Business Tools Blog

I shipped a package overnight priority.  It was a business check that needed to be at its destination the next morning.  I dutifully checked the “exceptions” notification box when I wrote the shipping label.  I slept soundly last night knowing that my package was in good hands, and that if there was an issue, I would receive an email to my blackberry.

WRONG!

There was a storm and my package was delayed.  I didn’t receive an email notification.  I found out that the check hadn’t arrived when the person who was expecting the check called to say that it hadn’t made it.

After scrambling to fix the problem on our end, I called the shipping vendor to ask why I hadn’t received an email notification that my package was delayed?

Loretta, the call center representative, cheerfully informed me, “You wouldn’t receive a notification, because the package was stuck in transit.  You see, the exception can only be reported after the package leaves our sorting facility.  Since it never got to the sorting facility, it is not an exception.”

OK, it was my fault.  I asked an open ended question.   I said, “Loretta, the package didn’t arrive on time.  That makes it an exception.  I just want to know where my package is, when it will be delivered, how I can get a refund, and how I can get an email notification if this ever happens again.”

Loretta sighed loudly.  “I can’t explain where your package is, it never made it to the sorting facility.”

I asked for her supervisor.

After 5 minutes on hold Kim,  apologized for my inconvenience.  She said, “Your package is stuck in transit.  It never made it to the sorting facility.  But, even if it had made it to the sorting facility, you wouldn’t have been notified.  Because there wasn’t an exception, there was a storm, a storm is a natural disaster.  Getting notified when your package is delayed by a natural disaster requires special settings that only your account representative can set up.”

I said, “Kim, I am really not interested in the process.  Please tell me where my package is, when it will be delivered, how I can get a refund, and how I can get an email notification if this ever happens again.”

Kim said, “I apologize, but as I just explained, I don’t know those answers because there was a natural disaster.”

I asked for her supervisor.

After 10 minutes, Veronica answered.  She explained that she was the manager of the call center.  I cut to the chase and asked her for a refund.  She quickly agreed.  I asked her if she knew anything about my package.  She said, “No.”  I asked her if I could get an email notification telling me when my package would be delivered or delayed, etc.  She said that the disaster recovery notification is really hard to get to, it’s in one of those really hard to find screens.  She said that she would have my account rep get back to me.

I thanked her and hung up. 

Of course there are storms and delays.  We expect problems in business.  The part that is troubling is the type of conversations I had with the call center.  I am assuming that they were using scripts.  Did the people who wrote the scripts really think that the customer wanted a lesson in their process?   

Here’s my plea …

Please - if you are in customer care - just do the following:

• Apologize
• Let the customer know when the problem will be fixed
• Let the customer know how they will be notified of the fix
• Let the customer know that it won’t happen again
• Offer the customer a refund

That’s it.  As important as it may be to you internally, the customer doesn’t care about your sorting facility, or your hard to find screen.