Who do you complain to when you're not satisfied with a company's Customer Services? Well you ought to be able to write the CEO or at least the director of Customer Services. But in a small survey I've conducted I've found that almost no major companies publicize the e-mail addresses for directors or CEOs. It's as if the managerial sphere in these companies is impossible for customers to reach. This rings awesomely false in a Cluetrain-era where making yourself available for dialog is alfa and omega for the relationship any given company has with it's customers.
In a concrete and recent case my wife tried to complain to KLM over a fare they had not refunded. Numerous calls to Customer Services got her nowhere. Next step was trying to locate the e-mail-address of the director for Customer Services on the KLM Web Site. Not possible. And looking for the e-mail address of the CEO didn't get her much further. Today weeks later there's still no wind of the money. All in all she's stuck in a rut and we're seriously considering shopping with other airlines next time we travel.
My point is that all companies will have its share of cases like this, where Customer Services mess up or cannot solve a problem quickly enough. Mistakes will happen. But by making other channels of communication available companies may save themselves from fleeing customers.
If KLM for instance gave its customers a chance of e-mailing the director of Customer Services or the CEO of the company they would come off as a company open to dialog with customers (if one of the two actually answered the mail of course). I'm well aware that this would put an extra burden on the managers of this world. But in reality it's a burden with a fat ROI: Happy and returning customers.
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