Systems are funny things eh? I mean, you can wait weeks and weeks and weeks for a company to deliver on its promises, all because the system is broken and a manual intervention is required.
I’ve lost count of the number of times Viagogo has told Carole things like, ‘Your bank wouldn’t accept payment, we’ll have to do it manually which takes much longer’, and, ‘we’ve processed the refund it will be with you in the next fews days’.
In our frustration we’ve escalated our complaint to Viagogo’s CEO, who chose to remain silent. We’ve nagged Viagogo on Facebook and Twitter and all to no avail. False promises, more delays.
And so it came to pass that last Wednesday, Matthew Jeffery planted the seed of an idea about writing a song of complaint. Keira then provided the Viagogo Vianono hook and on Wednesday evening, my angry little tune appeared on Youtube.
What happened next? At sometime after 11pm that very same day Carole received a text saying the refund would be processed immediately. The following morning, a £334 refund appeared in our bank account.
That’s it then, the power of song finally prevailed, the system miraculously become unbroken and we got our money back.
Carole’s immediate response was: I eventually received good customer service, but it took a song to get it!
To which I replied: I’m sorry but I don’t agree that you got good service. The simple fact that Viagogo were able to settle this so promptly as the intensity grew, shows me that all their previous delays were unnecessary. They could and should have refunded you weeks ago. Mind you, if they had then we wouldn’t have this blistering tune!
And Carole responded: Well I do agree that up until yesterday I’d had worse than no customer service. I’d had a whole lot of empty promises. However I’m now of the opinion that some of the people I spoke to were well intentioned. They were just hung out to dry by their colleagues, supervisors and managers alike. Having done that job years ago for a company with a with a similarly screw you attitude I know what that feels like. If ever a company needed some ‘stop doing dumb things to customers’ help this is it.
Thanks for the plug Carole 😉 – and in addition, you also reminded me of Broc’s comment on yesterday’s post: I’m a firm believer in the idea that the customer experience never exceeds the employee experience (CX<EX). I share that belief, so I wish you a happy Friday and ask that as you go about your work today, please consider what you are doing and how it is helping you and your colleagues to serve each other, and the customer, better. And if what you are doing is not contributing to that impact, ask yourself – ‘Why am I doing this?’