light.
On the same day, Cingular’s “customer value” model was publicized that shows that its "valued customers" aren’t really so valued.
While AOL and Cingular deserve much of their embarrassment because of the cynical and ham-handed way they set about achieving their objectives, there’s an unfortunate trend emerging.
Companies are being made to feel embarrassed because they want to (1) retain customers and (2) treat some customers better than others (3) train their phone reps to build rapport with callers.
There’s nothing wrong with any of these objectives, but there are a couple of lessons here:
- Companies should assume that their internal customer policies and procedures will be leaked to the public, and should therefore be written accordingly
- Companies should avoid the mystery about what sorts of behaviors get rewarded (many do – it’s called a rewards program); customers don’t mind playing the game if they’re told the rules, and the rules are applied consistently over time
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