The next 2 posts on customer service may contain a high degree of crankiness. Reader discretion is advised. I thought it may be timely to write 2 posts on best and worst customer service companies/business since I seemed to have encountered such a high level of bad customer service lately. Among my 3 biggest customer service grips lately are the following (businesses take note):

1. Please do not answer the phone while you are servicing me or I am waiting to pay for something. Look at it this way, you have two options: (1) customer in front of you (i.e. me) who is in store, either wanting to pay for something or wanting to buy something; or (2) customer on the phone who may not be a customer at all or the sale is speculative. Why are you choosing option 2? I experience and see this so often. If the point of business is to make money then service the customer who is going which has a higher chance of buying something from you immediately.
2. “Sorry, I am going on break.” Everyone deserves a break in the retail setting but if I ask you for help and you are about to go on break please do the following: (i) either listen to my question and direct me to the appropriate person (walk me over to them); or (ii) grab the person replacing you in your department and have them help me. But please don’t say you are going on break and walk away.
3. If this is another department’s responsibility, at least do me the courtesy of patching me through to the department. This happens a lot of telephone inquiries- you call one department and they say you have to call another department. Instead of transferring you, they give you the number to call yourself. So I have waited on hold for 10 minutes only to find out its the wrong department and your multi-million dollar phone system can’t transfer me to the right department or you are too lazy to do so?!?

These three businesses tend to be the exception to my rule that big business have poor customer service. I am only looking at big companies so nothing local or mom and pop’s.

1. TD Canada Trust (shareholder and customer): Easy to use internet banking with a neat little feature that you can click a button if you need help and someone calls you to help you through your internet banking- good attempt to put a human face to the internet. Tellers are consistently friendly (based on a sample size of at least 5 different branches across the Greater Toronto Area). Yes, its a bank subject to the same bureaucracy and nonsensical rules but at least they are happy people who are quite helpful (two different tellers at two different branches suggested ways for me to save service fees). Worst bank for customer service? CIBC based on my business dealing with them: their back-office is a mess, account managers turn over a lot (suffers from low morale given that whole Enron fall-out) and there is nothing remotely innovative about their banking practices. BMO also suffers from similar issues. I am not surprised these two banks are also considered by the market to be the trailing their competition.
2. Edward Jones: Yes, its a bit of franchise in that each advisor has a territory to administer but a good customer service system- they mail you a lot of information, their support staff is consistently friendly, their advisors appear to have a lot of discretion to conduct innovative programs and its got a nice down to earth feel (I have accounts at large institutions and I feel like I am nothing but a number to them). If I have one area of improvement, it would be that their internet interface needs to be updated. It looks a generation old.
3. McDonald’s- Yes, I have been known to indulge in the odd Big-Mac. Compared to its peers, McDonald’s is a good customer service company. There is something warm and fuzzy about patronizing a company that hires from disadvantaged groups (seniors and physically disabled). The premises are quite bright and clean (I was at an Arby’s in Alberta and it looked like they forgot to swept the place all day) and the system works- their fast food is fast food.

Tomorrow, I’ll post on worse customer service companies. Feel free to add to this list.

P.S.: Pats-Indy game yesterday: wow, what a game no matter who you were cheering for! SB is going to be  a let-down compared to this.