I must ask the question; do they really care? There has been a shift to working from home. Most of the focus has been on the adjustments that we need to make within the business and how we deal with the disruption to our personal lives. We all have challenges that are unique to us individually. Mine is with Lennar’s Village Builders, and with AT&T. They have established processes that do not reflect the urgency of today.
We live in a new neighborhood where there are still houses under construction. That creates noise and trash issues, but those I can deal with. I can move into another room to get away from the noise. I can pick up trash that blows into my yard. It goes with the territory. What I have difficulty with is the lack of urgency and the lack of respect that comes with issues it causes with my internet.
We all are using video more and more. Obviously, you need a strong internet to be able to do that. I use AT&T Fiber. For the most part it has worked well, but my friends at Village Builders and their sub-contractors have cut my line twice so far. The first time took 4 days to repair. This time AT&T has quoted me two weeks. This is costly to my business.
I understand construction and I understand companies are busy. However, I don’t understand the lack of customer service. I’ve asked to have the area manager for Village Builders to call me twice with no response. I’ve met him and he is a good person. Their policies are holding him back. I’ve had to work through the AT&T voice automation platform multiple times to get to a person that I can speak with. They then go through the same process on how to reset my modem, (which I’ve already done) and then send someone to check the cable from the street to my house (which I know is not where the cut is). Once they do that, they tell me it needs to be someone else to fix it (twice now). It’s their policy.
There is a purpose to my rant beyond me venting. Does your policy for fixing problems fix it for your company, but burdens your customers? Is your focus making it easier for your company not to spend money when they don’t need to, but turning your customers away? I will be leaving AT&T with both my internet and my cell phones after 15 years of using them. I will never recommend anyone to build a home with Lennar, if asked. How much does that cost them? The damage done by poor customer service hits future opportunities in ways they may not be able to measure.
I would suggest you ask your customers how they view your ability to handle problems they encounter and how it affects them. It may allow you to make subtle changes that can grow your business in ways you may not have anticipated.