Got A Customer Service Nightmare? You’re Not Alone
Have you been bumped from a flight? Belittled by a hotel clerk? Or stewed in a doctor’s waiting room? Then Rupert Barkoff wants to hear all about it.
By day, Barkoff is a lawyer at Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta and a national expert on business franchising. But his hobby — his golf, as he puts it — is dissecting customer service horror stories, starting with his own.
The 60-year-old “self-appointed expert on customer service” is on a mission to collect 1,000 customer service stories. Barkoff created a Web site http://www.anecdatabook.com/ to collect the tales, and he aims to write a book about the findings, a how-to tome that coaches people (and businesses) about how to right customer service wrongs.
Do the Right Thing
He has co-authored a book on franchising and was a technical adviser on Franchising for Dummies. Those subjects are limited, however. His current project is universal because everyone is a consumer who has endured shoddy or hostile service.“Maybe we can teach people to do the right thing and be noisy about it,” said Barkoff, a frequent traveler and somewhat of a serial letter-writing complainer. “You’re doing a disservice to the business if you don’t complain.”
Constructive complaining is a lost art, he said. Customers often get nasty or, more often, shrug and walk away, figuring it’s not worth the effort to right a wrong. Or they think no one cares. Businesses can be tin-eared when hearing complaints. Or they can even aggravate customers more when they respond.
Case in point: Barkoff ordered his wife a dozen roses. They arrived dead. He complained to the florist, who quickly offered Barkoff a cash refund. Barkoff was put off. The man should have immediately sent out a replacement arrangement, he said, even if he had to get it from a competitor. Barkoff says he brings maybe US$400 a year in business elsewhere. Carry on reading.
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