18th Centrury Customer Service in the 21st Century

18th Century Customer Service for the 21st Century

Sometimes when I think I’m running out of ideas for this blog, fate intervenes and hands me an especially poignant story of excellence or craziness in marketing.  

What follows is a dramatic reconstruction of a customer service experience at its worst.  The perpetrator is John Hancock Insurance.  I was calling to get information on an annuity that was rolled over from a pension plan of a company that I worked for.  

Agent 1 (male)	May I have your name and social security number?
Me	Provides the information
Agent	How can I help you?
Me	I was on your website trying to register to get information about my John Hancock annuity … and it wouldn’t let me register.
Agent	Give me your name and social security number (AGAIN!)
Me	Provides the information
Agent	Give me a minute (pause for several minutes)
Agent	Your name isn’t in the system.
Me	But I have an account …
Agent	It’s not showing up …
Me	But I have an account
Agent	Give me a minute (pause for several minutes)
Agent 2 (female)	How can I help you?
Me	I was speaking to a different agent … I was on your website trying to register to get information about my John Hancock annuity … and it wouldn’t let me register.
Agent 2	May I have your name and social security number (AGAIN!)
Me	Gives information
Agent 2	You can’t register on this site.
Me	But, I have a John Hancock annuity and this is the John Hancock annuity site.
Agent 2	Yes, but you can’t register this particular annuity.
Me	Why?
Agent 2	We’re just managing this annuity.
Me	But, it’s a John Hancock annuity …
Agent 2	I don’t make the rules, sir.
Me	What I want to know is what my benefit is …
Agent 2	You’ll have to send us a letter with the information we need to process your request.
Me	Don’t you have a form online?
Agent 2	No.
Me	Can you email me a form?
Agent 2	No.
Me	Can you send me the information I need to provide by email?
Agent 2	No, we can only give you the information by telephone.
Me	The year is 2012 … you can’t email me??
Agent 2	I don’t make the rules sir.
Me	Ok … give me the information that I need to provide …
Agent 2	((Begins to rattle off a list of requirements))
Me	Slow down … I have to write this down.
Agent 2	You’ll have to provide all of this in writing …
Me	I just can’t believe that in 2012, there’s not a better way to handle this …
Agent 2	I don’t make the rules, sir. Cardinal sin # 1 - ask the customer for information you've already gotten.  Systems should be designed so that customer information stays available for all customer service staff involved in the call.  Cardinal sin #2 - handing off the customer to another rep.  Customer service should be one-stop-service.  In this case agent one handed me off to agent 2 without an explanation.  With agent 2 I had to start all over again.   Cardinal sin #3 - no apology.  When the customer is unhappy - even if there is nothing you can do about it - apologize for the inconvenience.  When I found I couldn't use the website to register, someone should have said "I'm sorry."  When they couldn't send information by email, say "I'm sorry, but ... I can't send that by email." Cardinal sin #4 - the blame game.  "I don't make the rules" is a statement that will not make anyone happy.