Technically challenged and loving life?

It bugs me that things just don't work. The little widgets that require a geek to set up make me nuts. It's not fair to expect that I will/can spend an hour figuring out the "how to." The funny thing is that I know I'm not the only one. It amazes me that someone can spend 20 minutes checking out what I just said didn't work and then say, "You're right, it doesn't work."

My colleague, Mary Schmidt talked about something similar in a blog post a few days ago (Yawn. The Battle of the Spectrum). She took issue with Verizon Wireless for a customer service problem. It reminded me of a similar situation with the same company. When my Motorola Razr phone died a few weeks ago, I was given the option of upgrading to a new phone for the fee of $50 or, I could send my phone in and wait for repair which might or might not happen. This little encouraging tidbit was delivered by a gum chewing, foot shifting, size zero, twenty-something who really didn't care what I thought of the options. Just to check, I asked her a question? "Like, I already told you," she started impatiently, popping a bubble. With an extremely bored look on her face she plugged my phone replacement in, ran the charge and handed me the receipt. No "thank you," no 'do you have any question.', no nothing.

As it turned out, I had a number of problems. My bluetooth no longer worked with the phone. It was a refurbished phone, I was finally told, and sometimes this happened. I made the change for yet another phone. By this time my expertise in programming rings, numbers and display had increased considerably. That's what the learning curve will do for you. My respect for customer service, unfortunately, had not enjoyed the same gains. I'd been on the phone with support numerous times; they were seemingly unconvinced that a "girl" could possibly have figured out that the bluetooth didn't work. I'd made three trips to the service center, each time waiting in line for the privilege of being dissed. I'd developed a conviction that continues to grow: it shouldn't be this hard.

I believe that a company that trains employees to say, "Thank you for being the best part of Verizon Wireless" should at least also train the customer service representative to look at you when they discuss your problem. I believe that repeated asking of questions like "Did I resolve all of your problems?" harms rather than helps the customer relationship when you're on your third or fourth try to resolve something. I believe that customer service is critical to the future of any business and I believe that all of us have to get better at it.